The Witzard

Sugar Tongue Slim (STS) is a criminally under-rated "Atlantadelphia" -bred rapper and honorary Roots Crew member. From what I can tell, his first recorded appearance was on The Roots' Indie Rock -tinged dark/light "concept album," How I Got Over (2010). STS additionally represents 1/5 of Money Making Jam Boys and his solo output [thusfar] includes: Demand More I-II , Sole Music EP , The Illustrious , and a gaggle of assorted Remixes & Indie Rock flips. After slowly leaking out short, weekly music videos over the course of the past few months, Sugar Tongue Slim finally unveiled his latest Starting Line-Up -produced mixtape effort earlier this morning: GOLD RUSH . It's basically a collection of 15 Top 40 flips (2009-11), which are often slightly re-appropriated with STS' unique storytelling and acute Boom-Bap flourishes. STS and his team of certified in-house gold diggers [producers] hand-selected singles from contemporary artists such as B...

I've been a hardcore music fan for about 10-15 years now; An admitted lover of all things Hip-Hop, Indie Rock , and Punk (Pop Culture). OutKast, Gorillaz , and LCD Soundsystem have been atop my list of favourite artists for some time and were quite arguably the 3 most eclectic musicians of the last decade! So, much to my delight it was pretty exciting to hear about Converse 's latest "3 Artists, 1 Song" installment: Damon Albarn , André 3000 , and James Murphy. "DoYaThing" premiered online earlier today, in conjunction with the release of 4 SPECIAL EDITION Jamie Hewlett -designed Gorillaz "Chucks." Pitchfork 's very own Ryan Dombal reports that while in the studio over 3 days back in September, the eclectic trio also recorded a Dirty 12-minute version of "DoYaThing" in addition to the [previously released] Radio Edit. Gorillaz are set to debut a companion music video and the long version online in the coming weeks. "DoYa...

3 righteous Sheffield, England blokes collectively known as "Arctic Monkeys" initially burst[ed] onto the music scene in early 2006 along with the release of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not . It's essentially a concept album that follows young club-goers, I can still remember picking up a CD [single] copy of "When The Sun Goes Down" @ Hot Topic ha... and the album eventually ended up becoming the fastest-selling debut in British history, even ahead of The Beatles' Please Please Me (1963)! Arctic Monkeys even seem to record @ a lightning-fast speed that's comparable to Classic Rock 's figureheads; Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders , and Nick O'Malley have managed to release 4 albums and 2 EP's over the course of their 10-year career. All the while, recording material with various side projects , Punk bands, award-winning rappers, and deep in the desert with Josh Homme . Arctic Monkeys quietly unveiled the...

Against all odds... Sacramento 's very own Experimental Hip-Hop/Thrash Punk band, Death Grips have now dotted the "I"s and crossed the "T"s of a major label deal with Epic Records. MC Ride (Stefan Burnett) and his motley crew released their second single in just as many weeks, "Get Got" along with the titular announcement just yesterday afternoon. Death Grips previously revealed their plans to liberate 2 full-length albums throughout 2012 and now, we have the semi-complete details: The Money Store is slated for an April 24th release, which will be preceded by a limited-run vinyl pressing on April 21st [ Record Store Day ]... with No Love close behind and expected during Fall '12. Together, the pair of righteous records will act as the proper follow-up to Death Grips' exceptional genre-bending self-released mixtape, Ex-military (2011). Death Grips' in-house producer, Andy Morin will seemingly step behind "the boards" ...

I'm quite pleasantly surprised to admit that in today's world of over-saturated online [Hipster] "Journalism," no one else has snatched up the term, "Renaissance Man" to aptly describe Chicago -bred singer-songwriter/artist, Willis Earl Beal . He gained an initial burst of notoriety and a pseudo-cult following after hanging a number of hand-drawn flyers, complete with his digits, up around town. Beal managed to slip away @ some point in between 2007-09, moving down to Albuquerque, New Mexico , assembled a pick-up band of local musicians, and record a demo CD-R chock-full of simple Blues ditties. After a whirl-wind of media coverage, Willis Earl Beal soon inked a deal with XL Recordings off-shoot label, Hot Charity in 2011-12... a hodgepodge of un-sequenced CD-R's and hissing cassette tapes would eventually wind up being Beal's debut "album:" Acousmatic Sorcery , which the label plans to release on April 3rd. Willis Earl Beal pain...

While on a recent holiday [trip] to "The Windy City," Action Bronson managed to link up with a number of Chicago 's finest up-and-coming musicians: Dangerously accurate rapper Rockie Fresh , sultry songstress Macie Stewart (Kids These Days) , and talented beatsmith Thelonious Martin . Bronsellini proceeds to lace up a descriptive tale of passion, lust, and debauchery over Martin's sparse Jazzy , brass-tinged beat... which is effectively bookended by a modest helping of Rockie Fresh's SWAGGER-filled flow and a dash of Macie Stewart 's Soulfully smooth croon. Quite aptly titled "Dear Heather," the sum of it's various parts essentially equate the story of a joyous fan encounter a la Eminem 's nearly 12-year-old hit, "Stan," but this time complete with a foxy little lady! Action Bronson & Friends' collaborative track is slated to appear on Ruby Hornet 's upcoming compilation, "Closed Sessions" (Vol. 2) . F...

Claire Boucher seems to be flirting with the idea of becoming a "Hip-Hop producer," as of late. The Montreal -based Experimental artist who's alternatively known as "Grimes" is currently on a promotional jaunt for her third full-length and major label debut, Visions . It was liberated across North America just yesterday [Feb. 21st], self-recorded @ Claire Boucher 's apartment over a 3 week period, and then skillfully mixed/mastered along with her manager, Sebastian Cowan . Following a minor water-borne run in with the law (2009), Boucher's "street cred" was slightly boosted. Grimes' initial exploration into the world of Hip-Hop was released in conjunction with Visions : Cadence Weapon - "88." The 2 Canadian -bred artists struck up an Internet -based friendship a few months back and Claire Boucher willingly handed over a bare-bones beat version of "Eight." Cadence Weapon then morphed it into a tender ode to H...