The Witzard

Chase The Grail (Remixes) by Bobby Obsy The Find "Mag" Magazine is an Amsterdam, Netherlands -based digital music publication founded and operated by Danny Veekens since 2007. Over the years, Danny & I have become pretty friendly, through social media, and definitely have a mutual admiration and respect for each other. In fact, our sites were amongst the first publications to cover Myrrow's Outlet (formerly TT5BR )'s Paul's Boutique -remixing BB PB EP and its recent follow-up, BB PB EP O . Following in line with our recent Punk/Hardcore merch feature, The Witzard's Best-Of Instagram: "Mommy, Can I... Buy These Punk/Hardcore Merch Oi!-tems?" we figured we do a little Hip-Hop /crate-diggin' merch feature, as well, for our good friends at The Find Mag . "The hunt for records never ends. No vinyl crate is safe. Our new T-shirt visualizes that: the art of crate-digging. Illustrated by beat-maker/designer Bobby Obsy (UK) in a 30'...

Shawn Johnson is a multi-talented artist, who makes digital art and videos, as well as Instrumental Hip-Hop . For his digital art efforts, Shawn goes by @oldsoulbrother AKA NEKTR (@SHONJART) and has released music, over the years, as Shon J. Mr.J with Mr. Backside, OLD SOUL with Optimus Prime , and as part of Hip-Hop/Rock band, NOGENRE559 with affiliation to The Natural High, Amajin Records , and Alpha Force . Shawn Johnson has worked with and created Cut-and-Paste-esque music videos for The Witzard mainstay Purple Dialect , Slum Village emcee T3, Westside Gunn & Conway affiliate Benny The Butcher , J-Zone & Pablo Martin's The Du-Rites, Ali Miller FKA Truck North (The Roots,) K.A.A.N. and Lance Skiiiwalker . I've previously spoken with Shawn Johnson concerning his work on Purple Dialect 's "Cocoa" video, as well as Shon J & Mr. Backside 's 32-track Mr.J beat tape; however, in recent months, Shawn has been mentioning a number of hig...

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving Day Weekend/Black Friday to all of our trusty readers out there and Happy Record Store Day Black Friday to my fellow crate diggers! Full disclosure: I'm pretty sure one of the first CD's I ever bought for my Walkman was Will Smith 's 1997 solo debut, Big Willie Style . Regardless, it was definitely one of my earliest brushes with Hip-Hop/Rap , which ultimately, changed my life! A few of my earliest favorite Hip-Hop albums I discovered on my own were Atmosphere 's Seven's Travels , Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill & Paul's Boutique, Wu-Tang Clan 's Enter: The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers,) and Jurassic 5's Power In Numbers. The latter has always had a special place in my Hip-Hop -loving heart and I would soon, go on to discover DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist 's heavily-bootlegged BRAINFREEZE , Chali 2na & Roc 'C's Ron Artiste' super-group, and Jurassic 5 's "last" album, Feedback , r...

As any well-rounded Hip-Hop head should already know, we recently celebrated the 25th anniversaries of two of Hip-Hop 's most revered and widely-loved albums: Wu-Tang Clan 's monumental debut, Enter: The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and A Tribe Called Quest 's third album, Midnight Marauders both originally released on November 9th, 1993. Wu-Tang 's 9 surviving clansmen, as well as ODB 's son, Young Dirty Bastard (@DirtyBastardJr) have recently been making the rounds in celebration of their 25th anniversary; making recent appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live , Good Morning America , and in Staten Island AKA "Shaolin" in honor of Wu-Tang Clan Day . Wu-Tang also, dropped a career-spanning documentary called For The Children: 25 Years of Enter: The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers.) A Tribe Called Quest 's surviving members— Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Jarobi White —on the other hand, have remained a bit more silent since their 2016 "final" album with...

Wu-Tang Clan emcee Ghostface Killah and Internet personality Big Ghost Ltd AKA Cocaine Biceps AKA The Illustrious Thor Molecules AKA The Infamous Galaxy Knuckles AKA Shampoo Bracelets The Panty-melter AKA The Mighty Hands of Zeus , believe it or not, have a long, strange history together. In his earliest aughts as a sh*t-talking writer/music critic around 2010-11, Big Ghost (then- Big Ghostface ) was actually, widely believed to be Ghostface Killah ; due in part to his 2011 Ayo The Top 10 Softest N****s In The Game! AKA GHOSTFACE KILLAH: TOP 10 SOFTEST RAPPERS IN THE GAME list. Ghostface Killah AKA Tony Starks AKA Ironman AKA Pretty Toney AKA Starky Love AKA The Wallabee Champ AKA Ghost Deini/Ghostdini AKA Sun God has continually released strong solo efforts and has been my personal favorite Wu-Tang swordsmen for the last 15+ years. Ghost was one of the first Wu-Tang/Killa Beez emcees to work with outside producers and in recent years, has worked with Apollo Bro...

Black Gold - Spare Nuggets by Tom Caruana Mashups Not to be confused with similarly-named Davey Havok -fronted Horror Punk band, Son of Sam is a Soul/Funk -inflected Instrumental Hip-Hop band hailing from "Cinder Hill," UK . Founded by Sam Brothers John (drums) and Joe (bass & guitar) Son of Sam unleashed their 2017 debut, CINDER HILL with assistance from fellow bandmates Dutch Halligan wielding keyboard, flute & sax) and Tom Caruana helming percussion & production. Tea Sea Records -released CINDER HILL features a slew of emcees and vocalists including John Robinson , Sadat X, The Black Opera , Guilty Simpson, Organized Konfusion 's Prince Po , Denmark Vessey, Quelle Chris , Masta Ace, and Large Pro . Tom Caruana , actually, runs Tea Sea Records , which boasts Son of Sam , The Menagerie, Professor Elemental , Dr. Syntax, Klondike Kids , longusto, Boiler Room Collective , and Grand Agent amongst their eclectic roster, as well as Caruana's own or...

"I'm Zilla Rocca. I rap, produce, and write articles. I have my own Indie label, Three Dollar Pistol Music and put out music with my friends Curly Castro, Small Professor, and PremRock as our posse, Wrecking Crew. Me and Small Pro put out a group album as Career Crooks [last] year called Good Luck with That , where he did all of the beats, but I've been a producer, as well for 15 years. So, here's some of the most important albums to me, when I'm "behind the boards.'" I. Handsome Boy Modeling School - So... How's Your Girl? (1999) "I remember buying this album in 1999 and having no clue how any of these songs were made. I didn't start making beats for another three years or so, but this album never left my conciousness. [Dan The] Automator is one of my all-time favorite producers because he bounces between genres effortlessly, from Serge Gainsbourg stuff with Lovage, to Sci-Fi Fantasy Robot sh*t with Deltron [3030], to the first Go...

"I am Carl Kavorkian: rapper/vocalist/producer and (currently, the sole) member of MANIKINETER. I'm originally from West Chester, Pennsylvania and have been involved with music since seventh grade. I started writing raps because I thought I could do it better than MC Hammer ; I started producing because I needed original stuff to rap on; I started screaming because it was fun as f**k. The idea of taking a canvas of complete silence and painting it with sound into whatever you want it to be or whatever it evolves into, is a liberating feeling. Here are three albums that had an impact on my production." - Carl Kavorkian (MANIKINETER) Missing by Manikineter I. Redman - Dare Iz a Darkside (1994) "If you close your eyes and listen to this, it really is like a journey through a f***ed up world. Even with the humor sprinkled throughout, it's a very moody album from front to finish. The skits tying the different stops together, the brooding, Funky basslines thr...

"My name is Lang Vo. I'm one half of WORDS HURT with Def Jux alum ALASKA and the other half of the group REINFORCED STEEL with my friend and sage, Kwamizzle. I've been producing and making beats for the last 20+ years. Back in the heyday, before I had kids, I used to work the Columbus, Ohio scene and did shows with Camu Tao and opened for his group, S.A. Smash. I've opened for Atmosphere, Mr. Lif [& Akrobatik AKA] The Perceptionists, Blueprint with Soul Position [RJD2], etc. Although, I never hit "The Big Time," I had a great time back then. My last show was a show with Killah Priest in 2009. Once I started having kids, I still made music and did a few shows here and there in Austin, Texas, but staying out late and having drunk people dump beer on my equipment didn't seem as fun anymore. I didn't pick it back up again seriously, until I started working with Alim Wade, a rapper in Atlanta. He started sending my beats out to people like Kool A.D. ...

"What's goodie!? My name is iLL-Omega . I'm a beat-maker from Trenton, NJ . This is my column [for] Beat-maker Bedrock ! Here's three albums that inspired me to start making music. Salute to John "Jumbled" Bachman and The Witzard for letting me be a part of this!" - Darnell "iLL-Omega" Storey I. Wu-Tang Clan - "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) "This album is one of the first Hip-Hop albums that made me want to start doing music. The RZA delivers a cinematic feel with the Kung-Fu samples and crazy chopped-up samples. The hard-hitting drums shake your car and pound your chest on each track. I remember first listening to Wu-Tang in intermediate school. When I first played this tape, it felt like a movie that I didn't want to end. The contributions from all nine members of the Wu-Tang seemed like a big Kung-Fu fight scene with each line that punches you in the face." II. Redman - Muddy Waters (1996) ...

"Hello, I'm âtƒ (AKA all these fingers ) and I make beats and play music. There's a lot of dudes who have influenced me as a producer, but these are probably the ones I owe the most to... in particular, these records," Michigan -based producer all these fingers wrote within a recent email. I actually believe I met âtƒ through my buddy and frequent collaborator Darko The Super —they've collaborated on a few albums, as both Darko The Super & all these fingers and Doc Fingers . âtƒ has self-released a whopping 52 albums, mixtapes, cassettes, EP's, beat tapes, and digi-singles on his personal Bandcamp page since 2011. He's collaborated with the likes of Darko The Super , Mr. Muthaf**kin' eXquire, and Future Islands frontman Sam Herring 's rapping alter-ego Hemlock Ernst , as well as creating remixes for Roc Marciano , Sean Price, Beastie Boys , Nas, Raekwon , Biggie, and Slick Rick . all these fingers' latest Super Mario Kart -inspire...

Just about a month ago, I got an email from my friend, producer buddy, and frequent collaborator John Bachman AKA Jumbled mysteriously labelled "2 things." Bachman was writing me about his upcoming Bmore Club -minded project, as well as an idea he said he had been "kicking around;" wherein he simply detailed he wanted to ask "producers to name 3-5 albums that influenced them/their style and talk a little about each album and maybe their [favorite] track." Needless to say, I was immediately interested and Jumbled and I collectively decided we would jointly run our producer playlist column (now, appropriately deemed "Beat-maker Bedrock" ) on both The Witzard and his Hatford & Reckord Tumblr . And without further ado, here's the inaugural Beat-maker Bedrock artist-penned column with brainchild and beat-maker himself, John "Jumbled" Bachman . Beat-makers and producers: if you're reading this and could like to partake in f...