The Witzard

John Morrison Diggin' for Records (CREDIT: D1L0) John "Liberator" Morrison is a self-proclaimed "Writer/DJ/Sample-flipper" hailing from Philly. Morrison is the host of Serious Rap Sh!t & Culture Cypher Radio and lists NPR Music , okayplayer, The Wire Magazine , and Bandcamp amongst his writing credits. John Morrison , additionally, functions as a Hip-Hop emcee and producer with remix credits on Lushlife 's MY IDOLS ARE DEAD + MY ENEMIES ARE IN POWER and Career Crooks' Thieving As Long As I'm Breathing . Morrison's debut full-length project, Southwest Psychedelphia was released on Deadverse Recordings in 2016 and there's currently a slew of remixes, flips, and non-album tracks uploaded to his Bandcamp page. However, in recent years, John Morrison has been on a bit of a hiatus/medical leave... as Morrison himself puts it, "on March 3, 2018, I was hospitalized with Flu-like symptoms and a searing headache. After nearly two weeks...

Happy New Year to all of our trusty readers! 2020 marks 10 consecutive years of The Witzard, which is a little hard to believe, even for me! It's been a great ride thus far and we greatly appreciate everyone that visits and supports our site on a regular basis! I'm hoping to do a full site re-design in 2020 (something I've wanted to do for a few years!) but my wife and I are expecting our first child this Summer... so, we'll just have to see what happens, honestly. Hope everyone had a happy and safe holidays season! Here's a selection of new singles that were released over the holidays; let's just call it a best of 2019 year-end/2020 kick-off singles feature. Truth be told, these are some of our favorite artists here at The Witzard and we're excited to see/hear what they have in store for 2020! Festive Beastie Boys artwork courtesy of Pollywog Crew (@pollywogcrew.) Sincerely, Matt "The Witzard" Horowitz It's A New Year, Wavy Baby! ...

ARTWORK BY: Ed Ptskor (@edpiskorcartoonist) It's been a while, but The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up column is back! Over the course of the past month or so, there have been a plethora of solid Hip-Hop EP's released online; a quick, concise 30-minutes or less format that's seemingly, replaced the mixtape/"street album" format of years passed to become your favorite underground rapper/producer's go-to promotional tool. Here, for this latest edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up, we'll be profiling eight EP's released throughout November 2019 and maybe, a couple from a month or so prior, as well. Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of Action Bronson & The Alchemist, Almost Elijah, CRASHprez & knowsthetime, ialive, Mikah kHill, Pecue, Rolled Gold, and Teek Hall. Along with a brief write-up on each release, you'll find a select track from each EP, as well purchase links to buy or stream online. If this one...

"Sweet Fall" is a song I've had in my possession for, at least, six months now, as I received it literally days before my wedding. It's been a bit delayed on my end, as most coverage has been for the last few months because... well, life! Although, honestly, it might have just worked out this time because the accompanying Bob Sweeney -directed music video for "Sweet Fall" is out, now, too. DEC 4 is the newly-enacted project of Philly -based musician, vocalist, and lyricist Justin Zugerman (@zuwear_.) It appears as though Zugerman is, in fact, a childhood friend of both John Morrison & Josh "Indi" Leidy of the Serious Rap Sh*t podcast. After going on an indefinite hiatus from his long-time Psychedelic/Experimental/Hip-Hop project with Chris Grau , Oxygen&Light , Morrison & Leidy introduced DEC 4 to their friend and fellow Philly -based producer and multi-instrumentalist, Harry Metz , whom most of you may well know as Rolled Gold...

A Different Cloth, Vol. 2 by Rolled Gold Honestly, by now, anyone who frequents these pages of The Witzard knows that we're big fans and supporters of Philly -based producer, beat-maker, and multi-instrumentalist Harry Metz AKA Rolled Gold . I believe, we've covered nearly all of his various releases and projects since 2016's Rolled Gold & Uncle Crimson: The Great Fallback EP , as well as his slightly re-worked and re-released SALTY (3P) EP . Earlier this year, Rolled Gold kick-started his latest musical endeavor with A Different Cloth, Vol. 1 EP/beat tape, as a way to fully fresh out and properly release a wide array of unfinished songs, unreleased remixes, both old and new collaborations, unplaced instrumental beats, etc. It's, essentially, an extension of his 2018 EP, Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast with an added "cut from a different cloth"-type of vibe, as well as a place for Metz to display his eclectic collection of quilts and tapest...

A Different Cloth, Vol. 1 by Rolled Gold Just last year, Philly 's own beat-twisting producer and multi-instrumentalist Harry Metz AKA Rolled Gold self-released a slew of original projects including "Nite Owl's Theme" Feat. Ai​-​Que & Reef The Lost Cauze , Boogieman Dela's Broken Watch 02: Future Currents EP, Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast , a remix of Career Crooks' "Clock's Ticking" with Wino Willy, and a remix of his own production work on Boogieman 's "Hustler." Now, Rolled Gold has returned with a New Year's Eve/Day release entitled A Different Cloth, Vol. 1 ; prior to release, @RolledGoldBeats himself described it as "100% original Soulful -a$$, Jazzy , dusty grimy-a$$ beats, [and] remix snippets from the homies..." A Different Cloth, Vol. 1 is the first installment in a planned instrumental/remix EP series, which itself, is a quasi-progression of last year's Rolled Gold's Healthy A...

Boogieman Dela - Hustler (Rolled Gold Remix) by Rolled Gold Rolled Gold is the production alias of Philly -based beat-maker, multi-instrumentalist, and charismatic remixer Harry Metz . Over the course of the past year or so, Rolled Gold has become something of a mainstay and frequent collaborator, as you may have already noticed, here at The Witzard . It's been great to personally see Harry's whole sound, style, and musical approach grow and progress since his 2016 EP, The Great Fallback , with fellow Philadelphian , Uncle Crimson . What I have noticed, however, is Rolled Gold 's tendency to continually construct and release easily-digestible "bite"-sized projects, which are generally, very short and concise, yet extremely enjoyable and exceedingly well-orchestrated. For an example of what I'm talking about, I would strongly suggest checking out Rolled Gold 's SALTY (3P) EP, "The Field" Feat. No Headliner, "Nite Owl's Theme" ...

"Rolled Gold is a soulful Hip-Hop producer from Philadelphia, who has a versatile, life-long musical resume, ranging from Jazz to Punk Rock bands, Trap beats to live Neo-Soul groups, and more. His style has influence from Hip-Hop producers, such as J Dilla, RZA, and MF DOOM, as well as the timeless catalogs of Motown, Stax & [Philadelphia International Records]. While he has been sampling for most of his production, so far, this past year has been spent composing and recording friends and family to use as sample material. His next releases will be instrumental/remix EP's and a compilation album, all constructed from these original samples and compositions... These albums, in no specific order, are the first that come to his mind in his influence and evolution as a musician over the years." Rolled Gold's Healthy Ass Breakfast by Rolled Gold A. Madlib - Beat Konducta: Movie Scenes, Vol. 1-2 (2006) "This is the first album I heard, at age 13, that really ...

Still riding high on the success of his recent single with Rolled Gold & Reef The Lost Cauze , "Nite Owl's Theme," Ai-Que AKA Ai-Que MCBoogie AKA "The Multi-faceted Rap Machine" has returned with his debut full-length, The American Dream . Ai-Que is a Philly -based emcee "heavily focused on the cultural impact and unification of global communities." Ai-Que also, moonlights as co-host of The BANGERS & MASH PODCAST (@bangersandmashtheshow) along with Ali Miller FKA Truck North of The Legendary Roots Crew . On the eve prior to The American Dream 's Saturday, July 21st release, Ai-Que played a monumentous show with dead prez , Reef The Lost Cauze & DJ ANTLIVE at The Ardmore Music Hall hosted by D.R.E.S. Tha Beatnik . When asked what his greatest sources of inspiration and influence behind The American Dream were, Ai-Que stated he wanted to "create something that was sonically, more contemporary without compromising the...

Rolled Gold's Healthy Ass Breakfast by Rolled Gold Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast is the latest release from Philly 's finest producer, multi-instrumentalist, and beat-maker Harry Metz AKA Rolled Gold . It's equal parts salty and sweet and although, it's a concise one-track beat tape with "a quick 8-minutes of #flysh*t," Metz delivers an everything pretzel-esque blend of Old School Hip-Hop , Boom-Bap, Trap , 808 drum fills, and Soulful R&B . Stylistically, falling somewhere in-between an instrumental EP and a re-mixtape/blends album, Rolled Gold's Healthy A$$ Breakfast consists of 100% original material made up of assorted song scraps, unfinished takes, left-over, acapellas, remix snippets, etc; "each beat is made from live recordings of instruments played by Rolled Gold 's friends, family, and himself, of course, and they all run into the next in a cohesive, somewhat "day in the life" [field recordings] manner," a...