The Witzard

MF DOOM "Dead Bent #2" Still (SOURCE: @ABL) "MF DOOM is among the greatest artists of his time. This long-lost piece we made together in 2000 belongs in a proper gallery, so I'm putting it on auction today on @withFND! Globe with meridians *50% of proceeds to go to The DOOM Estate* Good luck. #MFDOOM #NFTart #NFT," ABL (@AdamBhalaLough) shared on Twitter earlier this week. For starters, "NFT" stands for a "non-fungible token," whatever that means... Adam Lough has directed music videos for everyone from El-P to Lil' B and notoriously created villainous clips for MF DOOM's "Dead Bent," "?" and "Benzoin Gum" AKA "Lemon Grass." Said unreleased version of "Dead Bent #2" was filmed on 1st Avenue in The East Village, New York, NY, November 2000—the same day as the original "Dead Bent" we all know and love. Lough explains it was shot on Kodak 7231 Plus-X negative black-and-white

Back in 2019, Los Angeles emcee Alex Ludovico continued his ongoing #MedicineMondays weekly singles series and last year, he did something similar with #RewindWednesdays. His Bandcamp page explains, "Drugs, sex, and Hip-Hop. Alex Ludovico, born in Gary, IN and created in Chicago, is the living embodiment of that credo." One of our personal favorite moments from 2019's #MedicineMondays roll-out was Ludovico's collaborative EP with fellow Chicagoan Jason Griff entitled Scarf Tissue. Upon returning from our honeymoon to Italy, we immediately linked up with Griff & Alex Ludovico, via email, to talk about their phenomenal Scarf Tissue EP. They were kind enough to help us assemble a comprehensive track-by-track (All-around) Breakdown for Scarf Tissue. Not long after, following a string of one-off singles, Alex Ludovico & Jason Griff returned with the first proper EP of #RewindWednesdays, THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. For THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. We got a chance to

Black Rob - The Black Rob Report CD (CREDIT: Jonathan Mannion) Son Raw is a freelance music writer and producer. A few decades removed from their peak, there are two things we can say for certain about Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records. First, they dropped some of the greatest, commercially-minded Hip-Hop and R&B records of the turn of The Millennium. Rap purists will exalt Biggie's two classics alone, but [Ma$e's] Harlem World is the one Jiggy album you need, Faith [Evans] & 112 birthed a generation of Hip-Hop/Soul (and soundtracked the conception of another) and after their late 90's peak, Diddy doggedly kept searching for his next great emcee, never finding him, but releasing great records in the process. Second, Bad Boy is a deeply cursed label and Sean Combs has a terrible track record of caring for his artists. Biggie was murdered in cold blood during a completely avoidable trip to Los Angeles after an over-hyped label feud. Ma$e was run out [of] the busi

Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy (CREDIT: Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe) Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy—otherwise known as Will Oldham—first collaborated on Superwolf way back in 2005. It's a phenomenal chilled-out Indie/Blues Rock hybrid that, I believe, was one of my first exposures to Indie Rock. Sweeney & Billy have been coyly teasing a proper Superwolf follow-up for quite a few years now and have worked togetehr on occasion; namely, their I Gave You EP, a 2010 single dubbed Must Be Blind / Life in Muscle, [adult swim] Singles Series submission "Love In The Hot Afternoon," a cover of "Storms" for Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac, "You'll Get Eaten, Too" (billed as "Superwolf") in 2020, and "OD'd In Denver" as part of Bill Callahan & Bonnie "Prince" Billy's ongoing singles series. Back in February, Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Pri

Digital Underground Word Up! Magazine Fold-out Poster (SOURCE: WEIRD RAP) In a year of seemingly unending Hip-Hop artist deaths, [Thursday] night was a particularly rough blow to Gen X Rap old heads with the passing of Shock G AKA Humpty Hump AKA Gregory Edward Jacobs. While reviewing Twitter [Thursday] night, it became immediately clear that too many folks born post-1990 didn't really know who he was, beyond his one massive hit. This following list is intended to educate, entertain and elucidate. No list of Shock G tracks would be complete without Digital Underground (D.U.)'s explosive two singles from their debut album, Sex Packets. Yes, these, obviously, are party tracks intended to get a$$es shaking, but listen to the lyrics and you'll quickly find surprising depth. The message is deceptively simple—don't let others dictate who you are or how you should feel. Fat, skinny, fake-nosed—all were welcome at a D.U. party. Without Shock G, the world may w

"Like many bands last year, Lansing, Michigan's Hot Mulligan—the "#1 Hot New Band" per their Facebook page—put out an LP in 2020 that they didn't get to tour. This year, they'll release I Won't Reach Out to You (IWROTY,) a six-track EP that operates as a quasi-response to their 2020 full-length you'll be fine. The EP is bookended on the first and last tracks by a resounding glance-back at a world that, simply, doesn't exist anymore: "Stay home, stay home / You said it wouldn't make a difference whether we could be together or not,'" explains Wax Bodega. Hot Mullian's current line-up includes frontman Nathan "Tades" Sanville, rhythm guitarist Chris Freeman, lead guitarist Ryan "Spicy" Malicsi, and drummer Brandon Blakeley and may or may not include bassist Garrett "Sniff" Willig . Hot Mulligan's aforementioned full-length album, you'll be fine, was released last year on California-based

"You can PRE-ORDER some sweet limited (and unlimited) vinyl from us here . (There's about 200 left of the above variant!) You can LISTEN to SKA DREAM on all the things here . That includes Quote Unquote Records, where you can download the whole thing for free and if you choose to make a donation there, all the money goes to The First Nations Development Institute. HOPE YA LIKE THE RECORD! HERE'S A LITTLE THING I WROTE ABOUT IT: SKA DREAM is a complete re-recording of Jeff Rosenstock's critically-acclaimed 2020 record, NO DREAM; however, this time around, all the songs are Ska songs—you're welcome. The very good idea to make this record came together when, like many other bands throughout this pandemic that refused to participate in super-spreading events, we were trying to find a fun way to make some music together to share with people. Otherwise, we were just spending our evenings texting the Group Chat in dread about the collapsing world around us. Not the

Illogic Rapping Cincinnati, OH, 1999 - CREDIT: Odd Nosdam (@odd_nosdam) "It's another Bandcamp Friday and we have something special for you! After over 20 years, Illogic & Odd Nosdam collaborate! Hope you enjoy!" read a message sent along with a Bandcamp Email Notification from Illogic's Bandcamp page on Friday, April 2, 2021. "guess who's back? it's been a whopping 23 years since Illogic & Nosdam last collaborated - which was on the very first cLOUDDEAD recording, "Apt. A (1)" - you know where the truth is..." Illogic & Odd Nosdam further explain on Bandcamp. What all of this is alluding to is a five-track EP—four original and a remix—from Illogic & Odd Nosdam dubbed Right The Ship. It's 100% raps from Illogic, beats by Odd Nosdam, bass on "Right The Ship" and bass/cuts on "Trafik Jam" by Mike Walti, mixed and mastered by Nosdam in 2019 at Toki G, Berkeley, and all Executive Produced by Ryan Harris

Juan Cosby pictured with his Rap group Counterfeit Money Machine (clockwise from left: AP Counterfeit, Cosby & Kill Bill) CREDIT: Andrew Doench Juan Cosby is an American producer and multi-instrumentalist. A member of Cincinnati-based Counterfeit Money Machine, Juan released his first solo album, Inhospitable Planet , in 2017, which was described as "a dazzling exploration of Progressive Hip-Hop." Cosby is the founder and owner of Grasshopper Juice Records, the mastermind behind annual Overcast Hip-Hop Festival , and runs his own blog, amazingly titled PIZZA RAPS. Juan Cosby has previously worked with the likes of ialive, Spoken Nerd, ceschi, Happy Tooth & Dug, Onry Ozzborn, OneWerd, AP Counterfeit (Counterfeit Money Machine,) Blueprint, Dope KNife, and Mega Ran. Cosby recently self-released his third proper solo/producer album, dubbed a "Psychadelic Rap LP," Quantum Foam, on Grasshopper Juice Records. It's a fun listen, glitchy, spaced out, and slight

NPR Music regularly participates in the annual SXSW Music Festival, whether it's curating their own stage or, simply, attending and reporting on hundreds of shows in Austin, Texas. Last year, it was canceled due to The Pandemic, but SXSW returned this March as an online-only festival. NPR Music was asked to program a "stage" of Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts and present them on the final day of this year's festival. Now, we present to you, Tiny Desk Meets SXSW: four videos filmed in various locations, all of them full of surprises. Leave it to clipping. to innovate around the fundamental notion of a "Tiny Desk Concert" itself; effortlessly taking the series' emphasis on close-up intimacy and transporting it to new heights of, well... tininess. midcity by clipping. However, this is, after all, a band that contains multitudes. Producers William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes craft a bed of Hip-Hop, glitchy Industrial, and Noisy Experimental music, then, se

CREDIT: Mark Champion (@markchampion_tx) Few bands have been busier amidst the pandemic than Houston's Liberty & Justice. Off the back of not one, but two 2020 EP's comes the Telephone Road band's sophomore full-length, PRESSURE. The co-release comes via their home town's recently exhumed Death Exclamations! and Germany's premiere Oi! peddlers, Contra Records. Still replete with the street-wise anthems that made debut 4 All such a rousing listen, the band's latest is a level-up in every way. Fans of First Wave Oi! & Street Punk would be hard-pressed to find anything more rumble-ready and massive sounding. Their collective résumés have clearly come together for a newly-definitive collection that should appeal to fans of Bishop's Green, Lion's Law, and other booted legions. Yet, the band incorporates a myriad of influences, varied guest spots, and a thickly-muscled sound indebted to Hardcore that will appeal to loyalists of The UK's newe