The Witzard

"'They did this as an ode to the Dr. Dre -era sound that he doesn't even do anymore... I miss that sh*t, too," says Quik , who slid into the Death Row [Records] family during its wildest years," Songs from Scratch columnist Frances Capell wrote in her recent DJ Quik -centric profile; Yours Truly and adidas Originals recently recruited iconic West Coast Hip-Hop producer to hand-craft a G-Funk -indebted remix of Austin -bred Indie Rockers Spoon 's third and final They Want My Soul (2014) single, "Inside Out." "The vocals are great, and that's it. It's like the song's done, and I just get to draw another picture of music around it," DJ Quik then continues, speaking of Spoon frontman Britt Daniel , whom he seemingly worked closely with while re-recording "Inside Out" in his Burbank -based Little Big Room recording studio. Quik even went as far as to hand-selected three sharp-tongued West Coast rappers: &q

"Before I head out across the pond for The #EuroDROOG Tour , I'm dropping this joint produced by my man, DJ Skizz , that showcases my famed yet underutilized ' George Benson from Remulak ' impression — it's basically me scatting and rhyming along with the different sounds in the beat," Brooklyn/Ukrainian and uncannily Nas -sounding emcee Your Old Droog wrote on Soundcloud along with his latest track. "Senseless Killin' II" is the unofficial follow-up to Droog 's latest sonic 1-2 punch of non-album Soundcloud loosies, "Hidden Persuaders" and Statik Selektah -produced "Unlimited Metrocard." The #EuroDROOG Tour will kickoff in Dublin, Ireland this upcoming June 6th and wrap up nearly one month later in Dour, Belgium on July 17th; but not before Your Old Droog is scheduled to make seven stops in-between, hitting England , France, The Netherlands , Switzerland, and Germany presumably for the first time(s) in his

Despite the fact that London -based Electro-Dubstep producer "Jamie xx" Smith is just now getting around to putting out his "debut" album, In Colour , on Young Turks , he's already managed to release countless [read: "three"] non-album stand-alone 12" singles, produced a nearly flawless remix album for Gil Scott-Heron , and has worked with everyone from Florence + The Machine to Drake & Rihanna ; believe it or not, Florence Welch 's stripped down Drake cover, "Take Care" actually flipped Smith's own production work from Scott-Heron's We're New Here (2011), a full-length remix of his first album in some 16 years. One of the first times I ever heard Jamie xx 's music was actually on his string and marimba-laden xx -assisted "You've Got The Love" re-work from Florence + The Machine 's critically acclaimed debut, Lungs . " Young Thug did a whole version of the song and Popcaan did a w

Brooklyn veteran emcee Yasiin Bey , aka infrequent actor Dante Smith , recently "released" and 8-track video "collection" of expertly re-rapped MF DOOM covers, but BEYONDOOOM isn't exactly his first foray into Stones Throw -related material; Yasiin Bey 's 2009 album, The Ecstatic , his last record released under the Mos Def moniker, was essentially a loosely compiled Stones Throw beat tape. It's littered with cleverly re-purposed production work from the likes of Oh No , Madlib, J Dilla , Georgia Anne Muldrow, and MADVILLAIN : "Several Stones Throw artists and Stones Throw [released] instrumentals are included on Mos Def 's new album The Ecstatic , which will be released June [9th]," Stones Throw wrote in a detailed beat-oriented 2009 mini-press release. "Revelations," lifted from MADVILLAINY 2: The Madlib Remix album has very recently been used to score a 2-minute animated short created by Afrofuturism -centric graphic

While he isn't preoccupied melding together the sultry melodies of Rod Stewart and Miguel for an A$AP Rocky track or recruiting his sharp-tongued Albanian-Jewish buddy Action Bronson for a widely unreleased "Uptown Funk!" remix, super-producer Mark Ronson somehow managed to record and release one of the most downright Funky , yet commercially accessible albums of 2014-15; Uptown Special has already yielded one undeniable world-wide mega-hit with Ronson's infectious Bruno Mars -assisted "Uptown Funk," but now they're attempting to score similar chart success with it's proper B-side, "Feel Right." "PARTY PEOPLE, I'M VERY PROUD TO PRESENT THE VIDEO [FOR] "FEEL RIGHT" FT. @ItsMystikal DIR. BY @brunomars & @cameronduddy !!" @MarkRonson exuberantly Tweeted this past Monday afternoon. Although they make a quick cameo appearance towards the end, "Feel Right" solely features mini- Mystikal look-a

Although Brooklyn -based "Indie" Rockers X Ambassadors have yet to unleash their proper major label "debut," they've somehow already managed to log studio time with the likes of Jay Z , Eminem, and Rihanna . Ahead of their nostalgically titled VHS full-length, brothers Sam & Casey Harris , guitar player Noah Feldshuh , and drummer Adam Levin have preemptively landed pre-album singles "Renegades" and "Jungle" within nationally-aired commercials for the newly-redesigned 2015 Jeep Renegade , time-traveling blockbuster, Project Almanac , and even a female-led a cappella rendition recorded for Pitch Perfect 2 . X Ambassadors have previously released three Alex da Kid -produced EP's (even one recorded as "Ambassadors" ) under their current Interscope Records/KIDinaKORNER label contract, which was supposedly first facilitated by Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds after hearing the band on Virginia radio and strongly s

"With bluesy organs, descending basslines, and one of the slowest, hardest-swaggering beats we've heard in a good while, "Everyday" calls upon [Rod] Stewart 's classic number "In a Broken Dream," re-contextualizing it as a tale of modern ennui (read: boredom )," as okayplayer effectively describes A$AP Rocky 's latest At.Long.Last.A$AP (ALLA) single, "Everyday;" recorded with a very unlikely cast of magnificent characters... Rod Stewart , Miguel, "Uptown Funk" super-producer Mark Ronson , and co-producer Emile Haynie. When it comes to ridiculous left-field collaborations, "Everyday" falls somewhere in between The Fat Boys' utterly awesome Beach Boys -backed "Wipe Out" and Kid Cudi 's surprisingly smooth Michael Bolton & King Chip -assisted "Afterwards (Bring Yo' Friends)." Ronson ingeniously managed to convince R&B crooner Miguel to passionately sing: "Everyd

" Tom & Ed met in history class at Manchester University in 1988. They started off as DJ's known as "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). They then opted for "The Dust Brothers," which they nicked from the L.A. producers of Paul's Boutique (as they thought they would never be famous). In 1995, they changed their name to "The Chemical Brothers" after the real Dust Brothers threatened to sue," reads The Chemical Brothers' eerily cryptic abridged Discogs profile description. Electro-House pioneers Tom Rowlands & Ed Simmons are effectively back with their first album in nearly five years after taking a self-imposed hiatus following their seventh studio album, Further . All the while, The Chemical Brothers haven't remained entirely inactive during this gestation period: Rowlands & Simmons prepared a han

"I love Rock 'N' Roll — just regular LP's give me a lot of pleasure. I have another, equally strong love for pieces of art that have different standards in place for, like, what makes them excellent, you know? I wanted to work on a macro level and a micro level. You can enjoy [this album] for three minutes and it's just a good time... or you can invest 93 minutes and hopefully, you'll get something else out of it," Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles recently lamented to Grantland concerning their just-announced Punk-Rock Opera, The Most Lamentable Tragedy (TMLT) . It was initially announced in a since long-dated September 2013 interview, wherein Stickles summarized it as the story of a "young man, his doppelgänger, and a superhuman race [that] has this curse upon it;" Grantland additionally mentions that in its early gestative phases, was to consist of 30 tracks and would be accompanied by a companion film upon its planned November