Four years ago, on November 24, 2014, the first episode of the podcast Reply All came out. It’s a podcast about the internet hosted by Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt. And since then, they’ve put out 131 episodes. The show has gotten over 100 million downloads so far. Robert Downey Jr. is going to star in a movie based on one of their episodes. And from the debut, it’s been one of my favorite podcasts. A while back, in 2015, I did a special edition of Song Exploder for Reply All, about their theme song by Breakmaster Cylinder. I’d hear the guys talk about “the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder” in the show’s credits, but I didn’t really know who or what that was. And I wanted to find out more. So in honor of the four year anniversary of Reply All’s launch, I’m putting out this special crossover episode for the first time here on Song Exploder.

Buy or stream Breakmaster Cylinder’s Reply All theme here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Breakmaster Cylinder on Bandcamp
PJ Vogt on Twitter
Alex Goldman on Twitter

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Lorely Rodriguez is a singer, songwriter, and producer who goes by the name Empress Of. She’s released two albums, and she’s sung on tracks with Khalid, Blood Orange, and Dirty Projectors. Her first album, Me, was made on her own. But her second album, Us, features a bunch of collaborators. In this episode, Lorely breaks down the Empress Of song “When I’m with Him.” She co-produced it with Jim-E Stack and Dan Nigro, and I spoke to Jim-E Stack for this episode, too. Lorely explained how collaborating with producers opened up her process. Plus, the song’s lyrics are in English, and Spanish, and Lorely describes how she relies on both languages to write.

Buy or stream “When I’m With Him” here, and watch the music video below. You can buy the album, Me on vinyl here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

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Big Boi is a rapper from Atlanta. When he was a teenager, he and Andre 3000 formed OutKast, and went on to sell over 25 million records and win six Grammys. He’s released three solo albums, including Boomiverse, which came out in 2017. In this episode, Big Boi breaks down a song from that album called “Order of Operations.”

Buy or stream “Order of Operations” here. You can buy the album, Order of Operations on vinyl here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Scott Storch – Producer
Diego Ave – Co-producer
Eric Bellinger – Co-writer
“Shutterbug” – Big Boi

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