Long-running hip-hop podcast The Combat Jack Show will air its final episode this week.
According to Billboard, the final episode will be a reunion of regulars, guests, and former-hosts paying tribute to the show’s late founder Reggie Ossé.
Ossé passed away in December just months after revealing he’d been diagnosed with colon cancer. In October, Ossé wrote, “Your boy ain’t going nowhere though. We’re gonna keep doing this. Keep rocking with us.”
The podcast founder was a hip-hop pioneer. Ossé, a former attorney and music executive, was the first to launch a hip-hop podcast, starting The Combat Jack Show in 2010. The podcast soon became a cultural staple featuring guests and discussions on music, race, culture, and history.
The final episode, recorded last Thursday, includes co-hosts Dallas Penn and Premier Pete along with guests Jamilah Lemieux, Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, and Just Blaze.
The show’s producer Jonathan Mena called the final episode a “throwback to that barbershop talk.” “It was closure. It’s what he would’ve wanted,” Mena said. “It was a throwback to that barbershop talk — some people were going off on a tangent, telling stories, a little bit of everything.”
Co-host and executive producer Aaron “A-King” Howard added, “It became therapeutic. To get everybody in the room, it was like, ‘Wow, we’re actually doing this.'”
The archive of Combat Jack Show episodes will be maintained by Loud Speakers Network, which will also continue to post spin-offs like The Read.