The Witzard

CREDIT: Shades of Blue Prints (@fcarteron) Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "MADVILLAINY is one of our favorite albums and we've been fans of Madlib & MF DOOM for ages. We, normally, don't see musicians covering Madlib & DOOM stuff as much as the [J] Dilla catalogue, so we thought we would try it out [...] His rhythm was super-inspiring and not a lot of other rappers i...

[adult swim] Festival 2020 held virtually this past weekend, Novemeber 13-14th, was billed as "MUSIC, COMEDY, AND MAYHEM FROM YOUR COUCH!" and was streamed exclusively on YouTube in real-time. Broken down into separate categories such as Music, Watch Party, Live, and Giveaway, [as] Fest's performers included D∆WN, J.I.D. KAYTRANADA, Mastodon, Open Mike Eagle, Robyn, Run The Jewels, Colin Stetson (Bon Iver,) Thundercat & Ariana Grande , Tycho, and Kamasi Washington. With said performances, appearances, DJ sets, premieres, and specials being streaming online from about 2:00pm-12:20am Friday and 10:00am-11:50 Saturday, we decided to set some Reminders for specific performances that interested us most. Although, now, both full-day live sets are streaming on YouTube in their entirety, as well as separate segments for each respective artist, performer, or special. So, for purposes of this specific feature, we decided to focus on a number of particular performances tha...

"We've been getting a lot of questions about a collaborative album that Madlib & Mac Miller supposedly created. Here's the real story: What exists is what the two had originally intended—an EP's worth of music that was supposed to be the start of something. The end point wasn't planned out or even discussed. The idea was to create for creation's sake. The two met after Mac recorded the last verse on Freddie Gibbs' Piñata album. By early, 2015 Mac had batches of Madlib's beats and was recording songs. The two ate tacos at Eagle Rock's Cacao Mexicatessen and discussed ideas. Madlib played one of Mac's tracks in July of 2016 at a European festival and Egon texted Mac to tell him; "Whaaat, what song, why isn't there any video evidence!!!" was the reply. Followed by "Let's do an EP." This process continued throughout 2017, as Mac got the latest beat batches, continued recording, and continued his commitment to th...

It appears as though BRAINFEEDER founder, Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist, Experimental Hip-Hop producer, DJ, villainous rapper, and film-maker Steven Ellison AKA Flying Lotus AKA Captain Murphy AKA Kuso director steve. has been doing an Ideas+drafts+loops -style purge of his old hard drives recently; Ellison has upload a staggering seven previously unreleased tracks to his Flyinglotus Soundcloud page just this past week! FlyLo first uploaded a remix of Angelo Badalamentii 's iconic "Twin Peaks Theme" and Queen -sampling "Night Grows Pale" this past Tuesday, May 16th. Then, came a whopping five tracks just one day later: Captain Murphy -helmed "Crowned," Miguel Atwood-Ferguson -assisted "LoveTrue Opening" and "LoveTrue Opening Alt1" from Alma Har'el 's 2016 Netflix film of the same name, and two mysterious left-overs from You're Dead! (2014) credited to THUNDERDETH LOTUS ... DETHKLOK -hashtagged ...

"You see, all these performances on these late night shows – I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love [with] where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album. But I think probably close to ten songs that I'm in love with that I'll still play and still perform that didn’t make the cut," Kendrick Lamar told 2dopeboyz during a GRAMMY.com interview following his recent five- GRAMMY win; almost immediately after which Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James Tweeted, "Yo @dangerookipawaa after that @kendricklamar Grammy performance, you have to release those untitled tracks asap!!! What's up? Talk to me," directed at TDE CEO Anthony "Top Dwg" Tiffith . While I must admit, I'm not much of a sports fan, I've become a supporter of James' off-court endeavors in recent months: first, his side-splitting supporting role in Trainwreck alongside Amy Schumer and Bill Hader and now...

"White means purity, purity means GOD and GOD means the ruler of the land," @ShafiqHusayn profoundly replied, when asked what the name "WHITE BOIZ" actually meant, along with their stark white-stylized aesthetic; "'white" means different things to different people — from their record label to the Los Angeles Police Department to The Nation of Islam . In the 1700's, "white" did not represent race, but a state of freedom versus servitude. Today, however, white can be powder in the trap or a party in The Hamptons , which are seemingly worlds apart. Or are they," Husayn and primary WHITE BOIZ emcee Krondon continued in a Stones Throw-penned press release. Peanut Butter Wolf 's latest rapper-producer pairing formed organically out of mutual admiration when the Strong Arm Steady emcee would randomly show up to performances from Shafiq Husayn 's then G.O.O.D. Music -affiliated Alt. Hip-Hop collective, Sa-Ra (Creative Partn...

"The WOKE project started about three years ago. I, myself, and some screenwriter friends of mine started writing a script for feature film called WOKE . It was something that we developed for quite a while. Initially, it was going to star Ishmael [Butler] from Shabazz Palaces and Jeremiah Jae . We worked on it for a while, started work-shopping, but there's always the financial issue — I haven't found anyone who is going to invest in the film," Flying Lotus recently revealed during a Pitchfork-prompted phone interview upon the release of his [adult swim] single, "The Lavishments of Light Looking." Despite the fact that he has yet to acquire adequate funding to produce a WOKE film, Flying Lotus aka multi-instrumentalist Steven Ellison decided to instead focus on the musical accompaniment for said unmade film first; "We started working earlier this year on music. We did a few songs. We have a few things. We're just going to let it build...

"You are the last Colbert Report musical guest. Honored to have you on, but keep in mind: Paul McCartney , R.E.M., Jack White , and Nas were your opening acts," Stephen Colbert cleverly quipped at Kendrick Lamar during their pre-performance interview on last night's show. Lamar premiered a brand new "Untitled" track reportedly produced by French beatsmith Astronote ; its world-premier performance was delivered by a pick-up band consisting of bass virtuoso Thundercat , Terrace Martin on sax, and back-up vocals from Soulquarians affiliate Bilal and Sonnymoon sogstress Anna Wise . In stark contrast to Kendrick Lamar 's previous Isley Brothers -indebted "i," "Untitled" is more of a sparse experimental, Jazz -leaning affair, which seems to be a multi-faceted narrative; "In Lamar's story, an Asian man tells him to worry about his health and not his career, an Indian man recommends he invest in real estate, the black man rev...

"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...

Flying Lotus' latest Warp Records -released creation, You're Dead! features a wide array of contributions from an unlikely gamut of collaborators including Kendrick Lamar , Snoop Dogg, Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock , Angel Deradoorian, frequent collaborator Thundercat , and even Lotus' own rapping alter-ego Captain Murphy; but according to a flurry of late night Tweets the other night, for whatever reasons, additional tracks recorded with super-star guests Pharrell , Chance The Rapper, Mac Miller , and supplementary Kendrick Lamar material were ultimately scrapped. Aside from dwelling on what could have been... Flying Lotus unleashed the first Lamar-assisted single from You're Dead! , "Never Catch Me" nearly one week prior to the album's release, last Wednesday, October 1st. It's an oddly heartwarming life-affirming, death-defying clip, which only showcases a brief milli-second glimpse of Steven Ellison (Lotus) himself, who's quietly seated ...

Jazz-Funk pianist Herbie Hancock is quite arguably the Godfather of Hip-Hop ; his 1983 Electro-Funk composition "Rockit" is oftentimes cited as an early sonic blueprint for the then budding genre. I can still vividly remember the first time I heard Hancock's music, on an RS 500 [Greatest Songs of All Time] sampler CD around the age of 12-15. It was "Watermelon Man" from his sprawling four-track Head Hunters album (1973) assisted by back-up The Headhunters ; more or less a progressive and slowly deconstructing re-make of Herbie Hancock 's own 1962 composition, which was originally inspired by "the cry of the watermelon man making the rounds through the back streets and alleys of Chicago . The wheels of his wagon beat out the rhythm on the cobble stones." President Obama & The First Lady amongst DC 's finest inducted Herbie Hancock , Martina Arroyo, Billy Joel , Shirley MacLaine, and Carlos Santana at the 36th annual Kennedy Center ...

Following June's fairly long-awaited return to form and more or less, an artistic re-birth, Kismet , Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire randomly unveiled 2 new tracks late Wednesday-Thursday night; "Butt Naked Baby Cupid" and "A Sun's Calypso" are supposedly from eXquire 's forthcoming project, King Cozmic's Ethereal Playground . So far, it sounds like his mixtape'll be a stylistic hybrid of Mr. MFN eXquire 's new-found Psych-Rap sound and those 90's Hardcore reminiscent rhymes... almost effortlessly rocking over a beat swiped from Brainfeeder Jazzman Thundercat and frequent collaborator, Bowery Beats . Accented by a brief buttery-smooth Thundercat intro, eXquire ferociously raps, "I suck at love songs, but still write some / Just last night we Skyped all night long / Took a screenshot of your dummy-ass smile / Set it as my wallpaper... in love. I'm in denial. Lost in your Ora . We got it figured out. But nigga, baby cupid...

It's been an ongoing quasi-real joke ever since season 8 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2011) to seemingly change the series' overall name withe each impending new season: Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 , Aqua Something You Know Whatever, and now Aqua TV Show Show ha. Replacing the show's original, long-standing Schoolly D-penned title sequence, Brainfeeder buddies Flying Lotus & Thundercat have teamed up to produce a Jazz -infused 45-second "Aqua TV Show Show Theme." @flyinglotus recently Tweeted, " Frylock lookin' like @GASLAMPKILLER in the intro... [and that] The ending credits music is on some Silver Apples -isnpired shiieee." Thundercat 's actual role is widely unknown at this pint, but the infamous Suicidal Tendencies metal-head more than likely continued some scorchin' bass licks! The ATSS theme sequence is of course accompanied by a black-and-white 70's Soul-Funk -reminiscent animated clip; It stars Frylock, Master Shak...

While he's arguably years past his heyday, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers really set the stage for white-bred rappers and seems to have inspired a whole new generation's-worth of angry young white men: Atmosphere , Macklemore, RiFF RAFF , Asher Roth , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , etc. Mac Miller just never really seemed interesting enough for me to wanna check out. But it looks like he's starting to align himself with a slew of genuinely skilled rappers/producers that includes Earl Sweatshirt , Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs , Hodgy Beats, ScHoolboy Q , Thundercat, Pharrell , and executive producer Diplo. Mac Miller 's become a lot more interesting since he started releasing material under his assorted Larry Fisherman , Larry Dollaz, and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival aliases, too. We're talkin' about beautiful Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith covers, hard-hitting Hip-Hop beats, a 5-track Jazz EP, and an instrumental mixtape called Run-on Sentences (...

Maybe Earl Sweatshirt really was locked up in a Samoan juvenile detention center from 2010-12 or maybe he was just "chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool" for a while. Whatever the real deal was, Odd Future 's 19-year-old protegee is back and after a string of non-album loosies, he's finally prepping his long-awaited sophomore album. Doris is rumored to feature production work from Pharrell , Flying Lotus , BADBADNOTGOOD , Samiyam, The Alchemist , Christian Rich... and guest vocals/instrumentals from Thundercat , Frank Ocean, DOOM , Om'mas Keith, Action Bronson , and his fellow Odd Future cohorts. Earl Sweatshirt quietly released "WHOA" late Monday-Tuesday night and eventually proceeded to break The Internet; Tyler, The Creator contributes a few ferocious bars, as well as directorial duties [Wolf Haley] for it's terribly AWESOME zonked out music video. I mean, getting introspective and deep is cool and all... But I can really...

Who is J*DaVeY , you might ask? Genre-blending Los Angeles -based duo made up of Jack Davey (female) and Brook D'Leau (male). Eventhough they've been fairly active on the music scene since 2007, J*DaVeY are just now prepping the wide release of their debut album: New Designer Drug . Their unique fusion of Funk -infused Hip-Hop/Punk has been very positively received by fans and critics alike, yet highly bootlegged; Former record label, Warner Bros. showed little-no support and as a result... The Beauty In Distortion & The Land of The Lost, Boudoir Synema: The Great Mistapes , and Evil Christian Cop: The Great Mistapes #2 were essentially released independently between 2005-11. J*DaVeY have now successfully broken loose from their Warner Bros. contract... New Designer Drug will now be self-released on Jack & Brook 's own label, ILLAV8R this coming Nov. 22nd. Eager fans can soon snag up a [digital] copy for the fair price of $2.99, along with a companion ...