Joseph Murphy (born October 4, 1996), professionally known as Celestaphone, is an American musician and record producer.

Early life

Joseph Murphy was born in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

on October 4, 1996. Several members of his family are musicians, including his parents.

Career

2014–2017: Early recordings and instrumental albums

Celestaphone released his first solo EP, ''Glorifying'', in October 2014. His first collaborative effort was producing

Dionté BOOM Ervin Dionté Harris (born July 24, 1991), better known by his stage name Dionté BOOM, is an American rapper-hip hop production, producer. He is currently based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock, and signed to Day By Day Entertainment. Car ...

's single "Fish Market" the following year. The song was included in a 2015 edition of the

Arkansas Times ''Arkansas Times'', a weekly alternative newspaper based in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, is a publication that has circulated more than 40 years, originally as a magazine. Founded as a small magazine on newsprint in 1977 by publisher A ...

' Rock Candy journal. In 2016, Celestaphone published a second EP titled ''Minappi's Last Wondrous Escapade'', and in 2017 he released three full-length albums: ''Robosoul'', ''To Cite Psych'', and ''To Cite Fright''. The EP, along with album ''To Cite Fright'' received a nod from Raoul Rego, former webmaster at

WREK WREK (91.1 FM "Wreck", from the Ramblin' Wreck) is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is also located on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN. Starting as a 10-watt class D, ...

, in an interview with the station published by

Bandcamp Daily Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epi ...

. The aforementioned albums, consisting primarily of

instrumental hip hop Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music in a recording studio. While the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music creation, including recording the rapping of an MC, a turntablist or DJ providing a beat, playing samples and "sc ...

, were met with the creation of Celestaphone's record label Drumhex.

2018–2020: ''Tying Up Loose Friends'' and ''Weevil in Disguise''

Celestaphone broadened the musical repertoire of his songs in 2018 by including his vocals. His inaugural vocal album, ''Tying Up Loose Friends'', was released on July 30, 2018. He continued this vocal trend into 2020 with his album ''Weevil in Disguise'', featuring the lead single "Rewinders". This song is Celestaphone's first recorded collaboration with

MC Paul Barman Paul Nathaniel Barman (born October 30, 1974), better known by his stage name MC Paul Barman, is an American rapper and illustrator. Having emerged during the early 2000s, Barman became a definitive voice within the realm of alternative hip hop, ...

. As an ode to Barman, who is a hip-hop artist particularly known for their incorporation of

palindromes A palindrome ( /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or '' racecar'', the date " 02/02/2020" and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Pana ...

within rap lyrics, "Rewinders" was strategically published on February 2, 2020 (or ''02/02/2020''), a day uniquely recognized as an exceptionally rare global palindromic date.

2021–present: ''Year of Octobers'' and ''Paper Cut From the Obit''

A collaborative album between Celestaphone and MC Paul Barman (as

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

YOUNGMAN) titled

A Year of Octobers ''A Year of Octobers'' is the first collaborative studio album by American rapper MC Paul Barman and record producer Celestaphone. It was released August 20, 2021, on Drumhex. Barman performs as virtual band member and alter ego YOUNGMAN on each s ...

arrived in August 2021. Paper Cut From the Obit followed in February 2023.

Discography

Solo

* '' Paper Cut From the Obit'' (2023) * ''Weevil in Disguise'' (2020) * ''Tying Up Loose Friends'' (2018) * ''Portrait of a Harlot'' (2018) * ''To Cite Fright'' (2017) * ''To Cite Psych'' (2017) * ''Robosoul'' (2017) * ''Minappi's Last Wondrous Escapade'' (2016) * ''Trust (31–60)'' (2015) * ''Menu (01-30)'' (2015) * ''Glorifying'' (2014)

Collaborative albums

* ''Cult Subterranea'' (2025) * ''

'' (2021)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Celestaphone 1996 births Living people American hip-hop record producers Record producers from California American hip-hop DJs West Coast hip-hop musicians