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: ...

Snoop Dogg [or Snoop Lion ] has somehow become such an instantly recognizable public figure, that even my 80-something-year-old grandparents are familiar with him. Long before his Reggae-Rap rebirth or Wiz Khalifia -assisted film soundtrack, Snoop Doggy Dogg was one of the earliest pioneers of 1980-90's West Coast "G-Funk;" It's essentially, a long-forgotten trunk-rattling Parliment-Funkadelic -sampling sub-genre of Hip-Hop that was largely produced by either Dr. Dre , Too $hort, or DJ Quik . After a few months of vague social media rumblings, Stones Throw revealed that Snoop Dogg secretly teamed up with Pasadena mega-producer and Funk revivalist Dâm-Funk to recorded an album under the group name 7 Days of Funk . It's kinda mind-boggling that NO ONE has already used that as a nom de plume [title] for something until now!? Stones Throw quietly uploaded "Faden Away" along with the semi-cryptic Facebook message: "NEW MUSIC: Two of ou...

Even since I've been into Stones Throw (Champion Sound-Donuts Era), the semi-respected Bay Area record label has slowly morphed into the place to go for cool, head-jerking vinyl. Peanut Butter Wolf has hand-picked a wide array of emcees, weirdo producers, Funk/Folk revivalists, solo artists, etc. Stones Throw 's genre-blending " Hip-Hop & more" roster presently includes: Madlib , James Pants, The Stepkids , Matthew Larkin Cassell , deceased mega-producer J Dilla , Steve Arrington, Quakers (Geoff Barrow) , Jonti, The Lions , Dâm-Funk, Jonwayne , and countless others. Announced just last Friday, 2 of the label's most note-worthy musicians have teamed up for a collaborative LP - Steve Arrington & Dâm-Funk ! Arrington, former Slave Funky drummer turned spiritual foot-soldier, has bonded with Dâm-Funk , who's quite arguably G-Funk 's last remaining post-90's producer. Steve Arrington self-released his first album in 20 years, Pure Thin...