The Witzard

Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "MF DOOM is easily the most inspirational act in Indie Hip-Hop. His voice, flow, production, character development, story-telling, and his ability to piece a cohesive album together were all extraordinary. Even in the early 90's in his KMD days, he was way ahead of his time. Going from a bright-eyed youth in his high school/KMD days—who wouldn...

BRZOWSKI , a self-described "touring Post-Rap artist hailing from the icy wastes of New England" hasn't released a proper full-length since 2017 critically-acclaimed ENMITYVILLE . Although, with that said, BRZO has stayed nothing short of inactive over the last nearly three years: 2018 saw the release of his I Had An Accident (IHAA) DIG 2 GRAVES split EP with MC Homeless , as well as 80HRTZ -produced single, "Cemetery Rose" Featuring Renée Coolbrith . So far, this year, in 2019, BRZOWSKI has released a cover of Woody Guthrie 's iconic "This Land Is Your Land" from The Multiverse: Season 1, Episode 2 , a 5-song score entitled Abduction Themes for a documentary called Otherworldly Amor , appeared on Zak G 's "Propaganda" from his Milled Pavement Records -released album, Mutant, and appeared alongside D-FAZ for five tracks from their new album, OneNationUnderDog . Blooddrive Vol. 4 by BRZOWSKI On top of all that, BRZOWSKI has...

First and foremost: I would like to take this opportunity to extend a very special "THANK YOU!" to Jesse Dangerously, John "Jumbled" Bachman, Pat "Pecue" Quinn, Dan LeRoy, Paolo Gilli, Nate LeBlanc, Height Keech, Joshua Rogers, Sahan Jayasuriya, Danny Cheap Date, Emceein' Eye, KID ACNE, Jeremy Shatan, clint. AKA salk. Myrrow's Outlet, Awkward, Jim Mahfood AKA FOODONE, Steve Baril, DJ Bacon, David "unheard78" Taylor, bigfatlove at Beastiemania.com, BRZOWSKI, Harvey Cliff MC, and Jay "Hawk" Myers at Beastie Family for their parts in helping create and put together this comprehensive track-by-track breakdown in honor of the recent 30th anniversary of the Beastie Boys' July 1989 sophomore album, Paul's Boutique. Make sure to Follow @JesseDangrsly, @NapalmDef, @Pecuedesign, @danleroy, @natejleblanc, @Heightkeech, @pathilluminated, @sahanicyouth, @dontpanicrecs, @emceeineye, @AnEarful, @myrrowsoutlet, @AwkwardUK, @JimMahfoo...

Donovan "ialive" Phillips is a self-described "Rap-singer-songwriter/beat aficionado/musical collector" hailing from The City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . ialive has released numerous collaborative and solo projects over the years, but hasn't released a tried and true "solo" album since 2015's Awake In The Snake Hole . However, in recent years, he's released collaborative projects with both Darko The Super as The Hell Hole Store and TIMEWAVE ZERO with Height Keech , as well as Four to The Floor 1-2 EP's with Cody Cody Jones ... just this past week, ialive announced his long-awaited third solo album, DON'T DO NOTHING , which will be dropping on Height 's Cold Rhymes Records Friday, January 11, 2019. DON'T DO NOTHING was fully produced, recorded, and mixed by ialive himself at The Green Gem in Philly with mastering done by Vinyl Cape 's own C$ BURNS . On the most recent episode of THIS COLD RHYM...

"In the Punk-derived tradition of split releases, DIG 2 GRAVES pairs a trio of new songs from Portland, Maine purveyor of dour verbosity, BRZOWSKI with the first [newly-]recorded material from erstwhile Ohioan, MC Homeless. Old friends who have shared stages across The US & Europe, these two both share an affinity for Indie Rap, Punk Rock ethos, and a nostalgia for the schlocky Horror of the 1970's & 80's. BRZOWSKI sculpted the majority of the lyrics for this release immediately following the sessions for 2017’s acclaimed opus of personal ghosts and political realities, ENMITYVILLE . An Indie stalwart with many note-worthy credits under his belt, BRZOWSKI has not slowed his pace of peculiar catalog pieces in the space between solo offerings, to which DIG 2 GRAVES is the latest addition. The lush production provided by C$ Burns + BRZOWSKI (as Vinyl Cape) & 80HRTZ deploys samples evenly with live instruments, woven in layers thickly appropriate to the nature ...

" Keepin' grubby hands out my lane—I guess I'm McClane / Rap game's—my Nakotomi Plaza / I tip-toe through broken glass to rescue my oldest passion / bet it all against the house in the hopes it'd let me out," Baltimore emcee NotForgotten ferociously rhymes on "Against All Odds," the first single from his as-yet-untitled debut album. NotForgotten is the emcee alias of Ricky Robertson, Jr. a self-described rapper, comic book artist, and illustrator; Robertson's been writing raps for the past 15 years and has been a self-taught artist for just as long, plus, 10 years prior. As NotForgotten tells "Against All Odds'" origin story to The Witzard , he "reached out to Cryptic One in response to an offer he posted on Twitter announcing that he had beats available." I have to admit, however, I'm still mildly intrigued to hear what NotForgotten & Cryptic One 's Indie Hip-Hop -laden rendition of Phil Collins...

"BRZOWSKI is a touring Post-Rap artist hailing from the icy wastes of New England. This road-worn vocalist has been regarded as a standard-bearer for Avant-Hip-Hop since his first release in 2001. Always prescient, often verbose, never for the faint-of-heart," reads BRZOWSKI ("BRZO" for short)'s Bandcamp Bio. He's done over 1,000 live performances, released three critically-acclaimed albums, four mixtapes, five EP's, and two 7-inch singles, as well countless featured appearances with a who's-who of seasoned Indie Hip-Hop vets. BRZOWSKI has been steadily touring with a wide array of projects since 1993 and has logged road hours in support of Atmosphere, Astronautalis, billy woods, Brother Ali, Busdriver, Cage, Ceschi, Doug E. Fresh, El-P, The Gaslamp Killer, MURS, Open Mike Eagle, Sage Francis, solo, and Uncommon Nasa. BRZO initially emailed me back in July, praising my recent published works with Height Keech, E. Grizzly, and Lt Headtrip, with a p...