The Witzard

Roughneck Jihad (or Jihad, The Roughneck MC) is a Los Angeles-based underground artist and veteran emcee and Awkward is a beat-maker, producer, emcee, and artist hailing from Bristol, UK. Definitely two unlikely collaborators separated by an ocean. Jihad & Awkward first met when Awkward contributed a handful of beats to Jihad's group, Third Sight's then-new album IV (2016.) Awkward & Roughneck Jihad have worked together a number of times since, but always in a fairly limited capacity, including Awkward mastering Jihad's 2018 project, Red Herring Mixtape, and producing the title/opening track for Jihad's 2020 effort, The Red Sentence. All the while, however, it appears as though MC Roughneck Jihad & DJ Awkward have secretly been working on a proper full-length project of their own. It all started to come to light when The MC & DJ released a neck-snapping digital single consisting of two infectious tracks, "RAWK" and "DROMEDARY" bac...

Late last night, I noticed a Tweet from Roughneck Jihad (@roughneckjihad) which read, "Check our this continent-spanning Hip-Hop collaboration with the beat and cuts by @AwkwardUK and the rhyme by yours truly, Roughy Rough ." It included a mysterious YouTube link labelled "MC Roughneck Jihad and DJ Awkward "Dromedary."' Bay Area emcee Roughneck Jihad and Bristol, UK-based producer Awkward have, in fact, collaborated before, but, seemingly, not to this degree. Awkward mastered Jihad 's 2018 Red Herring Mixtape and years prior, produced "Amen" & "Barbarian" from Third Sight 's 2016 album, IV . Within a 2018 All-around Breakdown for his Red Herring Mixtape , Roughneck Jihad told The Witzard, "in addition, [ Awkward ] is remixing a narrative/comic book album, The Red Sentence , for me." Supposedly, according to Awkward , "DROMEDARY" is "just a taster and there will be more to come. Perhaps, so...