The Witzard

Rollerskating Jam named "Sundays" by Nautilus "So, I asked Toshi[yuki Sasaki] from Nautilus because of his creative Jazz style and singer Fleur Earth , who I had in mind as the voice for this version to [fully] realize it for me. And yes, there will be another cool re-interpretation of a classic tune... I'll keep you updated," DJ Oonops told The Witzard roughly two years ago. He was talking about Nautilus & Fleur Earth 's Beastie Boys "Root Down" cover from Oopops Drops Vol. 1 ; at the time, the part about "another cool re-interpretation of a classic tune..." was largely irrelevant, but now, all of a sudden, it has become relevant! DJ Oonops is currently assembling Oopops Drops Vol. 2 for a September release on Hanover, Germany-based Agogo Records —an "extensive compilation covering genres from Dub, Jazz, Funk, Soul to Beats & Hip Hop"—and has unleashed "another cool re-interpretation." This time, Oono...

TORTURED SOUL (The Mixtape) is the latest release from Black Sheep/Black Sheep Dres AKA Andres "Dres" Vargas Titus. Dres was effectively one half of the New York-based group and is now its sole member, which was one of the inner groups within 90's Boom-Bap crew, The Native Tongues Collective. Along with fellow core Natives The Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Lucien Revolucien, Monie Love, Queen Latifah, Chi-Ali & Fu-Schnickens, Black Sheep's Dres & Mista Lawnge helped shape post-Gangsta Rap 1980-90's Hip-Hop. The Native Tongues, unknowingly, spear-headed a Conscious Hip-Hop movement, which would, in turn, influence and help found similar-minded collectives, such as The Flavor Unit MC's, The SpitKicker Crew, The okayplayers, The Soulquarians, and production collective The Ummah. However, after releasing two critically-acclaimed and widely-loved albums, A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing (1991) and Non-Fiction (1994) Black Sheep disbande...

Kendrick Lamar 's latest non-album single, "i" has a seemingly unlikely sample source, The Isley Brother 's 1973 Soul-Funk hit, "[Who's] That Lady," which many of you may recognize from Swiffer 's hilarious long-standing "Who's That Lady" campaign. Right off the bat, "i" itself is more blatantly "commercial" than the combined the whole of it's predecessor good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), but in the best way humanly possible. It's almost reminiscent of OutKast or even Native Tongues' 90's era brand of light-heated "conscious rap." Kendrick Lamar has supposedly recorded about 30 tracks for his as-yet-untitled second album, including "a bunch of tracks" with Dr. Dre . "Lamar says to expect "aggression and emotion" from the album, as well as some straight-up freestyling" laments a recent Rolling Stone profile; "if I can say anything about this record...

It's pretty wild to think that 17-year-old emcee Bishop Nehru 's major label debut is entirely produced by mysterious rapper-producer MF DOOM and will likely see a release on Nas' newly-established Mass Appeal Records imprint. While he's currently touring across Europe with Nasty Nas himself, Lex Records unleashed "Darkness" (sub-titled HBU ) late Monday afternoon, the first taste of Bishop Nehru & DOOM 's long-rumored NehruvianDOOM LP. It's seemingly a dusty horn-assisted beat culled from DOOM 's expansive 10-volume Special Herbs instrumental series, which @BishopNehru recently told a Twitter follower is "the only one" harvested from the nearly 90 track collection; Nehru promptly replied, "of course he raps" when brazenly asked by another fan if " DOOM [is] gonna be spitting on the album or just producing?" Bishop Nehru self-directed "Darkness"' s companion under his birth name Markel ...