The Witzard

"Tired of [people] making this an issue of anything but the music. While you were spending time looking pretty, I was working on my craft," self-proclaimed neck-beard rapper @jonwayne recently sounded off on Twitter ; "I can lose weight, cut my hair, trim my beard, get a tan.... none of that is going to make me a better emcee or producer. So, shut the f*ck up." Stones Throw sums up another recent Twitter -based turn of events pretty simply, "He made the announcement [Sunday] night, and here's the track. Simple as that. See you next week." Jonwayne effortlessly laces up 32 bars over an unspecified J Dilla beat, which he's re-dubbed "No" aka the first in a newly-announced Monday afternoon freestyles series. It was preceded last week by an unofficial starter track, "Special Herbs Medley," wherein Jonwayne rapped over 20 cut-and-pasted DOOM instrumentals in just under five minutes. While Dilla 's characteristically of...

Following the recent conclusion of his 3-part Cassette series, Jonwayne can now concentrate 100% of his focus on his long-awaited Stones Throw full-length; Formerly titled "Bohemian Rap CD," it's now called Rap Album 1 and cleverly sports a saltine cracker strewn across it's cover (likely a nod to how far "white boys" have come in Hip-Hop ha). While he was actually born Jon[athan] Wayne , the budding emcee kinda swagger-jacked the other, more infamous John Wayne 's birth-right for his latest mixtape, Marion Morrison (Cassette 3). "Reflection" is just one of 11 largely self-produced tracks culled from Rap Album 1 , which drops October 29th and is currently available for pre-order. Stones Throw liberated what Jonwayne later effectively dubbed a non-single mid-Wednesday afternoon; as Wayne perfectly put it, "If you don't like "Reflection," give yourself some time to adjust to new ideas in Hip-Hop and then listen a...

"The recurring theme in this group is we are all NASTY producers who can rap, NASTILY. [It's] a completely self-sufficient, well-oiled machine," Jonwayne lamented about Digital Diamonds , via Twitter late Friday afternoon. He released a Nirvana -sampling track online a few months ago along with Scoop DeVille under the group name, which has now expanded to include Chuck Inglish . It's Inglish's first major project since The Cool Kids went on indefinite hiatus [broke up?] While Jonwayne on the other hand, is currently busy mixing/mastering his proper Stones Throw debut and Scoop DeVille has produced tracks for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Das Racist (R.I.P.) and Kendrick Lamar 's recent hit singles "The Recipe" and "Poetic Justice." "Delirious" is a CLASSIC hard-hitting Hip-Hop beat that sounds like it might've been collectively co-produced by Jonwayne, Chuck Inglish & Scoop DeVille . It seems to sample some...

Kendrick Lamar generously unveiled a BRAND NEW non-album track, "The Jig Is Up (Dump'n)," to commemorate the sheer fact that good kid, m.A.A.d. city has already managed to move some 250,000+ units since it's initial [Oct. 23rd] release; It's a staggering call-to-arms aimed @ Lamar's critics and detractors, which just might end up being a sample of his long-rumored J.Cole -manned album. Kendrick Lamar even lets loose a couple quick jabs @ a washed up rapper who felt the need to voice his unwarranted opinions: "I pray to God this beat is good enough for Shyne , if not J.Cole your shit is trash" ha! For what it's worth, good kid, m.A.A.d. city sold 241,000 copies between Oct. 22-30th, taking second place on the Billboard 200 charts, just behind Taylor Swift . Most likely against Aftermath/TDE 's wishes, Lamar scrapped the potentially buzz-worthy Lady GaGa collabo track, bumped Dr. Dre & Mary J. Blige 's features to mere bo...

Jonwayne must've tracked down a copy of that bare bones Nirvana - "In Bloom" (a capella) mp3 when it leaked way back in 2008. I'm pretty sure that Jonwayne chopped up and remixed Kurt Cobain 's POWERFUL, echoing vocals into a broading Boom-Bap track, which has now been cleverly re-titled "In Spite." Wayne quietly uploaded the track to Soundcloud just a few days ago under the musical moniker, "Digital Diamonds" and fellow rapper-producer Scoop DeVille is the other 1/2 of his new Rap Band . All of the new track's assorted, miscellaneous parts are essentially built and anchored together around Cobain's skeletal vocal performance. "In Spite" somehow manages to inter-weave Kurt's heart-felt wail right against Jonwayne/ Scoop DeVille 's rhymes, effortlessly blending in like a deep-rooted hook. I wonder what Digital Diamonds have in store for us next... a mixtape? Joint album? They've gotta be up to something, ...

Shit man, the name John Wayne is almost instantly BADASS ... Even when it's missing the all-important word-separating space and "h" for extra emphasis, of course. Depending on who you ask, I guess it could be said that Jonwayne is kinda a Hip-Hop Cowboy ; A rebel without a cause, and an un-worldly knack for producing a "darn tootin'" [perfect] beat! All the while, sharpening his Rap skills/chops, Jonwayne recently signed a deal with Stones Throw . Hard @ work compiling his debut LP for the Los Angeles -bred imprint, they've released a handful of FREE and re-packaged material over the past few months: Jonwayne F*cks Disney EP , Oodles of Doodles , This Is False (mixtape), a flexi-disc, and a $7.00 CASSETTE tape. "Night School" was quietly mastered and uploaded to Jonwayne 's personal Soundcloud page late July 30th, just a few days after Stones Throw outlined CASSETTE's rudimentary release. Wayne skillfully assembled a 5-man ...

Contrary to popular belief, Das Racist 's version of "The Recipe" (Gwyneth Paltrow) actually pre-dates Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre 's single version, which was released first. Since "Meet The Frownies" [sample] was only issued in 2010, this all had to happen over the past 2 years... Scoop DeVille gave a rough version of the beat to Das Racist before ever even meeting Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre . But because Aftermath somehow managed to release "The Recipe" first, it may seem like Kool A.D. & Heems are beat-jacking, which is entirely off point. Anyways, here's Das Racist's final take, "Gwyneth Paltrow," now accompanied by some sort of found footage of 2 weird-ass 1970's "putty face" re-molding performance artists. Victor Vazquez directs or something...

"No matter what he does or with whom he does it, Kendrick Lamar always manages to put his stamp on a track. He is a force of personality who can influence even the static logoified personage of old Andre Young , whether through vibe or straight up writing his verses. The Rap Cognoscenti has a low opinion of ghostwriting. I don't have a problem with it, as writing like this is often a collaborative process and has been going on forever, like Tony Asher writing lyrics with Terry Sachen and Brian Wilson . I don't feel less emotionally invested in the line, "I can hear so much in your sigh" because Wilson didn't write it. Dr. Dre is known to work like Michelangelo , getting other dudes like Scoop DeVille to paint the ceiling for him when he is the one behind the blueprint. He sounds excited for the first time in years! Much has been written about the precedents for Kendrick Lamar 's style (with him, "style" must be italicized), writers combin...