The Witzard

"cats that wanna send beats, [my] email is homeboysandman@gmail.com . only send 2, as mp3 attachments. I'll only respond if I pick 1, but I'll listen," read a very recent open casting call from Stones Throw emcee @HomebpySandman dispatched to earnest beatsmiths world-wide. It seems as though the construction of Sandman 's latest release was conducted in a somewhat similar manner: "well, it [happened] just by itself. One day, I got an email from Homeboy Sandman , who asked if he could use this beat from my Chinoiseries album that I released in 2007. It's a really old beat I made over 10 years ago, so I wasn't too keen at first, but I decided to let him use it, since he's a real dope emcee and the result came out as a "Bus (A Rhyme)." He made a dope video that comes with it and that's that. Thanks," Arnaud Bernard (better known as Onra ) wrote within a Facebook message sent directly to The Witzard . I've been mulling ov...

"You may find that after listening to the project, it's nearly impossible to get it out of your head. It's only a matter of time before you share it with others," was a running unofficial mission statement during the relatively quiet roll-out for Homeboy Sandman & Aesop Rock 's December-released and incredibly infectious Lice EP . Sandman & Rock , two seasoned underground vets who have collectively been active in the rap game for about 20 years and have forged ties with Blu , Felt, Madlib , Kimya Dawson, D as Racist , Hail Mary Mallone, El-P , Nevermen co-founder Doseone, Atmosphere emcee Slug , and Paul White. Charles Hamilton -produced Lice EP closer "Get a Dog" utilizes a phenomenally unexpected and rather hard-hitting sample culled from Linkin Park 's 2000 break-out hit, "One Step Closer" and now, group emcee Mike Shinoda has submitted an original remix, effectively bringing the sample-based collaboration full circle. ...

Earlier this fine post- Thanksgiving Weekend morning, whilst I was at Boscov's getting my new suit pants tailored, I had a sudden burst of creativity in the form of a clever one-liner to start a tentative review of Animal Collective 's cringe-worthy mess of a new single, "FloriDada:" "There's an age-old music industry joke that goes something along the lines of, "if Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke recorded the sounds of himself sh*tting or farting into a mic backed by the band's music, people would likely still buy it.'" But rather than give those talent-less Art-Rock Three Stooges any more unnecessary spotlight, I've instead decided to review veteran underground emcees Homeboy Sandman & Aesop Rock 's far more noteworthy surprise-released Cyber Monday FREE EP, Lice . "You're probably scratching your head right now wondering why this EP is called Lice ... The truth is, [Aesop Rock] and I always have all these ide...