The Witzard

Just in time for Hanukkah, Your Old Droog AKA YOD has returned with his third full-length album of 2019. Jewelry was surprise-released on Monday, December 23, 2019—the first full day of Hanukkah—along with a special holiday blessing from Droog : "A Chanukah Celebration." Jewelry is the proper follow-up to both It Wasn't Even Close & Transportation , which were surprise-released in succession in a very similar fashion earlier this year. Jewelry is a sonic celebration of Your Old Droog 's own Jewish heritage, which he is now officially revealing publicly for the first time. For Jewelry , YOD recruited Tha God Fahim , Quelle Chris, Preservation , Edan, and CohenBeats on the production end of things with frequent collaborator Mach-Hommy as Executive Producer. Droog receives lyrical assists from the likes of Mach-Hommy , fellow Jewish emcee Matisyahu, The Metal Face Villain himself, MF DOOM , and Tha God Fahim. Jewelry 's companion cover artwork was desi...

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...

Transportation by Your Old Droog Your Old Droog 's newly-minted Bandcamp page lacks much in lieu of a typical Artist Bio/Release Description and only contains a simple proclamation: " Y.O.D. is the best." Droog has come a long way from his early days as a Ukrainian-American immigrant, whom most people initially thought was an alter-ego of Nas; early on in his career, Your Old Droog received stamps-of-approval from both Sean Price & Prodigy (Mobb Deep,) as well as Sascha Jenkins, Edan, Homeboy Sandman, and countless others. I can recall the mass amounts of hype, mystery, and sheer confusion surrounding 2014's self-released Your Old Droog EP/LP , but my personal favorite Droog release was 2015's KINISON EP with its Rock "N" Roll & Stand Up Comedy-indebted edge. Your Old Droog 's second proper studio full-length, PACKS , was released in early 2017 and boasts collaborations with Heems AKA Himanshu (Swet Shop Boys,) Danny Brown, Chris Crac...

"My kitchen got more ZZ Top records in it than yours... Link to 5+ minutes of elite rhyming by my brother @yourolddroog in The Bio..." Edan (@edanexists) posted on his Instagram page yesterday afternoon. "Witch In The Kitchen" (Episode 1) is just the latest collaboration from reclusive, yet extremely prolific rapper/producer/DJ Edan and Brooklyn -bred Ukrainian-American emcee Your Old Droog . Edan previously produced/co-produced four tracks on Droog 's 2017 major label debut, PACKS for FatBeats . Edan , also, played guitar on the RTNC -produced title track from Your Old Droog & Wiki 's 2017 collaborative EP, What Happened To Fire? While the original track was produced by recent Bun B collaborator Statik Selektah , there's video online of Your Old Droog, Wiki & Edan rehearsing "Vigilantes" together before a June 2017 Red Bull Sound Select Presents performance at The Knitting Factory . However, it appears as though "Wi...

While Port Arthur, Texas emcees Bun B & Pimp C were commonly referred to as Underground Kingz (U.G.K.) I would strongly attest that Broownsville emcee Sean Price AKA Sean P! AKA Ruckus/Ruck from Heltah Skeltah was, indeed, and "Underground" King in his own right. Sean P , unfortunately, only spent 43 years on this Green Earth, although, he had been rapping since 1995 after his crew, Boot Camp Clik , appeared on Smif-N-Wessun 's Wreck Records debut, Dah Shinin' . Honestly, my earliest personal memories of Sean P! date back to my 12 years spent stocking shelves at Shop Rite ; sometimes, at night, I used to help my buddy, Jared Jenkins , stock the bread shelves and he was always bumpin' and big uppin' Sean Price . I guess, what really stuck with me first, aside from his relentless rhymes, was Sean 's tendency to take his name and blatantly insert it into common Pop culture phenoms, movie titles, etc. which was a great promotional tool in the...

Bar for bar, Homeboy Sandman is easily, one of the most talented and somehow still, criminally under-rated emcees in all of Hip-Hop ! I've personally been a Sandman fan since his 2012 Stones Throw debut, First of a Living Breed and since, he's worked with the likes of Blu , Jonwayne, Paul White , Jake One, L'Orange , 2 Hungry Bros. RJD2 , Mono En Stereo FKA El RTNC, 88-Keys , and maybe, most notably, Aesop Rock ; between 2015-17, Aesop & Sand infested the masses with Lice , Lice 2: Still Buggin' and Triple Fat Lice to wide-spread critical and fan acclaim. While we're still waiting for a proper Lice full-length, Homeboy Sandman has teamed up with kindred spirit, Brooklyn -based DJ, producer, and emcee, Edan , for a brand spankin' new collaborative effort. Edan is arguably, one of the greatest and most eclectic artists in all of Hip-Hop and while he hasn't released a proper album since 2005's Beauty & The Beat , he's been moderately a...

Last month, Stones Throw (@stonesthrow) mysteriously posted " @edanexists & @homeboysandman are working on some music together, which will debut at our SXSW showcase this Friday" on their Instagram page, which has since garnered 2,667+ Likes. As should be expect, for anyone interested in Indie/Underground Hip-Hop , a few of my writer friends and I went nuts on Rap Twitter . About for weeks have passed with no additional mention of Sandman & Edan 's rumored collaborative efforts from Stones Throw . Just this morning, on a whim, I decided to check Stones Throw 's home page and BAM! there it was: "Homeboy Sandman & Edan #NeverUseTheInternetAgain" —right there in the middle column of the front page. It seems as though no one (aside from RAW DRIVE ) had noticed or even checked Stones Throw 's site for the past 7 hours or so, this including myself! While on a roll about the downsides of The Internet , Sandman jokingly(?) rhymes: "Inter...

"Today, New York -bred emcees Wiki & Your Old Droog are sharing a new collaborative EP. What Happened to Fire? is a 5-track joint effort that demonstrates a chemistry between Wiki & Droog that could only come from both artists growing up in New York City ; narrated by found samples of Kool Keith , the focus of the EP for Wiki & Droog was having fun while putting down the best bars possible," read a press release I received late last week from Nick X Dierl at Orienteer (formerly Liberal Arts and Life or Death PR ). What Happened to Fire? EP was recorded in tandem with an art installation under the same name, which ran at Romero Gallery in late 2016. " What Happened to Fire? was recorded at Wiki 's Chinatown apartment as the installation was being formulated and displayed and the art that accompanies the EP contains imagery from the gallery." Your Old Droog was compared to Nas early on in his career and was even believed to be some sort ...

"Bringing their Northern Coal Music to the masses once again, Smoove & Turrell, our favorite Newcastle bunch return with a new record, Crown Posada , and a new single "You Could’ve Been a Lady." Today, we premiere the video for the track, produced by David Macgill and directed by Smoove & Turrell themselves. These chaps have been holding their own for quite sometime, broadcasting a blend of Soul and Electronic music that has propelled them from their North East base to international festival favorites. They are working-class to the soul (pun intended), and this first track on the record is a beautiful re-working of the Hot Chocolate track. While the original, slower and sweet with it’s heavy guitars can move you like it’s 1971, and the April Wine version is a little more upbeat and 70’s radio style, the Smoove & Turrell version is updated, more Dance-friendly, and has that back beat that knocks. Let us not forget the organ that winds itself in and out throu...

" Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman are back together once more, to deliver a new strain of Lice to fans worldwide. People of Earth , we are proud to announce our new FREE EP— Lice 2: Still Buggin' —available for download NOW, via Rhymesayers Entertainment and Stones Throw Records ... Now, go share Lice [2] with everyone you know," Homeboy Sandman & Aesop Rock wrote within a rather spur-of-the-moment joint statement to accompany their 2015 Lice EP follow-up, Lice 2: Still Buggin' yesterday morning; their latest "infestation" of Lice showcases production from the likes of Dan Hayden , Mondee , SoberMindedMusiC , Your Old Droog producer (El) RTNC , and Aesop Rock himself. Bristol -based producer Dan Hayden , who hand-crafted the beat for "Zilch," was recently profiled within Homeboy Sandman 's inaugural self-penned Bandcamp Daily column titled, Big Ups: Homeboy Sandman Picks His Favorite Hip-Hop Artists . "Kid has mad range....

Self-described husband, dad, crate-digger, beard cultivator, and Flea Market Funk founder DJ Prestige heroically recounted "Bug Juice" as "pure Funk with no option on Soundcloud for the Funk genre, this may be the record that makes them put Funk in there, seriously. This instrumental is heavy, and J-Zone's drum break towards the end solidifies this as one of our faves of 2016." J-Zone & Pablo Martin are currently holed up in the studio readying their "Bug JUice" 7-inch EP for September with a full-length album to likely follow as soon as October or November. J-Zone's own on-site govillaingo.com biography additionally notes that he's currently "also preparing for the roll out of SuperBlack," yet another super-group formed with the likes of legendary De La Soul-affiliated producer Prince Paul and American TV producer, filmmaker, writer, and The White Mandingos member Sacha Jenkins. "Um, I pretty much think of myself as like ...

"[ "42" is] a song that's literally been in-the-making for over a decade. Wanted to flip this sample since '05 and I finally brought it to a producer and got the job done," Ukrainian-American rapper Your Old Droog , who was widely speculated to be Nas alias at first, recently told Complex upon the premier of his "42 (Forty Deuce)" music video. It was produced by Marco Polo and Droog himself, who together, somehow managed to expertly flip a sample of Nu Shooz 's 1984 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart No.1, "I Can't Wait." "42" was proceeded by its frenzied @CLEOFUS -designed single artwork about two weeks prior, which featured Your Old Droog front and center in an Elmo costume surrounded by a bunch of eclectic New Yorkers , but now, along with his Jonah Schwartz -directed video, makes a lot more sense in retrospect. "It's about a special place that I really used to frequent back in the days. The vi...

Now, I wouldn't exactly go ahead and bet my life on it, but I'm almost positive the first Hip-Hop album I ever bought with my own money was Will Smith's squeaky clean, parent-approved Big Willie Style (1997) and after that, I believe it was the slightly less embarrassing and arguably, far more genre-shaping Power In Numbers (2002) by recently reformed Los Angeles six-piece Jurassic 5. Hip-Hop, as you well know even if you just remotely follow this very publication, is by far one of my all-time favorite genres, along with Hardcore Punk and Indie Rock. Throughout the five or so years I've been single-handedly running The Witzard, I believe I've done a few of these Best of... or year-end lists (most recently, in 2013). While there were a handful of undoubtedly great Indie Rock, R&B, Punk, etc. albums released throughout the course of 2015, I've decided to compile a Hip-Hop-centric Top 10; with that said, here are a few cross-genre honorable mentions worth a s...