Culture Cypher Radio | photo by DL10 | @_d1l0_
The Culture Cypher Radio August Chart: New energy from Tricky, RASA, Sampa the Great and more
The August edition of Culture Cypher Radio was the second episode produced in the post-pandemic era. I’d be lying if I said that the energy is the same. WXPN studios are full of history — a tangible, lived energy that inspires me and countless others. Beyond that, XPN is staffed with lovely, dedicated people that I enjoy seeing and briefly chatting with. It would be impossible to capture that energy with a show pre-recorded at my house. Despite all of this, we still have the music.
Like the prior episodes, the month’s edition is a mixture of old and new, hard and soft, light and dark. Songs like Wilma Archer and MF Doom’s orchestral-rap masterpiece “Last Sniff” and Lupe Fiasco and Kaelin Ellis’ LF95 were released in the last few months, while the psychedelic beats of Bontany’s “Your Whole Life” and the mechanized Blues of Tricky’s “Chills Me to the Bone” are from both artist’s forthcoming full-length. Older gems like Ken Boothe’s brilliant cover of Syl Johnson’s “Is It Because I’m Black?” bring a sense of depth to the episode while RASA’s deeply moving spiritual anthem “When will the Day Come” closes the show out withcare and uplift.
Listen back to the August 2020 episode of Culture Cypher Radio below, and check out this chart of some of this month’s standout cuts.
Culture Cypher Radio August 2020 Chart
1. The Roots – “Mellow My Man”
2. Blu & Exile – “True & Livin’”
3. Wilma Archer feat. MF DOOM – “Last Sniff”
4.Tricky featuring Marta – “Chills Me to the Bone”
5. Pharcyde – “Passin’ Me By (Fly as Pie remix)”
6. Botany – “Your Whole Life”
7. MH The Verb – “Raw Smoothie”
8. SPAZABASS – “Stakes is High”
9. Sampa The Great – “Heaven”
10. RASA – “When Will the Day Come”