The Witzard

Needless to say, it's been one Hell of a week for Underground Hip-Hop ; Action Bronson , Earl Sweatshirt, and Kendrick Lamar all dropped staggering, critically-acclaimed new albums this past Monday, March 23rd (I'm unsure why they strayed away from the typical Tuesday release day). I went out and bought hard CD copies of Bronson and Lamar's albums, but I wasn't able to find I Don't Like Sh*t, I Don't Go Outside at out local Best Buy , and I've really only had a chance to delve into Action Bronson 's gloriously frantic "debut," MR. WONDERFUL . While Bronson and Lamar's TDE crew seem to have a mutual admiration for each other, the two fledgling rappers have never recorded any material together, at least not to my knowledge. But Bronson has in fact recorded a few non-album tracks with Odd Future and their reigning adolescent prince, Earl Sweatshirt ; most notably, Domo Genesis' pro wrestling-referencing Alchemist -produced mixtap...

When Odd Future first came out (2007), it seemed like they were pretty against working with an outside producers. But they've since slightly broadened their horizons, working with a handful of various producers: Kanye , Flying Lotus, Pharrell , James Pants, The Alchemist , RZA, BADBADNOTGOOD , Samiyam, and supposedly even MF DOOM . Late Tuesday night, without any prior notice, rhyme or reason, OFWGKTA uploaded "Look" to Soundcloud ; It's produced by Nottz Raw , a Virginia -based beatsmith who's worked with everyone from Asher Roth to [The] Game . Tyler The Creator, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt manage to utterly RIP apart Nottz 's hard-hitting beat over the course of nearly 5 minutes. While it's chock-full of righteous-minded bars-on-bars , some of my personal favourite lines include: "Barnacles, now I gotta brag / [Beamer] drive right by you nig*as like I was kinda fat / with a paint job that's flatter than Miley Cyrus...

While they've released 2 quick-strike 12" EP's together, there's always been an underlying promise of a larger Madlib & Freddie Gibbs project: "Cocaine Piñata." Even though it still has a "due later this year" loose release date, we now have a tentative guest list: Raekwon , Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown , Domo Genesis, Joey Bada$$ , Ab-Soul, BJ The Chicago Kid , Meech (Flatbush Zombies), Casey Veggies , Mac Miller, Polyester The Saint , and G-Wiz. Adult Swim 's own Williams Street Records imprint has unleashed a non-album (or possible Cocaine Piñata ) track, "City" with Karriem Riggins , which they uploaded to Soundcloud earlier today, slightly ahead of it's Monday Internet -wide release. For what it's worth, "City" also kinda duals as an unofficial Supreme Team reunion; Madlib & Karriem Riggins' long-defunct golden era Hip-Hop revival crew that's only ever put out a few stellar hard-to...

Almost effortlessly cruisin' down the same nautical, boatshoed lane as Yacht Rock pioneers like Christopher Cross , Steely Dan, Beach Boys , and Hall & Oates, The Alchemist quietly released one long 12-minute track [EP] appropriately dubbed "YACHT ROCK (Side A-B)" late Wednesday afternoon. It's pretty much the perfect soundtrack for throwing back a few boat-side brews, which might've been partially inspired by The Alchemist 's fruitful shades/readers partnership with 9FIVE Eyewear ; Hypebeast eloquently describes the glasses as " 9FIVE Watson frames [with] a custom black and grey pattern added to the outer portions with red leather wrapped around the temple tips. The sunglasses variant receives polarized black lenses, while the reader model features clear CR-39 lenses." Now, while that all sounds pretty TIGHT, $150's a little steep for 2 pairs of glasses, a fancy striped box, and a RARE 7-inch record... So, The Alchemist has libera...

Not unlike the vast majority of middle American youth, my initial reaction after first see/hearing Odd Future was, "What the fuck!? That was AWESOME!" Post- Late Night with Jimmy Fallon thoughts: Wu-Tang Clan, Jackass , and The Neptunes . I'd heard of OF before Tyler & Hodgy 's fateful Roots -backed performance of "Sandwitches," but I must admit that I missed the boat when Bastard and the other [solo] online releases came out (2009). To be completely frank, I was a tad bit put off by Tyler The Creator and company's vulgar rhymes about murder, rape, hate, etc. Because let's face it, no one's really that obscene, unless they're a serial killer; and either way, that shit's got to get old after while! "Yonkers" was great... Goblin, Nostalgia ULTRA , Untitled EP , "64" [Bass Drum of Death], "Earl" and his mysterious disappearance/return, The Internet , etc. OF Tape 2 , which is out now, marks the crew...