A couple of things happen during a typical “Drink Champs” episode, which can last two or three hours. The raucous Queens rapper and podcaster, N.O.R.E. will gradually inebriate himself. As he questions them about the specifics of their careers, he will tell his interviewees, the majority of whom are rappers and producers, how much he admires them and that he regards them as both peers and fans. And his guests, who are generally seen as having stern, unyielding facades, will laugh heartily, almost silly, in appreciation. They’ll appear content and liberated.
For all its length, “Drink Champs” is one of the most well-liked music podcasts out there. Its A-list guests, Grandmaster Caz, Lil Wayne, and Snoop Dogg, all figures in hip-hop history, contribute to its popularity. Interviews that most people can’t acquire are given to N.O.R.E. Amidst growing speculation on his mental state in November, Kanye West spent more than three hours on the program discussing creativity, his family, the paparazzi, and criminal justice reform. N.O.R.E. pressed him on politics and his ties with Donald Trump, but he was also allowed to ramble on about his 24 Grammys, dinosaurs, the beauty of humanity (saying, “We are God’s ultimate iPhone”), and other topics. Since the 1990s, N.O.R.E. has been putting out recordings, and when he is around, his guests usually shed their personas. Fans turned to DMX’s upbeat and joyful “Drink Champs” appearance, where he cracks jokes and remembers his childhood dog, following his death in 2021.
A few years after N.O.R.E. and his co-host, DJ EFN, conducted a show on Sirius XM, the show debuted in 2016. Longtime Miami promoter, producer, and mixtape DJ EFN tempers N.O.R.E.’s inebriated fervor with a soothing demeanor and straightforward, context-setting inquiries. At its best, the show harkens back to the glory days of radio in the 1990s and early 2000s, when hip-hop artists would use the few minutes they had to go to the closest station and express their concerns or correct the record. In the age of YouTube and Instagram Live, people prefer to go long, divulge secrets, and let their guard down in ways that musicians like N.O.R.E. seldom have the chance to do.
The meandering rhythms of a podcast are a perfect fit for N.O.R.E. His natural speech pattern is off-kilter, but as an episode goes on, he becomes more active. He detects unease and diffuses it; the tone of the show is a cross between “Fresh Air” and “Smack,” the two-thousand-DVD series that included uncut artist interviews. Furthermore, he is skilled at weaving a tale, laughing heartily as a visitor falters and veers through a story. In a particular episode, the rapper Ghostface Killah relates the story of getting into a shootout while traveling to a studio session with the Delfonics, a soul group from the 1970s.
A great deal of the most popular podcasts is perpetually nostalgic. It’s entertaining to discuss the past because there’s always a film or record that hits a high note. However, hip-hop has historically had a tense relationship with the past. Its forward-thinking nature has allowed it to persist as a crucial form on a worldwide scale, with each generation being supplanted by the next. Similar to Verzuz, a song-battle webcast where musicians vie to have the greatest back catalog, “Drink Champs” is an uncommonly successful attempt to honor the genre’s history without romanticizing it.
