The Witzard

CREDIT: CALMATIC (@CALMATIC) Trolls World Tour is the long-awaited sequel to wildly-successful 2016 film Trolls. Based on the popular line of Troll Dolls, Trolls 2: World Tour stars Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Corden, Kunal Nayyar, Ozzy Osbourne, and Rachel Bloom. It also features the voices of Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Icona Pop, Ron Funches, J. Balvin, and Kenan Thompson. According to a Universal Pictures synopsis, Trolls World Tour is centered around Queen Poppy (Kendrick) and Branch (Timberlake) discovering that there are different kinds of Trolls scattered across six different lands, each devoted to a different genres of music: Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, Country, and Rock. Amidst The Coronavirus/COVID-19 global pandemic, Trolls World Tour will be released on home video/streaming platforms this Friday, April 10, 2020. Trolls World Tour's accompanying soundtrack, executive produced by Justin Timberlake & Lu...

Justin Timberlake released his long-awaited fifth studio album, Man of The Woods today, which has taken him "back to his Nashville roots," as well as his pre- Timbaland production partners, The Neptunes . This upcoming Sunday, Timberlake will also make his return to Super Bowl LII , playing his first half-time show since 2004's Super Bowl XXXVIII half-time show controversy, widely regarded as "Nipplegate." "When it was announced JT would return to the Super Bowl , after spectacularly failing to stand by [Janet] Jackson at the height of his career, it started bugging me more," one half of Epic Beard Men , B. Dolan wrote on Soundcloud early Friday morning. "I started out to make a single one of these mash-ups out of curiosity. Then, I kept going because I'm petty and a music nerd and it was stunningly easy," @BDolanSFR continued. B. Dolan is of course, referring to his "dope, highly unofficial 30-minute satirical mix"...

It's been widely speculated since their mysterious 3-song Tuxedo Funk EP drop that illusive Disco-Funk duo Tuxedo were in fact composed of New-Wop crooner Mayer Hawthorne and his producer buddy, Jake-One . It's also been a sort of "music biz" insider joke since day one that Tuxedo 's name itself was a discrete, yet tasteful, jab at Justin Timberlake 's then just-released "Suit & Tie" and apparent assimilation of Hawthorne's whole old-school-meets-new-school Doo-Wop shtick he's adopted in recent years. "The Tuxedo collaboration began with an exchange of mixtapes back in 2006. The fruits of a long-standing kinship were three tracks that mysteriously showed up on Internet doorsteps nearly two years ago. In between personal projects, these three tracks became a full album's-worth of Tuxedo ," Stones Throw exuberantly wrote in a December 1st album press release. " [Tuxedo] are descendants of the one-word moniker ...

I'm about 98% sure that I first stumbled upon Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet ) during my early exploration of Jaylib -era J Dilla ; the late great rapper-producer concocted a neck-snapping remix of Hebden's own "As Serious As Your Life" (2003) along with fellow Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson . While he's primarily regarded as a one-man band, Four Tet has branched out in recent years working with drummer Steve Reid , MADVILLAIN, Neneh Cherry , Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman , and has produced unofficial remixes for everyone from Lana del Rey to Justin Timberlake. Four Tet unleashed his latest foray into Hip-Hop late Tuesday afternoon; "One Time For" is one of two tracks recently recorded with rising Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune . Even though it may still be a little rough around the edges, "One Time For" is an extremely glitched out, drum-heavy Electronic Hip-Hop hybrid, which could very well be the start of a great collaborative ef...

While I wouldn't exactly go as far as to automatically mislabel Har Mar Superstar 's most recent album, Bye Bye 17 as "Blue-Eyed Soul" or anything resembling lazy new age Neo-Soul genre tags, frontman Sean Tillmann probably owes more to guys like Justin Timberlake , Mayer Hawthorne, and Robin Thicke than he would probably ever willingly like to admit. Tillmann's latest music video/single was directed by frequent Strokes collaborator Warren Fu , who's previously worked with long-time frontman Cult Records founder Julian Casablancas ; at it's core, "Restless Leg" is a charming, yet vaguely disturbing video centered around an interesting man-on-puppet pseudo-love triangle, which was co-directed by contained Viva La Puppet puppeteer Michelle Zamora . No matter how you may feel about a little tasteful man-on-puppet action, Bye Bye 17 is a very easily accessible album, chock-full of white boy Soul-Funk/R&B; something to the effect of mid...

Mr. Sexyback himself, Justin Timberlake , unleashed a surprisingly Boom-Bap -ified remix to his latest 20/20 Experience 2 single, "TKO" late Black Friday evening, which is slowly becoming a FREE music-giving holiday. Timberlake somehow managed to recruit J. Cole, A$AP Rocky , and his former "Like I Love You" collaborator, Pusha T (Clipse). While it might kinda seem like part of a larger label-contrived chart-topping master-palm, Justin Timberlake is actually an avid late 1980-90's Hip-Hop aficionado; case in point, The History of Rap (Parts 1-4) with Late Nite host-buddy Jimmy Fallon . Roots band leader/drummer Questlove [Jenkins] simply Tweeted, " #TKOremix so official! @JTimberlake, @PUSHA_T, @ASAPRockyTRILL & @JColeNC (w/ that post- "Control" flow) = COTDAMNY," which almost instantly piqued my interests enough to go check it out! It's very well-produced, which is rare for an after-the-fact remix of this calibe...

Full disclosure here: "Shake Your Body (Down to The Ground)" is quite easily amongst my favourite Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5 tracks; thanks to my wonderful parents (married 29 years today!) who exposed me to Jackson, Billy Joel , Elton John, Stevie Wonder , etc. records at a very young, impressionable age. While Justin Timberlake is currently ramping up to unleash the second part of his first album in nearly 6 years, The 20/20 Experience , he stopped by BBC1 Live Lounge over the weekend, just days after debuting new material at iHeart Radio Music Fest (Vegas). Along with familiar hits new and old, Timberlake and The Tennessee Kids ripped through a pretty spot-on, Funk -laden version of "Shake Your Body." Random coincidence or not, Justin Timberlake was very recently awarded the coveted Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at this year's MTV VMA's , where Timberlake briefly reunited with his wildly popular and now-defunct "boy band," N...

"There are milk crates downstairs, if you need to use one MT @justintimberlake Join me & @Target tonight for just one song" aging Indie Rockers Yo La Tengo snarkily Tweeted Wednesday night. For what it's worth, a global super-star like Timberlake really does have ABSOLUTELY NO business playing a one-off corporate-sponsored show at a shitty hole-in-the-wall [albeit closed] NJ Indie Rock venue like Maxwell's ; Justin Timberlake was actually filming an Instagram & Twitter -fied Target commercial for a select 150 lucky fans, which is coincidentally set to dual as a promo for his new clothing line and a secondary "Take Back The Night" music video. Not even 24 hours later, Jay Z and new-found buddy Timberlake unleashed their Anthony Mandler -directed "Holy Grail" visuals, via Facebook . The exclusively-released clip could've very well reached nearly 42 million combined "Friends" by now, which has only recently been re-u...

Although he doesn't even make an appearance until about 2:35 into "Shame The Devil," No Malice 's new track marks the long-awaited reunion with his brother and former Clipse partner in crime, Pusha T ; It's the first unofficial Clipse track since Gene & Terrence Thornton parted ways some 3-4 years ago to embark on separate solo careers. Since signing to Kanye 's sprawling G.O.O.D. Music (DONDA) label/art-haus, Pusha T has largely kept in the same Coke Rap lane that Clipse pioneered back in the mid-90's; while Malice reportedly found religious solace, became a slightly more socially-conscious rapper, and for whatever reason, changed his emcee handle to "No Malice." These inner-band issues or creative differences are dually addressed on "Shame The Devil:" " Gene [Malice] found God, they thinking we at odds / Must ain't know my father, he ain't never spared a rod / Yuugh! It's two sides to a card / Just ...

Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett , and Ted Dwane are four British chaps that have been making some pretty All-American -sounding Bluegrass and Folk Rock together since about 2007; While Mumford & Sons' sophomore album, Babel was released back in September 2012, Island/Glassnote Records are still earnestly pushing successful Modern Rock radio singles from it. Mumford & Sons don't even appear in their latest music video, "Hopeless Wanderer" ...instead, director Sam Jones quite ingeniously re-cast former SNL alum and Arrested Development funnymen Jason Sudeikis (Mumford), Will Forte (Dwane), Ed Helms (Lovett), and Jason Bateman (Marshall) as a slightly exaggerated, ramped up version of the band. Now, it could just be a mere coincidence, but Ed Helms & Jason Sudeikis , who I think kinda look alike, are also co-starring in the upcoming summer blockbuster, We're The Millers , along with middle-aged bombshell Jennifer Aniston . ...

It almost seems wrong to [mis]label an artist as blatantly prolific and broad-spanning as Shawn "Jay Z" Carter as a mere rapper; Since he's arguably a powerful entrepreneur, businessman, record exec, sports agent, club owner, and 1/2 of a dynamic power-couple. After releasing his Samsung -backed Magna Carta... Holy Grail album on July 4th, he's once again teamed up with iconic "99 Problems" music video director Mark Romanek to create a 10-minute "Picasso Baby" performance art film. Recorded last month at Chelsea 's own Pace Gallery , Romanek's team managed to capture 40+ hours worth of film over a 6-hour period with 8 meticulously-placed cameras. Loosely inspired by a similarly-minded Marina Abramović performance-art piece, The Artist Is Present , Jay Z & Mark Romanek packed the room full of creative types, eager super-fans, and journalists including: Judd Apatow , Alan Cummings, George Condo , Rosie Perez, Fab 5 Freddy , Taraj...

Preceded only by a vague, Bob Dylan -like teaser clip earlier in the week, Justin Timberlake unleashed his BRAND NEW single, "Take Back The Night" late Friday afternoon; oozing Off The Wall era Disco vibes, I guess Timberlake's track shares it's name with an anti-rape organization of some sort (creepy coincidence or not). One particular commenter at Stereogum , michael_ , actually said it perfectly: "What has changed since the release of [The 20/20 Experience] and this upcoming one is Daft Punk 's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke 's "Blurred Lines" copping their own shares in this Neo-Disco Pop ..." The 20/20 Experience (Part 2) is slated for a September 30th release, along with the "JT Complete Package," which'll re-collect all 21 tracks from parts 1-2. "I originally recorded a massive amount of material and decided on the 20 tracks that I wanted on the album(s) over a year ago," Justin Timberlake l...

Once you're able to get past the semi-absurd notion that Jay-Z decided to employ former- N'sync er Justin Timberlake to re-sing some Nirvana lyrics, "And we all just / entertainers / and we're stupid / and contagious," "Holy Grail" is actually a pretty awesome album opener/lead single contender. While Jay-Z & Beyoncé were spotted at a Grizzly Bear show pre- Blueprint 3 and Empire of The Sun frontman Luke Steele actually sang back-up vocals on that very album, it seems as though Beyoncé 's 27-year-old Indie Rock -loving little sister Solange really has quite the influence on Jay-Z 's varied musical tastes; Not only does Magna Carta Holy Grail (MCHG) feature interpolated Nirvana & R.E.M. lyrics, but it also makes use of M.I.A. and Alternative Hip-Hop weirdo Gonjasufi samples, "Bad Girls" and "Nikels and Dimes" respectively. Thanks to Samsung Galaxies , MCHG has already "sold" 1 million+ cop...

Ye, I can almost picture it now: Justin Timberlake pleading with his semi-distraught wife, Jessica Biel , "But babe, it's NOT nudity...it's art!" Billboard reports that Timberlake's latest album, The 20/20 Experience has sold 2 million+ plus copies since it's March release and previous singles, "Suit & Tie" and "Mirrors" still remain firmly fixed atop the Billboard Hot 100 . Just in time for Fourth of July Weekend , Justin Timberlake unleashed a steamy new video-single for "Tunnel Vision," which was co-directed by Jonathan Craven, Simon McLoughlin , and Jeff Nicholas . Call it a gentlemen's rivalry, if you will, but some might compare Timberlake's scantily-clad music video to Robin Thicke 's original banned-from- YouTube "Blurred Lines" clip. Although one could also argue that Thicke basically stole Timberlake's Blue-Eyed Soul musical style [SWAG] or even vice versa. "Tunnel Vision...

The Stepkids are kinda like a Hip-Hop -infused modern day version of Steely Dan ; equal parts sleaze, cheese, and white-bred Funk-Soul ! In-between The Stepkids (2011) and it's upcoming follow-up, Troubadour the band leaked a string of Jazzed up cover tunes: Daft Punk , Rihanna, and Justin Timberlake . Last year, Stones Throw even teamed them up with sharp-tongued emcees Homeboy Sandman , Percee P, and Pharoahe Monch for an all too short-lived remix project. The Stepkids' latest Funk -drenched concoction is "The Lottery" a freshly tracked video-single preceding Troubadour , which hits shelves nation-wide Sept. 10th. Guitarist Jeff Gitelman described the album's creation as "deep musically, there are whole sides to us [that] we haven't really explored yet." Gitelman further laments that The Stepkids haven't even discovered some of their "most exciting stuff" thusfar. "The Lottery" co-stars trombone dancer Jonathan...

Blue-Eyed Soul brother and Growing Pains offspring, Robin Thicke finally scored his first Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit with "Blurred Lines." The infectiously Funky track teeters the [blurred] line between mainstream success and Internet weirdness. While it was initially pulled from YouTube and then edited/re-uploaded, "Blurred Lines" has gained most of it's wide success without much label promotion, strictly based off word-of-mouth and social media shares. We're talkin' about Robin Thicke, Pharrell & T.I. singing, dancing, and getting generally weird with a bunch of scantily-clad models (It's just something you HAVE to see for yourself)! Robin Thicke & Pharrell stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday night to celebrate their #1 spot; actually filmed @ MySpace's re-launch party the night before, where Miley Cyrus and label-mate Leah LaBelle danced on stage during a slightly more Caribbean -sounding "Blurred Lines" ren...

The Lonely Island have now released 3 albums-worth of "Frap" (fake rap) comedy tunes in just under 5 years; While making fun of nearly any and every genre, sub-genre, and lifestyle choice imaginable, it's done so well that Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone 's thinly-veiled/slickly-produced laughable anthems usually manage to surpass their predecessors' initial success. In my personal opinion, "Go Kindergarten" is amongst the strongest and side-jerking material released since Samberg's SNL departure last year. This particular Lonely Island track ingeniously knocks what Stereogum's Miles Bowe has quite cleverly dubbed "commanding club anthems," a trend arguably spearheaded by Lil Jon/Ying Yang Twins' extremely over-played high school dance smash hit, "Get Low" (2003). Preceded by a fairly well-orchestrated, DIY -looking #dancetroupe #lyricvideo a couple weeks ago, "Go Kindergarten" now co...

Suddenly re-invigorated Winnipeg Soul-Funk crooner Remy Shand has been largely and mysteriously in-active for the past 11 years; Although he recently re-emerged, quietly forming a "Remy Records" YouTube channel , and slowly uploading new/unreleased music. "Where Are We Going?" seems like the most fully fleshed out and complete-sounding track from Shand's recent batch of self-made videos, which also includes: "Mark Gonzales," "ROLLERGIRLS," and "Lust." Remy Shand 's recent stream of output's supposedly culled from an immense back catalog-worth of music that includes, but isn't limited to the CANARY cassette (1996-97), a ready-for-remixing bedroom jam... and finally, "Where Are We Going?," a lesser known Blue Note era Donald Byrd nugget (later re-recorded by Marvin Gaye ). It's attached video description briefly details that 100% of the track's instruments and vocals were recorded/mixed by Remy...

"We had to do this song... Only way to pay tribute to Daft Punk, Pharrell , and Nile Rodgers in one fell swoop. Enjoy y'all," The Stepkids Tweeted Tuesday morning; Diehard Daft Punk fan or not, I suggest you take a break from that Random Access Memories "leak" for a sec. and check this one out, my friends! Unlike Thomas Bangalter & Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo 's Electro-Funk -tinged original, The Stepkids have successfully infused "Get Lucky" with a sort of cheese-less Lounge Jazz vibe. The Stepkids are signed to genre-blending Indie Hip-Hop label Stones Throw and it's 3 extremely talented multi-instrumentalist members -- Dan Edinberg, Jeff Gitelman & Tim Walsh -- have separately worked with everyone from Alicia Keys to 50 Cent . Since inking a deal with Stones Throw a few years ago, the band has released The Stepkids (including "Legend In My Own Mind" ), Sweet Salvation EP , and a forthcoming album that's be...

It's a comedy match made in heaven that I'm surprised Judd Apatow or Todd Phillips haven't thought of pairing up before: The Lonely Island, James Franco , and Zach Galifianakis . Former SNL alum Andy Samberg and comedy partners Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone announced their third upcoming Comedy-Rap masterpiece, The Wack Album earlier this week, which Republic will release on June 11th. It's rumored to feature appearances from the likes of Justin Timberlake , Kendrick Lamar, Solange , Lady GaGa, Pharrell , Billie Joe Armstrong, Adam Levine , and T-Pain; and I'm guessing The Wack Album will most likely re-use previously released Digital Shorts /non-album singles like "3-Way (The Golden Rule)" and "YOLO." The Lonely Island will release new material every Wednesday from now until June 11th in an effort that the self-proclaimed Frappers lament, " Wack Wednesdays , it's like #GOODFRIDAYS ... But way wacker." "Spr...