The Witzard

Summah Stoop by Call Out Culture (Alaska & Zilla Rocca) feat Curly Castro Late last night, I received a Bandcamp Notification email from Wrecking Crew—Curly Castro, PremRock, Small Professor & Zilla Rocca—about their latest stand-alone single, "Summah Stoop" by Call Out Culture: Alaska x Curly Castro x Zilla Rocca. Essentially, this is the Call Out Culture Podcast Crew consisting of Alaska, Curly Castro & Zilla Rocca... but there's, also, a similarly named Hip-Hop crew consisting of Alaska & Zilla unofficially/FKA ZILLASKA. Those who know, will know this is FAR from Zilla Rocca & Alaska's first time collaborating together, but for those who may be unaware, Alaska & Zilla previously worked together on a number of occasions, including: "Return of The Angst" from Alaska's ALKAST EP/WORDS HURT's ALKAST:REMIXES from 2015, "Debuild" with Defcee from Curly Castro & Fakts One's RESTROY & DEBUILD, WORDS HURT...

" Keepin' grubby hands out my lane—I guess I'm McClane / Rap game's—my Nakotomi Plaza / I tip-toe through broken glass to rescue my oldest passion / bet it all against the house in the hopes it'd let me out," Baltimore emcee NotForgotten ferociously rhymes on "Against All Odds," the first single from his as-yet-untitled debut album. NotForgotten is the emcee alias of Ricky Robertson, Jr. a self-described rapper, comic book artist, and illustrator; Robertson's been writing raps for the past 15 years and has been a self-taught artist for just as long, plus, 10 years prior. As NotForgotten tells "Against All Odds'" origin story to The Witzard , he "reached out to Cryptic One in response to an offer he posted on Twitter announcing that he had beats available." I have to admit, however, I'm still mildly intrigued to hear what NotForgotten & Cryptic One 's Indie Hip-Hop -laden rendition of Phil Collins...

"Hi people, my name is Cryptic One, a producer from Brooklyn, NY and I have been making beats since 1989. Yes, you read that correctly, I am THAT old. With that said, when asked to write about a few albums that had an influence on my production, I was initially overwhelmed with a seemingly infinite number of important works to mention. After long deliberation, I narrowed it down to these five; keep in mind that on any given day, I could easily pick five different picks that were just as important to me. So, with no further ado, here is my Beat-maker Bedrock:" I AM by IT I. Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle (1988) "This was the record that helped me understand how sample-based beats were made. The whole album was great and a big influence on me, but specifically, there is one song from the album that really set things off for me: "[Because] I Got It Like That." But first, a little background/history: In the 80's, Hip-Hop wasn't th...