The Witzard

Hell yes, believe it or not (oh, you better believe it!) beatboxing is still alive and well in 2022. If you don't believe us, go check out The Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus: He's The Beatboxer, I'm The Rapper. It's a sprawling nine-track collection that spans 25 years of organic D.I.Y. beats and rhymes collaborative efforts between two life-long friends, Stan Ipcus & Max B. Human Beatboxer Max Bent and seasoned emcee Stan Ipcus have been performing and recording together since the late 90's when they were both students and aspiring musicians at The University of Maryland (UMD.) They, literally, met on-air in 1998 during a live freestyle session broadcast on college radio station, WMUC, when Max was beatboxing for a room full of rappers and Stan Ipcus stepped up to the mic to flex his skills. The audio recording of that WMUC moment—plus, eight other Max Bent & Stan Ipcus beatbox/emcee collaborations spanning almost 25 years—is included on this new Bes...

Q: Is Disco Vietnam a A. producer, B. band, or C. All of The Above? A: C. All of The Above. Disco Vitenam's Bandcamp page explains, Disco Vietnam is a Rock "N" Roll band and Hip-Hop instrumentalist from Huntington, NY. All songs by Barry & Kenny Schwartz, brothers united by blood. All beats by Barry." It appears as though Barry (@SupernovaLox) currently lives in New York and Kenny (@MadDrums) hails from somewhere in-between Los Angeles & Texas. As a two-man unit, Disco Vietnam released three EP's between 2007-12 with awesomely-titled Get At Me Corruption, Totally Awesome Decisions, and Fear of Lava. Across said recordings, The Brothers Schwartz were oftentimes assisted by bassist Jared Winzelberg, keyboardist/backing vocalist Nicki Winzelberg, and bassists Keith Allen, Tom Cumming, and Ryan Siegel. Then, as a one-man unit, Disco Vietnam has produced tracks for emcees Zilla Rocca, Dick Wolf, Curly Castro, Gods Know AKA Scorcese Shells & Alpha Da...

"[ "42" is] a song that's literally been in-the-making for over a decade. Wanted to flip this sample since '05 and I finally brought it to a producer and got the job done," Ukrainian-American rapper Your Old Droog , who was widely speculated to be Nas alias at first, recently told Complex upon the premier of his "42 (Forty Deuce)" music video. It was produced by Marco Polo and Droog himself, who together, somehow managed to expertly flip a sample of Nu Shooz 's 1984 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart No.1, "I Can't Wait." "42" was proceeded by its frenzied @CLEOFUS -designed single artwork about two weeks prior, which featured Your Old Droog front and center in an Elmo costume surrounded by a bunch of eclectic New Yorkers , but now, along with his Jonah Schwartz -directed video, makes a lot more sense in retrospect. "It's about a special place that I really used to frequent back in the days. The vi...

"It's music that's gonna thrive in the club... it's not anything like what you've heard from Kendrick before. It's not like anything else that's out there right now," Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg ambiguously lamented about a fragmented chunk of Kendrick Lamar 's highly anticipated, as-yet-untitled forthcoming third album. Lamar recently told Rolling Stone that he's recorded "a bunch of tracks" with illusive super-producer Dr. Dre , Pharrell, Rahki , and in-house TDE production team Digi+Phonics . While he additionally referred to the album as "aggression and emotion"-filled, lead single "i" is a light-hearted, self-affirming affair. It seems as though Kendrick Lamar even recruited bass virtuosos Thundercat to add an appended Funked up bass intro onto "i" for its recent Alexandre Moors & The Little Homies directed video treatment. "Stop! Stop! We talkin' about peace... a piece of yours...

"The album is sounding incredible. The whole album is a standout. I don't care about individual songs, I'm trying to make a complete, classic project. I just do my music uninfluenced by anybody else, or current trends, and it comes together at the end," Action Bronson recently told online publication NME about his approach to recording his long-rumored VICE Records debut, Mr. Wonderful . "Nothing needs to have a f*cking theme all the time. This is just rap. I'm not trying to make people think I'm some sort of scientific wizard or inspirational poet. F*ck that! It's just happy, funny, rugged, rough rap," which almost perfectly describes Bronson's care-free aesthetic to his chef-turned jet-setting rapper Hip-Hop career. While he's been playing it live for a month or so now, Action Bronson 's major label single, "Easy Rider" leaked online Monday afternoon; he previously performed the track at Peter Rosenberg 's Peterp...

Editor's Note: I'm very proud to announce that I finally decided to purchase "thewitzard.com" last night. While the new site is currently under construction, thewitzard.blogspot.com and thewitzard.com are essentially one in the same. So, in a certain respect, this is my "inaugural" Action Bronson post ha... But make no mistake, Bronson is hands down one of my favourite rising emcees and Blue Chips (March 2012) is quite easily his most readily accessible project. "Practice" is the latest leak from his upcoming Blue Chips 2 mixtape with buddy Party Supplies , which is set to hit The Internet this upcoming Friday, November 1st. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE FRANCHISE PLAYER, AND WE TALKIN' BOUT PRACTICE!?" beckons the voice of former Sixers all-star Allen Iverson (circa 2002) during the track's intro; and then, before you know it, "Practice" effortlessly morphs into a horn-laden Smooth Jazz in-debited BANGER! ...