The Witzard

While they generally make a unique brand of self-loathing, love sick Dream Pop , Swedish duo JJ (formerly known as "jj" )'s music has always been heavily influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B ; take their latest single "All White Everything" for example, sonically it's a crisp piano ballad accented by a sparse Hip-Hop drum pattern about mid-way through, who's title is seemingly an allusion to Jay-Z 's Kanye & Rihanna -assisted smash single, "Run This Town." It's our first legitimate taste from JJ 's forthcoming album for Sincerely Yours/Secretly Canadian V , which will be their first proper full-length since jj n° 3 (2010). Aside from it's August 19th release date, 12-song tracklist, and cryptic album artwork , little else is known about V . Roughly two weeks before unveiling the aforementioned information, bandmates and apparent couple Elin Kastlander & Joakim Benon quietly uploaded a 45-second JJ V album trailer

" Rat Fist is the result of a friendship that began over a decade ago in 2003 when [Randy] Randall 's former band Wives and [Sean] McGuiness' former band Navies played a house show together in Washington DC . It was then that the two quickly recognized they had a common love for loud, fast, heavy music," notes the newly-formed band's description on R5 Productions' upcoming events page. Rat Fist unveiled a string of six quick-strike East Coast tour dates, which are listed above, along with a righteous teaser single titled "Disrupt Yr DNA" late Tuesday afternoon. It sounds like a harshly grafted mix of both Pissed Jeans and No Age 's Noise Rock/Hardcore Punk sounds; while I'm not entirely sure who's on lead vocals, Randall's crunchy feedback-drenched guitar riffs meld perfectly with McGuiness' skull-bashing drum lines littered through out "Disrupt Yr DNA"'s nearly 2:30-minute duration. Despite the fact th

Kanye West , a man who very recently rapped something along the lines of "black Timbs all on your couch again / black d*ck all in your spouse again..." married his long-time girlfriend Kim Kardashian this past weekend. The Florence wedding ceremony held at the 16th century Fort di Belvedere was preceded by an extravagant pre-party held in Paris Friday night, which was seemingly attended by everyone from Rick Rubin to Jaden "White Batman" Smith ; in lieu of James Fanco & Seth Rogen 's tastefully declined "Bound 3" performance invitation, early reports suggest that Lana del Rey , Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli , John Legend, and illusionist David Blaine performed at various point throughout the wedding reception and ceremony. It just seems to be a sheer coincidence that Kayne 's new "YEEZi" sneaker partner, Adidas released a World Cup web-commercial complete with previously unreleased music on the same weekend as Kim & Kanye

Aside from the Beastie Boys of course, I think it's pretty safe to say that Jurassic 5 were my first favourite Hip-Hop group that I discovered entirely on my own; if I'm not mistaken, "What's Golden" was featured on some sort of early 2000's basketball game for either N64 or PlayStation . Power In Numbers (2002) still remains in heavy rotation in my car stereo and is without a doubt one of my all-time favourite Hip-Hop albums. I remember having a burned CD-R copy of the album released either directly before of after Power In Numbers , which was always an enjoyable listen, too. After releasing four positive "Conscious Hip-Hop" albums and one EP between 1993-2007, Jurassic 5 decided to part ways and unveiled one final album recorded without previously departed DJ Cut Chemist , Feedback . Following the under-the-radar release(s) and luke warm commercial reception of a few side projects, including Ron Artiste and a compilation of 1980's

I'm about 98% sure that I first stumbled upon Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet ) during my early exploration of Jaylib -era J Dilla ; the late great rapper-producer concocted a neck-snapping remix of Hebden's own "As Serious As Your Life" (2003) along with fellow Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson . While he's primarily regarded as a one-man band, Four Tet has branched out in recent years working with drummer Steve Reid , MADVILLAIN, Neneh Cherry , Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman , and has produced unofficial remixes for everyone from Lana del Rey to Justin Timberlake. Four Tet unleashed his latest foray into Hip-Hop late Tuesday afternoon; "One Time For" is one of two tracks recently recorded with rising Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune . Even though it may still be a little rough around the edges, "One Time For" is an extremely glitched out, drum-heavy Electronic Hip-Hop hybrid, which could very well be the start of a great collaborative ef

My older cousins Ashley and James were always Diplomats (aka Dipset ) fans growing up and while I never really listened to them back in the early 2000's, I guess I have a few vague memories... Juelez Santana 's oft-delayed Lil' Wayne team-up I Can't Feel My Face , current reality star Jim Jones' lone hit "We Fly High," Cam'ron 's eccentric pink fur collection and "Purple Haze," and the eventual rise and fall of Dipset . Long-time admirer/super-fan A-Trak has recently teamed up with Dipset general Cam'ron for an upcoming collaborative EP, Federal Reserve ; fresh on the heels of his long-awaited and just released Duck Sauce album with DJ buddy Armand Van Helden , appropriately titled QUACK . Their Complex -premiered "Dipshits" is the second proper track to be unleashed from Federal Reserve EP , which A-Trak co-produced along with Just Blaze and his brother Dave 1 's (Chromeo) recent collaborator, Fool's G

While I wouldn't exactly go as far as to automatically mislabel Har Mar Superstar 's most recent album, Bye Bye 17 as "Blue-Eyed Soul" or anything resembling lazy new age Neo-Soul genre tags, frontman Sean Tillmann probably owes more to guys like Justin Timberlake , Mayer Hawthorne, and Robin Thicke than he would probably ever willingly like to admit. Tillmann's latest music video/single was directed by frequent Strokes collaborator Warren Fu , who's previously worked with long-time frontman Cult Records founder Julian Casablancas ; at it's core, "Restless Leg" is a charming, yet vaguely disturbing video centered around an interesting man-on-puppet pseudo-love triangle, which was co-directed by contained Viva La Puppet puppeteer Michelle Zamora . No matter how you may feel about a little tasteful man-on-puppet action, Bye Bye 17 is a very easily accessible album, chock-full of white boy Soul-Funk/R&B; something to the effect of mid

Shamir Bailey is a self-described 19-year-old "musician, comedian, singer, rapper, twerker, chef, writer, film-maker, tumblr, [and] skinny fat ass" hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada . GODMODE founder and Mr. Dream drummer Nick Sylvester discovered and ultimately signed Shamir after hearing his DFA -style modern Disco-House music demo tape; even though Sylvester had previously sworn to never sign artists based outside of New York City . Slightly ahead of his forthcoming Northtown EP , Shamir and acting producer Nick Sylvester have strategically leaked two glitched out R&B/Dance tracks thus far, "If It Wasn't True" and newbie "I Know It's a Good Thing." From what I can tell, Shamir 's first label-backed track, "If It Wasn't True" was released earlier this year on GODMODE 's cassette compilation Common Interests Were Not Enough to Keep Us Together ; it's a bona fide " Disco-House anthem with rare levels

Just mere hours after somewhat cryptically Tweeting, "BLUE CHIPS & BLUE CHIPS 2... RARE CHANDELIERS ON VINYL?" Action Bronson (aka Mr. BAKLAVA) premiered the first episode of his latest non-musical endeavor, F#ck, That's Delicious ; VICE 's newly-established online food network, Munchies has partnered up with the gourmet chef turned-rapper for a monthly updated web-series "dealing with the often rapped about dining habits of our favorite rapper, Action Bronson ." It was seemingly filmed during Bronson's string of New Zealand , South African, and Australian dates in support of Eminem 's recently wrapped Rapture Tour . What they've managed to capture within is Action Bronson 's New York homecoming from a world-wide tour that initially started back in January; while on his jet-setting journey (further detailed across Adventure Time ), he dove off the top of a giant sail boat/yacht, got seasick while amidst a gourmet dinner, jumped int

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and rapper-producer Kassa Overall is a close affiliate of Kool A.D. and his now-defunct Hip-Hop crew Das Racist . I believe I first got in touch with Overall after discovering his stellar self-released Stargate mixtape, which featured him ferociously rapping over re-worked Katy Perry , Wiz Khalifia , and modern pop radio tracks, and he generously helped facilitate my 2011-12 interview with Victor Vazquez , otherwise known as Kool A.D. While he was previously signed to Vazquez's Greedhead off-shoot imprint Veehead , but since their disbanding, his current label situation is unknown. After years of preparation and recording, Kassa Overall is finally gearing up to release his first proper solo album consisting of entirely original production, which is tentatively titled Like Life , in the not so distant future; even though he's released countless group albums with PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS , TOOTHPASTE , and as an accomplished Jazz drummer has rec

It's almost a little hard to believe that the same guys who produced Action Bronson 's hard-hitting Blue Chips 1-2 also make Electro-Dance inspired Soft Rock in their free time. But I guess you could kinda consider Party Supplies' Pop -influenced beats crafted for Bronson as that seemingly grey area-fusing vehicle; Justin Nealis & Sean Mahon somehow convinced him to ferociously rap over John Mellencamp , Phil Collins, Tracy Chapman , "Tequila," Peter Gabriel , Guns "N" Roses, and plenty more note-worthy cats. Nealis recently compiled a list of his 25 favorite aka most influential albums, which includes everyone from Paul Simon to Raekwon . While it's been rumored for quite some time now, it seems as though Fool's Gold is finally planning a proper CD/LP re-issue of Party Supplies critically-acclaimed debut full-length, Tough Love later this summer. Tough Love 2 (as we'll refer to it from here on out) will likely include rece