Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson was dealing crack by the age of 10, born into the height of the epidemic in Queens. He faced possession charges while still in high school, made a career as a dealer after, got stung and raided by cops, but always had his mind on the mission: to get rich, or die trying. And when he found out he was going to be a father, the idea of getting rich through music rather than drugs suddenly made a whole lot of sense. But it would still take a horrifying nine-bullet wake-up cal...
Feb 14, 2023•37 min•Season 11Ep. 117
Shootouts, drug running, crashing cars and planes, and walks on the wild side. It's almost here: find out which musical icons are featured in Season 11 of Disgraceland. New episodes drop every Tuesday starting February 14th. Rocka Rolla. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Feb 07, 2023•3 min
Got a Disgraceland pitch? Know a cover that beats the original? What are you reading watching and listening to? Jake closes out Season 10 of Disgraceland with a fan mailbag deep dive. Leave your own message at 617-906-6638 and join the After Party. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 15, 2022•29 min•Season 10Ep. 116
Mama Cass’ role as Hollywood’s hippie den mother pulled her into the orbit of troubling company during the “Summer of Love.” The former singer of The Mamas and the Papas thrived in Laurel Canyon's social circles, which included her close friend Sharon Tate and Sharon’s husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski. But Cass’ alleged involvement in some of the long rumored-hedonistic events put her at the center of a counter-narrative that explosively disrupts the supposed motive for the Manson family murder...
Dec 13, 2022•37 min•Season 10Ep. 116
The wildest on-stage freak outs (and even deaths), Jake's master movie list, your texts calls and emails, and of course... the down low on the latest episode in our extended Manson coverage: the Mamas & the Papas Part 1. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 01, 2022•32 min•Season 10Ep. 115
Cass Elliot, AKA "Mama Cass" from The Mamas and The Papas, broke the mold of female pop superstardom and shattered expectations of what women in music “should” be. She also was arrested in London for theft, dated international drug dealers, and tanked what was supposed to be a career-defining solo performance while flying high on Iranian hashish. To this day, the biggest controversy swirling around the singer is her connection to the 1969 Manson Family murders. Her actions during the so-called “...
Nov 29, 2022•37 min•Season 10Ep. 115
Charles Manson the Music Man, the tale of Trent Reznor's time in the Cielo Drive murder house, and Jake's latest takes on All Quiet on the Western Front, White Lotus, and your listener messages. Leave your own message at 617-906-6638 and join the After Party! This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including domestic violence and graphic descriptions of violence and sexual assault. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audac...
Nov 17, 2022•25 min•Season 10Ep. 114
In and out of juvie and jail since childhood, Charles Manson learned guitar in prison from the last of the great Depression-era gangsters. He also made music industry connections in jail like the Rolling Stones’ road manager. During the "Summer of Love", Manson bounced from prison and took his act to San Francisco, formed a drug-soaked sex cult, moved the whole Family to L.A., and before you could say “celebrity orgy,” he was hanging with Neil Young, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Beach Boys. ...
Nov 15, 2022•49 min•Season 10Ep. 114
Robert Johnson didn’t just play the blues. He embodied them. He drank and womanized his way through the South, New York, and Chicago in the 1930s, until he finally met the devil at the crossroads for a little trade. So the legend goes, anyway. With the same soul he supposedly sold to the devil, Robert Johnson belted lightning blues that captured trouble in 12 bars. But the trouble he touted would eventually trickle into his own life, one bottle of poison at a time. This episode contains themes t...
Nov 01, 2022•48 min•Season 10Ep. 113
Chris Brown established himself as America’s most hated pop star when he brutally assaulted Rihanna in 2009. But long after the well-publicized attack on his then-girlfriend, Brown’s lengthy criminal record continued to unravel, as he shuffled between different rehab facilities, prison, and the custody of U.S. marshals. His reputed red-hot temper and fighting fists even resulted in a 10-hour police standoff outside of his California mansion—over an alleged charge that might have been one of the ...
Oct 18, 2022•37 min•Season 10Ep. 112
Ringo Starr’s first show as the Beatles’ new drummer was nearly ruined by a hostile audience that wanted him out of the band. Although he was finally accepted as one of the Fab Four, he was still targeted by those who did not wish him well. French-Canadian separatists in Montreal threatened to kill him. Mexican Federales tried to lock him up and throw away the key. And a decades-long running gag that he wasn’t creatively on par with his fellow Liverpool lads nearly undermined his legacy. It wasn...
Oct 04, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 111
Jennifer Hudson shocked her hometown of Chicago when she was eliminated from American Idol in 2004, only to surpass everyone’s expectations when she later raked in awards and rave reviews for her role in Dreamgirls. Yet grief washed over Chicago again when her mother and brother were found slain in their Englewood home, and the smallest member of the Hudson family was declared missing. Their tragic story begins with betrayal and ends with a heartbreak so severe, only Jennifer’s long-standing fai...
Sep 20, 2022•40 min•Season 10Ep. 110
In 1977, the world’s most controversial band didn’t stop when they were dropped by their major label only months after they were signed. John Lydon, Steve Jones, and the Sex Pistols continued their feud with the corporate music world, the English monarchy, and a horrified public. It was a struggle made all the more difficult by the introduction of the group’s most volatile member, a junkie who was barely clean–or competent enough–to find his way around four strings. The band’s grand plan to conq...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min•Season 10Ep. 109
Punk rock’s greatest debut record was penned by a singer who saw traditional rock ‘n roll as a disease that needed to be eradicated and a sex-addicted guitarist who stole wallets, bikes, cars, and more than a few pieces of musical equipment to outfit the band. They cut their teeth performing for hardened criminals at a maximum security prison. They destroyed other bands’ gear and slept with their girlfriends. They scammed the working class system that had scammed them for years, by convincing th...
Aug 23, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 108
Pink Floyd’s original frontman, Syd Barrett, did so much LSD that he experienced a mental breakdown just as the band began to achieve mainstream success. His drug use began as mind-altering inspiration for his art, but quickly became a coping mechanism for the demands of commercial success. He became paralyzed in front of television cameras. He detuned his guitar until it was literally unplayable and refused to perform alongside his band. Then he stopped showing up at all. To see the full list o...
Aug 09, 2022•41 min•Season 10Ep. 107
Britney Spears’ 13-year conservatorship was an arrangement so strict and unfeeling that it left her without any control of her career, loopy on lithium, and completely silenced for the sake of seeing her sons and boyfriend. As Britney suffered in silence, she worked nearly non-stop, generating more hits — and revenue — so her father could claim his cut of the profits. But after hundreds of shows in Las Vegas and $137 million in box office sales, Britney buckled and told her conservators “no.” Th...
Jul 26, 2022•40 min•Season 10Ep. 106
No musician owned pop music quite like Britney Spears at the turn of the century. After graduating from Mississippi tween queen to full-fledged American superstar, her fame exploded at a time when tabloids circled celebrities like prey. 30 to 45 predatory paparazzi would follow Britney’s every move during 12 to 14 hour shifts, eager to document the collapse of her marriage and social circle. As her public image crumbled, it’s no wonder Britney ended 2007 with a bald head and a “blackout.” The co...
Jul 12, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 105
George Harrison famously survived the dissolution of the Beatles, a bust by London’s drug squad, a potentially bloody visit from the Hell’s Angels, and a few rounds with cancer. But on the final day of the 20th century, his strength and faith were put to the ultimate test. A crazed fan, convinced that the Beatles were evil and George was a sorcerer who had possessed him, broke into George’s Friar Park estate in the dead of night with one goal: to murder George Harrison. For a full list of contri...
Jun 14, 2022•41 min•Season 9Ep. 104
The Temptations were one of Motown’s signature vocal groups, and they remain one of the most successful R&B acts of all time. But fame and drugs corrupted them from the beginning. Lineup changes were as frequent as their chart-topping hits. Eventually their rocky road led to drug addiction, crippling paranoia, routine backstabbing, and one of the most tragic deaths in the history of the Motor City. This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including discussions about...
May 31, 2022•44 min•Season 9Ep. 103
The loss of emo-rap trailblazer Juice WRLD is one of the most sudden, tragic, and graphic celebrity deaths in recent memory. His adolescence experimenting with bold beats, prescription pills, and lean set him up to become Gen Z’s new spokesperson. His music helped hit the reset button on popular music, transforming a once-bubbly genre into an all-consuming wormhole of depression, tension, and heartache. But his music earned more than just a global audience — it also drew the attention of the FBI...
Apr 19, 2022•42 min•Season 9Ep. 100
Billie Holiday ascended from the rough and tumble streets of Baltimore and Harlem, through reform school, brothels, and Welfare Island, right to the top of the music game. Her childhood fascination with “whorehouse music” filled a void in her lost innocence, but she soon found a second stabilizer: Heroin. Just when her sensational “Strange Fruit” brought her to Columbia Records, her dependency on hard drugs landed her behind bars. Her mesmerizing voice ensnared listeners unlike any other jazz si...
Apr 05, 2022•40 min•Season 9Ep. 99
In the 1970s, The Eagles made taking off into the upper stratosphere of the charts look easy. Their near decade-long reign of rock afforded them hobbies like dismantling hotel rooms with chainsaws, playing chicken with private jets, and joining delirious drug dealers on high-speed Corvette rides. But after nearly a solid decade of stadium sell-outs, No. 1 singles, top-selling albums and enough cocaine, sex and tension to make even the hardest, wildest, ’70s rock ‘n’ rollers cry uncle, the Eagles...
Mar 29, 2022•37 min•Season 9Ep. 98
From games of chicken on private planes to one member surviving a private plane crash, the Eagles as a group very narrowly survived themselves. During their early days, they dosed out on Peyote and reimagined and reconfigured a new FM sound for the ages that would result in unimaginable success and excess. When their debut record was released on Geffen Records in 1972, America couldn’t have been more ready for their breezy, countrified Southern California sound. Yet something else came with thei...
Mar 08, 2022•36 min•Season 9Ep. 97
This week Jake talks the inspiration and background behind this week's brand-new DISGRACELAND episode on Anthony Bourdain, plus your emails, voicemails, texts, and DMs. What did you think of the Bourdain episode? What other icons should we cover this year? Get in touch at 617-906-6638, [email protected], or on socials @disgracelandpod, and come join the After Party. Enter the new DISGRACELAND contest to win exclusive prizes and unlock rewards. Visit DISGRACELANDCONTEST.COM Hurry, the con...
Feb 23, 2022•34 min
Hank Williams defined the genre we now call country with a guitar in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other. In between stints in the local drunk tank, he cultivated a knack for blue-collar blues that would spread far beyond the backwoods South Hank called home. His self-proclaimed “hillbilly music” logged him more than 30 hit songs and membership at the Grand Ole Opry, fulfilling Hank’s lifelong dream. But his frequent bouts with the bottle would ultimately strip him of that membership, se...
Feb 22, 2022•49 min•Season 9Ep. 96
With their newfangled ska-punk, Sublime preached the gospel of Long Beach’s seedy shores unlike any band before them. They also incited a riot at the first show, vandalized their record label’s headquarters, and did unspeakable deeds to a Dennys kitchen with their mobile home’s septic tank. The group’s musical legacy is inseparable from their reputation as hoodlums and hedonists, in part because those are precisely the people Sublime wrote about. Sublime was born in California, raised in Califor...
Feb 08, 2022•41 min•Season 9Ep. 95
When a mystery arsonist set Tom Petty’s house on fire in the late 1980s, he barely escaped with his life. But there was another danger looming around the corner — a heroin addiction that drove him into a pit of isolation from his family, his fame, and his bandmates. Petty barely hoisted himself of it. The Heartbreakers’ bass player, Howie Epstein, wasn't so lucky. After the first phase of Tom Petty’s career burned to the ground, the stage was set for a descent into depression, dependency, and a ...
Jan 25, 2022•45 min•Season 9Ep. 94
Taylor Swift has a list of stalkers longer than her stadium tour setlists. One drove over 900 miles to hand-deliver his “love” letters to her then-record-label, Big Machine Records. Others have showed up to her homes bearing rope, lock picks, and tools to break her windows. The threats on her life have become so persistent that her security team once installed facial recognition software at the venues she performed in, specifically to distinguish her stalkers from her fans. While making some of ...
Jan 11, 2022•43 min•Season 9Ep. 93
In 1960s London, for young guitar enthusiasts, believing that “Clapton is God” was practically the 11th Commandment. In 1970 he lent his big, sticky tone to yet another band: Derek and the Dominos. The group’s white-hot blues burned bright for barely more than a year, but their impact was massive. Guided by drug, alcohol and heartbreak free-fall, Eric Clapton created one of rock’s most recognizable guitar riffs, while drummer Jim Gordon contributed God’s great piano coda. Except Gordon was guide...
Dec 07, 2021•42 min•Season 8Ep. 92
The original Woodstock was a literal disaster, declared so on its first day by the state of New York. There were fights, onstage, armed black-shirted hippie gestapo on patrol, and most notably, two dead kids on record. The festival was born of violence, sparked into existence out of organizer Michael Lang’s standoff with hillbilly armed guards and cops from down in Florida. The lasting image of Woodstock as a time of idyllic harmony is a nostalgic gimmick, as is the 1970 documentary about the ev...
Nov 16, 2021•44 min•Season 8Ep. 91
