The Witzard

"I'm an actor, a writer, and a singer; some people have described me as a "triple-threat," but I kinda like to call myself... JUST A THREAT," Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino cooly detailed during his double-billing SNL host/performer monologue this past weekend, Saturday, May 12, 2018. Amidst his claims he "can do anything," Glover nonchalantly showed off his assorted skills including music-making, skateboarding, cooking, fixing lighting rigs, "playing" clarinet, and general awesomeness. Since his last critically-acclaimed album, "Awaken, My Love!" Donald Glover has launched Season 2 of his semi-autobiographical FX show Atlanta , made a cameo as Aaron Davis (The Prowler) in Spider-Man: Homecoming, worked on a now-shelved Deadpool cartoon series for FXX , has signed on as Simba in Jon Favreau's 2019 re-make of The Lion King, and will play a young Lando Calrissian in Disney/Lucafilms ' as-yet-unreleased SOLO: A S...

Let's face it, there are a lot of great (and not-so great) Hip-Hop tracks, music videos, albums, mixtapes, EP's, etc. released on a weekly, if not even daily, basis; a person like myself, who single-handedly runs what I would deem a moderately "successful" publication, whilst working a 9-5, manipulating a relationship with my wonderful girlfriend, family, and friends, and leading a generally hectic existence, there isn't always time to cover every Hip-Hop release I would hypothetically like to within an average week's time. Hence, I've decided to enact a weekly " The Witzard's Week In Rap" (still a working title) column akin to Stereogum 's 5 Best Videos of The Week or Status Ain't Hood , which will hopefully, be published every Friday or Saturday night. It may or may not include songs/videos that I have/hadn't exactly had the chance to cover throughout the course of the week prior and will generally showcase five companion sh...

Flying Lotus' latest Warp Records -released creation, You're Dead! features a wide array of contributions from an unlikely gamut of collaborators including Kendrick Lamar , Snoop Dogg, Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock , Angel Deradoorian, frequent collaborator Thundercat , and even Lotus' own rapping alter-ego Captain Murphy; but according to a flurry of late night Tweets the other night, for whatever reasons, additional tracks recorded with super-star guests Pharrell , Chance The Rapper, Mac Miller , and supplementary Kendrick Lamar material were ultimately scrapped. Aside from dwelling on what could have been... Flying Lotus unleashed the first Lamar-assisted single from You're Dead! , "Never Catch Me" nearly one week prior to the album's release, last Wednesday, October 1st. It's an oddly heartwarming life-affirming, death-defying clip, which only showcases a brief milli-second glimpse of Steven Ellison (Lotus) himself, who's quietly seated ...