The Witzard

London -based music producer Mark Ronson simply has NO BOUNDS; we're talking about the fearless genre-blending visionary who single-handedly spearheaded Amy Winehouse & The Dap-Kings' 21st century Doo-Wop revival, or revamped "New-Wop" sound, produced Lily Allen 's early Reggae/Dancehall -indebted hits, and has since worked with everyone from Duran Duran to Billy Joel -sampling Rap -singer Action Bronson . Ronson's own New-Wop -indebted Uptown Special is quite easily one of the year's greatest mainstream success stories and arguably, an "underground sleeper," due in part to the assistance of Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker and Miike Snow multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wyatt . Mark Ronson recently decided to re-team with buddies Parker and Wyatt for the first time since recording Uptown Special , along with guitarist Kirin J. Callinan and Jay Bratten on Moog synthesizer, to record a live in-studio cover of Queens of The Stone Age ...

"Last year on the Yeezus tour, someone gave Kanye West a single to listen to: It was "Experience," by Kacy Hill , a 20-year-old singer who happened to be one of his back-up dancers. Kanye met with Hill after his Atlantic City show, and immediately signed her to his label, G.O.O.D. Music ," NY Mag eloquently transcribed within their 'Top 10 New Female Musicians to See This Summer' featurette. While, as DJ Booth adversely points out, "Experience" was initially released back in December 2013 to little fanfare, only to be re-released on G.O.O.D. Music nearly a year later; "Experience" still remains Hill's lone Futuristic Indie Pop/R&B -reminiscent piece of work, although, now it's set to be included within her forthcoming proper debut, Bloo EP . Kacy Hill 's G.O.O.D. Music/Very G.O.O.D. Beats label-mates and arsenal of possible collaborators now includes the likes of talented industry-worn artists and producers su...

Not only have veteran rapper-producers Killer Mike & El-P become something of long-overdue " Hip-Hop royalty," their now-infamous handgun and fist Run The Jewels (RTJ) hashtag-friendly logo has become forever immortalized on a batch of limited-run Marvel comic book covers. "One of my heroes, @therealelp , made a incredible instrumental piece for our end credits. I couldn't be any more excited," Fantastic Four re-boot director @joshuatrank exuberantly Tweeted nearly one month ago, forever cementing RTJ 's legacy within The Marvel Universe ; that very track, now titled "Another Body," was unveiled over this past weekend. First, in the form of a painfully brief 20-second snippet. Then, it was premiered on El-P & Killer Mike 's Beats 1 online WRTJ radio show and now, it has been strategically leaked to The Internet in its full-length form. '"another body" produced by me with [co-production] by the gawd, @littlesha...

Despite, or maybe even because of, the fact that critically-acclaimed Queens emcee Despot has yet to release his oft-delayed, nearly 10 years in-the-making debut, We're All Excited , he's somehow still able to "rub shoulders" and get a casual Sunday brunch with industry heavyweights like Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and 21-22 Jump Street leading man, Jonah Hill . Fresh on the heels of his recent Evan "E*VAX" Mast -produced lead single lifted from his seemingly soon forthcoming album, Despot has unleashed his "first" proper music video for "House of Bricks;" although, he's previously appeared on film alongside Mr. Muthaf**kin' eXquire , Das Racist, Vampire Weekend , a pre- Run The Jewels El-P & Killer Mike , Sky Ferreira, Chromeo , and Santigold. "Me and Evan [Mast] have been talking about this album since I met him, so we have hypothetically been working on this album for close to 10 years... Most of th...

"I'm the epitome of all fly sh*t — jacket to the shoe sole / Two shooters, Flanagan, Caruso / Fly girl stuffed the drug in her caboose-o / "I see Bronson in the chartreuse coupe mo" / My eyes sparkle like a diva's mirror," charismatic sharp-tongued emcee Action Bronson effortlessly rhymes atop producer Tommy Mas' thumping James Bond -esque "Driving Gloves" beat; similar to a Jaylib -style double rapper-producer Underground Hip-Hop pairing, The Alchemist & Oh No are currently preparing to release their third full-length Gangrene album since initially forming back in 2007. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca [2012] left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz, Rock , and Fusion -tinged beats," reads a recent Mass Appeal Records press release, which effectively describes Mas' brooding, Surfaris "Wipe Out" -leaning production work. Est...

"HOW DO YOU DO? HI MATT. SORRY FOR [BEING] LATE. I AM MAIKO . MUNGUNI 'S AGENT. THE VINYL I WANT WAS DECIDED. WHICH PICTURE OF MUNGUNI 'S DO YOU WISH FOR?" read a rather interesting hand-drawn Instagram message I received from Japanese artist @munguni's agent early Friday morning. "I WANT MADLIB 'S NEW EP. 'THE UNNAMED' OUT JULY 18 ON RAPPCATS' POP UP STORE," Maiko specifically requested in exchange for a custom-designed piece of original artwork. Miraculously, I was somehow able to score two screen-printed copies of Trouble Knows Me EP from Rappcats' first limited small batch pressing, which reportedly sold out in just under an hour. Egon & Rappcats then hosted a special one night only live screen-printing pop-up event with Hit & Run following Madlib 's Friday night show at Chicago 's own The Mid ; a second similar event was additionally held yesterday (Saturday, July 18th) at a Los Angeles Rappcats pop-...

Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow has spent the majority of the last six months to a year of his life tediously constructing Hip-Hop beats along with fellow Quakers producer Katalyst for inclusion on new-found collaborator Guilty Simpson 's forthcoming DETROIT'S SON record, but he's currently readying a quick-strike 4-track EP with his other, other Krautrock -inspired band, BEAK> and their "alter ego," KAEB (or BEAK> backwards). Barrow and Bristol -based bandmates Billy Fuller and Matt Williams have released two full-length albums and a few miscellaneous projects since forming BEAK> back in 2009, but KAEB was just recently "formed" as an outlet to be used specifically for recording collaborations; as such with "There's No One," which was "written and filmed in one take [one day last year] at Invada Studios Bristol as part of the 4-track BEAK-KAEB EP ," reads an Invada Records -sanctioned press release. ...

"Local man who never does anything quietly releases single on a Sunday afternoon," @despotroast half-jokingly Tweeted this past Sunday afternoon, but truth is: 33-year-old rhyming Queens native Alec Reinstein was initially signed to El-P 's now-dissolved label Def Jux from 2004-10 and has been actively working, scrapping, and repeatedly re-working his "debut" album, either titled We're All Excited , Hooray for Me , or Jerry , ever since to no avail. Despot has almost made an intern "career" out of recording nearly flawless guest verses for his friends, having recorded with everyone from Vampire Weekend to Meyhem Lauren . His latest single, "House of Bricks," which totals just about less than five overall releases, was produced by RATATAT multi-instrumentalist Evan "E*VAX" Mast and seems to date back to about August 2012 in it's earliest incarnation; Despot performed the track, then titled "House Made of Br...

"Fresh off the heels of compiling a musically diverse compilation for GTAV 's Welcome to Los Santos , The Alchemist and Oh No are back, bringing their Gangrene noise on a whole other level with the release of their long-awaited third full-length record You Disgust Me ," Gangrene 's Nas -fronted label, Mass Appeal Records described in the Hip-Hop duo's latest Soundcloud press release. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz , Rock and Fusion -tinged beats;" not limited to, but including samples of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and 1960-70's Dutch Blues-Rock band, Shocking Blue . Frequent collaborators Action Bronson and Evidence appear alongside Gangrene new-comers Sean Price , veteran emcee Havoc of Mobb Deep, Your Old Droog , Fashawn, and Chuck Stranglers ... although we still have yet to hear that long-rum...

"For a while now, Guilty Simpson has been working on a new album with Katalyst of Quakers, the 30+ member rap supergroup who came out on Stones Throw a couple years ago. Expect an album soon. Until then, here's one fresh from the lab – "Vanguard Organization,"' reads Stones Throw's latest press release uploaded earlier today; a mere uncanny, perfectly-timed coincidence, Stones Throw have unleashed Guilty Simpson's "Vanguard Organization," which he self-describes as "a throw-away cut [that] isn't on the album," as I've concurrently been piecing together an all-inclusive 15-question interview for this very site. The Detroit native whose actively preparing his second full-length for Stones Throw, DETROIT'S SON, candidly covers everything from his "lost" 2005 album recorded with J Dilla, being mentioned in the same sentence as Radiohead, the current status of OJ Simpson 2 and Random Axe 2, working with elusive emce...

"'The Magic Morning" was written and directed by +@uteur Patrick Stickles in a display of artistic hubris that no buzz band today could begin to attempt... WATCH "Our Hero" awake to a world of wonder! GASP at the shocking secret of "The Lookalike!" MARVEL at the mysterious transformative powers of the Vernal Equinox ! DANCE to those which are already being called " [Titus Andronicus'] Greatest Hits Yet," reads a rather in-depth press release recently uploaded to Titus Andronicus' punked out webpage. "UNDERSTAND the underlying themes and motifs that elevate [The Most Lamentable Tragedy] far beyond the petty constraints of a mere " Rock album" and into the realm of that which the German philosopher K.F.E. Trahndorff first called, in 1827, Gesamtkunstwerk ( "total art" —look it up)," +@ continued. The New Jersey -based Heartland Punk Rock band are of course referring to their soon forthcomin...