The Witzard

"Me & my friend @quellechrist got one for @mellomusicgroup compilation called Bushido. Animation by Quelle [Chris] 🔮" Alchemist (@alanthechemist) posted on Instagram Wednesday afternoon. Alchemist has been on quite a roll lately, having produced the entirety of billy woods & E L U C I D's latest beloved album, Haram, as Armand Hammer and his own Carry The Fire EP this year. Last year alone, The Alchemist released full-length projects with Boldy James, Freddie Gibbs, and Conway The Machine, as well as his own The Food Villain and A Doctor, A Painter & An Alchemist Walk Into A Bar all on his own ALC Records . While they have yet to release a full-length project together (but fingers crossed!) it appears as though Quelle Chris & The Alchemist have been friends or, at least, acquaintances since about 2013. Alchemist appears on Quelle Chris-produced "PRX" alongside Guilty Simpson from 2013 album, Ghost At The Finish Line. Being You Is Great,...

Let it be known on-record: Action Bronson is easily one of our favorite emcees! Maybe, it's his zaniness, charisma, orsharp-tonged emceeing skills, love for food, natural wine, wrestling, and obscure 90's films, next-level sample selection, or propensity for randomly bustin' out a backflip. In addition to his emceeing skills, Bronson is an acclaimed chef, television personality, and actor on the rise; he has his own food/travel show on VICE, F*CK, THAT'S DELICIOUS! and has appeared on-screen in Game Over, Man! The Irishman, and, most recently, The King of Staten Island. However, maybe, most amazingly, during Quarantine, thanks to his close friend and personal trainer, Dave Paladino (@davepfit) has lost upwards of 100 pounds! Bam Bam Bronsolino, as he's often called, released his most recent amazingly-titled album, Only for Dolphins , during Quarantine, as well, on Loma Vista Recordings/Caroline International. Yes, this now means Action Bronson AND Marilyn Mans...

At this point in time, Jay Electronica and his long-rumored debut album have both become something of an enigma... although, with endless false start-ups and album "announcements," early this morning, 13 years after dropping Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge) Jay Elect has finally dropped his debut album, A Written Testimony. Timothy Elpadaro Thedford or Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah, better known as Jay Electronica, first burst onto the Indie Hip-Hop scene in 2007 with "Act I." As its title suggests, Electronica primarily rhymes over the Jon Brion-scored soundtrack to Jim Carrey's award-winning film Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and features soundbites throughout from Erykah Badu & Just Blaze. Since then, Jay Elect has, technically, only "officially" released a handful of tracks, including, "Exhibit A," "Exhibit C," "Letter to Falon," "Shiny Suit Theory," "A Prayer for Micheal Vick & T.I....

Yasiin Bey FKA Mos Def once said, "Three key steps to leading a rewarding and enriched life: (1) Wake up, (2) be awesome, (3) LISTEN TO PRESERVATION." Preservation , otherwise known as Dj Preservation , Dj Jun, and Jun TME is/was part of Dr. Yen Lo with Brownsville emcee KA , Sonic Sum along with Rob Sonic, Fred Ones & Eric M.O. and TME PRO. Preservation has long operated as the touring DJ for both Yasiin Bey & KA and has produced music for Mach-Hommy , RZA, GZA , Raekwon, U-God , Sean Price, Roc Marciano , Ed O.G. KRS-One , Jean Grae, Aesop Rock , billy woods, and Your Old Droog . I can, personally, recall knowingly hearing Preservation 's work across the official 2013 re-worked companion to Mos Def 's The Ecstatic entitled The REcstatic ; although, Preservation previously contributed production work to Mighty Mos' 2006 album, True Magic , as well as the original aforementioned project, his "last" album as Mos Def , The Ecstatic (20...

ARTWORK BY: Ed Ptskor (@edpiskorcartoonist) It's been a while, but The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up column is back! 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 latest edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up, we'll be profiling eight EP's released throughout November 2019 and maybe, a couple from a month or so prior, as well. Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of Action Bronson & The Alchemist, Almost Elijah, CRASHprez & knowsthetime, ialive, Mikah kHill, Pecue, Rolled Gold, and Teek Hall. Along with a brief write-up on each release, you'll find a select track from each EP, as well purchase links to buy or stream online. If this one...

Rolled Gold's Healthy Ass Breakfast by Rolled Gold Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast is the latest release from Philly 's finest producer, multi-instrumentalist, and beat-maker Harry Metz AKA Rolled Gold . It's equal parts salty and sweet and although, it's a concise one-track beat tape with "a quick 8-minutes of #flysh*t," Metz delivers an everything pretzel-esque blend of Old School Hip-Hop , Boom-Bap, Trap , 808 drum fills, and Soulful R&B . Stylistically, falling somewhere in-between an instrumental EP and a re-mixtape/blends album, Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast consists of 100% original material made up of assorted song scraps, unfinished takes, left-over, acapellas, remix snippets, etc; "each beat is made from live recordings of instruments played by Rolled Gold 's friends, family, and himself, of course, and they all run into the next in a cohesive, somewhat "day in the life" [field recordings] manner," a...

Lunch Meat EP by The Alchemist Action Bronson and long-time friend, collaborator, and food travel cohort The Alchemist have once again teamed up for 2 minutes and 47 seconds-worth of Jazz -inflected Boom-Bap bliss; previously having worked together a number of times since Blaxploitation -like Rare Chandeliers (2012) but not on a proper collaborative full-length project since, Bronson & Alchemist have reunited for "The Hopeless Romantic" from the latter's Lunch Meat EP . The Alchemist also drafted sharp-tongued emcees Roc Marciano , Westside Gunn & Conway (Hall N' Nash,) Styles P , and Benny The Butcher for his Lunch Meat EP , which features instrumentals for all four emcee-assisted tracks on Side B . To coincide with the release of Alchemist 's Lunch Meat EP this past Friday, Action Bronson & Alan The Chemist recruited artist E Money (@theedollarsign) AKA E$ to create a series of original illustrations and pieces of artwork inspired by Bro...

"I'm the epitome of all fly sh*t — jacket to the shoe sole / Two shooters, Flanagan, Caruso / Fly girl stuffed the drug in her caboose-o / "I see Bronson in the chartreuse coupe mo" / My eyes sparkle like a diva's mirror," charismatic sharp-tongued emcee Action Bronson effortlessly rhymes atop producer Tommy Mas' thumping James Bond -esque "Driving Gloves" beat; similar to a Jaylib -style double rapper-producer Underground Hip-Hop pairing, The Alchemist & Oh No are currently preparing to release their third full-length Gangrene album since initially forming back in 2007. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca [2012] left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz, Rock , and Fusion -tinged beats," reads a recent Mass Appeal Records press release, which effectively describes Mas' brooding, Surfaris "Wipe Out" -leaning production work. Est...

Needless to say, it's been one Hell of a week for Underground Hip-Hop ; Action Bronson , Earl Sweatshirt, and Kendrick Lamar all dropped staggering, critically-acclaimed new albums this past Monday, March 23rd (I'm unsure why they strayed away from the typical Tuesday release day). I went out and bought hard CD copies of Bronson and Lamar's albums, but I wasn't able to find I Don't Like Sh*t, I Don't Go Outside at out local Best Buy , and I've really only had a chance to delve into Action Bronson 's gloriously frantic "debut," MR. WONDERFUL . While Bronson and Lamar's TDE crew seem to have a mutual admiration for each other, the two fledgling rappers have never recorded any material together, at least not to my knowledge. But Bronson has in fact recorded a few non-album tracks with Odd Future and their reigning adolescent prince, Earl Sweatshirt ; most notably, Domo Genesis' pro wrestling-referencing Alchemist -produced mixtap...

"IF [YOU] LISTEN TO THIS, [YOU] WILL HEAR ANOTHER SNIPPET OFF MR. WONDERFUL . SHHH, DON'T TELL [ANYONE] @Alchemist THIS EXPLAINS IT," @ActionBronson quietly Tweeted late Thursday night, alluding to his recent "Which Ways The Beach Mix;" commissioned by Dr. Romanelli (DRx) and footwear company, British Knights and jointly produced by The Alchemist & Samiyam . The newly-minted rapper-producer beatsmith team painstakingly culled right around 8-minutes worth of audio snippets and vocal effects harvested from a series of 1980-90's British Knights TV commercials. It's without a doubt, an interesting sound collage, which fittingly provides viewers and sneaker-heads with a self-proclaimed "contemporary musical travelogue through BK History ." Action Bronson bulldozes in at about 6:15 as the beat suddenly morphs into something, shall we say, a little more rap-able; "I know you seen me on the TV lookin' like a hunk of beef / When I s...

Since unleashing their Fool's Gold debut upon the terribly unsuspecting world-wide web this past August, Party Supplies have released four non-album tracks to Soundcloud , which are now available for FREE download. It's unclear as to where they'll appear; quite possibly Fool's Gold 's rumored CD/LP re-issue of Party Supplies' self-described "greatest album in rock n roll history," Tough Love . Blue Chips #1-2 beat-maker Justin Nealis , along with newly-recruited second member Sean Mahon , uploaded a new track titled "4 More Months 2 Go" to Soundcloud about five days ago. Not unlike their other recent records, "4 More Months 2 Go" could be best described as vaguely Adult Contemporary -leaning Neo-Classic Rock mixed with mild Disco undertones or as @xpartysuppliesx recently described in 140 characters or less, "our sound is something like a cross [between] tommy bahama and mtv true life: jersey shore ." I'...

Rare Chandeliers sample mastermind and former Eminem in-house producer The Alchemist has already released two full-length projects so far this year and is gearing up to unleash a third; The Good Book is the unofficial follow-up to critically-acclimated Lord Steppington and Albert Einstein . Get On Down currently has The Good Book available for pre-order in a number of Bible -inspired formats, ahead of it's planned April 11th wide-release. Alchemist further described The Good Book as a "double album audio collage [where] I did one side and my bro Budgie did the other." They've prepared two exclusive physical versions, 1000 Bible -like packages with a 2-CD stash spot and 50 deluxe editions complete with a MicroG G-Pen and a copy of the BAU All Is Fair album. Along with the proper album announcement, BAU Music released a second single from The Alchemist 's side of the project, "With My Soul" assisted by buddies Action Bronson, A$ton Matthew...

While no one else seems to have really noticed it, I think Joey Bada$$ sounds a Hell of a lot like Wu-Tang Clan 's long-deceased Mad Hatter of an expert swordsmen, Ol' Dirty Bastard aka Dirt McGirt aka Big Baby Jesus aka Dirt Dog (ODB). Honestly, that's the first thing I thought after I heard Bada$$ enter the stage immediately after Action Bronson at the XXL Freshmen 2013 Tour 's Philly stop about 2 weeks ago. The 18-year-old rapper eventually ended by flanked by his Wu-Tang -sized Pro Era posse, which I'm sure includes it's own 90's Hip-Hop -obsessed, new age versions of RZA , GZA, Method Man , Redman, Ghostface Killah , Raekwon, Inspectah Deck , Cappadonna, and the remaining "Shaolin" by way of Staten Island emcees. Joey Bada$$ is currently prepping the release of his first widely-publicized mixtape since 1999 , Summer Knights EP for a July 1st unveiling; Bada$$ did however release 2 smaller projects since breakthrough 1999 (2...

Action Bronson has quickly risen through the ranks of [New School] Hip-Hop since releasing his Indie debut album, Dr. Lecter (2011), partially due to his charismatic personality and sheer rapping skills. He managed to produce 2 of last year's best mixtape collections with Rare Chandeliers/Blue Chips . Even though he semi-recently inked a major label deal with VICE Records , Bronson still manages to keep his good ol' Internet hits in regular rotation, too; Artsy Films shot live footage of Action Bronson performing "Larry Csonka" @ San Francisco Bath House (New Zealand) from last Friday, Jan. 11th. It's really the kinda thing that makes you slightly re-evaluate your life and ask yourself, "Why the fuck haven't I been to an Action Bronson show yet!?" The top chef-turned-rapper aimlessly navigates his way through the wall-to-wall packed Wellington, NZ venue, mic and milkshake in hand... as fans [sloppily] attempt to pass him blunts, beer,...

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...

Almost effortlessly cruisin' down the same nautical, boatshoed lane as Yacht Rock pioneers like Christopher Cross , Steely Dan, Beach Boys , and Hall & Oates, The Alchemist quietly released one long 12-minute track [EP] appropriately dubbed "YACHT ROCK (Side A-B)" late Wednesday afternoon. It's pretty much the perfect soundtrack for throwing back a few boat-side brews, which might've been partially inspired by The Alchemist 's fruitful shades/readers partnership with 9FIVE Eyewear ; Hypebeast eloquently describes the glasses as " 9FIVE Watson frames [with] a custom black and grey pattern added to the outer portions with red leather wrapped around the temple tips. The sunglasses variant receives polarized black lenses, while the reader model features clear CR-39 lenses." Now, while that all sounds pretty TIGHT, $150's a little steep for 2 pairs of glasses, a fancy striped box, and a RARE 7-inch record... So, The Alchemist has libera...

It's pretty safe to assume that Action Bronson & The Alchemist first met while in the studio recording assorted parts for Domo Genesis' No Idols mixtape; Alchemist acted as reigning producer over the entire project and Bronsolini was featured on central track "Elimination Chamber" along with Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples . Instead of working on his 2-3rd album for new label VICE Records , Action Bronson is currently chipping away @ roughly 3-5 [FREE] mixtapes. It seems like the first one to fully materialize is gonna be Rare Chandeliers with The Alchemist , which should ultimately end up premiering online by mid-November. But I'd almost bet $100 that Bronson's been working on a batch of album-quality material for VICE the entire time now... as he's a man of vast mystery, intrigue, and surprise! Earlier today, it was reported that Action Bronson will be taking a will-deserved break - Heading out on a 14-date Fall Tour with Cypress Hill ,...

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...

"Bam Bam Bronsonelli" himself announced that he has a number of projects currently in-the-works, set to rival his highly successful 2011 output(s). Action Bronson set Twitter ablaze last night, Tweeting about 3 upcoming releases: "Blue Chips" mixtape with Party Supplies (February), Tommy Mas -produced sophomore effort "Mr. Wonderful" (Summer 2012), a currently [finished] untitled album with The Alchemist , and a project entirely made up of Harry Fraud beats. It seems as though Action Bronson wasn't happy with JUST taking over Underground Hip-Hop , he's prepping to dominate the mainstream market in 2012 A.D! Merely minutes after the stream of announcements, Action Bronson liberated a BRAND NEW Party Supplies -produced sampler track, "Mistletoe" (Remix) . Bam Bam spits a few quick bars over a chopped and edited version of Justin Bieber's recently-penned Christmas jingle. Now, you can knock the man, but don't knock "...