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Reader,
"If you are a lover of hip hop, you could really wax poetic, like the cypher is life. The cypher is the seasons. The cypher is 360 degrees all the way back around," Coco explains to me during our conversation on Zeitgeist Radio.
Color me intrigued - what exactly is this subculture all about?
Coco is a hip hop artist and songwriting coach in NYC, and while "stepping into the cypher" is a metaphor for lots of brave things she's done, it's also a very literal thing.
A cypher in hip hop is an informal gathering where emcees take turns showcasing their skills—usually freestyling—while standing in a circle (the “cypher”). Before we go farther, here's a quick distinction between being a rapper and an emcee (this will also be helpful if you listen to the episode and Coco speaking to the challenge of being an emcee).
Rapper = someone who raps. They perform verses rhythmically over a beat. It’s the technical term, and it covers a wide range of artists.
Emcee (MC) = Master of Ceremonies. I always pictured the person on stage with the mic, keeping the show going. But in hip hop, it’s deeper. An emcee isn’t just about rhyming—they’re about commanding the room, telling a story, connecting with people.
So all emcees are rappers, but not all rappers are emcees.
Think of it like this: A rapper might just focus on clever bars or making a hit.
An emcee brings a whole presence. They can rock a crowd, improvise in a cypher, spit truth, entertain, and educate.
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The term “cypher” comes from the word cipher, which originally meant zero or circle. That’s the literal part—because people usually form a circle when they freestyle or dance. But it also has a deeper, more poetic meaning in hip hop: a cypher can represent a complete exchange of energy and ideas, with no beginning or end—just flow and connection.
"The cypher is when you see a circle of people and everyone's kind of leaned in," says Coco. "Someone is beatboxing or someone is playing a beat, or someone is like drumming out a beat... or there's no beat, but people just have a rhythm in their body and they're swaying their heads and someone is rapping or singing or even dancing, breakdancing. That circle, that kind of unbreakable circle of folks, that's the cipher." These can happen at concerts, events, or even just hanging out (if you know the right people).
You know, we're coming out of a show, we're coming out of a function, we're just walking around just because it's life or whatever. We're at a festival and you see that circle... you like, oh shit, what's going on over there? Let me pop up in there. |
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At its core, a cypher is about community and creativity—a space to sharpen your skills and be seen.
While this all sounds groovy, there are still egos, VIPs, and traditions. Coco speaks to being a young girl developing her hip hop songwriting:
"We would constantly be pushing up in the cipher and they'd be like, what are you doing here? People be looking at you crazy or trying to push you outta the way, and you would have to be so fucking bold to jump in the middle. You have to be willing to be like, I'm about to cut this other dude off who's rapping right now with my loudest, boldest voice and my hardest bars." And for me, especially being nervous, I knew if I try to freestyle I'm gonna clam up. So I always had a couple written verses inside my head. The courage it takes to step into the cypher, taking the flow from someone and becoming the emcee, controlling the crowd... that's next level.
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Coco takes it back around to philosophy again. Because outside the nerves, the bravery, the flow of power... the cypher is also a place to lose yourself in the rhythm (to have some mad zeitgeist moments???) and be in community.
As rappers take turns around the circle, the circle breathes life into their verses.
Coco leans into the poetic:
I think that it does represent the cyclical nature of life. It does represent like the rotation of like our earth around the sun, the way that each year the earth comes back around to the same spot and it's your birthday again... and you're like, oh shit, what was that last revolution around the sun like? What did I learn? What do I know? What do I have to contribute and share? Shouldn't we all consider this, from time to time.
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