Cipha Sounds says Jay-Z tried to "son" him the last time they crossed paths, continuing a sarcastic relationship between the two that dates back three decades.
During his conversation with Rick Ross on the Pay Your Friend$ Podcast, Cipha reflected on his history with Hov and recalled a recent encounter where Jay jokingly referred to him as their "little guy."
"Hov tried to son me last time I saw him," Cipha said at the 39:42 mark of the video below. "Last time I seen Hov, me and Hov got an interesting relationship."
According to Cipha, their relationship began in 1996 when he was working as Lil Kim's DJ. The two were in London when Jay was scheduled to perform "Ain't No N***a" and "Dead Presidents."
Jay's DJ, the late Clark Kent, wasn't able to make it through the border because of an apparent passport issue, so Hov asked Kim if he could use her DJ instead.
"She said, 'Yeah, that's him over there. Cipha Sounds,'" Cipha recalled. "Boom, I go DJ for Hov."
Unfortunately, Cipha's first time DJing for Jay didn't exactly go smoothly. He explained that the turntable was set to 45 RPM, rather than 33, causing "Ain't No N***a" to play faster than it should have.
With everything happening in a rush, Cipha didn't realize there was a problem until Jay was being introduced and the record started playing.
"He gave me the most Brooklyn [look]," Cipha said.
Cipha quickly fixed the issue, but the mishap apparently established the tone of their relationship going forward.
"Since that day, me and him have had the most sarcastic, confrontational relationship since that day," he explained.
That dynamic was still going strong when they saw each other years later while Cipha was working with Dave Chappelle. Cipha recalled opening shows for the comedian around the time of the Super Bowl when he ran into Jay.
"I see Hov and he said to me, 'Look, our little guy made it,'" Cipha recalled.
Cipha immediately took slight issue with the joke.
"That's disrespectful," he jokingly said. "‘Our little guy made it.’ I ain't your little guy."
With Ross sitting across from him during the interview, Cipha couldn't resist getting one final shot in at Jay.
"As your little guy, you owe me for that Rick Ross deal," he joked, referring to his contributions to initially popularizing Ross’ breakout song “Hustlin’,” and getting Ross signed to Def Jam (where Jay was then the president), when he was a DJ at Hot 97 and simultaneously working as an A&R at Hov’s Roc La Familia label.
