The Witzard

Directly following his own Son Raw Vs. The Psychotic Hippies and stints producing The Council of The Gods' Trilogy and The Council member Nomad Carlos' "At Will," Son Raw is back with Fantasy RapBall. Son Raw's latest has been described as a re-imagining of classic Rap verses from the 90's and beyond and the answer to a question that has confounded humanity for ages: "what if we made a beat tape... but with raps?" Initially conceived over the course of 2020, Fantasy RapBall was developed as a form of wish fulfillment during the thick of The Pandemic, when proper studio collaborations were impossible and "free time" mostly meant yet another episode of The Last Dance . Fantasy RapBall by Son Raw Amidst watching clips of Michael Jordan both literally and figuratively dunking on the competition, Son Raw decided that if sports fans could cosplay as NBA & NFL coaches, he could probably grab a few Rap acapellas and mold them into new ...

Haj of dumhi tells us he's been working on Shanti's Rebuttal on-and-off for about two years. We briefly spoke with Haj about Shanti's Rebuttal during our 2020 wrap-up style interview earlier this year. The majority of his beats were completed pre-COVID, but when COVID-19 hit, Haj started working on his 2020 projects with FERMENTED SPIRITS and Charles Only/ShamelessPlug. Some of the beats from Shanti's (and some from 2019's TERiYAKi HAiR.PIECE ) wound up being a part of the 2020 project The Airing of Grievances with Reef The Lost Cauze. Initially, Haj intended to put Shanti's Rebuttal out as an instrumental companion piece to Grievances shortly thereafter, but, then, he started working on video collages and more artwork, etc. the music, also, evolved a little bit. It's about 18 minutes long and is intended to be experienced as one continuous piece of music; an Instrumental Hip-Hop soundtrack, of sorts. Its basic plot involves an unwitting heroine who wind...

While Port Arthur, Texas emcees Bun B & Pimp C were commonly referred to as Underground Kingz (U.G.K.) I would strongly attest that Broownsville emcee Sean Price AKA Sean P! AKA Ruckus/Ruck from Heltah Skeltah was, indeed, and "Underground" King in his own right. Sean P , unfortunately, only spent 43 years on this Green Earth, although, he had been rapping since 1995 after his crew, Boot Camp Clik , appeared on Smif-N-Wessun 's Wreck Records debut, Dah Shinin' . Honestly, my earliest personal memories of Sean P! date back to my 12 years spent stocking shelves at Shop Rite ; sometimes, at night, I used to help my buddy, Jared Jenkins , stock the bread shelves and he was always bumpin' and big uppin' Sean Price . I guess, what really stuck with me first, aside from his relentless rhymes, was Sean 's tendency to take his name and blatantly insert it into common Pop culture phenoms, movie titles, etc. which was a great promotional tool in the...

Over the course of the past month or so, there have been a plethora of solid Hip-Hop EP's released online; a quick, concise 30-minutes or less format that's seemingly, replaced the mixtape/"street album" format of years passed to become your favorite underground rapper/producer's go-to promotional tool. Here, for this inaugural edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up, we'll be profiling eight EP's released throughout March 2018, as well as two released at the end of February that were honestly, way too dope to not include! Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of ALASKA & PJ Katz, Elaquent, Epic Beard Men (Sage Francis & B. Dolan,) Luke Sick & Damien *, Madlib & J Dilla's proteges MED AKA Medaphoar & Guilty Simpson, Loretta Records founder Observe, Roughneck Jihad & IL Torsolo *, SULTANS OF SPRING touring mates PremRock & Fresh Kils, and Purple Dialect, as well as a posthumous Illa Ghee-as...

Over the course of the past month or so, there have been a plethora of solid Hip-Hop EP's released online; a quick, concise 30-minutes or less format that's seemingly, replaced the mixtape/"street album" format of years passed to become your favorite underground rapper/producer's go-to promotional tool. Here, for this inaugural edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up, we'll be profiling eight EP's released throughout March 2018, as well as two released at the end of February that were honestly, way too dope to not include! Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of ALASKA & PJ Katz, Elaquent, Epic Beard Men (Sage Francis & B. Dolan,) Luke Sick & Damien *, Madlib & J Dilla's proteges MED AKA Medaphoar & Guilty Simpson, Loretta Records founder Observe, Roughneck Jihad & IL Torsolo *, SULTANS OF SPRING touring mates PremRock & Fresh Kils, and Purple Dialect, as well as a posthumous Illa Ghee-as...

"Well, the track was inspired by one of the original titles to Sean 's album. He was going to name the album NIGGLETUS! at first, so I was going off that vibe. When we were making the beat, I wanted to make something that could stand next to "Bar-Barian" (which is one of my favorite songs by Sean .) That track is one of, if not the first, track he recorded for the album... we had no idea that DOOM would end up on it," one half of Crumzville, VA -based production team CRUMMIE BEATS , Fonkstarr , wrote within a recent email. Fonkstarr & .45 , collectively billed as CRUMMIE BEATS , produced five tracks included within Brooklyn emcee Sean Price 's posthumous fourth album, Imperius Rex . The track in question, "Negus" AKA "Notebook 00 - Negus," is the first release from [adult swim] 's just-launched THE MISSING NOTEBOOK RHYMES weekly series; essentially, between now and 11.14.2017, [adult swim] & Gas Drawls will be colle...

"After /r/jimmyjrg created those stems of MF DOOM, I knew I had to follow up SADEVILLAIN with a [sequel] and this is exactly what I've done. I've had nothing but free time on my hands and went right to work on this project. The amount of recognition of the first tape got was insane, it was incredibly overwhelming and I still thank everyone who has listened to it," Seanh AKA clerksfanboy AKA Snh AKA @TheSeanh2k11 recently wrote within an /r/MFDOOM Subreddit titled I Present to You... SADEVILLAIN II. I've spoken with Seanh a few times over the course of the past year since the release of SADEVILLAIN (2016) and last I knew, he was busy crafting some original beats for an Aesop Rock remix project, which became his recent Aesop Rock vs. Seanh EP. It appears as though Seanh quietly uploaded SADEVILLAIN's proper sequel, fittingly titled SADEVILLAIN II, Monday afternoon and seemingly wasn't picked up by an media outlets until @okayplayer Tweeted out: "Ol...

Anything I Touch I Bruise Vol. 2: The Superior Foes of Zilla Rocca by Zilla Rocca "Grab my remixes of every dope-a** rapper I've met in the past eight years at threedollarpistol.com ... I remix songs for the challenge; to outdo the original or make something new out of the established piece of art," @ZillaRocca wrote on his rather lively Twitter page upon the release of his latest, and might I add, wonderfully-titled, Anything I Touch, I Bruise Vol. 2: The Superior Foes of Zilla Rocca . However, oddly enough, I first stumbled upon Rocca about two weeks ago, whilst searching for a little background information concerning one of my all-time favorite Hip-Hop albums, Mos Def & Black Jack Johnson 's genre-rattling The New Danger (2004). I eventually unearthed a March 2015 ZILLA -penned Passion of The Weiss piece titled, Rework The Angles: Mos Def The New Danger ; " The New Danger was dark, scattered, and bizarre. It was also 75 minutes long [and showcases] ...

"I did not rhyme off the beanie sigel truth beat PF [Cuttin] looped the original Chicago that is all..." @SeanPrice furiously Tweeted \from his Brownsville, Brooklyn home late Tuesday afternoon; seemingly alluding to instantly recognizable similarities between his latest Soundcloud -aided leak, "S.E.A.N." and Sigel's 2000 Kanye -produced title track, "The Truth," wherein he famously sampled Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young founding member Graham Nash 's 1971 Folk-Rock protest piece, "Chicago." Following a flurry of sporadic Soundcloud -released loosies about every 2 weeks-month, Sean Price has finally announced his long-awaited Stevie Wonder -referencing Songs In The Key of Price mixtape, which is "coming soon" at a currently unspecified date; "Oh yeah that trash-ass artwork was done by a child the real mixtape cover coming soon lol!!!" Just a matter of mere seconds into "S.E.A.N.," the sha...

Right on the heels of his long-awaited, nearly 2 years in-the-making Party Supplies -produced mixtape, Blue Chips 2 (November 1st), Action Bronson has teamed up with VICE Records' sister site, Noisey for VICE Eats ; a hyper-realistic weekly web-series "where [they'll] travel the world with Action Bronson and his motley crew of associates to check out the finest dives and dimes of the restaurant scene." Lest we forget, Bronson was a former Art Institute of New York -trained chef, who quite regularly seasons his dense wordplay with a dash of Food Network -friendly speak. Most likely commissioned by Warner Bros. VICE ultimately sets out to follow "Action and his rotating cast of dinner companions [while they] dine in a wide range of remarkable spots to give us their honest opinions - both on and off the plate." It was seemingly preceded by 2 far lesser-known VICE Eats micro-segments, dating back to this past August or early September. The inaugu...

Initially mis-labelled as "New Shit, No Name," Sean Price (NIGGLETIUS!!!) quietly uploaded "Sean Shank Redemption" to Soundcloud Thursday/Friday morning, while most of The Internet was sound asleep; a hard-hitting track with no producer or emcee credit whatsoever, it's since been revealed to feature Starvin B. But it doesn't really matter, because Sean Price is hands down one of the most talented and sadly, criminally under-rated rappers in the game! DA GRODD FATHER!!!'s Twitter feed has since been updated to vaguely specify, "The dude on the song with me is [named] STARVIN B. AND HE CAN F*CKING RHYME..." Price also seemingly revealed a tentative title for his forthcoming album, BONGO LENZIE BEAR . While there isn't exactly a solid release date, a new Sean Price record is definitely something to get mildly excited about; especially since his last album, Mic Tyson was packed full of 15 certified "cold hard" Golden Er...

Sean Price is kinda like a one-man Run-D.M.C. , when you really think about it; a no bullshit, low gimmick guy with outta-this-world rapping abilities! Price could easily out-rap your favourite Ringtone Rapper on an off day, while hooking up with your mom (Yeah, he's THAT kinda dude) ha. Long-time label, Duck Down have invested a good-sized chunk of change into producing 4-6 simplistic music videos for Mic Tyson and some of it's bonus cuts: "The Genesis of The Omega," "Haraam," "STFU (Part 2)," "I See," and "BBQ Sauce." Now, we're talkin' about videos that re-cast Sean Price as a crazed lumberjack, jet-setting humanitarian, cartoon robot ape fighter, ruthless drug dealer, and a sharp-tongued emcee. Duck Down unleashed the gritty Isaac Aguirre -directed "Bar-Barian" video just in time for the weekend; It's a short and sweet snow-covered clip that features Sean Price spitting cold hard rhymes and ...

Sean Price is a former member of 90's Underground Rap crews, Heltah Skeltah/Boot Camp Clik (who supposedly worked on 2pac 's last project ). My old Shop Rite buddy, Jarrad Jenkins first turned me onto Sean Price around like 2005-06, who had only released Monkey Barz and Donkey Sean, Jr. [mixtape] @ that point. Price's third solo album, Mic Tyson has been in-the-works since 2009 and after numerous delays and pushed back dates, Duck Down finally unleashed the album back in October '12. Evidence & DJ Babu produced the latest video-single pulled from Mic Tyson 's 15-song tracklist, "BBQ Sauce." It does a pretty damn great job @ showcasing the Brownsville, BKLYN native's criminally under-rated sharp tongue, un-matched cadence, and witty rhyme schemes. Pharoahe Monch co-stars in it's companion Todd Angkasuwan -directed music video, which super-imposes Sean Mandela into a number of historical events, TV shows, school sports, etc: ...

On some REAL levels, the only emcees that could/should even attempt to lyrically out-rap Sean Price are Action Bronson, Raekwon , and Ghostface . After while, they'd probably have to somehow channel and combine their skills into one MASSIVE "sonic punch," which still wouldn't even make a dent! What I'm trying to say is that Sean Price is a FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC, criminally under-rated rapper, who's well-respected by Hip-Hop heads, Illuminati and critics alike. Price spreads a thick layer of clever, buttery smooth rapid-fire verses across his latest full-length, Mic Tyson . Honestly, it's a surprisingly short 15-track Hip-Hop album that clocks in @ just under 38 minutes. But even in a 2-3 minute time frame/track, 40-year-old Sean Mandela still manages to conjure up aggressive rhyme schemes that would easily knock out [scare away] almost any run-of-the-mill rapper. Eccentric hood rich Hip-Hop blogger BIG GHOST fittingly describes your typical Mic Ty...

Let's face it, most of us in our mid-20-30's have probably "stumbled" our way into a couple sleazy strip joints by now. I've had my fair share of alcohol-fueled, cigar-accented conversations with shot girls about Portugal The Man and even an unexpected run-in with Joey Fatone (all in one night)! It sounds like Meyhem Lauren has chronicled a vaguely familiar experience on "10 Dollar Lap Dances." Released just in time for the season's traditional festivities, Mr. Thanksgiving himself laments about his [least] favourite gentlemen's club, which has an all-hours buffet, but still doesn't warrant his tips. Lauren and producer-friend Harry Fraud "walk in the dirtbag spot, shit down, and proceed to do wrong." He must've learned a thing or 2 about fine dining from chef-turned-rapper Action Bronson , who's featured on Mandatory Brunch Meetings (December 6th). Numbers-wise, it's guest list doesn't really seem to stack ...

Action Bronson is kinda like the weirdly AWESOME love-child of Beastie Boys, Ghostface Killah , and Rick Ross . The Albanian-American rapper hails from Flushing, Queens and cut his teeth as a Top Chef before converting over to rhymin' roughly 2 years ago. In a true testament to his sheer prolific brilliance, Bronson has linked up with one sole producer @ a time for each project: Dr. Lecter/Tommy Mas , Well-Done/Statik Selektah, and Blue Chips/Party Supplies - Plus Mr. Wonderful, Saab Stories , "Blue Chips 2," and his VICE Records debut are ALL expected to materialize fairly soon, too. Action Bronson has already had a chance to work with everyone from Asher Roth to Wu-Tang Clan and was the undoubted MVP of Meyhem Lauren 's hotel suite-recorded mixtape, Respect The Fly Shit . Bronson inked a deal with Warner Bros. back in mid-August and it seems like he has their full support to "spread his wings" a little bit on Rare Chandeliers , which was releas...

The Chain Gang somehow managed to seamlessly splice together a bunch of stop-motion [animation] clips to construct Sean Price 's latest music video, "STFU (Part 2)." Before it's all said and done, we see Super-Price courageously fending off a pack of angry killer apes with a microphone... getting some calcium fortification, pilot a spaceship, re-enact a couple album covers, run through the jungle, etc. All of Sean Price's milk-fueled hi-jinx were animated by crafty illustrators, Haroon Gilian & Whitney Alexander ; "STFU (Part 2)" will appear on Price's long-awaited Mic Tyson album, along with previously-released tracks "Haraam" and "I See." Rome York directed and released a quick, 1:30-minute music video last week to go along with "I See," which was in fact pre-empted by "Sean Price Plays Tennis" back in early Sept. Duck Down Records are finally gearing up to liberate Mic Tyson on Oct. 3...

Respect The Fly Shit was written/recorded in one fall swoop @ Embassy Suites during SXSW (March 2012) in just 24 hours. Harry Fraud and Tommy Mas mounted a mic on top of an ice bucket and somehow managed to morph a hotel room into a make-shift recording studio... Meyhem Lauren quickly invited everyone who was anywhere nearby Austin, TX to roll through Room #426 over a 2-day period and record a verse: Action Bronson , Heems, Sean Price , RiFF RAFF, Roc Marciano , AG Da Coroner , and a few more rapping friends. Beat-wise, Fraud and Mas somehow managed to conjure up 12 Jazzy , Boom-Bap -filled originals, ready to be fully laced up and punchline accented. Re-mastered @ SXSW' s end, Respect The Fly Shit is a collection of 12 care-free tracks that were loosely laid down over a long weekend [vacation]. Meyhem Lauren then managed to forge a solid enough relationship with clothing company LRG and Heems' record label, Greedhead that they both agreed to sponsor/fund his FRES...

Simply Having by Black Milk & Melanie Rutherford " Black Milk chops up one of his favorite Christmas songs and links up with Melanie Rutherford for the re-make. Check the artwork, I guess Charlie Brown & company's fighting skills are on point as they each have a pair of [Jordan] Concords . *shrugs... I never understood this shoe fetish people have. Dah well? [Here's a Merry Christmas to all you 2dopeboyz & girls out there!!"] - Shake