The Witzard

Late last night, right after midnight, we recieved a rather mysterious Bandcamp Notification email out of the blue. It arrived on behalf of Mello Music Group and said, "Greetings, Matt Horowitz, Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean just announced EGO, check it out here." "Here's what they say about it: "Detroit's Guilty Simpson and Boom-Bap producer Gensu Dean combine for a new album arriving Oct. 8th feat, Marv Won, Black Milk, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Yarbrough, and Skyzoo," said early morning email continued. Along with the announcement of 12-track EGO , Mello Music Group additionally shared an initial preview of the album with "Don't Pull." Boasting Gensu Dean's dusty SP-1200 & MPC3000-aided production style and Guilty Simspon's grizzled tough-as-nails rhyming style, "Don't Pull" is definitely a head-banger and we're excited to hear the rest of EGO. EGO by Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean Gensu Dean & Gui...

Confidence Is Everything 2 by ullnevano x illien rosewell "If something works, stick to it until the chemistry or the spark is no longer there anymore—that's the approach that Baltimore emcee UllNevaNo ("you'll never know") and Norfolk, Virginia producer illien Rosewell decided to go with Confidence Is Everything 2 (CIE2) . Consider it new chapter to last year's first release, which was well-received by Hip-Hop heads and critics alike, to the point where Indie label Already Dead Tapes pressed up limited edition gold tape cassettes," read a pseudo-press release sent by the sharp-tongued emcee himself, UllNevaNo . " CIE2 finds Neva finding his mojo, [comfortably] over illien 's production and it shows over joints like the graveyard-digging "they all die" where it finds the emcees murdering household names and local emcees, to the groovy haunting chills of "12's over the wire," which he got inspired by Skyzoo ...

Talib Kweli 's latest mixtape, Attack The Block is a loose [street] album that's loosely based around a British Sci-Fi Thriller of the same name (2011). Kweli does his best to bridge that gap, effectively re-appropriating film dialog for his intro track, "Attack The Block!!!" Talib Kweli has always been a fairly active, politically- conscious rapper ever since he first burst onto the scene with Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998). Surprisingly, Attack The Block was actually released a few weeks earlier than expected... on Sept. 3rd, Labor Day Weekend instead of Sept. 18th. Co-presented along with DJ Z-Trip , the mixtape really is a generous offering - 18 tracks deep, 6 solo Kweli raps. It looks like Talib Kweli has managed to rope in some serious favors and scored guest verses from Black Thought , Skyzoo, Das Racist , Lil' Wayne, Killer Mike , Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ryan Leslie , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul ... In addition to production work fro...

"In the spirit of lyrical exercise, I figured I'd start a chain of freestyle releases entitled "The Penny Freestyle Series." As a kid, Penny Hardaway was my favorite basketball player, hands down. Labeled the "Second Coming," he took the mid-90's by storm! We all know [that] if his knees didn't give out, he'd be listed in the Top 50 of All Time, Hall of Fame , the works. So, what would have happened if Penny's knees DIDN'T go out on him? He would've [easily become] one of the greatest ever. Hence where I come in... For this week's Penny Freestyle Series , we conclude with "Wikipedia Rap" [Lupe Fiasco - "Failure" ]. This is the final entry in the Penny Series . I honestly had a blast knocking these out for y'all week by week. Click the cover for "Wikipedia Rap," and see the link below for the full collection, in case you missed any of the previous verses... The Penny Freestyle Series ...