Cipha Sounds On Connections Between Music and Comedy and Dave Chappelle’s Summer Camp
My life of going to live comedy shows and traveling to festivals and events was put on an indefinite hold when COVID-19 hit. The last Pre-COVID live show I went to was when two of my favorite people, Aaron Berg and Geno Bisconte, came to Chicago on March 7, 2020. It was such a fun night out; I would’ve never foreseen that my governor would be shutting down our state just one week later. From that point on I’ve worked remotely and been on a very strict lock-down. Then, a few weeks ago, I learned that Zanies in Chicago had been allowed to reopen under a reduced capacity and strict social distancing guidelines and I saw that Cipha Sounds was coming to Chicago so I masked up and made my long awaited return to live comedy!
As soon as I walked into Zanies, I saw the general manager, Brian Morton and said hello. Brian loves comedy with a pure and sincere passion and takes extra special care of the comedians and comedy scene in Chicago. We are truly lucky to have him! Then I saw a comedian whom I recognized instantly, despite the ginormous mask he had covering his face; it was Wil Sylvince! I absolutely love Wil! I met him almost five years ago when he was hosting the late show at The Comedy Cellar in New York and he’s become someone I’m always happy to run into whenever I visit Manhattan.
From there, I introduced myself to Cipha Sounds and we sat down and had a conversation before the show. Cipha’s origin story is extremely different from other comedians’. Music was his first love and he actually had an extremely successful career as a DJ before he ever thought about becoming a comedian. Cipha explained that when he was growing up in the Bronx, hip hop music was always around him. It was playing out of windows, out of cars and on street corners but it wasn’t a passion for him until his mom moved him to the suburbs when he was in 10th grade. Once he moved, all of that music that naturally surrounded him was taken away and the silence was deafening. He felt totally disconnected from his old neighborhood. As a result, he started actively seeking it out by listening to hip hop on the radio, watching videos and watching Yo MTV Raps just to feel closer to “home.” He didn’t realize that hip hop could ever be taken away from him like that; that’s what made him become so attached to it and eventually become a DJ himself.
Cipha came up as a DJ in the late 90’s when hip hop was exploding in New York and artists like DMX, Noreaga and a bunch of other rappers were going platinum for the first time. His manager was one of the biggest club promoters in New York, Jessica Rosenblum. Cipha said, “She managed a bunch of DJs so anyone who needed a DJ would call her and she got me a job DJing for Lil’ Kim…. and I was out! We traveled worldwide!” His career as a DJ did not end there either, Cipha was able to transition his talent as a hip hop DJ into a successful career as an on-air, radio personality. When I asked him to tell me how he’s been able to have so many successful careers at such a young age he credited his drive and hard work and said, “I’ve gotten every job I have ever had by working for free at first, making myself invaluable and then eventually getting hired to do a job. If you name any job I ever had, that is how I got it. I’m not annoying and I don’t drink so I’m always reliable. I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities because someone didn’t show up so I’d get a call like, ‘Cipha, can you do this in 20 minutes?’ and I’d be like, ‘I’ll be there in 10!’ I wanted to learn. I wanted to be in it. I wanted to do it.” During his time as a radio DJ on Hot97, Cipha Sounds was one of the first people to recognize the talent in some of hip hop’s biggest stars including Rihanna, Sean Paul, Rick Ross and Pit Bull. He helped them by playing their music and allowing their talent to be heard which in turn broke their careers by introducing them into popular culture.
Cipha has broken so many artist’s careers, I wondered who he would credit for breaking his career. Cipha said, “I interned for this kid named, DJ Riz. DJ Riz taught me how to spin and is also the one who introduced me to Funkmaster Flex. Funkmaster Flex is the number one; without him I wouldn’t be anywhere. Flex got me a job interning for him at Hot 97 and taught me how to DJ on the radio and Angie Martinez taught me how to talk on the radio. And Dave Chappelle is the person who told me to do comedy. I was the DJ on The Chappelle Show and Donnell Rawlings would warm up the crowd and then Dave would come out and do another warm up before we started filming. He would say something to me and I’d throw in a song that fit to what he was saying or he’d ask what I had in my crate and I’d play something and he’d act it out and he’d tell me that my timing was sharp. Actually, the Lil Jon sketch came from that. I would play ‘What?!’ and he would laugh and make jokes. It came from us warming up. Dave was cool, he told me I had timing and was funny and that I should do stand-up…. And I laughed in his face and was like, ‘Why would I do stand-up? What the fuck is wrong with you?” That was too funny but I pointed out the fact that eventually Cipha did take Dave’s advice to which he replied, “Here’s the thing, he told me to do stand-up in 2002 but I didn’t do it until 2008…. Because I’m an idiot. Here, write this in your article, ‘I’m a fucking idiot!’ So here’s my advice to you, when a genius tells you something, maybe take heed and listen!”
We both got a good laugh at that one and that reminded me that Cipha was blessed enough to take part in Dave Chappelle’s “Summer Camp” not once but twice this summer. He said his first time out was in the very beginning when Chappelle was just building it and figuring out how to do it and there were only like 80 people in the audience. Dave got the COVID tests for everyone and it just kept growing. His first time on the show was with Nimesh Patel, Mo Amer, Michael Che, Michelle Wolf, Donnell Rawlings and Dave and the next time he went to “Camp” he flew in on a private jet with Louis CK! I told Cipha about the time I completely lost my shit when they brought Louie out as a surprise guest at Skankfest and asked him if there has ever been anyone who’s made him lose his cool when he saw them? He said, “I’m very blessed and I don’t take anything for granted. I’ve met a lot of my heroes and I don’t really lose it; but I went with Dave Chappelle to see a fight in London and we were in a VIP area waiting for our car and in walked Jon Snow, Khaleesi and the guy who got his nuts cut off and I tapped Dave and was like, ‘Yo! Yo! Yo! Yo!’ and I kind of lost my mind there. Then I met the creators of Game of Thrones and I asked them if I could nerd out for four minutes and ask them three questions and we ended up talking about Game of Thrones for an hour. I lost it when I met Regis Philbin too because he was actually from my neighborhood in the Bronx and I was like, ‘Yo, Reg!’ and he goes, ‘Take it down a notch, buddy!’ I also had a moment when Dave Chappelle brought out Mos Def and Talib Kweli at Radio City and they did their original Black Star joints. I was overtly losing it on stage. That one was big. People were watching it from the side and they all started coming around to the back of the stage where I was because I was going nuts and they were like, ‘He’s having a lot of fun over there!”
I love the connection that exists between comedy and music and whether it be making us dance or making us laugh, DJs and comedians are performers who are both able to physically move a crowd. I wondered if Cipha thought his experience as a DJ has helped him as a comedian and he said that he actually uses all of his DJ skills in comedy and sited his ability to read the room as being the most valuable technique he’s been able to transition from the dance club to the comedy club. He said, “If I walk into a room and it’s an older crowd, maybe I don’t start with my dirtiest jokes. You know what I mean? If you walk into a party and see a bunch of girls, you don’t start with hard core M.O.P. records. You play for the crowd you have and then build them up and once you get them on your side, you can play whatever you want. It’s the same thing with comedy. You can tell the dirtiest jokes you want, if you can get them on your side in the beginning.” I loved that example and he is totally right! My favorite comedians are some of the bluest comics in the game but they are so damn likable, they win the crowd over and are able to get away with saying some pretty crazy things without anyone being offended. I couldn’t wait to see how all of Cipha’s talents would blend together and present themselves in his show.
Cipha Sounds was the headliner but his show had a very different format from what I have ever seen at Zanies. Cipha actually opened the show by taking the stage with Wil Sylvince. It was very “Jeffrey Ross and Dave Attell, Bumping Mics-esque” and I loved it! I’ve actually seen Wil Sylvince close a show at The Cellar by doing this exact type of set with Dave Attell, so it instantly felt like these guys were bringing a little bit of that late night, Comedy Cellar magic to Chicago and I was in heaven! They riffed off each other, did some crowd work and Cipha intertwined beats and music into the conversation whenever it fit. I loved it! After Cipha and Wil left the stage, a local comedian was the traditional opener, but then after her set Cipha Sounds and Wil Sylvince came back up and riffed with her a little bit before Wil did a solo set as the feature act. He is so funny! I’m so glad Cipha brought him out and I hope it will not be Wil’s last trip to Chicago! After that, Cipha came back up and closed the show as the headliner and he was hilarious! I could see everything we talked about coming through in his act. He used his power to read the room in his crowd work and in the way he organized his set list of jokes. He started out with some universal topics and slowly worked us up to his more adult theme jokes. I really appreciated the few flashes he gave us into his intellect with his jokes that touched on civil war, religion and therapy. Although he sprinkled them in at very strategic parts of the show, I was most impressed by the intelligence of these jokes and I hope he continues to allow us to see that side of his personality.
Overall, Cipha Sounds brought us a living breathing hybrid of my two favorite things, a dance party and a comedy show and I could not have asked for a better comedian to bring me out of my quarantine and into the club!
It’s hard to explain how grateful I am for the memories I’ve made and the adventures I’ve taken while I had the chance. Shortly after going to see Cipha Sounds, my cardiologist informed me that I am at high risk for severe reactions to COVID-19 and put me right back into quarantine. Comedy is a part of my heart and my soul; so you can take the girl out of the comedy club but you can never take the comedy out of the girl!
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Sarah Dahms is a comedy superfan hails from Chicago and travels all over the country checking out the best comedy everywhere.
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