The Witzard

Monday morning, self-described "Rap singer, song-writer, beat-maker, and pal" Donovan "ialive" Phillips quietly announced he'll be releasing his fourth (fifth?) solo studio album, I'LL WAIT FOREVER , later this month. It will be his fourth consecutive release with Baltimore-based Cold Rhymes Records run and operated by Dan "Height" Keech & MISTER AKA Cool Guy Bry . We first heard about ialive through an interview posted by John "Jumbled" Bachman on his blog a few years back with both Donnie & Darko The Super , together, billed as The Hellhole Store . ialive 's Height Keech -produced TIMEWAVE ZERO (2017) and self-produced follow-up, DON'T DO NOTHING (2019) were, easily, two of our favorite Hip-Hop albums of the last few years. I'LL WAIT FOREVER is the direct follow-up to ialive 's Odds & Ends-style 2019 EP, ODD ORTS , which boasts remixes from both Juan Cosby & Unsung. Now, it appears as though this...

Man Bites Dog Records (MBDR) is a Woodbridge, Virginia-based Hip-Hop imprint. It's run by CEO/Founder R.M.L. AKA Ryan, VP/Director A&R Roc Marciano, and main producer/studio engineer Kount Fif. Their current roster consists of Roc Marciano, AG Da Coroner, Playdough, Bronze Nazareth, Stu Bangas, Vanderslice, Esoteric, Eddie B, and more. MBDR's back catalog additionally consists of critically-acclaimed releases from the likes of ANKHLEJOHN, Copywrite, Curly Castro, Blue Sky Black Death AKA BSBD, Illogic & Blockhead, Wu-Tang Clan's Killah Priest, and Vast Aire. Earlier this year, Man Bites Dog Records released a phenomenal joint effort from Uncommon Nasa & Kourt Fif entitled City As School boasting features throughout from Guilty Simpson, Tek from Smif-N-Wessun, Sadat X, Shortrock, DJ Ragz, and Last Sons' DJ Furious P. Happy Holidays by Man Bites Dog Records Now, just before year's end, MBDR have returned with their second proper release of 2019; Happy ...

Short Fuze is an Uncommon Records affiliate, who I've personally been listening to and conversing with online since, at least, 2016. It was then when Short Fuze released Autonomy Music with Uncommon Nasa AKA NASA . Short Fuze & Nasa previously collaborated together on a 2010 album, Lobotomy Music, and 2011 follow-up/remix EP, Toxicology Music. In fact, earlier this year, Uncommon Nasa & Short Fuze debuted their official/re-branded collaboration as Guillotine Crowns on "Champions" on Last Sons' Nasa-produced album, CHEKHOV'S GUN. It appears as though, this whole time, since about 2009, Short Fuze has been on an indefinite hiatus from his main group, W.A.S.T.E.L.A.N.D.S. , which was initially formed in 2000; in its earliest incarnation, W.A.S.T.E.L.A.N.D.S. consisted of Short Fuze & Augury , while third emcee, Taiyamo Denku joined later in 2001. During their initial 10-year run, W.A.S.T.E.L.A.N.D.S. released four albums, Seasons Change , Rule...

"So much about the duo, Last Sons, goes against the grain of what most of today's Rap fans think of when they hear a the words "Rap duo." The two most obvious deviations are the group's make-up (rapper & DJ) and where they call home, Nottingham, UK. Now I know the old heads are currently yelling at me that the only true duos are ones consisting of a DJ and a rapper—insert joke about DJ Jazzy Jeff getting thrown out by Uncle Phil—but even in many of those classic duos, the DJ was the one making the beats, but here, Furious P is manning the 1's & 2's and adding that extra oomph to the producer's musical background, handled on Chekhov's Gun by Uncommon Nasa. As for the Nottingham aspect, many US Rap fans have constantly had some sort of hang up about English emcees, but, then, in the same breath, say they "love" Slick Rick or 21 Savage. So, let us end that issue right now: we rarely have problems with other dialects or accents...

Chekhov's Gun by Last Sons For at least a few years now, I've been speaking with UK emcee Duke01 (@DukeBinary) effectively one 1/2 of Last Sons , about their long-rumored full-length debut to be produced by Uncommon Nasa . Merely separated by an ocean, Staten Island, NY -based producer/emcee, Uncommon Nasa , has been working with Nottingham, UK -bred Duke01 and his in-house DJ/turntablist, Furious P , since about 2014. Duke01 's Steroid Stereo (Orange Edition) EP was released in collaboration with Nasa 's Uncommon Records and features cuts throughout from Furious P . Now, nearly five years later, Last Sons & Uncommon Nasa have reunited for their aforementioned Steroid Stereo follow-up that's now being billed as Chekhov's Gun ; a couple weeks ago, I received an early press advance of Last Sons' Chekhov's Gun and trust me, it's well worth the wait! Still about a month ahead of Chekhov's Gun's March 15th world-wide "street da...

Acid Lab Records (ALR) is a Los Angeles-based record label/crew established in 2011; it's members include BeOND , Express Fresh, Gajah , Myk Mansun, Olmeca , OneWerd, Upword , and 3-man emcee posse, Acid Reign AKA Gajah, BeOND & Olmeca . ALR 's members have released a wide array of solo and collaborative projects since 2011 with each other and a handful of affiliates and frequent collaborators, including Kenny Segal , Le Parasite, Willie Green , Japanese emcee MC GEBO, Chrono Triggers , Herrmutt Lobby, Mute Speaker , Destruct, Scotty "Sixo" Trimble , Awkward, and Uncommon Nasa on Gajah 's Hand of Gold Are Always Cold . While Acid Lab Records features a wide variety of talent, all of which can be streamed or purchased on ALR 's Bandcamp page, this very piece will primarily focus on Gajah & Mute Speaker ... hailing from Los Angeles and Cambodia , respectively, Gajah & Mute Speaker are currently gearing up to release their third collaborative ...

717 (part I) by Mugwampers Mugwampers are a Hip-Hop crew, collective, art-house, etc. hailing from Livingston, Scotland consisting of founding members, emcee SaIGO and producer 'i's . Over the course of the last few months, Mugwampers have unleashed a collection of "warm-up" projects, including 'i's failure.to.communicate and feature-filled .and then there was flowers and SaIGO 's 'i's -produced spoken word project, ANOTHER TIME MAYBE . . Now, Mugwampers have returned with their first official long-form project, 717 (Part I.) A sprawling 5-track EP with sonic benchmarks and Bandcamp tags ranging from Electronic to Hip-Hop/Rap , Metal to Spoken Word , Abstract Hip-Hop to Ambient , Plunderphonics to Screamo . 717 EP1 is the first in a series of three planned EP's Mugwampers have recently recorded, which will each focus on various styles and sub-genres of Hip-Hop . Ahead of 717 (Part I) SaIGO & 'i's unleashed a mus...

Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop crew consisting of beat-maker and producer Chris McCormick AKA 'i's and emcee Aaron Bonnar AKA SaIGO and collectively hailing from Livingston, Scotland. Although, they have yet to release a proper full-length collaborative project, SaIGO & 'i's been communicating through social media since 2014, working together, actively recording material, and earnestly started building their brand last Fall. 'i's has quietly released an album entitled failure.to.communicate and a 6-track compilation EP dubbed .and then there was flowers under the Mugwampers banner/Bandcamp page within just the last two months. Nestled amongst a who's-who of featured guests including billy woods, s.al AKA Ruby Yacht's Safari Al, Uncommon Nasa, and cunabear, 'i's & SaIGO slipped out their first collaborative track attributed to Mugwampers, "white liez," on .and then there was flowers. However, I can positively assure you, Mug...

Chris McCormick AKA 'i's is an Ambient Hip-Hop/Electronic producer and beat-maker hailing from Livingston, Scotland . Many of you might remember him from a The Witzard post back in 2016: 'i's —then know as ('i's') —along with all these fingers (now known as Gould '72 ) and Butch Dawson , produced beats hand-selected and gloriously re-used by Future Islands frontman Sam Herring under his rapping alter-ego, Hemlock Ernst . 'i's is now part of Mugwampers , a rapper-producer duo/crew with emcee SaIGO , which seems to also, be functioning as a label, imprint, brand, and Odd Future -like creative collective. " Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop duo that draw ideals from the abstraction of art, meddling in Experimental Hip-Hop , Ambient, Jazz , Plunderphonics , Punk , Metal, and whatever we like; we will just see where a session takes us. Mugwampers are the least important important people you have never heard of," 'i's rec...

I Had An Accident Records (IHAA) is a Spokane -based tape label we've grown particularly fond of in recent months, if you haven't yet already noticed. IHAA is owned and operated by one Damien Miller (@damienbtc74) - yes, that's in fact, the same "Damien" from Luke Sick & Damien 's phenomenal, yet incredibly too short EP, Strike The Clutch . First recommended to me by John "Jumbled" Bachman , I unfortunately, wasn't able to score one of Luke Sick & Damien 's extremely limited edition tapes, but Strike The Clutch was highlighted within The Witzard 's Rap EP Wrap-up this past March. Damien was actually, gifted the label from former I Had An Accident owner and founder Justin Bieler with his first "official" IHAA release being Mathias Kruse x Brenky 's Eustress / Wormhole from May 2016. I Had An Accident has released tapes and digital albums featuring the likes of Noise/Hip-Hop 's finest beat-makers, emce...

Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months or recently awoke from a coma—we're terribly sorry for 2017!—Beat-maker Bedrock (BMB) is a new, recurring column here at The Witzard; initially, the brainchild of Baltimore-based beatsmith John "Jumbled" Bachman, BMB simply asks beat-makers and aspiring producers to highlight 3-5 of their personal favorite albums, which, early on, helped shape their overall sound and style. I'm proud to present to you our first Beat-maker Bedrock column 2018 and 14th overall features a playlist selected and meticulously arranged by New York-based rapper-producer and We Are The Karma Kids founder Lt Headtrip—or just "Headtrip" for production work. Following his critically-acclaimed 2017 album, Comedy of The Filtbeast , Lt Headtrip teamed up with The GreenHouse Studio/Backwoodz Studioz producer and engineer to curate LNYCHPIN; described on Bandcamp as "a full-length collaborative album featuring 16 ...

"BRZOWSKI is a touring Post-Rap artist hailing from the icy wastes of New England. This road-worn vocalist has been regarded as a standard-bearer for Avant-Hip-Hop since his first release in 2001. Always prescient, often verbose, never for the faint-of-heart," reads BRZOWSKI ("BRZO" for short)'s Bandcamp Bio. He's done over 1,000 live performances, released three critically-acclaimed albums, four mixtapes, five EP's, and two 7-inch singles, as well countless featured appearances with a who's-who of seasoned Indie Hip-Hop vets. BRZOWSKI has been steadily touring with a wide array of projects since 1993 and has logged road hours in support of Atmosphere, Astronautalis, billy woods, Brother Ali, Busdriver, Cage, Ceschi, Doug E. Fresh, El-P, The Gaslamp Killer, MURS, Open Mike Eagle, Sage Francis, solo, and Uncommon Nasa. BRZO initially emailed me back in July, praising my recent published works with Height Keech, E. Grizzly, and Lt Headtrip, with a p...