Bonus: From the Nitrous Mafia to the Italian Mafia, the Criminal Enterprises That Infiltrate Music Culture

DISGRACELAND

Jake Brennan

True Crime, Music, Society & Culture

4.6 • 13.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gangsters, rude boys, drug dealers, soviet bootleggers, ticket scalping syndicates, and psychedelic chemists—why do criminals like the “Nitrous Mafia” associated with Phish, and the Italian Mafia linked to Tommy James, so often infiltrate and influence music culture? This topic, along with your voicemails, texts, and emails, and in the All Access portion, Jake and Zeth unpack the fascinating history of violence in Jamaican music. You can become an All Access member and hear this and more exclusive content, along with ad-free listening of all Disgraceland episodes, by going to disgracelandpod.com and signing up via Patreon or Apple Podcasts. For more great Disgraceland episodes, dive into our extensive archive, including such episodes as: Episode 104 - George Harrison Episode 36 - Rolling Stones in Exile Episode 135 - Aerosmith 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Double Elvis.
0:08.4	Hey, Discos.
0:09.9	Need a little more disgrace land in your life?
0:12.0	Just a touch to get you through?
0:14.4	Yeah, me too.
0:15.7	This is the podcast that comes after the podcast.
0:18.7	Welcome to Disgraceland, the After Party.
0:35.3	Welcome to the disgraceland bonus episode, a little thing we like to call the after party.
0:40.5	This is the show after the show, the party after the party, the bridge to get from one full
0:44.1	episode of disgrace land to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt.
0:47.9	Our mission to uncover the truth, to confront the myth, to reclaim the story on this bonus episode,
0:52.9	we're talking about the criminal
0:54.4	enterprises that have infiltrated music culture, digging into the music that you vibe on when you are
1:00.2	recreating, rewinding back from the nitrous mafia to the Italian mafia with Tommy James and
1:06.5	the Chondells, previewing next week's episode on Dr. John, and we get into your voicemails, text,
1:12.0	DMs, and as always, a whole lot of rosy. This is the podcast for the musically obsessed,
1:16.9	the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets
1:21.0	buried. Disgraceland is where I tell the stories they didn't want told, the kind you'll end up
1:25.2	telling someone else. All right, discos, let's get into it.
1:33.8	Recently, the so-called Nitris Mafia was linked to a murder outside a 2025 fish concert in Virginia.
1:45.8	Historically, throughout the history of popular music, the Italian mafia has been linked
1:50.6	to numerous crimes, paola, extortion, racketeering, and of course, even murder.
	...

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