CHANDLER, Arizona — If you’ve seen the movie Money Talks, then it’s hard to forget how the flick starts.
The 1997 Chris Tucker-led film begins with the crescendo of the opening bass guitar solo of Barry White’s disco hit “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything.” As White’s verse begins to play, Tucker’s character, Franklin Maurice Hatchett, is animatedly singing over a tape of the artist while driving a car he’s taken on a joy ride, aggressively bashing the steering wheel.
The specifics of Money Talks are irrelevant. The point is, “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” is one of those songs that stops you in your tracks, and you never forget that White sings it.
Except when Roderick Coffman II’s father, Roderick Sr., sings the song’s chorus to him in the kitchen of his home, the younger Rod blanks on White’s name.
“I’m cooked right now,” Rod II, 34, says.
Rod Sr., 68, gives his son another clue, belting out the lyrics to White’s 1974 hit “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”: “Some things I can’t get used to, no matter how I try/It’s like the more you give, the more I want and, baby, that’s no lie.”
Rod II is still struggling. Rod Sr. then gives an “Oh, baby” in White’s signature silky baritone voice. At that moment, Rod II gets it, and the two fist bump and share a hearty laugh.
“I had to do the adlibs,” Rod Sr. tells his son. “You got to put the adlibs.”
Those 30 or so seconds of banter perfectly reflect the relationship of The Rods, who host one of the most popular online video series in the country. Bridging the Gap, which the pair launched in 2021, has a simple formula: Rod II introduces an album or single — usually hip-hop — that Rod Sr. has never heard before, and the pair spends more than an hour discussing the music. The show’s name comes from Rod II trying to make his dad love and appreciate the music that is important to him, and in the process bring them closer as father and son.
In just under four years, Bridging the Gap has exploded. They amassed nearly 275,000 subscribers on YouTube, more than 540,000 followers on Instagram, and boast more than 1.1 million followers on TikTok. On YouTube, their videos have been viewed more than 35 million times, and on TikTok they’ve received more than 67 million likes across all their posts. The show’s popularity mostly stems from Rod Sr.’s affable personality and open-mindedness toward rap music, which he had shunned decades ago due to its vulgarity and his misunderstanding of the artistry of the music genre.
But it’s not just Rod Sr. alone. The Rods’ relationship also shines through in every episode, highlighting the many ways in which the love between father and son can be displayed. Rod II created Bridging the Gap to both make videos on the internet and spend more time with his dad. They’ve succeeded in making a hit show, but it’s that latter part that makes the series entertaining and endearing.
“I feel like we have a bunch of conversations that we maybe never would’ve had,” Rod II said. “This is the best thing I’ve ever done, for real.”
Rod Sr. fell in love with music when he was 5 years old, climbing up a shelf in his childhood home to listen to the plug-in radio. The first album he owned was The Jackson 5’s 1971 album Maybe Tomorrow. “I played that album to death,” he said.
Soon, he was going over to a friend’s house to listen to the new Temptations and Richard Pryor albums. His uncle, Stylvester Adams, also known as Uncle Syl, loved jazz music and introduced a young Rod Sr. to some of the best artists of the time, including Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith, Nancy Wilson, Phyllis Hyman, and Stephanie Mills. At the integrated high school he attended, the white kids introduced him to Edgar Winter and Meat Loaf. Rod Sr. once dated a girl who was a background singer in John Cougar Mellencamp’s band.
“I dipped and dabbed in a little bit of everything,” Rod Sr. said.
Rod Sr. made sure to introduce his boys (Rod II has two younger brothers) to even more of the music he loved growing up. He put the kids onto The Stylistics, The Spinners, and Blue Magic. Earth, Wind & Fire was, of course, a staple. Whether in the morning at home or later in the day, while driving around in the family car, music was playing.
Rod II came up in the “blog era” of rap in the late 2000s, when music blogs were the tastemakers for what was hot in rap at the time, including the then Big 3 of Kendrick Lamar, Drake and J. Cole.
In 2011, he created Bricks & Bullets, a brand, creative space and music blog tailored toward rap and hip-hop. He’d helped his close musician friends with production, publicity, booking studio time and creating merch. Rod II even rapped a little, but don’t ask him about finding some of his old bars.
“I don’t think we should,” he said. “I think we should just leave that right where it sat.”
“Content creator” wasn’t even a popular term yet when Rod II started making videos for the internet in 2008. He used to shoot videos on his iPhone with his friends and upload them to Facebook. In 2019, he started a podcast, The Worst Podcast, with some of his closest friends, where they talked shop about hip-hop news and culture.
But Bullets & Bricks never saw much success. Rod II’s personal YouTube page, where he posted the blog’s content, never surpassed 50 subscribers.
“We didn’t know how to get eyes on it,” Rod II said of his early internet video days. “So I think that’s one of the big things I’ve learned.”
But after noticing a trend of reaction videos and videos that incorporated creators’ families, Rod II thought it would be a no-brainer to meld the two concepts. His dad loved music just as much as he did, but the two never listened to the same type of music.
“I hated it,” Rod Sr. said of hip-hop. “I didn’t think it was music.”
Rod II figured that if he could just get his dad to understand the artistry of rap and how similar it was to the soul and funk music that Rod Sr. loved, he would come around to the music he had sworn off decades ago.
One day, back in 2021, Rod II texted his dad about an idea he had. When Rod Sr. arrived at his son’s apartment, he was presented with the plan for the two of them to listen to rap albums and review them on the internet. Rod Sr. was initially hesitant to record the conversation – “I was really kind of self-conscious about it and … camera shy” – but he saw this as an opportunity to bond with his son, so he took it.
“I had no idea his intent, but to me it was … a time where we could sit down, we could chill, we could have some fun, spend some time together. And I’ve always just relished any time that we could spend together with the boys.”
For the first video, Rod II chose Jay Z’s The Black Album, which was released in 2003 and billed as the Brooklyn rapper’s eighth and final album. (He’s since released five more albums.) Jay Z was one of Rod II’s favorite rappers, and he thought the soul samples and symbolic lyricism of The Black Album were a perfect fit for bridging the gap with his father’s musical tastes.
In that first video, you can sense why Rod II believed this idea would work. His dad admits he doesn’t know much about Jay Z, but the production catches his attention. The string arrangements on “December 4th” are “on point.” The solo piano on “Encore” is “classy.” He appreciates Timbaland’s sound effects on “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” — despite not knowing who Timbaland is — and Jay Z’s wordplay on “What More Can I Say.” Early in the episode, Rod Sr. jokes that if he had known what Jay Z was capable of, he would have listened to him a long time ago.
The 59-minute video went on to get 89,000 views.
The success of The Black Album video continued to the following videos. The Get Rich or Die Tryin’ episode that followed garnered 300,000 views. Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP got nearly 550,000. Over the ensuing two years, Bridging the Gap gained thousands of followers, eventually branching out to Instagram and TikTok as well. But their fortunes truly changed after J. Cole and Drake had the misfortune of mentioning Lamar’s name.
After referring to themselves and Lamar as hip-hop’s Big 3 on “First Person Shooter” in Oct. 2023, Lamar shot back at both a few months later on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” record, rapping “M——— the big three, n—-, it’s just big me.” That then led to Drake and Lamar releasing eight diss tracks aimed at one another in the span of 16 days. The cover art for Lamar’s knockout track “Not Like Us” depicts multiple sex offender pins atop a map of Drake’s home in Canada. “One is enough,” Rod Sr. said of the pins. “I count 13.”
Of the seven diss songs that the pair reacted to, the total views surpassed 2 million, with the “Not Like Us” episode (903,000 views) becoming the most-watched YouTube video in the series’ history.
The Rods normally record Bridging the Gap twice a week. Album episodes are taped on Mondays, while song episodes are taped later in the week. However, because Drake and Lamar were dropping tracks at breakneck speed, sometimes within minutes of each other, the schedule went out the window. In some cases, the Rods would record a reaction to one diss record, and before Rod Sr. had time to drive back home, Rod II would call him, saying he had to turn around to record again.
“Yeah, there was no schedule,” Rod II said.
The success of the series has caught the attention of others.
This past April, Coachella invited The Rods to the annual music festival in the desert.
Rod Sr. made it through the first day of the three-day festival. There’s a video of him yelling “Do that s—! Do that s—!” with the rest of the crowd during Missy Elliot’s set. But he tapped out for the remaining two days.
“I was literally having to ice my legs and everything to just get ready to go,” Rod II said. “So I don’t blame him.”
Instances like Coachella illustrate the relationship The Rods had long before Bridging the Gap, when the two were often joined at the hip. When Rod Sr. returned to college in 1992 to finish his degree, a very young Rod II would sit on the couch with him for hours watching Michael Jackson videos as his dad studied. However, as these things often do, Rod II grew older and began to chart his own path, separate from his father. At age 17, Rod II moved to Texas for four years.
Even when Rod II moved back to Arizona in 2014, the two were never as close as they had been when he was younger. However, Bridging the Gap has not only allowed their relationship to grow, but also Rod Sr.’s relationship with his other sons, Chris and Camden.
“It really has made me appreciate all three of my sons even more,” Rod Sr. said. “They’re my heart.”
Bridging the Gap
The love and happiness that the two Rods share come through the screen. The fist bump when they’re excited and subconsciously bop their heads in the same cadence when a certain beat hits them in the soul. Their relationship, more than the music reviews, seems to be what attracts many people to the pair.
“I love when you said ‘I did this to spend more time with my dad,’ ” one person wrote under a video. “My Dad passed years ago, it’s dope to see a son chill with his dad like this. Bless,” another wrote under a different video.
The pair isn’t getting complacent. In the next year, they hope to launch a new project called The Afterparty, which will have The Rods interviewing artists, followed by musical performances. Think of it as The Bodega Boys meet NPR’s Tiny Desk.
“Just bringing back that late night TV, Arsenio Hall vibe,” Rod II said.
Not everyone has the type of relationship with their father that Rod II has with his. Rod Sr., in fact, didn’t have that relationship with his father. Rod Sr.’s father, Donald, divorced his mother, Laverne, when he was 9 years old, and, aside from some summers working at Donald’s ice cream shop in Louisville, Kentucky, Donald wasn’t around much. That absence left a void in Rod Sr.’s heart that he made sure he didn’t repeat with his children.
“You’ve probably heard that story many times from other kids that have grown up: They didn’t want to repeat what their parent [did]– the way they saw that relationship they wanted, wanted it to be better,” Rod Sr. said. “And that’s what was my main goal when I started having a family.”
All Rod Sr. ever wanted to do was set a good example for his sons and be the protector, mentor and friend that his father wasn’t for him.
“Those were the things that I missed in my childhood. There were times when I didn’t feel safe, but I had to be brave because there was no one to be brave for me,” Rod Sr. said. “So I never wanted them to have that feeling ever.”
Rod II has taken those lessons and applied them to his relationship with Jayce.
“I think maybe boys don’t always want to open up to their dads, but you just need to be there for that moment when they are ready to do that,” Rod II said. “And just being present, letting them know that you’re there.
“And when you are called on, just doing what you can to help and nurture whatever they have going on.”
Jayce appears in some of his dad’s solo videos, where Rod II does food and restaurant reviews. Rod II and Jayce even bond over some of Jayce’s music, which tends to be more “grunge rap” artists like Playboi Carti and Ken Carson. Rod II doesn’t particularly care for that type of music, but in the spirit of bridging a gap, he gives it a try.
Grandpa Rod, on the other hand, is not quite ready for Gen Z music. He’s opened his mind for the Jay Zs and Tyler, the Creators and Mac Millers of the world to better connect with his son. But, the new stuff may be a … bridge too far.
“I don’t think I’m ready for that,” Rod Sr. said. “Baby steps.”