The Witzard

Hell yes, believe it or not (oh, you better believe it!) beatboxing is still alive and well in 2022. If you don't believe us, go check out The Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus: He's The Beatboxer, I'm The Rapper. It's a sprawling nine-track collection that spans 25 years of organic D.I.Y. beats and rhymes collaborative efforts between two life-long friends, Stan Ipcus & Max B. Human Beatboxer Max Bent and seasoned emcee Stan Ipcus have been performing and recording together since the late 90's when they were both students and aspiring musicians at The University of Maryland (UMD.) They, literally, met on-air in 1998 during a live freestyle session broadcast on college radio station, WMUC, when Max was beatboxing for a room full of rappers and Stan Ipcus stepped up to the mic to flex his skills. The audio recording of that WMUC moment—plus, eight other Max Bent & Stan Ipcus beatbox/emcee collaborations spanning almost 25 years—is included on this new Bes...

"It's hard to pinpoint the moment I wanted to become a producer. I do remember contemplating at a young age the elements of Hip-Hop, wondering where I fit in. My older brother wrote [graffiti]. My other brother's friends were DJ's and emcees. To 12-year-old me, it was logical to take a craft up in one of these cornerstones. I, actually, wanted to break, but having no actual training available to me, that didn't last long. Around this time, I recognized my affinity for beats and beat-making. The part that interested me the most was seeing people come up with something from nothing. You didn't need to know how to play an instrument. The process intrigued and excited me. The rapping was cool, but what moved me the most was the music. I could get down with an average emcee, so as long as the sh*t he was rhyming on was tight; vice-versa, if a fire emcee had wack beats, it felt wasted to me." Four Albums of Note (Honorable Mentions) 1. De La Soul - 3 Feet...

"20 years to the day of the tragic murder of rapper The Notorious B.I.G. Mega Ran offers this heartfelt creative tribute to the man they called Biggie. Ran and producers Fresh Kils & DJ DN3 cleverly re-sample 10 classic B.I.G. bangers, adding new lyrics and perspective to the sounds of the legendary emcee. Narrated by Ran's childhood friend, Notorious R.A.N. revisits the feeling, the rhymes, and the charm of the fallen Hip-Hop hero, while continuing Mega Ran's track record of quality releases," reads an emailed press release sent along with Mega Ran's Biggie tribute mixtape, Notorious R.A.N: Ready to Live. As Ran (formerly Random) states, he's releasing Notorious R.A.N: Ready to Live today on March 9, 2017—the 20th anniversary of Christopher "Biggie" Wallace's tragic murder—with little to no prior press. I believe I first worked with Mega Ran—then, still Random AKA Mega Ran—around the time of his 2010 video game-sampling album, Forever Famic...

"Jesus Christ, #LunchMoney make me wanna sucker-punch 14 Elk in the nose. Might be my fav @PUSHA_T backdrop since #Trill or #RideAroundShinin ," Tonight Show bandleader @questlove exuberantly Tweeted. Former Clipse emcee Pusha T is supposedly holed up in the studio with Pharrell/The Neptunes , Kanye, and rookie producer Hudson Mohawke , earnestly working on the follow-up to his impeccable solo debut, My Name Is My Name (2013), tentatively titled "King Push." Early Tuesday morning without any prior rhyme or reason, a new thumping Kanye -produced track appeared on Google Play all of a sudden, which quickly disappeared; it was later premiered on Funkmaster Flex 's radio show and soon thereafter, spread like wildfire across The Internet. " Kanye 's best for ["Lunch Money"] is a gurgling, lurching soup of confusing, disorienting sounds, but all those sounds are built around a very basic, very funky pulse," Stereogum's very o...

It's pretty wild how a forward-thinking Free Jazz group like BADBADNOTGOOD can take something as "played out" [commercial] as Soulja Boy and re-arrange it so FRESH TO DEF! I got a YouTube email alert from BBNG 's channel earlier today, complete with a still video, which was neatly linked directly to their "Pretty Boy Swag" (Remix) . While it's their first LEGIT [un-]official remix, I'd almost have to say, for lack of a better term... that what BADBADNOTGOOD do "on the reg." is already pretty remix/instrumental-rooted. The guys of BBNG really seem to teeter the line between Classic Blues-Jazz textbook knowledge and a keen 1980-2000's Hip-Hop know-how! Chester, Matt & Alex somehow managed to add all sorts of swaying, Jazzy pauses and commas to the now stripped-down "Pretty Boy Swag;" Largely accenting Soulja Boy 's weirdly endearing Ringtone Raps , which I was first turned on to through Girl Talk 's 2006-...

Matt Tavares, Chester Hansen , and Alex Sowinski are 3 no-holds-barred rhythmic Jazzcats more commonly know as "BADBADNOTGOOD." Undoubtedly knowledgeable beyond their [lack of] years, studio footage of the young Canadian musicians covering a few Odd Future standards soon emerged (Summer 2011). Hot off the press, they were originally known as "The Odd Trio" and exclusively re-tooled Tyler, The Creator & Odd Future -related tracks; BADBADNOTGOOD 's simplistic blend of keys/guitar-bass-drums works surprisingly well when re-interpreting Tyler's often airy, Jazz -esque compositions. If Tyler, The Creator has any sense whatsoever, he'll employ the BBNG boys to lay down some sophisticated riffs for his upcoming "progressive" album, Wolf (2012). BADBADNOTGOOD 's latest release is the aptly-titled BBNGSINGLE - The first sampling from BBNG2 (mixtape) . To the best of my knowledge, "Rotten Decay" is the group's premier orig...

"Concrete Waves" is just one of those songs that's wildly catchy right off the bat! You know that you like it. But also know that you'd really be hard-pressed when asked "Why?" Kendra Morris is poised to become the next short-term Queen of Soul Pop Music; A genre initially spearheaded by the late-great, Amy Winehouse . Since "Throwback Soul" 's early-mid 2000's inception, many young songstresses have decided to jump aboard: Lily Allen, Duffy , Ke$ha, Sharon Jones, Janelle Monáe , Adele, Miss Jack Davey, Lana del Rey ... and now, Wax Poetics' very own Kendra Morris . Kendra Morris was born and raised along the coast of Florida to 2 musically-inclined parents. So, it was frankly no surprise to anyone that she grew up to be a Soulful -voiced little young lady. Morris made "The BIG Move" to New York City around 2003, where she proceeded to record bedroom [closet] recordings onto an 8-track . Those very recordings would re...