The Witzard

Tha Hustle 'N Bustle O' Life -SINGLE- by VIPER & Broken Machine Films presents... VIPER is a Houston, Texas -based "Entrepreneur, Rapper, Pianist, PhD In Business (In 2019), U.S.A. Licensed Real Estate Broker (In 2018), Alcor Life Extension Member, 5-9 Piru Member." While VIPER has been producing his own music childhood, he first gained notoriety online amongst Underground Rap circles in 2008 with You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack . VIPER would soon, garner wide-spread praise, as well as comparisons to like-minded outsider artists and fellow Internet phenoms Lil B & Wesley Willis . Pigeons & Planes reports that VIPER released a staggering 333 albums in 2014 alone—in addition to 262+ more albums in 2015—all of which are available to stream on Spotify ; last year, VIPER affiliated himself with equally prolific Florida tape label Illuminated Paths , together, properly re-releasing his albums Tha Top Malla , MY GHOST ARMY, COPS CAN...

"I made "Sunday Candy," I'm never going to Hell . I met Kanye West , I'm never going to fail. He said, let's do a good-a** job with Chance three . I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the GRAMMY . Let's make it so free and the bars so hard that there ain't one gosh darn part you can't Tweet," Chance The Rapper ferociously rhymed during his show-stealing verse within Kanye 's The Life of Pablo opener "Ultralight Beam." He's of course referring to his long-awaited and currently still untitled Acid Rap (2013) follow-up, since last year's SURF as actually a Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment -helmed project. It's quite a daring, and almost unheard of, feat that Chance The Rapper has garnered so much wide-spread fandom and critical-acclaim without ever having released an album or even single song for purchase; ultimately culminating with Chance 's appearance last year on SNL , becoming the first unsigne...

"Just premiered "Somewhere In Paradise" [featuring] @Jeremih & @rkelly on @nbcsnl . Go get it for FREE at chanceraps.com," @chancetherapper exuberantly Tweeted just mere minutes after his hyper-energetic Saturday Night Live debut; reportedly the first performance of its kind for a 100% unsigned independent artist during SNL 's 40-year tenure. "Thanks so much to Chris [Hemsworth] , the entire SNL cast, Lorne Michaels , and Phil Hynes for a great week. Hope to be back soon," Chance continued following Hemsworth's closing credits sign-off. Founder and creator of Chicago -based Hip-Hop publication Fake Shore Drive , Andrew Barber shared a list of "every rapper to play SNL in 40 years," which includes major label-backed heavyweights like Run-D.M.C. Snoop Dogg, Eminem , Beastie Boys, OutKast , Pharrell/N*E*R*D, Nicki Minaj , and Kanye. "From the moment Chance stepped onstage for his first performance on SNL , it was clea...

"Nothin' leftover so I came back to the land with my homie Lil B and half of my bands... No sleep, stayin' up real late with my mans and out in Chicago droppin' sh*t off the top. They thought after Surf this sh*t would just stop. What's their problem? What's, what's their problem?" former Kids These Days affiliate and Kanye -influenced Chi-town emcee Chance The Rapper ferociously rhymes on "Last Dance"'s introductory bars; having previously described his 6-track Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape) recorded with eccentric Internet personality/rapper and motivational speaker Lil B as a "full-fledged album... it's a classic... it's a masterpiece." Free was supposedly recorded in one marathon day-long session, prior to Chance 's performance at last month's Pitchfork Music Festival , with completely off the dome bars and absolutely no pre-written verses "made the moment [they] met." " @chancether...

While tough-as-nails emcees Guilty Simpson & Danny Brown don't seemingly have much in common (aside from mutual collaborator Black Milk ), the two like-minded lyrical wordsmiths are surprisingly cut from the same battle-worn "cloth." Simpson & Brown both just so happen to have unleashed newly-minted material yesterday, August 3rd: "Animal" produced by Quakers beatsmith Katalyst and "Worth It" produced by Lil B affiliate, Clams Casino , respectively. Late Monday afternoon, I curiously Tweeted @guiltysimpson , whom I recently had the opportunity to interview for this very site , inquiring if he and Mr. Brown had ever worked together; to which he quickly replied with a video still of Elzhi 's "Fire" Remix featuring Black Milk , GUILTY SIMPSON, Fatt Father , DANNY BROWN, and Fat Ray . Lest we forget, Guilty & Danny additionally teamed up way back in 2010 on Quelle -produced Detroit State of Mind 4 mixtape cut, "Mu...

Whether or not it's actually factual, Tyler, The Creator Tweeted: "LISTENING TO LIL B WITH KING KRULE . GAY HUMOR WITH EMINEM . "HOE CAKES" BY MF DOOM LIVE. ALL IN LIKE 72 HOURS. MY LIFE IS SO NASTY!" Saturday evening. It's also worth noting that Odd Future 's semi-mysterious feliciathegoat Instagram handle posted a candid shot of Tyler, Earl & King Krule along with the caption, "OUT GETTING RIBS. GO GET KRULE'S NEW ALBUM, [6 Feet Beneath The Moon] ." 19-year-old King Krule 's just-released album definitely seems to have Tyler, The Creator 's approval; Archy Marshall 's debut album under the "King Krule" moniker was quietly unleashed on his birthday, August 24th, although he's released various projects under a few different now-retired monikers... Zoo Kid , Edgar The Beatmaker, and DJ JD Sports . True Panther/XL Recordings unveiled 2 teaser singles earlier this month, "Easy, Easy" and ...

Internet -spun legend had to that Chief Keef discovered Polish beat-maker Young Ravisu (Radoslaw Sobieraj) himself in later 2012-13 while perusing YouTube for " Finally Rich -type beats;" after some additional mixing, paperwork, and legal mumbo-jumbo, Young Ravisu 's instrumental slowly morphed into "Citgo." The 2 like-minded 18-year-olds' collaboration eventually ended up appearing as a bonus track on Chief Keef 's commercial debut, Finally Rich . Before this piece goes too far, let me just say that I'm far from a Chief Keef expert/super-fan: I'm really only familiar with him through his Kanye -affiliated tracks, "I Don't Like" (Remix) and more recently, "Hold My Liquor" with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) . Now, nearly 8+ months after it's initial release, "Citgo" has been re-hashed as a proper video-single, more or less. A mere coincidence or not, GBE Ent. also unleashed a 16-track mixtape, Bang P...

Have you ever heard of one of those couples that've been "romantically involved" for FOREVER and have a couple kids together, only to finally get married 10-15 years later? Well, that's basically the kinda relationship El-P & Killer Mike have; 2 long-time rapper/producer friends who have been working together for years, released a joint R.A.P. Music album last year, and have finally locked down an official, albeit LL Cool J- inspired group name: Run The Jewels . While preparing their self-titled street album [mixtape] debut, Run The Jewels have teamed up with Adult Swim & Williams Street Records to unleash a glitched-out new single, "36" Chain." It's the first in a series of 15 weekly digital singles, which this year, is set to feature choice cuts from... Lil B , kitty pryde, Marnie Stern , Madlib & Freddie Gibbs, Lightning Bolt , Dan Deacon, Captain Murphy , Miguel, Pig Destroyer(?) , and more! Karriem Riggins , Viktor Vaughn [M...

It's a collaboration that no one really expected, but everyone secretly dreamt about and longed for: [MF] DOOM & Clams Casino ! We're talkin' about the most mysterious man in Hip-Hop and rising Cloud Rap beat-maker, Mike Volpe (Clams Casino). The Nutley, NJ native's self-released Instrumentals 1-2 mixtapes (2011-12) are arguably right up there with classic DOOM albums Operation: Doomsday , Mm.. Food, and MADVILLAINY , and MF DOOM Meets Clutchy Hopkins. @clammyclams Tweeted early Monday morning, "new track (feat. DOOM ) available now at new site CLAMMYCLAMS.COM ," which in turn, linked to Soundcloud . "BOOKFIEND" essentially features DOOM spitting wordy, dense rhymes about occult leader Alistair Crowly , Kindle tablets, allusions to "November Has Come," whatever the Hell Tetragrammaton is, and Netflix over a spaced out Clams Casino beat... "It's Netflix to the head, second best trick to get chicks to the bed....

(1) What's up, Kassa & TECLA!? First off, it's a pretty bold statement releasing your first mini-collection on the last day of the world! Was that intentional or just completely random? Nothing is unintentional. 2) How would you guys describe the overall sound of CABIN IN THE WOODS EP? What sorta music influenced it's creation, cause it's pretty unique sounding! Both of us come from musical backgrounds with extremely wide varieties. TECLA went from Classically trained pianist to Punk Rock front-girl, and Kassa went from Jazz drum virtuoso to mosh-pitting rapper so... When stuck in a cabin in the woods together, I guess this is what came out. (3) Let's just say today is the end of the world, for arguments sake... What are your plans for the day/night, all things considered? Same thing we do every day, pinky... (4) Is the apocalypse a running theme on CABIN IN THE WOODS EP and if not, what were you going for? We didn't actually have a theme. ...

Eddie Vedder has always been a pretty rebellious, Punk Rock kinda dude, if you really think about it: sticking it to the laundry-mat by repeatedly wearing the same flannel, wedging out a genre of his own in this crazy, Post-Hair Metal world, fighting for what he believes in, making a ukelele-based album, and searching for long-lost love/freedoms! I can remember listening to Pearl Jam back when I was like 10-15 on Philly 's own Y-100 [100.3 FM], when shit like that was still being labelled "Alternative Rock" ha. The band initially formed on the out-skirts of Seattle between 1984-90 and have been compiling everything form greatest hits to #RARE live takes ever since; Lost Dogs ("Leavin' Here") and Madison Square Garden, July 9th 2003 are 2 STELLAR releases that stick out in my mind... pulled from 100-200 official bootlegs the band's managed to re-release since 2000. It was announced on Election Day , in the wake of Sen. Jon Tester's win...

(1.) The album flows so smoothly and the beat selection is damn-near immaculate! How did you go about picking which tracks to include and sequence them? I tried to pick tracks that fit the theme of global revolution best, and went with those. I ended up cutting all the songs about more personal sh*t . I tried to sequence it more thematically as opposed to aesthetically. (2.) How exactly would you describe the overall sound (genre-wise) of A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing? It's Rap music. I've been calling it "Critical Theory Rap." Some people have called the production "glassy," I don't know what that means. * THE WITZARD EDIT: "This album is the culmination of a lot of shit, I hope you enjoy it... It's funny, it's poppy, it's not poppy, it's belligerent, it's personal, it's militant, it's everywhere." (Kickstarter Update #18) (3.) I'm not the most political person whatsoever... But ho...

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-...

Diplo reportedly antied up some $3-5 million to sign "viral rapper" RiFF RAFF to Mad Decent for a staggering 8 album deal; The labelhead also threw in a $45,000 3-D/reversible gold-encrusted Cheshire Cat chain to further sweeten their deal. Over the weekend, RiFF RAFF unveiled his first official [mixtape] project for Mad Decent , BiRTH OF AN iCON . It's basically a collection of 25 re-mastered tracks total, including 7 BRAND NEW productions to hold fans over til his 2013 full-length. 16 of 25 tracks already have music videos , all varying in quality and some of which date way back to Spring 2011. RiFF RAFF 's currently-untitled album will probably be released sooner than later and is supposed to highlight Dubstep production(s) from Diplo, Skrillex , and Rusko . BiRTH OF AN iCON kinda plays out like a "Best Of" collection and it's material was selected from a super-sized mix of old tracks, remixes, and features ... that further display the vast ta...

For some odd reason, I just feel that a Das Racist -fried Lana del Rey remix really isn't going to need much "hard selling" 'round these parts of town [The Internet]. Das Racist are without a doubt one of my favourite Hip-Hop bands; I'm still not too sure exactly how I feel about Lizzy Grant I mean, May Jailer er, uh... Lana del Rey . Regardless, "National Anthem" (Das Racist Remix) should manage to pique the interest(s) of all sorts of music fans far and wide! Heems & Kool A.D. work their lyrical "magic" over a stripped down, nearly vocal-less re-worked beat. Frantically bragging about everything from money/rupees to Bruce Willis and somehow working in mentions of Lil B , Tyler The Creator, Bad Brains , Boy Crisis, Diplo , Oscar The Grouch, deadmau5 , and Amy Winehouse. * Shouts to Pedro (Daplib) @ Illuminati Zone for the "Private" Soundcloud link hook-up! Lately, it seems like Lana del Rey , who also recently linked u...

"thanks kathryn obvious" by kitty pryde Kitty Pryde is a 19-year-old rapper hailing from Daytona Beach, FL who almost sounds like a strange blend of Lil B #BASEDGOD and reigning Pop princess, Katy Perry . She's going through the same experiences/mishaps as your average middle American teen, except it's being re-told along with a clever Hip-Hop cadence: Facebook infidelity, prom date woes, non-repliant texters, boy troubles, etc. Kitty Pryde recently complied a 15-minute setlist for her first New York area show, which went down this past weekend. It's the accumulation of a discography that can all be easily downloaded over @ Bandcamp . "Okay Cupid" is essentially an ode to Pryde's 3-ring binder-solidified crush, Danny Brown . Director Brian McKay quickly filmed it's companion music video @ a friend's yardsale last month and it's received some 400,000+ YouTube views ever since. I'm not 100% sure if Kitty Pryde's being T...

When Instrumentals first dropped last year, it had that underlying "something great is going to happen" sort of feel and now a year later, on the heels of Instrumentals 2 , something great HAS indeed happened! Even when just looking @ it's commercial reception, Instrumentals achieved leaps and bounds for an independent online release; The collection was eventually label-released and re-mastered. This homegrown success is essentially what allowed Clams Casino to make the type of high-profile beats that he's managed to create in recent months. Gaining dual acceptance into both mainstream/underground circles has allowed Mike Volpe [Clams] the chance to work with Lil B , Soulja Boy, Florence + The Machine , G-Side , The Jealous Guys, and Big K.R.I.T. In fact, most of the instrumentals featured across Instrumentals 2 have been stripped down and re-purposed as vocal-less edits. These tracks previously housed either A$AP Rocky , The Weeknd, Lana del Rey , Squadda B , W...

Prince supposedly has 500+ written, recorded, fully completed albums and films just sitting locked up inside a giant dusty vault somewhere. Only a certain breed of artist can be that prolific/guarded, while remaining successful all @ once; Lil' Wayne and Bob Dylan also come to mind when taking about insanely fruitful singer-songwriters. But this here post is actually about none of the above... they may be discussed @ a later date. It's simply meant to set up the groundwork for tonight's "Main Attraction(s):" Lil B and local legend, Mr. Moot ! A former member of The Pack , Lil B is still rockin' those same scruffy-looking brown [white?] "Vans" until he banks $1 million. BASEDGOD is essentially so prolific that he releases a new stream-of-conciousness mixtape nearly every week. It's increasingly hard to keep track of his rapidly unveiled output, but Lil B 's full-length album, I'm Gay (2011) was truly LEGENDARY! The track presented ...

Freestyling over a Nasteski Productions beat pulled from YouTube with just 54 views, Doffa & Hippie Paw properly lace up [and double knot] "School Yard." It's companion music video was self-directed by Awkward Silence around Millville with a hand-me-down SLR camera, borrowed tri-pod, and pink flickering HD effects. Concept-wise, "School Yard" 's loose plot revolves around a murderous Teddy Bear and a porcelain bride-to-be victim. Hippie Paw describes the overall experience as " BASED as fuck!" and adds that, "We POWER cooked in the woods, smoked trees & smokes hoes... basically, all I remember was Dr. Zaius [dog] sitting on my lap and then I got a boner." Zombie Gang are currently working on a wide variety of projects: Wreck Room's debut, Doffa 's solo freestyles, an OF Tape 2 -like group album, and an assortment of VERY RARE tracks from "the vaults." Scoop up Awkward Silence 's premier mixtape...

Self-proclaimed "Ringtone Rapper," Soulja Boy is that young, instantly successful artist that everyone loves to hate. Soulja's detractors proclaimed that he's one of the highly "disposable" rappers that have allegedly "killed" [ruined] Hip-Hop in recent years. His die-hard fans will obviously fire back with examples supporting the exact opposite. I must admit that I am in fact one of those fans; Albeit a close observer who's followed Soulja Boy 's career path over the years, but a fan nonetheless. A creative 21-year-old young man hailing from Chicago , Soulja Boy 's overall message is surprisingly positive and violence free - In an era of "Hard as Nails" gun-slinging rappers, DeAndre Way is a rarity: Guy simply traveling down the straight-and-narrow who claims absolutely no gang affiliation whatsoever nor a violent, blood-drenched past. Soulja Boy initially burst onto the music scene with debut single/turned viral meme, ...