The Witzard

"Dark bodies, bright crest, the kings grew nervous. A boy drew a gun, and then sold the portrait. And then used the cash to heat the stove at the palace. Soon. Very soon," Yasiin Bey & Ferrari Sheppard (collectively known as Dec. 99th ) wrote within a mysterious statement concerning the recent delay of their self-titled debut album; Dec. 99th —one of three final albums Bey has planned before his 2017 retirement from music and acting—was scheduled for a December 9th release exclusively on TIDAL , however, it never dropped, as expected and was finally unleashed earlier this week nearly two weeks late on December 21st. The Artist Formerly Known As Mos Def and writer turned producer Ferrari Sheppard have slowly been leaking out music as Dec. 99th for the past year or so... but I first remember seeing Sheppard's name attached to Yasiin Bey 's A Country Called Earth -released Electric Wire Hustle remix "Marigolds (Chaser)" back in Summer 2015 when ...

"There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or fame... but if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going, you'll look back and know that it was you," Taylor Swift passionately proclaimed Monday night whilst accepting her Album of The Year GRAMMY ; an apparent rebuttal to long-time frenemy Kanye West's exceedingly distasteful claims that he "made that b*tch famous" and that "[he] and Taylor might still have sex," lines which he previously proclaimed to be Kim & Taylor -approved. Let me first, preface this by saying that I've been a Kanye fan ever since "Through The Wire" and The College Dropout , although, I don't exactly agree with his latest burst of social media over-activity and apparent mental breakdown ... relentlessly bashing poor Taylor Swift , begging Mark Zuc...

"Hey baby, you forgot your Ray Bans And my sheets still orange from your spray tan It was more than soft porn for the K-man She remember my Sprinter, said "I was in the grape van" Uhm, well cutie, I like your bougie booty Come Erykah Badu me, well, let's make a movie... No more parties in LA Please, baby, no more parties in LA" - Kanye & Kendrick Lamar Kanye West is without a doubt one of the most charismatic, unabashedly outspoken to a fault, and arguably creative artists in all of Hip-Hop and even all of music; in my eyes, West, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Rockstar On The Planet," could easily be likened to Classic Rock monoliths Queen , who once performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Glastonbury . For purposes of this very analogy I'm trying yo set up, that would in turn, make President Obama 's favorite emcee, Kendrick Lamar , David Bowie in our "Under Pressure" -referencing equation. Lamar's To Pimp a...

"The "Wolves" song came from a conversation that me and Drake had, where we was going to do an album together and the album was called Wolves ... me and Jay [started] talking about Watch The Throne , then Drake went and did all the records with [Lil'] Wayne and did the tour," Kanye unexpectedly revealed to The Breakfast Club radio host and one-time Catfish co-detective Charlamagne The God last February on the heels of his spirited SNL 40 medley. Lest we forget that Kanye once produced Drake 's 808's & Heartbreak -reminiscent "Find Your Love;" making Kanye 's recent " Yeezy , Yeezy, Yeezy, just jumped over Jumpman " What a Time to Be Alive interpolation and apparent Drake diss all the more perplexing. Not entirely unlike Paul McCartney -assisted "Only One" released over New Year's Eve 2014-15 , "FACTS" was quietly uploaded to Soundcloud mere hours ahead of this year's annual New Yea...

"How many times, Pusha T , did producers say to you, "come to the studio right now or we're gonna give this beat to Jay Z ?" Nardwuar The Human Serviette politely asked Pusha T during a 2013 post- Canadian show interview. "Well, one time.. and that was for the "Grindin'" beat and that was Pharrell Williams ... and he's supposed to be my best friend. Right? But this guy actually threatened to give the "Grindin'" beat to Jay Z , if I did not come to the studio right then and right there. I actually came, and I'm glad he did because that record was groundbreakin' for me, Pusha T exuberantly quipped. One 1/2 of early 2000's Virginia Beach -bred Coke Rap phenoms, Clipse , Pusha T – otherwise known as the newly-elected President of Kanye 's re-launched label, G.O.O.D. Music – is gearing up to unleash his long-rumored 2-part King Push album; part one, titled Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude features productio...

"I used to have tons of songs in my head, but since I couldn't play anything well and I didn't know how to use programs [so] I was never able to make them," Chicago emcee and former Cool Kids affiliate Hollywood Holt writes within his rather compelling Facebook Bio section. Now better known as simply HXLT (pronounced: "Holt" ), the former club-friendly rapper has returned with the lead-off single from his as-yet-untitled G.O.O.D. Music debut; " Holt 's manager told Billboard at the time of his singing that "it's like if Joy Division , The Strokes , and Dr. Dre made an album together."' Judging by "Live to Death," it would appear as though HXLT has somehow already managed to master the whole Psych/Punk Rock -leaning brand of Alt. Hip-Hop that Kanye 's former protégé Kid Cudi has spent the past five or so odd years aimlessly trying to hone and perfect. Although, prior to unleashing "Live to Death"...

"I'm the poster child for alleged drug dealers. These n***as mention my name with their little rumors and their little jewelers. That's no threat, that's no sweat," former Virginia Beach drug dealer and Clipse emcee Pusha T ferociously rhymes on his latest solo single; a Dr. Dre -sanctioned freestyle over Meek Mill 's "R.I.C.O," which notoriously kick-started Mill and Drake 's ghostwriter allegation-slinging beef. For the record, whether he in fact endorses and makes use of ghostwriters or not, Drake 's rapid-released double-header "Back to Back" and "Charged Up" absolutely slayed and effectively obliterated Meek Mill 's abysmal retaliation diss, "Wanna Know." "Real money ain't shy. No, lay it out... get a tan on it. They say numbers don't lie. Well, dope boy, put your bands on it," Kanye 's "Runaway" protégé poignantly rhymes elsewhere on "R.I.C.O," whic...

"I was in my hotel room in Paris , and we were just chillin' and I just f*cked around and was like, 'We need to do the video while we're in Paris,'" G.O.O.D. Music -affiliated Grand Hustle emcee Travi$ Scott recently told Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe during a phone interview while boarding a plane Friday afternoon. "Piss On Your Grave" is anchored by a fuzzed out guitar riff lifted from Jimi Hendrix -fronted Band of Gypsys' blistering Vietnam War protest jam "Machine Gun," which feels like it could have easily been a left-over from Kanye 's 2013 Aggro-Rap magnum opus, Yeezus ; funnily enough, Scott is amongst the gaggle of greenhorn beatsmiths who collectively helped produce frantic album tracks "New Slaves," "I Am a God," and "Guilt Trip." Long-time Kanye -affiliated director and photographer Nabil Elderkin was recruited to helm "Piss On Your Grave"' s ghoulish pre- Halloween visua...

"Buy Lantern here... s.warp.net/lantern. Support King Push . Happy anniversary to Jeezy . And get tickets for all live dates with The-Dream here: hudsonmohawke.com/live," reads the description accompany G.O.O.D. Music producer Hudson Mohawke 's latest Soundcloud upload; an apparent allusion to the recent 10th anniversary of Young Jeezy 's critically-acclaimed major label "debut," Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 . While low-quality live rips have supposedly been floating around for a number of years, the Scotsman 's newly-unleashed G.O.O.D. Music sanctioned CD-Q cut is in fact, "Amen" RMX 's first official release. "The album's second single, the follow-up to [ Pusha T 's] Tyler, The Creator collaboration "Trouble On My Mind," was the Kanye & Young Jeezy -assisted "Amen" — a scripture-nodding exploration of many of [Fear of God II: Let Us Pray] 's recurring themes," reads Complex...

"Last year on the Yeezus tour, someone gave Kanye West a single to listen to: It was "Experience," by Kacy Hill , a 20-year-old singer who happened to be one of his back-up dancers. Kanye met with Hill after his Atlantic City show, and immediately signed her to his label, G.O.O.D. Music ," NY Mag eloquently transcribed within their 'Top 10 New Female Musicians to See This Summer' featurette. While, as DJ Booth adversely points out, "Experience" was initially released back in December 2013 to little fanfare, only to be re-released on G.O.O.D. Music nearly a year later; "Experience" still remains Hill's lone Futuristic Indie Pop/R&B -reminiscent piece of work, although, now it's set to be included within her forthcoming proper debut, Bloo EP . Kacy Hill 's G.O.O.D. Music/Very G.O.O.D. Beats label-mates and arsenal of possible collaborators now includes the likes of talented industry-worn artists and producers su...

While he's remained relatively silent since releasing The Ecstatic (2009), Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey has seemingly completed his forthcoming G.O.O.D. Music "debut" while shacking up overseas. Bey has recently re-emerged from his self-imposed exile and decided to unleashed a pair of unexpected André 3000 -style features for A$AP Rocky 's At.Long.Last.A$AP as well as Eric Biddines and producer Paul White 's newly-minted Golden Ticket project. His latest presumably non-album loosie, "Marigolds" skillfully re-appropriates New Zealand -based Kiwi Funk-R&B duo Electric Wire Hustle 's 2009 self-titled album track, "Chaser." It's almost aesthetically reminiscent of Yasiin Bey 's long-aborted Top 40 Underdogs cover/freestyles initiative; wherein he boldly took on radio-friendly Kanye & Jay-Z , Lil' Wayne, and Chief Keef beats and ruthlessly flipped them on their heads. "Marigolds," on the other hand, was su...

Brooklyn veteran emcee Yasiin Bey , aka infrequent actor Dante Smith , recently "released" and 8-track video "collection" of expertly re-rapped MF DOOM covers, but BEYONDOOOM isn't exactly his first foray into Stones Throw -related material; Yasiin Bey 's 2009 album, The Ecstatic , his last record released under the Mos Def moniker, was essentially a loosely compiled Stones Throw beat tape. It's littered with cleverly re-purposed production work from the likes of Oh No , Madlib, J Dilla , Georgia Anne Muldrow, and MADVILLAIN : "Several Stones Throw artists and Stones Throw [released] instrumentals are included on Mos Def 's new album The Ecstatic , which will be released June [9th]," Stones Throw wrote in a detailed beat-oriented 2009 mini-press release. "Revelations," lifted from MADVILLAINY 2: The Madlib Remix album has very recently been used to score a 2-minute animated short created by Afrofuturism -centric graphic...

"A great US Hip-Hop singer pays tribute to Daniel Dumile , better known as MF DOOM , an other[worldly] Hip-Hop artist, from the New York City underground scene. But who's behind the mask?" French Télévision network Culturebox wrote along with a series of seven cryptic YouTube videos quietly uploaded between December-February of last year. The mysterious masked wordsmith is eventually revealed to be Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def , who's likely the only person on planet Earth who can honestly say he's worked alongside Mark Wahlberg , Donald Sutherland, Jack Black , and MF DOOM. Culturebox 's BEYONDOOM EP-length playlist isn't exactly the first time Mos Def has expressed his fanboy-like admiration for DOOM ; a few years ago, he went as far as to "bet a million dollars on DOOM against Lil' Wayne " in a battle rap scenario, supposedly masqueraded as the Metal-Faced Villain after he cancelled a series of appearances initially billed as joint ...

Not only did he appear within a self-satirical SNL 40 Wayne's World sketch dealing with last weekend's Album of The Year winner Beck 's near GRAMMY's acceptance speech-shattering events, Kanye additionally performed an emotional three-song medley towards the end of last night's 40th anniversary primetime special; Kanye appeared on stage, laying sprawled out across the stage floor under a dimly lit/low-hanging ceiling set-up performing "Jesus Walks" into a microphone dangling above his head. West slowly arose for the second segment of his medley — a fragmented chunk of his recent genre-blending collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney , "Only One" (suspiciously sans McCartney). For the third and final portion of his SNL 40 performance, Kanye was joined on stage by former Kids These Days emcee Vic Mensa and mysterious "Chandelier" songstress and in-demand producer, Sia for a dark, brooding animalistic performance of "Wol...

"In early 2014, Paul McCartney and Kanye West first began working together in a small bungalow in Los Angeles . The process that would result in "Only One" began with a simple brainstorming session between the two: with McCartney improvising on the keyboards and Kanye vocally sketching and shaping ideas in a stream-of-consciousness riff," laments a recent press release marking the 12 midnight New Year's Eve release of Kanye & Paul McCartney 's abrupt new single. Although a collaboration between the two men who recorded such drastically different world-renown songs as "Hey Jude" and "Gold Digger," "Only One" could be likened to the unknown middle ground that might exist between 808's & Heartbreak and Let It Be ; further accented by background vocals from Taylor Gang signee Ty Dollar $ign , co-writer Kirby Lauryen , and a beat concocted by in-house producer Mike Dean , McCartney adds in a beautifully sparse ...

"Jesus Christ, #LunchMoney make me wanna sucker-punch 14 Elk in the nose. Might be my fav @PUSHA_T backdrop since #Trill or #RideAroundShinin ," Tonight Show bandleader @questlove exuberantly Tweeted. Former Clipse emcee Pusha T is supposedly holed up in the studio with Pharrell/The Neptunes , Kanye, and rookie producer Hudson Mohawke , earnestly working on the follow-up to his impeccable solo debut, My Name Is My Name (2013), tentatively titled "King Push." Early Tuesday morning without any prior rhyme or reason, a new thumping Kanye -produced track appeared on Google Play all of a sudden, which quickly disappeared; it was later premiered on Funkmaster Flex 's radio show and soon thereafter, spread like wildfire across The Internet. " Kanye 's best for ["Lunch Money"] is a gurgling, lurching soup of confusing, disorienting sounds, but all those sounds are built around a very basic, very funky pulse," Stereogum's very o...

Light years before unveiling his nearly flawless magnum opus, My Name Is My Name , Pusha T unleashed his unofficial 2-part G.O.O.D. Music debut, Fear of God and it's companion commercial re-boot, Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (2011). Not long after, LuckyMe & Decon Records commissioned Rustie , S-Type, Machinedrum , Lunice, and Hudson Mohawk [TNGHT] to produce a lost remix project dubbed "Lucky-T." Although LuckyMe further specified that "it never surfaced though, as Hud Mo started working with G.O.O.D. Music in an official capacity;" likely referring to his production contract, signed with Kanye 's in-house Very G.O.O.D. Beats micro-label in January 2013. While Lucky-T never really managed to fully materialize, Rustie quietly uploaded his "Trouble On My Mind" remix to Soundcloud late Tuesday afternoon. It's a terribly awesome glitched-out re-work that upon an initial trunk-rattling listen, kinda reminds me of a Trap -heavy ...

I guess you could say that I'm a modern-day musical "purist" in a sense because I don't usually like to hear a whole bunch of pre-release teaser singles before hearing an artist's entire new album. Take My Name Is My Name , for example: I only heard "Numbers On The Board" and "Who Am I?" before picking up a hard copy of Pusha T 's debut solo album on October 8th. G.O.O.D. Music recruited a handful of completely unnecessary guest features , which are now strewn across Pusha T 's 12-track record including Kendrick Lamar , Big Sean, Rick Ross , Kelly Rowland, and former Drake tour-mate Future . Pusha T & DONDA rapidly unleashed music videos for "King Push," "Sweet Serenade," "Nosetalgia," and "Pain" right around or leading up to My Name Is My Name 's eventual wide-release. Recent BET Cypher all-star Kendrick Lamar appears right alongside Pusha T in the black-and-white NPR -assist...

It's pretty damn awesome that Kanye & Joaquin Phoenix even hang out, let alone co-produced a track for Pusha T together; "King Push" is most likely culled from Phoenix's I'm Still Here era (2009-10), when he may or may not have quit acting to become a Hip-Hop producer/rapper. Pusha T previously lamented to Pitchfork back in August, "as soon as I heard it, I was like, 'Listen. I hope you're not playing this for me just to show me how good this beat is [Kanye] !'" It's a surprisingly Boom-Bap -rooted, Clipse -ready rattling beat, which it seems is now being pushed slightly ahead of My Name Is My Name 's previous semi-questionable Chris Brown -featuring "Sweet Salvation" single. Taking some much needed time off from Kanye 's recent "I Don't Like" ranting spree(s), G.O.O.D. Music & DONDA unleashed "King Push'" companion music video mid-Friday afternoon. Directed by Nathanie...

"Bound 2" is quite easily the most Kanye West -sounding track on Yeezus , an album which on-again Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is indeed a fan (and obvious influence): " Yeezus , I really love it. I think the sound of it is cool. I can't endorse what he's saying lyrically, but I will say that in terms of the role of the dangerous entertainer in 2013, nobody is beating him at that game. It feels like he might implode. Even if it is calculated to some degree, it feels rough on the edges in a way that I can appreciate. I'm glad he's out there. Consistently he's put out ahead-of-the-curve shit. He's definitely a talented guy." The Roots drummer and de facto bandleader ?uestlove expressed his admiration for Track #10 pretty early on in 140 characters or less: "ok this #Bound2 on repeat all day is a problem. don't wanna hear anything else, but #Bound2 (including the 9 songs before it) #Yeezus." Meticulously construct...