The Witzard

Weekend Money (or W$ ) are a Hip-Hop/Electronic duo consisting of emcee NE$$ AKA @NESSTAGRAM and producer/vocalist Amar "Baghdaddy" Ibrahim AKA @AmarBagh & @Bagh3d . NE$$ & Baghdaddy originally hail from Philly & Iraq , respectively, but are currently based somewhere in-between Philly, Brooklyn , and Miami . Weekend Money , during their earliest aughts, were affiliated with now-defunct Das Racist and, at one point, were even signed to Heems' label, Greedhead Music . NE$$ is also, one-half of The A-Alikes , a crew with affiliation to dead prez and their "militant rhyme crew," People's Army . I can still vividly remember seeing W$ at one of Das Racist 's final gigs at Union Transfer in Philly right around the same time as their 2013 debut EP, Naked City . If I'm remembering correctly, I believe, Baghdaddy & NE$$ nearly ripped through the entirety of their genre-blending as-yet-unreleased 9-track EP. Now, if my memory is s...

"When Dev [Hynes] was 'Lightspeed Champion' , he had a little-known rap MySpace called 'Ni**a Bullshit' (2010). This was when we first started talking about a collaboration," rapper Himanshu Suri (professionally known as Heems ) recently revealed to Rolling Stone concerning his latest collaboration with singer-songwriter/producer, Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange . "I wrote some of the lyrics in college at Wesleyan , some before Das Racist in Bushwick , and most of it in my engineer Daniel Lynas' old studio with Dev [Hynes] in Dumbo ," Heems continued. "Home" was adequately described by one anonymous writer as " Dev provides fluttering guitar-work while Heems opens his chest cavity, removes his still-aching heart, [and] drops it on the floor in front of you;" the subject matter throughout Heems' forthcoming major label "debut" EAT PRAY THUG has been self-described as "much more personal than [ Hima...

EAT PRAY THUG , or "9/11 & Heartbreak," as he affectionately refers to it, is the by-product of Queens -based rapper Himanshu K. Suri (aka Heems )' self-imposed exile to Bombay, India a few years back. Although it's actually Suri's major label debut, EAT PRAY THUG is likely poised to be his first and last album, as @HIMANSHU has recently alluded that he's considering giving up his rap career and more or less defunct Greedhead imprint for a 9-5. Since unleashing a series of critically-acclaimed 2012 mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , Suri has maintained a relatively low profile; until unexpectedly dropping his 4-track SWET SHOP EP with buddy Riz "MC" Ahmed and a particularly zonked out theme song recorded for Japanese Vitamin Water last year. "'Sometimes" is about dualities, identity, and the space between spaces, Like so many other people, as first generation South Asian in the U.S. I often felt like I li...

Das Racist were hands down, one of the greatest post-2000 New York area Hip-Hop groups, who essentially created their own "outsider rap" scene, which would later harbor up-and-coming guys like Lakutis , LE1F, Mr. Muthaf*ckin' eXquire , Antwon, Kassa Overall , KechPhrase, Big Baby Gandhi , etc. Luckily enough, I had a chance to see Das Racist on their then unannounced 2012 "farewell tour" in Philly , a show which additionally featured a mini- Greehead label showcase: Lakutis , LE1F, and Weekend Money as opening acts. Since disbanding, founding members Himanshu "Heems" Suri and Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez have each released a number of critically-acclaimed solo mixtapes; well, Heems actually uploaded two mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , while Das Racist were still actively together. Suri then moved to Bombay, India between 2012-mid-2014 as part of a self-imposed exile, wherein he began recording material for his ...

"I think [we're] probably the world's only Indo-Pak rap group - peace process never sounded so rowdy," @SwetShopBoys triumphantly Tweeted on the eve of their premier single release, "Benny Lava." It's former Das Racist member Himanshu Suri (Heems) new 2-man group with Pakistan by way of London rapper, Riz MC ; Heems on the other hand, is a successful New York -based rapper and entrepreneur of Indian descent. Swet Shop Boys decided to rhyme over a recycled 2011 Ryan Hemsworth beat, which takes it's name from a mondegreen, Internet video re-interpretation, that's aptly titled "Benny Lava." It's all firmly anchored by Heems' neck-snapping first four bars: "Yo, Himanshu with the pen, I'm killing it / The white man the villain, them deny them penicillin / Syphilis experiments, death to the Tuskegee men / Somewhere in New York they say death to the squeegee men." The companion Prashant Bhargava & Tanu...

ANTWON 's beat-making buddies usually seem to conjure up some pretty emotionally-driven, hard-hitting borderline "Industrial-Rap" rhythms; But every once in a while, Nature Boy Gang 'll unleash a couple sun-soaked 90's New Jack Swing -reminiscent jams like "Darby Crash" (stacy Remix) , "LIVING EVERY DREAM," and now "3rd World Grrl." Since being re-released late Tuesday afternoon, the latter is currently serving as ANTWON 's second IN DARK DENIM (Greedhead) video-single... now has a hilarious [companion] puppet-assisted Live Circus & Alessio Avezzano -produced/directed clip to go along with it. Built around dimly-lit scenes of ANTWON rapping straight into Avezzano's camera, which are then juxtaposed against his puppet counterpart living his every sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll -fueled fantasy surrounded by an entourage full of beautiful hunnies. ANTWON , channeling Rico Suave , smoothly raps during "3...

Antwon is a rare breed of genre-blending rapper, even in this diverse Internet Age ; The San Jose -based emcee "cut his teeth" playing bass in a number of East/West Coast Hardcore bands throughout the early 2000's. Antwon 's currently gearing up to release his fourth independent project since 2011, In Dark Denim - which is the proper follow-up to last year's critically-acclaimed END OF EARTH and his first mixtape assembled along with Greedhead (Heems') creative backing. Track #11 of 11, "Still Guarded" was unleashed post- Hump Day , just in time for your rowdy weekend festivities and roughly 2 weeks a head of In Dark Denim 's slated Valentine's Day [Feb. 14th] release. Antwon properly laces up a hazy Chillwave/Cloud Rap -tinged Cities Aviv -produced beat, which ends up sounding like a glitched out Biggie impersonation. While it doesn't even last 2 minutes, director Romoface (Uncle Dee) somehow manages to make "Still ...

I just turned 25 a few months ago, but " Tumblr rappers" like kitty pryde really make me feel like a terribly out-of-touch old man! Thanks to my older cousins, I was raised on a steady diet of Wu-Tang Clan , No Doubt, Beastie Boys , Blink-182, Now #1-5 , Red Hot Chili Peppers , Biggie, Sublime , etc. The 20-year-old, freckle-faced songstress manages to shout out " CHEETAH GIRLS , HILLARY DUFF, JUSTIN BIEBER , S-CLUB 7, ATOMIC KITTEN & CLAIRE'S INC." on her Facebook Influences section; AKA a bunch of 90's-bred shit that I'd really be surprised if she was actually influenced by, cause I was about 11 in 1998 (S-Club 7) , but maybe. Bottom line, a lot of kitty 's [sarcastic] Tumblr-fied inside jokes and punchlines fly right over my head. I guess that 5-year age gap really does make a difference sometimes! Like what's up with all these weird acronyms? - D.A.I.S.Y. Rage EP and R.R.E.A.M. = Rash Rules Everything Around Me . I mean, I get the...

It kinda seems like Weekend Money were added to the Das Racist/Union Transfer bill in the final hour" ... But man, they've gotta be the TIGHTEST rap crew I've never heard of! Ne$$ & Baghdaddy proceeded to [brutally] open the show and were followed up by fellow Greedhead labelmates: SAFE, Lakutis , and flamboyant rapper LE1F . Impose Magazine goes on to cleverly point out that this is NOT the same Ness that Diddy notoriously sent across the frozen Brooklyn Bridge to buy a cheesecake on Making The Band 2 . Weekend Money Ne$$ was born and raised in Philly and is now co-aligned with politically conscious Hip-Hop group, dead prez . Since immigrating 1/2 way across the world, DJ Baghdaddy has been able to learn/produce under the wing of seasoned Roots beatsmith, Hot Sugar . Ne$$ had a chance meeting with Baghdaddy @ a party; While he had never produced a Hip-Hop beat before, the 2 ended up vibing pretty well... melding together Hip-Hip & Electro att...

While it was just announced late yesterday afternoon, WILD WATER KINGDOM is quickly shaping up to be[come] his second mixtape of 2012, and Heems has already tapped a wide array of beat-makers for possible inclusion: Diplo , Le1f, Harry Fraud , Yorrissey, " @keyboardkid206 , @beautifullou1, AND @MikeFinito ." Making a pretty un-characteristically bold move, Yorrissey (BLKHRTS) decides to employ a tricky sample pulled from Shoegaze godfathers, Echo & The Bunnymen on "Killing Time." It sounds a lot like Donnie Darko from the get-go and after a re-purposed vocal fragment [hook] plays out, Heems comes in... rapping full-force about being bored? For all intensive purposes, "Killing Time" just might be the true genesis of Slacker Rap-Rock . Along with friend-producer Yorrissey , Heems somehow manages to find the middle ground between self-loathing 80's Indie Rock and Underground Hip-Hop . Heems recently stated on Twitter that Beautiful Lou ...

Hyperbolic Chamber Music is essentially one long, free-form 22-minute-long posse cut commissioned by Mishka NYC and [entirely] produced by Ryan Hemsworth . Amongst it's included 27 up-and-comers are: MondreM.A.N. Squadda B, Kool A.D. Big Baby Gandhi , Fat Tony , and Shady Blaze . Average Russian-American John Q. Public and Das Racist -affiliated rapper, Aleksey "Lakutis" Weintraub appears @ some point during "Hyperbolic Chamber Music" 's latter 1/2. Lakutis' 2-3 bars have since been segmented into "Pool Party," which now has it's own companion music video... directed by Das Racist and Battles members, Dapwell and [drummer] John Strainer . Roughly a 2-minute affair, "Pool Party" comes off as weirdly low budget D.I.Y. yet surprisingly endearing and heart-felt. Dapwell manages to employ a gaggle of go-to camera tricks: swanky furniture, flashing lights, an e-cigarette, geometric shapes, and "explosive" stock ...

The art of compiling and releasing cast off left-overs and B-sides has been a long-standing tradition in both Hip-Hop and Indie music; Pivotal to their natural progressions, since concurrently forming back in the 1980's. Hip-Hop artists and fans widely refer to the practice as the "mixtape:" A release which generally complies unclear-able samples and nearly-completed left-over tracks. Promotional tool used around the time of album release(s). Now, Indie Rock artists and devotees commonly refer to the medium as "mix CD [tape]:" More of a fan-run thing, mix CD's are often burned for a love interest and usually posses a running theme or mood. UPDATE: The "apocalyptic" date, 11/11/11 did in fact approach and complete. So, that means that Small Black - MOON KILLER (mixtape) was liberated earlier this morning. Yadda, yadda , yadda... Direct download link. This includes 2 Heems features, Nick Minaj-Carpenters samples, Star Slinger-Phonetag R...