The Witzard

Black Rob - The Black Rob Report CD (CREDIT: Jonathan Mannion) Son Raw is a freelance music writer and producer. A few decades removed from their peak, there are two things we can say for certain about Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records. First, they dropped some of the greatest, commercially-minded Hip-Hop and R&B records of the turn of The Millennium. Rap purists will exalt Biggie's two classics alone, but [Ma$e's] Harlem World is the one Jiggy album you need, Faith [Evans] & 112 birthed a generation of Hip-Hop/Soul (and soundtracked the conception of another) and after their late 90's peak, Diddy doggedly kept searching for his next great emcee, never finding him, but releasing great records in the process. Second, Bad Boy is a deeply cursed label and Sean Combs has a terrible track record of caring for his artists. Biggie was murdered in cold blood during a completely avoidable trip to Los Angeles after an over-hyped label feud. Ma$e was run out [of] the busi...

Gabe 'Nandez is an extremely talented New York-based emcee who has been closely aligned with Passion of The Weiss founder Jeff Weiss' POW Recordings since before 2017. 'Nandez has been regarded as a child of DOOM & DMX, whose parents worked in diplomacy, so he grew up moving around often, temporarily living in Tanzania, Haiti, and Jerusalem, as well as New York City. Gabe 'Nandez's latest EP, simply titled Ox, is being framed as a tribute to the spirit of Ruff Ryders. POW initially released 'Nandez's 2017 cassette compilation album Plaques and soon after, released his proper full-length debut, Diplomacy , to widespread critical and fan acclaim over the summer of 2019. Since then, Gabe 'Nandez has quietly issued a number of singles, EP's, loosies, etc. sometimes, self-released, sometimes, with POW Recordings, and, sometimes, on a variety of other Indie labels, such as Stereoma and Epidemic Sound , namely, for his guitar-fueled 2020 EP, Grove. ...

"My temple is half gun metal, other half Buddha smoke and coke sold to runnin' rebels, watch the devil," Philly -based emcee and writer Zilla Rocca ferociously quips within his latest Son Raw -produced throwback single, "98 Avirex Flow." Zilla shared a bit of information about its genesis and inception, via email: "I made this song after listening to a lot of Scaramanga 's classic album Seven Eyes, Seven Horns . I've always been a fan of Five-[percenter] Rap and I came up as an emcee in 1997-98, so I wanted to pay homage to that style. My man Son Raw sent me that beat probably 7-8 years ago and it always had that Raekwon/Terror Squad vibe to it. I never knew what to do with it, but I always wanted to use it. So, one day for fun, I thought "what would I sound like, if I wrote a straight up 1998 East Coast Rap verse?" There's some [Kool] G Rap in there, some Nas/AZ/Raekwon/Prodigy , and obviously, Scaramanga and Big Pun . I...

DMX has either gone completely bat-shit CRAZY or caught an early strain of Holiday Spirit . But I'm just gonna go a head and run with option #1 since in recent years, DMX has gotten locked up, collaborated with Swizz Beatz , picked up a nasty coke habit, and appeared on a couple D-grade celebrity "reality shows." Whatever the case may be, DMX performed a rapped-sung version of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" LIVE on Power 105.1 Monday morning; It kinda ended up sounding like a schoolyard cypher... complete with hand drum/desktop 1-2 beat and plenty of grizzly-voiced adlibs - WHAT's , COME ON's, and FOREVER's thrown in for extra emphasis. All I know is that mid-90's Ruff Ryders DMX would've whooped this guy's ass, but it's still a highly amusing holiday cover nonetheless. I'm assuming he probably put out a new album semi-recently, but whether or not you wanna risk it and buy a copy is TOTALLY on [up to] you.

During the height of his mid-90's heyday, Fiend chalked up studio time with both No Limit Records (Master P) and Ruff Ryders Ent. (DMX) . But the man AKA Ricky "International" Jones now calls Curren$y 's micro-label, Jet Life Recordings homebase. I was first turned onto Fiend about a year or 2 ago with Tom Breihan 's Stereogum entrance post; Breihan's future posts would chronicle Fiend 's cleverly-executed sample flips of The Specials and Washed Out originals. While Fiend somehow managed to record and release roughly 6 mixtapes between 2011-12, he's remained un-characteristically silent throughout the latter 1/2 of this year. "Wonderful" was quietly released Tuesday afternoon and features a Funky RJ2 beat and a guest verse from Jet Life labelhead, Curren$y . I'm not really sure where this one'll eventually end up, but let's hope that a Fiend/Jet Life mixtape materializes "sooner than later!"

Mr. Moot was raised by a pack of flesh-ravaging wolves. So, his life wellness & survival skills are damn near stone sold immaculate, as should be expected. "Moot" is actually derived from the ancient Native American term for SWAGnificent and his favourite rapper is either Bob Dylan or DMX . After compiling a 10-12 song setlist culled from his comprehensive 100-200 track backcatalog, Mr. Moot & The... played one triumphant first/last show down in Miss' Basement (April 2011). It was recorded to tape, but the film reel has seemingly been lost [or stolen by supervillains]. All that's left are the lone shards of magical memories captured by the chosen few in that basement on that very night! Mr. Moot started out making " Hip-Hop beats" around 2000-02, which has now morphed into something entirely different. He usually laments about the trials and tribulations of The American Dream : Trying to simultaneously attain love, money, bitches, POWER, dru...

Vex Ruffin releases his second EP today entitled Eulogy , which we're currently making available as a free download. The new work is a follow-up to his debut effort, Crash Course EP . The 6-track Eulogy EP picks up with the minimalist Pop of "Secret Weapon," Post-Punk "Perfect Congestion," and Goth, Dark Wave title track. Like Crash Course , all of the tracks on Eulogy were written, performed, and recorded solely by Vex. Stones Throw plans on releasing a vinyl edition of Eulogy EP as well as a third, as-yet Untitled EP this Summer followed by Vex Ruffin 's full-length debut in the Fall... - Stones Throw (Staff) Vex's live band will be playing a series of shows in Austin @ SXSW music conference, including the official Stones Throw showcase on March 13th. With the addition of drummer Liv Marsico , the four-piece band brings to life songs that were previously only performed solo by Vex Ruffin in his [home] studio. The band will also be pl...