The Witzard

Gabe 'Nandez pictured in the Wikiruta desert of Central Mexico (SOURCE: Jeff Weiss) Last night, I posted an off-the-cuff "Tweet" on X (formerly known as Twitter,) which read, "Man, this new @GabeNandez album is straight Fire Emojis rn fr fr no cap... or whatever it is the youth of today would say these days! But, seriously, great job once more, @Passionweiss!" with a couple hashtags and a Bandcamp link to H.T. III. It was meant partly in jest towards today's youth of which I am extremely, admittedly, out-of-touch, as most 35-year-olds likely are, but not at all in jest towards 'Nandez and/or H.T. III. Oddly enough, I was just telling my friend and co-worker about 'Nandez's music on Spotify earlier this week and today, we have a brand new 'Nandez album treat for our earholes. During a cold sunset in the mountains of Central Mexico, Gabe 'Nandez grabbed some water, candy, and a machete, and wandered into the desert in search of the myst...

Let's just say this: if you're still not listening to Barttes Strange, you're missing out! Strange is a producer and song-writer based out of Washington, D.C. His mother is an Opera singer and His dad served in the military for decades. Strange traveled widely for his parents' jobs—born in Ipswich, England in 1989, his family did stints living in Germany, Greenland, and a number of states across America before he hit his 12th birthday when they settled down in Mustang, Oklahoma. Bartees Strangr released his debut full-length, Live Forver, last year on producer, engineer and song-writer Will Yip's impring, Memory Music, formed in partnership with Run for Cover Records. It was one of the most critically-acclaimed/widely-loved albums of the year garnering widespread praise from the likes of Thursday's own Geoff Rickly, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, The National, Stay Inside, Maneka, and Oceanator. Live Forever Deluxe Edition by Bartees Strange Strange has sin...

Fireside Chats Cassette Tape Art/Prints By: Ethan D'Ercole Chicago-based artist Jason Griff (sometimes, just "Griff") has become a heavyweight in Indie Hip-Hop in recent years. Griff is part of an Underground Hip-Hop network that spans from Chicago to Philly and likely even farther. Griff has produced music for the likes of Zilla Rocca, Scorcese Lorde Jones, Alex Ludovico, My Man Shafe, and Curly Castro. Within recent years, Griff co-founded a label imprint dubbed Insubordinate Records along with Alex Ludovico and Scorces Lorde Jones (may he rest in peace) to release both collabrative and solo efforts from each. Griff's most recent album is a primarily Punk/Hardcore-sampling affair, Fireside Chats, which references iconic Chicago venue, The Fireside Bowl. It features collaborations with emcees Alex Ludovico, Juganaut, ALASKA, defcee, Moecyrus, Scorcese, billy woods, Curly Castro, Zilla Rocca, ialive, PremRock, and SKECH185. Fireside Chats by Jason Griff I. Wh...

"Me & my friend @quellechrist got one for @mellomusicgroup compilation called Bushido. Animation by Quelle [Chris] 🔮" Alchemist (@alanthechemist) posted on Instagram Wednesday afternoon. Alchemist has been on quite a roll lately, having produced the entirety of billy woods & E L U C I D's latest beloved album, Haram, as Armand Hammer and his own Carry The Fire EP this year. Last year alone, The Alchemist released full-length projects with Boldy James, Freddie Gibbs, and Conway The Machine, as well as his own The Food Villain and A Doctor, A Painter & An Alchemist Walk Into A Bar all on his own ALC Records . While they have yet to release a full-length project together (but fingers crossed!) it appears as though Quelle Chris & The Alchemist have been friends or, at least, acquaintances since about 2013. Alchemist appears on Quelle Chris-produced "PRX" alongside Guilty Simpson from 2013 album, Ghost At The Finish Line. Being You Is Great,...

Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "MF DOOM is easily the most inspirational act in Indie Hip-Hop. His voice, flow, production, character development, story-telling, and his ability to piece a cohesive album together were all extraordinary. Even in the early 90's in his KMD days, he was way ahead of his time. Going from a bright-eyed youth in his high school/KMD days—who wouldn...

Mike "Duncecap" Petrow is a Brooklyn, New York-based director, editor, cinematographer, emcee, and we are the karma kids affiliate. As a director, Petrow has directed music videos for karma kids signees/affiliates BALD AFRO , BIG BREAKFAST, Blastmaster Baker , GooGiE, Gruff Lion , Impervious Machine, Lt Headtrip , MC Eleven, and OLD SELF . Mike Petrow has, also, directed music videos for artists such as ELUCID , The Front Bottoms, Mega Ran , PremRock, Quelle Chris , Tanya Morgan, and Uncommon Nasa . As an emcee, Duncecap has self-released two EP's and two full-length projects since 2011; as of Friday, December 6, 2019, Duncecap has returned with his next project before year's end. miserable then is a 5-track EP entirely produced by ELUCID (Armand Hammer, CULT FAVORITE, Nostrum Grocers, The Lessondary) and recorded, mixed, and mastered by Willie Green at The GreenHouse Recording Co. miserable then opener "Waste of Money" features scratches thro...

BRZOWSKI , a self-described "touring Post-Rap artist hailing from the icy wastes of New England" hasn't released a proper full-length since 2017 critically-acclaimed ENMITYVILLE . Although, with that said, BRZO has stayed nothing short of inactive over the last nearly three years: 2018 saw the release of his I Had An Accident (IHAA) DIG 2 GRAVES split EP with MC Homeless , as well as 80HRTZ -produced single, "Cemetery Rose" Featuring Renée Coolbrith . So far, this year, in 2019, BRZOWSKI has released a cover of Woody Guthrie 's iconic "This Land Is Your Land" from The Multiverse: Season 1, Episode 2 , a 5-song score entitled Abduction Themes for a documentary called Otherworldly Amor , appeared on Zak G 's "Propaganda" from his Milled Pavement Records -released album, Mutant, and appeared alongside D-FAZ for five tracks from their new album, OneNationUnderDog . Blooddrive Vol. 4 by BRZOWSKI On top of all that, BRZOWSKI has...

About two weeks ago, ruby yacht makers guild (AKA ruby yacht ) quietly unveiled their group album/label comp. 37 GEMS . It features the rhyming and beat-making talents of R.A.P. Ferreira FKA milo & scallops hotel , SB The Moor, Pink Navel , safari al, Eldon Somers , Kenny Segal, and E L U C I D . Now, ruby yacht have, seemingly, added yet another extremely talented character to their ever-growing roster: Hemlock Ernst ! Ernst is the rapping alias of Future Islands' frontman and life-long Hip-Hop supporter, Samuel "Sam" T. Herring . " Sam was rapping long before he joined a band and it's all he's really ever wanted to do... it's more than "occasional" for him... it's just that his sh*t blew up on a totaaally different tip and he's been riding that out like one of the best to ever do it," safari al (@s_afari_al) Tweeted Wednesday morning. Herring has been featured on Hip-Hop tracks billed as "Hemlock Ernst" alon...

How's it going, ladies and germs of the music-loving Internet? Today, we here at The Witzard are proud to present to you, a brand new column: Rap Videos Killed The Radio Star. It's a collection of six of our personal favorite music videos released within the past month or so. Also, full disclosure: my wife and I are leaving for our honeymoon to Italy this upcoming Wednesday and I just wanted to do a bit of a wrap-up/send-off of some Hella dope new music, before temporarily signing off for a couple weeks. This inaugural edition of Rap Videos Killed The Radio Star showcases choice selections from Blockhead Feat. billy woods, Open Mike Eagle & Breezly "Breeze" Brewin, BULLIES AKA Denmark Vessey, DRXQUINN & Azarias, ILL BILL & Stu Banga with Goretex, Knowledge The Pirate, Reckonize Real & Guilty Simpson, and Zilla Rocca. I would also, like to send a very special shout-out to the directors of these very music videos: Mr. Oz (@claytoi,) Lil Kydd, Shawn John...

717 (part I) by Mugwampers Mugwampers are a Hip-Hop crew, collective, art-house, etc. hailing from Livingston, Scotland consisting of founding members, emcee SaIGO and producer 'i's . Over the course of the last few months, Mugwampers have unleashed a collection of "warm-up" projects, including 'i's failure.to.communicate and feature-filled .and then there was flowers and SaIGO 's 'i's -produced spoken word project, ANOTHER TIME MAYBE . . Now, Mugwampers have returned with their first official long-form project, 717 (Part I.) A sprawling 5-track EP with sonic benchmarks and Bandcamp tags ranging from Electronic to Hip-Hop/Rap , Metal to Spoken Word , Abstract Hip-Hop to Ambient , Plunderphonics to Screamo . 717 EP1 is the first in a series of three planned EP's Mugwampers have recently recorded, which will each focus on various styles and sub-genres of Hip-Hop . Ahead of 717 (Part I) SaIGO & 'i's unleashed a mus...

Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop crew consisting of beat-maker and producer Chris McCormick AKA 'i's and emcee Aaron Bonnar AKA SaIGO and collectively hailing from Livingston, Scotland. Although, they have yet to release a proper full-length collaborative project, SaIGO & 'i's been communicating through social media since 2014, working together, actively recording material, and earnestly started building their brand last Fall. 'i's has quietly released an album entitled failure.to.communicate and a 6-track compilation EP dubbed .and then there was flowers under the Mugwampers banner/Bandcamp page within just the last two months. Nestled amongst a who's-who of featured guests including billy woods, s.al AKA Ruby Yacht's Safari Al, Uncommon Nasa, and cunabear, 'i's & SaIGO slipped out their first collaborative track attributed to Mugwampers, "white liez," on .and then there was flowers. However, I can positively assure you, Mug...

Chris McCormick AKA 'i's is an Ambient Hip-Hop/Electronic producer and beat-maker hailing from Livingston, Scotland . Many of you might remember him from a The Witzard post back in 2016: 'i's —then know as ('i's') —along with all these fingers (now known as Gould '72 ) and Butch Dawson , produced beats hand-selected and gloriously re-used by Future Islands frontman Sam Herring under his rapping alter-ego, Hemlock Ernst . 'i's is now part of Mugwampers , a rapper-producer duo/crew with emcee SaIGO , which seems to also, be functioning as a label, imprint, brand, and Odd Future -like creative collective. " Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop duo that draw ideals from the abstraction of art, meddling in Experimental Hip-Hop , Ambient, Jazz , Plunderphonics , Punk , Metal, and whatever we like; we will just see where a session takes us. Mugwampers are the least important important people you have never heard of," 'i's rec...

Not long after publishing my review of Henry Canyons' La Côte West EP on The Witzard a couple months ago, I was fortunate enough to speak with Henry on the phone; it was at this point, which we formulated a tentative roll-out plan to publish this very interview. Henry Canyons was kind enough to send em a private Soundcloud stream of his then-unreleased album, Cool Side of The Pillow ("Cool Side," for short) and needless to say, I haven't stopped listening to the album since. Cool Side of The Pillow has since been released on billy woods' imprint, Backwoodz Studioz and was received to wide-spread critical/fan acclaim across "Rap Twitter." I'll personally, go as far as to say, Henry Canyons and his long-time friend and producer Matt "Bones" Bowen cooked up a solid contender for 2018's Album of The Year. It's easily one of the most simple, easy-listening, yet complex albums I've heard in a long time. "Bones" effortlessl...