The Witzard

Apart. by Jazz Williams "This tape was made in the span of three days, an impulse to create without over-thinking. " Marcel Duchamp do it how'a wan' it,'" reads the description attached to Mugwampers' latest Bandcamp release, Lime Green Tape . Mugwampers is, of course, a Livingston, Scotland -based Hip-Hop crew consisting of emcees/producers Chris 'i's McCormick & Aaron "SaIGO" Bonnar . In addition to 'i's & SaIGO , McCormick & Bonnar's oft-used recording aliases include Jazz Williams , MoonSnakes, Adder , and my personal favorite, Sebastian Thy Third Baller . Mugwampers have collectively recorded and released music with Hemlock Ernst (Future Islands' Sam Herring,) S.al AKA Safari Al, Emmanuel Coto , WC TANK, cunabear , Uncommon Nasa, billy woods , and Lungmouth, as well as video director and frequent collaborator Joe Eaton . Following the release of their 717: Part II EP this past August, Mugwampers...

umm... and the Haunted Apartment by umm... Not entirely unlike his last retrospective release, The Station Signal 's Collection of Work , West Virginia emcee and producer Unsung (@UnsungTheRapper) has returned with Umm... 's and The Haunted Apartment . Umm... is one of Steven Miller AKA Unsung 's many recording aliases I've been hearing about these last few months. Umm... 's and The Haunted Apartment is, essentially, a long-shelved compilation culled from three separate previously unreleased Umm... albums initially recorded between 2002-04: Umm... and The Surprisingly Well Garnished Plan , U Look Like Pumpkin Pie, and Umm... and The Giant Windmill . Unsung self-recorded the albums onto a dusty old 4-track recorder from a friend, while compiling his first and second Hip-Hop albums, Embrace The Shellfish & TWIN , burned onto CD-R's, and passed out to his friends, family, and classmates nestled inside of "folded and staples [pieces] of paper....

failure.to.communicate by 'i's As you may well know, by now, Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop collective consisting of emcee SaIGO and producer/beat-maker 'i's . Mugwampers have been able to construct a very unique blend of Hip-Hop , Metal, Spoken Word , Electronic, Plunderphonics , Abstract/Experimental Hip-Hop, and much, much more into their own unique sub-genre. Since first announcing the sheer existence of Mugwampers earlier this year, the collective has already released a number of genre-eschewing projects including: 'i's ' failure​.​to​.​communicate and guest-littered .and then there was flowers EP, SaIGO 's 9-minute ANOTHER TIME MAYBE . . fully produced by 'i's , and Mugwampers' 717: Parts I-II EP's. Next to be released will be a collaborative ('i's) x cunabear release called skulptures dropping on Savannah, Georgia -based BearTooth Collective this upcoming Tuesday, September 25th. Chris 'i's McCormick...

Over the course of the past month or so, there have been a plethora of solid Hip-Hop EP's released online; a quick, concise 30-minutes or less format that's seemingly, replaced the mixtape/"street album" format of years passed to become your favorite underground rapper/producer's go-to promotional tool. Here, for this second edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up , we'll be profiling five EP's released throughout August 2018, as well as one released at the end of July that was honestly, way too dope to not include! Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of Bo Jankans & DJ Ragz, Bully Preston (Jumbled & dwell,) Creign AKA Mantis The Miasma, Jaubi, Mugwampers ('i's & SaIGO,) and Zilla Rocca. Along with a brief write-up on each release, you'll find a select track from each EP, as well purchase links to buy or stream online. If this one goes well, we'll plan to publish an edition of The Witzard...

Yawning Towards Heaven!!!! by cunabear Savannah, Georgia -based rapper and producer cunabear (@cunabear) has returned with his 40th studio album, YAWNING TOWARDS HEAVEN!!!! cunabear is the co-founder of tape label, BearTooth Collective and recently appeared on "untitled" alongside wc tank on 'i's ' .and then there was flowers EP . YAWNING TOWARDS HEAVEN!!!! was produced by cunabear 's Quasimoto/Madlib -esque alter-ego sp00ks , as are the majority of his recent releases. " YAWNING TOWARDS HEAVEN!!!! is something of a sequel or sister-project to i pray [that] you enjoy your life ," cunabear recently told The Witzard , via email. "They were originally, one whole project and in the very beginning, it was less of an "album" and more of a "pet-project" that I wasn't going to release. I was experimenting with production styles both old and new, trying to breathe new life into what foundation I'd built so far,...

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...

"[I] wrote this in the Fall of 2014 and recorded vocals for a demo to shop around in the bedroom June '15; tried to find another home for it, since the beat wasn't mine, but never did. Been sitting on it all this time and figure it may never see the light of day, so why not just put it out. I've never put up somebody else's beats without permission, which has always held me back. Got tons of songs written over other people's beats I don't know. Orphan rhymes. So, if [you're] mad at me FlyLo , you can find me easy," charismatic Future Islands frontman and long-time emcee Sam "Hemlock Ernst" Herring recently wrote on Soundcloud . "Bluebells Set Wet In The Moss" was released Tuesday morning without any prior murmur of release rumblings and appears to have been completed sometime between Fall 2014 and June 2015 and was in fact, skillfully freestyled over the Flying Lotus -produced beat for Captain Murphy's Earl Sweatshir...

It's really no secret, at this point in time, that Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring moonlights as Socrates & Locke Ernstfrost -referencing greenhorn emcee Hemlock Ernst . "17 years in-the-making, Hemlock Ernst finally got pressed to wax. Thanks to @madlib and @nowagain for making my childhood dreams real," read an impassioned @futureislands Tweet posted on the heels of Sam Herring 's official Madlib -produced debut EP, Trouble Knows Me ; although, he professes he's been rapping since the 9th grade (around 1998), Hemlock Ernst 's first recorded appearance "on wax" was as recently as 2010 on Rapdragons' Baltimore -minded "Gotta Go." He's since rhymed alongside The Alchemist & Oh No (Gangrene) , Scallops Hotel, Curse ov Dialect , Milo, Busdriver , Cavanaugh, Open Mike Eagle , Scoop DeVille, Fat Tony 's Charge It to The Game , and most recently critically-acclaimed artists, BADBADNOTGOOD & Clams Casino ...