The Witzard

It's a collaboration that no one really expected, but everyone secretly dreamt about and longed for: [MF] DOOM & Clams Casino ! We're talkin' about the most mysterious man in Hip-Hop and rising Cloud Rap beat-maker, Mike Volpe (Clams Casino). The Nutley, NJ native's self-released Instrumentals 1-2 mixtapes (2011-12) are arguably right up there with classic DOOM albums Operation: Doomsday , Mm.. Food, and MADVILLAINY , and MF DOOM Meets Clutchy Hopkins. @clammyclams Tweeted early Monday morning, "new track (feat. DOOM ) available now at new site CLAMMYCLAMS.COM ," which in turn, linked to Soundcloud . "BOOKFIEND" essentially features DOOM spitting wordy, dense rhymes about occult leader Alistair Crowly , Kindle tablets, allusions to "November Has Come," whatever the Hell Tetragrammaton is, and Netflix over a spaced out Clams Casino beat... "It's Netflix to the head, second best trick to get chicks to the bed....

When Instrumentals first dropped last year, it had that underlying "something great is going to happen" sort of feel and now a year later, on the heels of Instrumentals 2 , something great HAS indeed happened! Even when just looking @ it's commercial reception, Instrumentals achieved leaps and bounds for an independent online release; The collection was eventually label-released and re-mastered. This homegrown success is essentially what allowed Clams Casino to make the type of high-profile beats that he's managed to create in recent months. Gaining dual acceptance into both mainstream/underground circles has allowed Mike Volpe [Clams] the chance to work with Lil B , Soulja Boy, Florence + The Machine , G-Side , The Jealous Guys, and Big K.R.I.T. In fact, most of the instrumentals featured across Instrumentals 2 have been stripped down and re-purposed as vocal-less edits. These tracks previously housed either A$AP Rocky , The Weeknd, Lana del Rey , Squadda B , W...

Earlier this year, 23-year-old Nutley, NJ native, Mike Volpe ("Clams Casino") released a mixtape chock-full of instrumental Hip-Hop beats - completely on a whim. Said mixtape, the aptly-titled "Instrumentals" was received with great praise far and wide! So, instead of making one of those cliché "Year-End Lists" like everyone and their brother, though I will admit that I briefly contemplated the idea... I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: Clams Casino - Instrumentals was hands down, the Mixtape Album of The Year ! And with that said, it's almost inappropriate to categorize this genre-jumping materpiece as solely "Hip-Hop." Soon after, Witch-House label, Tri Angle released a collection of original Volpe material: Rainforest EP (June 2011). For all intensive purposes, Clams Casino essentially created Lil B 's now infamous stream-of-consciousness #BASED musical stylings. One could further argue that Volpe also had a strong ha...