The Witzard

"for those who spent tuesday in a coma or in the wilderness [here's] RUN THE JEWELS "BLOCKBUSTER NIGHT PART 1," @therealelp Tweeted Wednesday afternoon; he's of course referring to the 100 second snippet he and partner-in-crime Killer Mike let loose within the last 36-48 hours. Run The Jewels have been hard at work on the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed self-titled debut, reportedly even recording tracks with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha . The forthcoming album, tentatively titled "Run The Jewels 2," is seemingly nearing completion according to El-P 's stream of recent Twitter updates; "RTJ2 is one day away from being fully mixed... one song from having #RTJ2 mixed. That's 4 albums in 2 years for those keeping count. f*ck with me." While it's only about a 1:40-long snippet, Killer Mike & El-P still managed to deliver three verses-worth of sharp-tong...

Alright, full disclosure: I've been in top secret email transmission with Baltimore -based Noise-Rock band Dope Body since around mid-April and I've been fully aware that they were planning to drop an album's-worth of new material around September/October, too; that album, now titled LIFER , is currently slated for an October 23rd release on Drag City Records . While I'm not entirely sure if I discovered Dope Body 's last album, Natural History (2012) or drummer David Jacober 's solo cassette, Water Karaoke first, I guess my initial interaction with the band was a fateful 14-question interview conducted with Jacober a few years ago. LIFER was recorded back in January 2014 after roughly 19 months of non-stop touring behind Natural History , following a brief hiatus to work on the members' outer-band outlets: Nerftoss , Player Press, Holy Ghost Party! and frontman Andrew Laumann 's gallery-displayed visual art exhibits. Drag City further describ...

It's almost hard to believe that chef-turned rapper Action Bronson 's independently pressed Dr. Lecter album was already released nearly four years ago. He's somehow managed to unknowingly charm over middle [white] America , whilst rapping almost exclusively about fine dining, pro wrestling, sexual exploits, and drug trade. My beautiful girlfriend and I have been lucky enough to witness Bronson's charismatic stage show twice thus far, on the 2 High 2 Die Tour alongside Danny Brown & Trash Talk and as part of the XXL Freshmen 2013 Tour with Joey Bada$$ & Big K.R.I.T ... both ahead of the release of his Blue Chips 2 mixtape, which is quite arguably his most cohesive body of work yet. While we're still patiently waiting for Action Bronson 's long-rumored VICE Records debut, tentatively titled "Mr. Wonderful," Spanish production duo Cookin' Soul recently concocted an unofficial remix of Dr. Lecter stand-out, "Get Off My P.P....

"did a song with @SBTRKT called "NEW DORP, NEW YORK" - listen 2 the radio 1 rip if u like" Columbia scholar @arzE Koenig Tweeted late Tuesday afternoon. The mysterious masked London -based producer has been hinting at the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed self-titled 2011 LP for quite some time now and recently released a series of mid-album Transitions EP's . Wonder Where We Land will see a wide release on Young Turks this forthcoming September 22-23rd; SBTRKT has recruited his frequent collaborators Sampha and Jessie Ware along with Chairlift songstress Caroline Polachek , A$AP Ferg, Warpaint , Denai Moore, Koreless , Raury, and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig . The aforementioned Koenig-featuring track, "NEW DORP, NEW YORK," serves as the album's lead/teaser single; it's a weirdly fitting modern mash-up of Post-Dubstep break-beats and a slightly re-tooled infamous line cherry-picked from "Ballroom Blitz" (...

"Tired of [people] making this an issue of anything but the music. While you were spending time looking pretty, I was working on my craft," self-proclaimed neck-beard rapper @jonwayne recently sounded off on Twitter ; "I can lose weight, cut my hair, trim my beard, get a tan.... none of that is going to make me a better emcee or producer. So, shut the f*ck up." Stones Throw sums up another recent Twitter -based turn of events pretty simply, "He made the announcement [Sunday] night, and here's the track. Simple as that. See you next week." Jonwayne effortlessly laces up 32 bars over an unspecified J Dilla beat, which he's re-dubbed "No" aka the first in a newly-announced Monday afternoon freestyles series. It was preceded last week by an unofficial starter track, "Special Herbs Medley," wherein Jonwayne rapped over 20 cut-and-pasted DOOM instrumentals in just under five minutes. While Dilla 's characteristically of...

Boston -bred multi-instrumentalist Arthur Baker worked, producer, or wrote music for popular artists like Bruce Springsteen , Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan , New Order, and Hall & Oates during the 1980-90's, not to mention producing Afrika Bambaataa 's legendary Electro-Hip-Hop fusion track, "Planet Rock" (1982). Baker recently unearthed a long-lost recording that was originally called "Can't Put No Price On Love" and was first recorded to tape about 35 years ago; he then sent the untouched 1979 masters over to MSTRKRFT producer Al-P for additional "looping, cutting, and mixing," who in turn, managed to recruit Chromeo frontman and self-proclaimed "Funk Lord" Dave 1 . While "Can't Put No Price On Love" was initially intended for a planned 80's-era collaborative album with Filipino-African American Latin Soul musician Joe Bataan , Baker's then label, London Records USA suddenly shut down and any furthe...

I'll be the first to readily admit that former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis' latest Beck -produced single, "Just One of The Guys" isn't exactly your typical hyper-aggressive/ Boom-Bap fan-fare here at The Witzard . But regardless, you really can't deny the inherent cuteness behind Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart , and relative new-comer Brie Larson (21 Jump Street) acting as part of Lewis' faux all-female backing band. For those not familiar with Rilo Kiley , Jenny Lewis' past solo work, or her guest appearances alongside The Postal Service and Bright Eyes , I'd almost sonically equate "Just One of The Guys" to Hole 's 90's-early 2000's lighter side or for lack of a better term, Soft Chick Rock . I'm not entirely sure if Jenny Lewis was in charge of the ladies' "business casual" white and rainbow accented pant-suits, but she definitely self-directed it's colorful video... which oddly enough,...

While it's largely unclear exactly how Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune and British Electronic producer Four Tet managed to record their recent series of cross-continental collaborations, I'd like to think they followed the Jaylib model; legend has it that J Dilla & Madlib 's lone Stones Throw album, Champion Sound , was painstakingly assembled from dozens of beat/vocal CD-R's that were mailed back-and-forth between Los Angeles and Detroit . Rome Fortune & Four Tet unexpectedly released their second track together, "Lights Low" Thursday afternoon, which Fortune vaguely alluded is "Track 2 of ? between myself and Four Tet ..." For those not exactly familiar with either artists' work, "Lights Low" and "One Time For" don't sound totally dissimilar from Daft Punk 's Electro -tinged Hip-Hop collaborations with Kanye and Jay Z , "Stronger" and "Computerized" (respectively). Four Tet r...

It's pretty wild to think that 17-year-old emcee Bishop Nehru 's major label debut is entirely produced by mysterious rapper-producer MF DOOM and will likely see a release on Nas' newly-established Mass Appeal Records imprint. While he's currently touring across Europe with Nasty Nas himself, Lex Records unleashed "Darkness" (sub-titled HBU ) late Monday afternoon, the first taste of Bishop Nehru & DOOM 's long-rumored NehruvianDOOM LP. It's seemingly a dusty horn-assisted beat culled from DOOM 's expansive 10-volume Special Herbs instrumental series, which @BishopNehru recently told a Twitter follower is "the only one" harvested from the nearly 90 track collection; Nehru promptly replied, "of course he raps" when brazenly asked by another fan if " DOOM [is] gonna be spitting on the album or just producing?" Bishop Nehru self-directed "Darkness"' s companion under his birth name Markel ...

Aside from his pseudo-brother-in-law Kanye West , I've never really heard tell of a rapper readily associating himself with Kardashian -bred entrepreneur Scott Disick ; until the red bearded charmer himself, Action Bronson effortlessly proclaimed, "Yo, it's the rap Scott Disick / Come through the f*ckin' block with some hot lizards." Bronson's long-time friend and Well Done collaborator Statik Selektah recruited him for the introductory verse on his latest single, "The Imperial." While it's only been out for a few days, AllHipHop has already dubbed Selektah's recent efforts "the unofficial Make-a-Wish foundation for dream rap collaborations," presumably for pairing Bronson up with Slaughterhouse member Royce Da 5'9" and veteran Roots emcee Black Thought . Now, try to stay with me here, but Action Bronson really seems to be the missing link between everyone involved here: he previously worked with Statik Selekt...

Death Grips have always been a band to defy convention; whether it be signing with a major label Epic deal and ultimately getting dropped for leaking private emails, self-releasing not one, but three full-length albums (one complete with dick pic cover art), cancelling an entire 2012 tour to record without informing nay of the pre-booked venues, and working on a mysterious [probably fake] short film with Robert Pattinson & Colin Hanks . Just last night, Death Grips posted a message scrawled across a napkin on their Facebook page, which reads: "We are now at our best and so Death Grips is over. We have officially stopped. All currently scheduled live dates are canceled. Our upcoming double album "the powers that b" will still be delivered worldwide later this year via Harvest/Third Worlds Records . Death Grips was and always has been a conceptual art exhibition anchored by sound and vision. Above and beyond a "band." To our truest fans, please stay l...

First, it was their suspiciously unprofessional @MallardAir Twitter handle, vaguely Street Boners -esque Chromeo's Airport Styles Instagram page, and their recently-announced 36-date Frequent Flyer Tour ; all of this kinda seemed like an elaborate promotional campaign for Chromeo 's latest White Women single, coincidentally titled "Frequent Flyer" or a possible tour with brother-band, Duck Sauce . Just this past Monday, Dave 1 & P-Thugg have teamed up with Funny or Die to present a hilarious Mallard Air in-flight safety video that dually functions as a music video for, you guessed it... "Frequent Flyer." The Funk Lordz bring their self-described and critically-acclaimed brand of "Larry David Funk" to Mallard 's above average airline safety video, which includes precautionary guidelines like "in the event of a water landing, disco floor lights will illuminate the way." One extremely lucky Mallard flight attendant, of c...