The Witzard's Cowboys & Frechmen "COMPANION PLAN" Remix Challenge: Mantis The Miasma Remix Premiere & "Drowning" Video (NeSCIENCE)

As many of you may remember, a few months ago, we here at The Witzard hosted, assembled, and compiled a 7-track remix contest/compilation dubbed The Witzard's Andy Cooper "COMPANION PLAN" Remix Comp. playlist. It included a selection of original genre-eschewing submissions from Places & Spaces' Naturetone, Djar One, Broken Machine Films Presents... (Illuminated Paths) Australian beat-maker Dros, Mike East, UncleRussie, and Three Tree Posse AKA 3TP's Getro. After receiving a moderate amount of praise from The Witzard's trusty readership, the participating producers, and Andy Cooper and his label, Rocafort Records, I decided to start planning for The Witzard's second remix contest. I soon reached out to my friend, frequent collaborator, and Baltimore-based producer John "Jumbled" Bachman.

Together, we collectively agreed to field an instrumental composition to be flipped, sampled, re-constructed, etc. for this second remix "challenge," as Jumbled cleverly dubbed it. It took a little while to get an artist to fully understand and agree to our remix challenge concept, but we soon settled on New York-based Blues/Jazz quartet Cowboys & Frenchman to supply our "source material." Unfortunately, after more than a month, our deadline came and went, and we only received one full "COMPANION PLAN" remix submission from Mantis The Miasma, which we're now liberating on these very pages. Cowboys & Frenchmen's original composition, "Companion Plan," from their 2017 album, Bluer Than You Think can be heard or purchased at their label, Outside In Music's Bandcamp page.

Mantis The Miasma is a 19-year-old rapper, producer, and lyricist hailing from LA. He's one of the founders of a Hip-Hop crew entitled NeSCIENCE, along with fellow emcee Azure The Paradox and producers Zaki AKA Chillzaki & FITH. Although, he only started recording and releasing his own music as recently as 2016, Mantis The Miasma has already been championed by fellow emcees Lt Headtrip, Short Fuze, and Warren Britt, as well as Twitter personality and Hip-Hop critic Elmattic (@thisiselmattic). Mantis' discography includes his MIASMA EP, singles "Caged," "Drowning," and "Wrath," and his most recent release, a proper full-length entitled Worth of My Birth AKA W.O.M.B. "On this album, Mantis The Miasma performs over many eerie, dark beats, while delivering wordplay-dense and rhyme-heavy verses filled with the pain of his youth," Mantis wrote within an emotionally-raw emailed press statement.

Mantis The Miasma self-produced 6 of the 11 tracks contained within W.O.M.B. while the remaining 5 were produced by IsaiahD, Penacho, Musikal, Prophet, and FITH. Just this past weekend, Mantis The Miasma released his first music video for "Drowning" from Worth of My Birth. Filmed by JD and edited BY S Dreadnoug & Mantis The Miasma, "Drowning" is a metaphor-heavy treatment filmed in the middle of the desert, which emphasizes the album's recurring themes of depression, isolation, emptiness, water, and much, much more. Worth of My Birth is now available to stream or download on Mantis The Miasma's Bandcamp page, as well as multiple digital streaming platforms.

"Let Me Shine for You:" Lindsay Lohan for Playboy (Winter 2011-12 Leak)

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of...

[W]reckless, Topless American Youth: Lana del Rey - "Born 2 Die" (Britney Spears Birthday 30)

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra...

Liberty Bell Cracked In 1/2: Ween - "Freedom of '76" (Gene Ween's Final Send-Off)

Chocolate & Cheese (1994) was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was in some sort of BMG Music Club , where you'd buy 5 CD's and then get 10 for "FREE." It was all sent through mail order and you picked the titles from some special booklet. I'm almost positive that Chocolate & Cheese's side boob-baring album cover was what initially drew me in... mind you, I was 12-15 and the zany Ween logo/middle finger CD graphic really didn't hurt either. Honestly, I forget how I really felt about it @ the time, but a few years later, my older cousin Josh told me that Ween were this BIG college "jam band." CKY did some sort pf 93.3 radio takeover to promote their new album and played "Freedom of '76" late that night on air. Needless to say, I re-visited Chocolate & Cheese @ about 20-something this go 'round and I fucking loved it! Ween were really weird, yet talented... almost too talented. I can vaguel...

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