The Witzard

Lady Gaga recently teamed up with Hip-Hop Soul/R&B crooner and Phoenix cohort R. Kelly for her latest teaser single, "Do What U Want." The first in a series of a planned weekly singles series leading up to her third studio album, ARTPOP (November 11th); Highsnobiety further described it as "a distinct step away from some of the styles of many of Gaga 's previous songs, less Bowie -derived and more Tina Turner ." But I personally hear lurching rhythmic effects that're reminiscent of "Thriller"' s eerie-sounding central rhythm and seasoned vocal inflections akin to Christina Aguilera . It's kinda more or less along the lines of a socially-conscious "panty-dropper," inter-spliced with semi-prolific lines like, "Do what you want with my body... Write what you want. Say what you want about me." Just mere hours before uploading "Do What U Want" at 12:01am, Lady Gaga ended up posting a number of ...

Snoop Dogg [or Snoop Lion ] has somehow become such an instantly recognizable public figure, that even my 80-something-year-old grandparents are familiar with him. Long before his Reggae-Rap rebirth or Wiz Khalifia -assisted film soundtrack, Snoop Doggy Dogg was one of the earliest pioneers of 1980-90's West Coast "G-Funk;" It's essentially, a long-forgotten trunk-rattling Parliment-Funkadelic -sampling sub-genre of Hip-Hop that was largely produced by either Dr. Dre , Too $hort, or DJ Quik . After a few months of vague social media rumblings, Stones Throw revealed that Snoop Dogg secretly teamed up with Pasadena mega-producer and Funk revivalist Dâm-Funk to recorded an album under the group name 7 Days of Funk . It's kinda mind-boggling that NO ONE has already used that as a nom de plume [title] for something until now!? Stones Throw quietly uploaded "Faden Away" along with the semi-cryptic Facebook message: "NEW MUSIC: Two of ou...

The Lonely Island have now released 3 albums-worth of "Frap" (fake rap) comedy tunes in just under 5 years; While making fun of nearly any and every genre, sub-genre, and lifestyle choice imaginable, it's done so well that Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone 's thinly-veiled/slickly-produced laughable anthems usually manage to surpass their predecessors' initial success. In my personal opinion, "Go Kindergarten" is amongst the strongest and side-jerking material released since Samberg's SNL departure last year. This particular Lonely Island track ingeniously knocks what Stereogum's Miles Bowe has quite cleverly dubbed "commanding club anthems," a trend arguably spearheaded by Lil Jon/Ying Yang Twins' extremely over-played high school dance smash hit, "Get Low" (2003). Preceded by a fairly well-orchestrated, DIY -looking #dancetroupe #lyricvideo a couple weeks ago, "Go Kindergarten" now co...