The Witzard

For his latest single, "Ego Death" LA -based rapper-producer Busdriver has essentially assembled an all-star team of Underground Hip-Hop MVP's; Busdriver, Aesop Rock & Danny Brown spit hot fire in succession over the course of Stones Throw affiliate Jeremiah Jae 's nearly 6-minute neck-snapping beat. While hailing from three separate corners of the Underground Hip-Hop spectrum, the three veteran emcees surprisingly mesh very well together (I believe Busdriver & Aesop have rapped together before). "Yeah, no... I understand what you're saying. But is is sexier than torture?" opens Jae's slightly off-kilter beat, which features multi-layered lines like: "And downtime is never met with an overjoyed grin / cause sleep and death have always been conjoined twins," "He shoots the whores, truly stupid troubadours," and Danny Brown 's fairly sound assertion that he's the "Rap Marilyn Manson." It's ...

Lady Gaga recently teamed up with Hip-Hop Soul/R&B crooner and Phoenix cohort R. Kelly for her latest teaser single, "Do What U Want." The first in a series of a planned weekly singles series leading up to her third studio album, ARTPOP (November 11th); Highsnobiety further described it as "a distinct step away from some of the styles of many of Gaga 's previous songs, less Bowie -derived and more Tina Turner ." But I personally hear lurching rhythmic effects that're reminiscent of "Thriller"' s eerie-sounding central rhythm and seasoned vocal inflections akin to Christina Aguilera . It's kinda more or less along the lines of a socially-conscious "panty-dropper," inter-spliced with semi-prolific lines like, "Do what you want with my body... Write what you want. Say what you want about me." Just mere hours before uploading "Do What U Want" at 12:01am, Lady Gaga ended up posting a number of ...

What kind of madman would spend the better part of a year recording and re-recording an anti-commercial mainstream Hip-Hop album (if that's even a thing ha) all while his celebutante girlfriend is carrying their unborn baby and steadily nearing her dude date, only to have mega-producer Rick Rubin come in and re-work the entire 10-track collection mere hours before it's deadline!? - Unsurprisingly, Kanye West . It's almost mind boggling how much steam Yeezus has garnered without a proper single or music video, aside from "New Slaves"' building-side projections across the world, and virtually no album track leakage until the Friday before it's Tuesday June 18th release! Aside from all that, Kanye decided to boldly stray away from any sort of legitimate-looking album artwork/packaging, instead opting for the ghetto bootleg CD-R look: no cover or booklet, empty jewel CD case, sparse tracklist on the reverse side, and only a Yeezus -marked piece of red ta...

Rest assured, I guess you could say it was a pretty BIG week for Mr. West , who's finally come back into prominence for something else besides banging a Kardashian or walking into a street sign. Late Friday night Kanye debuted his new pseudo-video for "New Slaves" projected across 66 building sides in 10 major world cities; It's second unreleased 1/2 is rumored to feature Frank Ocean and the track supposedly utilizes an un-cleared sample culled from Hungarian Prog-Rock band, Omega . We're talkin' about guerrilla-style take-overs @ Wrigley Field (Chicago), Brooklyn, Los Angeles , Sydney, London , Paris, etc. projected out of make-shift truck/projectors sprawled across the night sky May 11-19th. This is all most likely part of an early promo campaign in support of Kanye 's upcoming album [possibly titled] "Yeezus," which may or may not be out as early as June 18th. Earlier in the week, he took a break from rigorous recording sessions in Par...

In my eyes, John Mayer is pretty much a d*ck, who's last memorable body of work was Try! (2005). Man, I lost a lot of respect for him after that slur-laden Playboy interview detailing his supposed "escapades" with Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston , black women, etc. Plus everything post- John Mayer Trio has been under-whelmingly lackluster and honestly, that's pretty damn sad for such a talented guitar player. But I digress... John Mayer has partially redeemed himself with this recently unveiled cover of "Video Games." Here, Mayer can be heard re-constructing a riff-heavy interpretation of Lana del Rey 's break-out hit. I guess John Mayer lost his voice [twice] and had to cancel some tour dates - Instant Karma! I, personally WILL NOT be picking up a copy of his new album, Born & Raised when it's released this upcoming May 22nd . "Video Games" however, appears on Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die , which is now...

Taylor "Cindy Lou Who" Momsen and her [teen] angst-filled Alternative Rock band, The Pretty Reckless are gearing up to join Marilyn Manson's Hey Cruel World... Tour . Momsen has been on "indefinite hiatus" from her infamous Gossip Girl acting gig since roughly 2010. But she's made good use of her new-found downtime, re-inventing herself and perusing her Rock "N" Roll fantasies along with The Pretty Reckless . Taylor Momsen says she's creatively influenced by Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Soundgarden , The White Stripes , and Oasis ; She's reportedly been messing around with music since the age of 8 and upon signing with Interscope Records (2009), has recruited a variety of band members, which now include: Ben Phillips, Mark Damon , and Jamie Perkins . The Pretty Reckless' discography currently consists of one album and 2 EP's. The bulk of which, including full-length Light Me Up , were written-recorded along with famed producer Ka...

"Many years ago, a young and naive Nine Inch Nails were asked what TV shows they'd be interested in appearing on. As a joke (and likely drunk), they thought of the most absurd choice they could come up with at the time. They were then informed their bluff had been called and were actually booked on said show... They hopped in their Honda Civic touring vehicle and traveled many miles to (I think) NJ for the big show. They had a laugh making fun of the people, their fashion choices and hairstyles. Life was good. Years later, The Internet is discovered... There's a moral in there somewhere. Come to think of it, Skrillex may indeed owe me some publishing on that hairdo." - Trent Reznor

The year was roughly 2008-09: Little did the world know that the concurrent career paths of 2 very different Pop Culture titans were about to miraculously collide. 2007 is generally regarded as the year Britney went "bonkers" - head shaving , public outbursts, rehab, spur-of-the-moment tattoos, mental instability, and other seemingly related antics. With that said, Britney Spears somehow re-gained consciousness, managing to pull her career out of this downward spiral; Blackout and Circus were released back-to-back in 2007-08, spawning acclaimed hits like "Womanizer," "Piece of Me," and title cut, "Circus." Around the same time, Marilyn Manson was going through some legal troubles of his own... All the while, recording and conceptualizing 2 of his own studio albums: Eat Me, Drink Me (2007) and The High End of Low (2009). "Heart-Shaped Glasses" proved to be a well-received commercial "single," of sorts and Phantasmag...

" Born Villain is the title of the new Marilyn Manson album. While looking to experiment in unlikely collaborations, I met Shia, and we spent a long night at my studio. After seeing "Maniac," his [ KiD CuDi ] short film, which is somewhat inspired by Man Bites Dog , I was astonished by his directing ability. So, I shared quite a few of my favorite inspirations in art, literature, and obviously film. I was impressed with how Shia [LeBeouf] digested my world, and made what I'd like to think, is both an homage and a mockery of the history of cinema. We ended up writing a short film. The score is from my new album, and is, in the words of Macbeth , "Full of sound and fury.'" - Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson) Shai LeBeouf put it best when he recently confessed that "In my teenage years, [Marilyn Manson] was the scariest thing in the world, so part of me has always been intrigued. " As Shai and I are generally the same age (24-25), I share the s...