Cipha Sounds: Before that, I DJ'd for Sadat X, which was -- I was in heaven. We went on tour. It was only for, like, a week 'cause he got kicked off the tour. But for a week, we went to the west coast

SameOldShawn: Is there a story behind that?

CS: I don't know the whole story, but I'll tell you. So we were on the west coast, on a tour with Boot Camp, Xzibit, and Tha Alkaholiks

SOS: The underground underground

CS: Yeah. I'm like 19, meeting my heroes. Brand Nubian got me into rap. Brand Nubian's how I came up with the name "Cipha." I'm on the road with Black Moon, Smif-n-Wessun, OGC, Xzibit, and Alkaholiks. Alkaholiks was one of my favorite groups. And Tash is hanging out at the gas stations, smoking weed and eating. I was in heaven. We went to do these shows, I loved it

But then I heard Sadat on the phone, arguing about -- I don't know if it was per diems or some kind of tour support money. And then an hour later, they're like, "Yo, we're gonna do the rest of the shows without you, because we don't have money to pay you." We were in L.A. and I had to fly home. I was sad. I was like, "How are you gonna do it without a DJ?" He's like, "We'll find somebody. Whoever's at the club will play the songs."