By DJ YRS Jerzy
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
The past couple of months have been very special for New York hip hop, especially on a media front. Those who grew up during the early 2000s should remember the local show, Mad Ciphas TV. It had a strong run that continued until the 2007-2008 period, in time to introduce such names as Vado to the masses.
Recently, new episodes of Mad Ciphas TV have hit the internet and they included appearances from Da YoungFellaz, among others. Even though they feature all types of artists and hip hop topics, they also feature up-and-comers. The new incarnation of Mad Ciphas TV includes this as well.
Hip Hop Vibe has been in contact with Mad Ciphas TV and they ended up speaking to us in an exclusive interview. Gabo, of Mad Ciphas TV, made this interview possible and the whole Mad Ciphas family explained how their run came together. Fans can also check out additional videos with Mad Ciphas TV on their YouTube channel.
Read the entire interview below:
Where did the original concept from Mad Ciphas come from? The original concept of the show was to cover all elements of Hip Hop, which consists of emcees, deejays, break dancing, and graffiti, and to express ourselves creatively. Stalin is the brainchild behind the shows concept and being that we all attended the same high school, came from the same neighborhood in Washington Heights.
Music just created this bond among us and brought us closer due to the passion that we all have for it, so Stalin suggested we team up in the year 2000. Shortly into our initial launch, the viewers began to dictate the direction of the show through their feedback and it rapidly turned into a “visual mixtape.” We are responsible for all of the creative direction, editing, recording, production, marketing, artists screening, producers screening, and original concepts of the show.
We invented the first concept in the forty year history, hip hop where artists can have their voices heard and faces seen by music lovers locally in New York City on a weekly television show series and now all over the world. This exposure led to these artists becoming local celebrities within their own hoods and gave them the confidence that they sought to pursue their career and take it serious by the feedback that they received from their peers and others and than on to getting on the radars of A&R’s at record labels, magazine, artists showcase, radio stations, and other outlets. Our motive still remains to this day the preservation of the hip hop culture.
In the years since Mad Ciphas has been out of production, mixtapes have taken over the game, how do you feel about this? It was a progression that we saw coming. The mixtape scene shifted with what 50 Cent did in the year 2002 and even by that time we were already established as a mixtape television show. Further evidence of our understanding of the culture is displayed in the cover of our DVD called “The Raid,” which was released in the year 2005 and on the intro skit we were get raided by the cops for having and pushing the dopest product out on the streets.
Fast forward to the year 2007 and reality hits the music industry when DJ Drama, Don Cannon and Aphilliate Music Group got raided by the Feds. Moving forward, once Drake dropped So Far Gone in the year 2009 he changed artists’ perspective with the success of his project and what content can you put on a mixtape. No longer was “jacking for beats” the way to go. Now you really have to put out a “quality product” in order to gain the attention of the masses and the record labels which consist of original music that for the most part can be classified as “albums”.
Take the original music and push it to the radio stations so you can than in turn build your buzz and start touring. Now that the globally record sales are in decline and record labels do not provide the same support for artists as it once did, every artists mind state should be “what is going to separate myself from the million of other rappers in the world?” As long as they understand that the better the quality the better the recognition you will receive and therefore the greater your fan base will become.
Establishing a core fan base is the most essential thing that any major or independent artists can build meaning that these are the fans that will be by your side and buy your music and support you on tour for as long as you continue to make good music. Perfect
example is Nas first week album sales are guaranteed to sell approximately 150K and this is without a solid radio backing and this is because he has already solidified a “core fan base” for himself and putting himself in position where he can be the face of Hennessy and similar brands. In other words, your music success will in return allow artists to venture into other realms of business once you have solidified a core fan base sponsorship deals, clothing deals, sneaker deals, etc.
Since Mad Ciphas featured such names as Vado before he became big, do you see the brand helping to build other big stars? Most definitely our resume speaks for itself. Along with the aforementioned Vado, we’ve had a litany of other artists who made their first appearance on the show through the media outlet platform we created, such as Immortal Technique, Jae Millz, Smoke DZA, Mickey Factz, T-Rex, JR Writer, Bodega Bamz, Charlie Clips, Maino to name a few and those that did not debut on our show eventually made their way to us for instance Loaded Lux, Murda Mook, Posta Boy, Ali Vegas, and more. We have a gift for seeing an artists potential as soon as we hear and see them.
When should we expect to see new episodes of Mad Ciphas hit the internet? Episodes # 1.01, 1.02 and 2.01 are already out. Stay tuned for #MCM #MadCiphasMondays in which we will sprinkle viewers with different content every other week or so. Check for us and subscribe to our YouTube channel youtube.com/madciphastv to get the latest new videos along with vintage archived footage that we have compiled from our 250+ original episodes that have previously aired from the years 2000-2006.
Who are some of the people featured in the new episodes of the show? We are excited and see a bright future for Dave East from East Harlem, NY aka El Barrio who has lyrics to go, a presence and has shown consistency and work ethic that is needed in order to be successful, King Snipe from Inland Empire, California check for his Black Ethos mixtape series, a slept on project with quality music and a message behind it, Benny Blanko from the Bronx, NY, Tray Pizzy from Bronx, NY, who we feel have created their own lane with their style and flow just to name a few.
We do not just look for artists who can rap we look for artists who have the total package and in our opinion offer something to the music world by making quality music, understand the direction they want to go and the lane they want to build for themselves. Music is a form of ‘Art” so your expression to the world has to be based on “quality” meaning that everything you do has to be on point, from your mixtape/album covers, to your engineer when he mixes your sound, to the production beats on your project, to your vocals needed to be stacked up to make a particular word or phrase stand out. Attention to details is what is going to separate you from the rest of the crowd.
What led to Mad Ciphas going on their hiatus to begin with? Personal family obligations that we had to deal and other personal related issues. Gabo losing his mother due to cancer.
Bigger and better, what are some of the improvements Mad Ciphas made this time compared to the original series? We have adapted to where the music and entertainment world is currently in which is the viral and digital world. Music lovers all over the world want everything faster along with quality to back it up and that is our intentions to give you something to talk about when you come across our show. We will still keep the content of having artist’s freestyle on camera over a beat and are going to introduce a few different segments as well. Some of these segments will either take you down memory lane; other segments will make you laugh while other will allow the viewers to get deep into the mind of artists and producers just to name a few things we have in mind. So stay tune and don’t doubt us because we not regular joes when it comes to this.
In the meantime, what have all of you guys been up to? We collectively have never stopped listening to music whether it is from mainstream artists to underground artists or watching video content online or TV networks, because we are devoted music junkies and love the music culture but besides that just maintaining our families.
How does it feel to see New York playing a prominent role in hip hop, once again? It is long overdue some of the artists that many major media outlets consider “new” are old news to us and we have been supporting them and are proud of all of them individually for their relentless approach to being consistent with the quality of music they have put forward and for continuing to work on their craft and for taking risks with their music careers. Nonetheless, it is the way of the game as there is constant shift in regions within the States, but it is refreshing to hear New York artists regain their identity and it is good to see artists support each other along with the media outlets as long as the support is genuine and remains the same moving forward. We are not opposed to hearing music from other regions, but all that we want is a balance to what gets played in the mainstream as long as the music is quality driven. Let’s establish a consistency and keep it on that track.
Alright, where can we find your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to give you a follow? Subscribe to Youtube.com/madciphastv, you can also reach us via Twitter @madciphas or Instagram madciphas. Website will be launching soon so log on to www.madciphas.com making it an experience where any up and coming artists and music lovers from all over the world can visit and listen to music, watch videos, get to know the artists, check out vintage footages from the show and also shop and any questions, inquiries feel free to get at us directly at [email protected].
Follow DJ YRS Jerzy on Twitter @IAMDJYRSJERZY.
