The Witzard

My older cousins Ashley and James were always Diplomats (aka Dipset ) fans growing up and while I never really listened to them back in the early 2000's, I guess I have a few vague memories... Juelez Santana 's oft-delayed Lil' Wayne team-up I Can't Feel My Face , current reality star Jim Jones' lone hit "We Fly High," Cam'ron 's eccentric pink fur collection and "Purple Haze," and the eventual rise and fall of Dipset . Long-time admirer/super-fan A-Trak has recently teamed up with Dipset general Cam'ron for an upcoming collaborative EP, Federal Reserve ; fresh on the heels of his long-awaited and just released Duck Sauce album with DJ buddy Armand Van Helden , appropriately titled QUACK . Their Complex -premiered "Dipshits" is the second proper track to be unleashed from Federal Reserve EP , which A-Trak co-produced along with Just Blaze and his brother Dave 1 's (Chromeo) recent collaborator, Fool's G...

While I've been an avid supporter of Girl Talk aka civilian engineer Gregg Gillis' hyper-disoriented (s)mash-up style since the initial media on-slaught of Night Ripper (2006), I never thought I'd see the day when he'd commit a full-fledged collaboration with a real-life rapper to wax, let alone former Roc-A-Fella affiliate and Philly native, Freeway ; to the best of my knowledge, Gillis hasn't worked alongside an emcee since his 2011 Pitchfork Selector -initiated Jim Jones track, "Believe In Magic." It seems as though Broken Ankles is just a small chunk of a recorded, albeit unreleased, body of work, the first of which will become available for FREE download this upcoming April 8th. "Tolerated"' s Allen Cordell -directed video treatment is loosely inspired by late 90's Brit -hit "Bittersweet Symphony." "I just thought it'd be cool to do a video where the premise is me and Freeway walking down the street and ...

"WOOOOOO PARTTTTTYYYYY SUPPPPLLIIEESSS. "@ILLROOTS: CAM'RON & A-TRAK - HUMPHREY..." exclaimed Queens emcee Action Bronson in 140 characters or less; his Blue Chips 2 partner-in-crime and current tour-mate Party Supplies jointly co-produced the premier track from label-boss A-Trak and Cam'ron . What could quite arguably be labelled the Dipset general's long sought-after comeback, Federal Reserve EP is reportedly due out sometime this spring and will additionally feature Juelz Santana , Jim Jones, Just Blaze (drum programming), and executive producer Dame Dash . While the greater Hip-Hop-trolling corner of The Internet initially believed that Cam'ron 's opening bars, "Dame said I'm 'bout it cuz I wanna fight B-Hop . I said I'll f*ck him up after 2 months of detox - true. Besides that, 8 mill from Reebok , I take him to the bar, pa. That's 33 shots..." was a lyrical jab at Jay-Z 's cousin and Roc-Nation -aff...

While stylistically, Indie Rock and Hip-Hop really don't have all that much in common, the 2 genres are actually fairly similar... aesthetically. Since their now "ancient" inceptions, Indie and Hip-Hop have always been marked by D.I.Y. roots and word-of-mouth promotion; It also seems as though the various musicians and fans of the respective genres maintain a mutual respect for each other's craft. All the while (since about 1980), they've somehow managed to co-exist and thrive as separate, yet similar entities. So, when Indie/Hip-Hop just so happen to intertwine, it usually isn't THAT much of a shocker. Speaking with NME back in August 2011, The Big Pink mentioned that Hip-Hop was shaping up to be a major influence on their upcoming sophomore album, Future This ... more specifically, Dr. Dre . A few months later, Cordell-Furze and 4AD then proceeded to recruit MPC Instrumentalist [beatsmith], AraabMUZIK to re-work lead single, "Stay Gold....