The Witzard

We Can Be Kings by J57 James "J57" Heintz is a Brooklyn-based rapper, song-writer, producer, and record label owner. J57 is an active member of both Brown Bag Allstars & Jamo Gang with Ras Kass & El Gant and runs his own imprint, FiveSe7en Collective . Jay has previously worked with the likes of Method Man , Homeboy Sandman, Joey Bada$$ , and La Coka Nostra featuring members of House of Pain & Limp Bizkit with ILL BILL & Slaine. J57 has now returned with the long-awaited follow-up to his 2016 solo debut, I'm The J57 , entitled We Can Be Kings. Many of you may remember, We Can be Kings. was previously release last year (as LP2 ) for a brief one-week stint between December 8-15, 2018. We previously reviewed LP2: WE CAN BE KINGS. upon its initial 2018 release, which can still be read or perused here . We Can Be Kings. is an "eclectic offering" that features appearances from a wide of array of musicians—both Hip-Hop and non-Hip-Hop—includin...

It's honestly, not often we, here at The Witzard , feature music that you (the listener) can't hear for yourself... but we figured we would give it a-go, before the year's up! I actually, first heard about Brooklyn -based emcee and producer James "J57" Victor Heinz 's latest effort, LP2 through this very Tweet from @HomeboySandman : "New sh*t from Tha God available for one week only better peep that stat." It Re-Tweeted a previous statement from @j57 himself, which read, " J57 LP2 is out now, for 1 week. You can only get [a copy] via J57MUSIC.com , before it's gone. Enjoy!" Acting fast, as it would only be available from December 8-15th, I reached out to J57 directly and was soon able to procure a copy of LP2 , sub-titled WE CAN BE KINGS. from the man himself. Whether you've been fortunate enough to hear LP2 or not, I'm just gonna jump right into it now... LP2 is the follow-up to J57 's 2016 limited-release album, I...

Airic "Tranzformer" Estala is a San Diego -based producer, emcee, beat-maker, and Punk Rock/Experimental artist born in raised in El Centro, California . Estala has previously collaborated with Blu , J57, Blame One , Guilty Simpson, Frank-N-Dank , ILL BILL, Rick Gonzalez , Planet Asia, Johaz , CashUs King FKA Co$$, Koncept , and more. Tranzformer is affiliated with producer J57 's newly-launched FiveSe7en Collective (@FiveSe7enCollective,) New York -based record label and digital distributor Soulspazm Records (@Soulspazm,) and his own label imprint, Dirty Dome Records (@dirty_dome_records_.) Since launching his Bandcamp page around 2013, Tranzformer has self-released a staggering 29 projects, be they beat tapes, albums, mixtapes, singles, or EP's. For the purposes of The Witzard 's introductory feature on Tranzformer & Dirty Dome Records, I would, however, like to primarily focus on Tranz 's currently released and as-yet-unreleased body of work w...

Derty Dan's Cheap Thrills by Derty Dan " Dert is back. Kind of; Derty Dan's Cheap Thrills , his second release on [STREET CORNER MUSIC] , and fourth record in as many years, has arrived. As with prior self-released albums Westside of The Moon and Eclipse , Dert sticks to one group for the source material that he then [flips], chops, and obliterates over the album's 16 tracks. This won't be around long. It's also Dert 's last album he will be making," reads the Bandcamp listing for Derty Dan's Cheap Thrills . "Derty Dan" is the latest alias of West Covina -based Instrumental Hip-Hop producer Dert AKA Dert Floyd AKA DertBeats AKA Derty Dert AKA Don Baker . As with The Westside of The Moon , Eclipse, and Talk Strange: A Beat Tape Inspired By Björk , Dert sticks to just one single artist for the source material (a feat unto itself!) which can't exactly be revealed, but I could imagine, the avid Hip-Hop/Classic Rock listene...