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The Ringer

Analyzing the music and meaning of one album per season, one song per episode. Join host Cole Cuchna as he dives deep into albums by Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Radiohead, Beyonce, Tyler The Creator, Frank Ocean, and more. Let's Dissect.

Dissect

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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The 21st Century Song Draft

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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The 10 BEST Clipse Bars on 'Let God Sort Em Out'

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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The Most GENIUS Number Bars in Rap History

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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Rosalia's 'LUX' is a Masterpiece

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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Chance The Rapper dissects 'STAR LINE' track-by-track

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?

Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Video/Audio Engineer: CT

Video/Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler

Theme Music: Birocratic
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Crowning the BEST Album of the 21st Century | LAST SONG STANDING [Finale]

The LSS Boyz continue their journey to crown the Best Album of the 21st Century (so far) by pitting two historic albums by the same artist against each other: Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.a.a.d. city vs. To Pimp A Butterfly. 

Every episode this season, Cole and Charles each nominate one album they feel should be in contention for the 21st century's best. Each album is discussed individually before the two albums battle head to head, where Cole and Charles argue until they can agree on the better album. The winning album from each episode advances to the season finale Royal Rumble, where the LSS boys will face off one last time until they can finally agree on the Best Album of the 21st Century. 

New episodes every Tuesday.

Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Audio/Video Editing: Kevin Pooler

Video Engineer: CT

Theme Music: Birocratic
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good kid, m.A.A.d. city vs. To Pimp A Butterfly | LAST SONG STANDING [E7]

Dissect's Cole Cuchna talks to Jeremy Hecht (The Bigger Picture) and King Green (Rap Latte) about a wild slate of August albums releases:

God Does Like Ugly - JID

Star Line - Chance The Rapper

Live Love Laugh - Earl Sweatshirt

Lonely At The Top - Joey Bada$$

The trio give their initial impressions of each album and discuss the state of hip hop's maturing middle class.
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JID, Chance, Earl, Joey, and Hip Hop's Thriving Middle Class

The LSS Boyz continue their journey to crown the Best Album of the 21st Century (so far) by pitting two landmarks in RnB history against each other: Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' vs. SZA's 'Ctrl' .

Every episode this season, Cole and Charles each nominate one album they feel should be in contention for the 21st century's best. Each album is discussed individually before the two albums battle head to head, where Cole and Charles argue until they can agree on the better album. The winning album from each episode advances to the season finale Royal Rumble, where the LSS boys will face off one last time until they can finally agree on the Best Album of the 21st Century. 

New episodes every Tuesday.

Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Audio/Video Editing: Kevin Pooler

Video Engineer: CT

Theme Music: Birocratic
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' vs. SZA's 'Ctrl' | LAST SONG STANDING [E6]

The LSS Boyz continue their journey to crown the Best Album of the 21st Century (so far) by pitting two landmarks in indie-hop history against each other: MF DOOM & Madlib’s Madvillainy vs. Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury.

Every episode this season, Cole and Charles each nominate one album they feel should be in contention for the 21st century's best. Each album is discussed individually before the two albums battle head to head, where Cole and Charles argue until they can agree on the better album. The winning album from each episode advances to the season finale Royal Rumble, where the LSS boys will face off one last time until they can finally agree on the Best Album of the 21st Century. 

New episodes every Tuesday.

Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes

Producer: Justin Sayles

Audio/Video Editing: Kevin Pooler

Video Engineer: CT

Theme Music: Birocratic
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MF DOOM's 'Madvillainy' vs. Clipse's 'Hell Hath No Fury' | LAST SONG STANDING [E5]

S12 co-writer Camden Ostrander and The Ringer's Justin Sayles joins the show to nominate and dissect our favorite lines from MF DOOM's Operation Doomsday (0:50). Then we share our line by line analysis of the second and third verses of "Doomsday" that was cut from our last episode (40:51).
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Dissecting Operation Doomsday's Best Bars

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