Dissect

IDK joins Cole for a track-by-track breakdown of his mixtape 'Even The Devil Smiles.' He discusses how his time in prison inspired the project, how he secured posthumous features from DMX and MF DOOM, and why respecting hip-hop as an art form is so important.

Listen to ⁠Even The Devil Smiles⁠ on Spotify.

Host: Cole Cuchna

Guest: IDK

Editors: Iulia Ciobanu & Kevin Pooler

Engineer: Sarah Reddy

Additional Production: Justin Sayles

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A five-year wait and a double-disc finale set high stakes. Cole Cuchna and Charles Holmes ask: Did Baby Keem and J. Cole deliver?

Dissect Season 14 is just around the corner! Follow ⁠@dissectpodcast on Instagram⁠ for an official announcement coming very soon.

Host: Cole Cuchna

Guest: Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Editor: Kevin Pooler

Engineer: Sarah Reddy

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J.I.D. and Dissect's Cole Cuchna to break down his Grammy-nominated album God Does Like Ugly.

00:00 Cold Open / Intro

01:45 Album Title Breakdown

05:35 "YouUgly" Breakdown

17:23 "Glory" Breakdown

25:29 "Wrk" Breakdown

31:00 "Community" Breakdown

41:22 "Gz" Breakdown

46:39 Melodic Section of "GDLU"

51:03 "On McAfee" Breakdown

54:51 "Of Blue" Breakdown

01:00:50 "K-Word" Breakdown

01:04:05 What's the message of GLDU?

01:05:18 JID Says Next Project his BEST

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Host: Cole Cuchna

Guest: J.I.D.

Editor: Kevin Pooler

Engineer: Jon Jones

Producer: Justin Sayles

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Dissect's Cole Cuchna is joined by friends Camden Ostrander and Margeaux Labat to discuss their favorite music of 2025, including...

Favorite Musical Moments (04:09)

Favorite "Underground" Albums (13:09)

Favorite Albums of the Year (31:20)

Favorite Songs of the Year (1:13:05)

You can listen to a playlist of their picks ⁠here⁠.

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Host: Cole Cuchna

Guests: Camden Ostrander, Margeaux Labat

Audio/Video Editor: Kevin Pooler

Additional Production: Justin Sayles

Theme Music: Birocratic

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The LSS crew is back with a year-end draft to celebrate the quarter-century mark in music. Cole, Charles, and Justin draft songs across five different categories: Best Song, Worst Song, One-Hit Wonder, Moment Maker, and Personal Favorite.

Who won the draft? Hit the comments and let us know.

Hosts: Cole Cuchna and Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Video Producer: Kevin Pooler

Engineer: Kayla Talley

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Clipse’s Let God Sort ’Em Out is Dissect’s pick for Best Rap Album of 2025. In this episode, we break down 10 of the most mind-blowing bars from the project, line by line, decoding the layers of wordplay, cultural references, and religious symbolism that make this album so lyrically dense.

🎵 Chapters

00:00 Pusha T, “So Be It”

01:40 Malice, “Ace Trumpets”

04:25 Pusha T, “Ace Trumpets”

07:14 Malice, “M.T.B.T.T.F.”

09:29 Pusha T, “P.O.V.”

11:42 Pharrell, “So Be It” Sample Breakdown

14:01 Pusha T, “Chains & Whips”

15:42 Stove God Cooks, “F.I.C.O.”

16:51 Push & Malice, "FICO" 

19:40 Malice, “So Far Ahead”

21:44 Malice, “Birds Don’t Sing”

💬 Subscribe for more breakdowns of hip-hop’s greatest writers - from Kendrick Lamar to Tyler, The Creator, and beyond.

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From Rakim to Kendrick Lamar, this is the story of hip-hop’s obsession with numbers.

Dissect's Cole Cuchna breaks down the evolution of “number bars” - a lyrical tradition where rappers use math, numeric sequences, and wordplay to showcase technical skill and encode hidden meaning.

Beginning with Rakim’s groundbreaking verse on “My Melody” (1986) - a quatrain built around groups of seven that secretly mirrors his own 21-letter name - we trace how MCs have used numbers as both a mathematical signature and a symbolic device for decades. From Melle Mel’s divine 7-count in “Superrappin” to Jay-Z’s “22 Twos”, Biggie’s “Ten Crack Commandments,” and Mos Def’s “Mathematics,” numbers became an essential part of hip hop tradition and lyricism.

By the 2000s, artists like Lupe Fiasco, J. Cole, JID, Vince Staples, and Kendrick Lamar transformed number schemes into complex storytelling tools. We unpack everything from Lupe’s hidden 3–2–1 countdown on Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky” to Kendrick’s quantum-level equations on “Nosetalgia.”

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In this emergency episode, Cole shares his initial thoughts on Rosalia's new album LUX, plus provides a brief breakdown of the album's four movements, and shares how its beginning and end connect thematically and narratively.

How are you feeling about LUX? Comment below.

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Chance the Rapper and Dissect’s Cole Cuchna sit for an in-depth, track-by-track breakdown of Chance’s new album Star Line. We dig into the meaning behind the album’s title, the symbolism of its artwork, and the historical references woven throughout - from Marcus Garvey and the Black Star Line to the Wattstax documentary and beyond.

Chance dissects specific lyrics, discusses the spiritual and political threads running through the project, and shares how themes of resistance, memory, and Black liberation shaped the sound and vision of Star Line.

This is the definitive deep dive into Chance’s most ambitious work to date.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro / Tour Experience

03:50 ‘STAR LINE’ Title Breakdown

14:45 Album Art Breakdown

21:25 “Star Line Intro” Breakdown

44:23 Why Wattstax Doc is Sampled

48:51 “Ride” Lyric Breakdown

01:06:00 “No More Old Men” Breakdown

01:17:36 “The Negro Problem” Breakdown

01:23:49 “Drapetomania” Breakdown

01:31:06 “Back to The Go” Breakdown

01:38:08 “Space and Time” Breakdown

01:50:27 “Letters” Breakdown

02:00:42 “Speed of Love” Breakdown

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It all comes down to this! Season 4 of Last Song Standing concludes with Cole and Charles finally crowning the Best Album of the 21st Century (so far).

Each album that advanced to the finale now duke it out in a cut-throat bracket that includes Frank Ocean's 'Blonde', Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly', Daft Punk's 'Discovery', Beyonce's 'Lemonade', MF DOOM's 'Madvillainy', and more.

What artist should be selected for next season of Last Song Standing?

Producer: Justin Sayles

Video/Audio Engineer: CT

Video/Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler

Theme Music: Birocratic

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