The Witzard

Amy Winehouse was not unlike the late-great Ol' Dirty Bastard : Wildly talented, mildly deranged - A genuinely tortured soul. Winehouse's last known batch of proper recordings was recently collected and released as Lioness: Hidden Treasures . The Jolly Boys consists of 3 laid-back 70-something gentlemen: Albert Minott, Derrick "Johnny" Henry , and Joseph "Powder" Bennett . Utilizing sparse instrumentation -- acoustic guitar, 'rumba box [bass sub.] and maracas -- The Jolly Boys create a distinct brand of "Mento" music... a centuries-old style of Jamaican Folk not generally known outside of the island region. Legend has it that The Jolly Boys' up-beat riddims were the soundtrack to many of [actor] Errol Flynn 's infamous "never-ending" yacht parties. "Powder" & "Johnny" were 2 of The Jolly Boys founding members, upon it's formation back in The Roaring 50's. Albert Minott seems to be the ...

"[ Bon Iver 's] a fucking genius! I'd never seen nor heard of him in my life, and I looked up, and I was in a fucking 5 x 5 room with a white guy, smoking weed... and his voice is like something I've never heard, and he's using words that are far from common. Within 20 minutes, I realized why Kanye had him there." - Rick Ross (Billboard) Justin Vernon probably never imagined that his high-pitched primary band, Bon Iver would ever garner so much widespread acclaim, let alone 4 Grammy nominations. 2011 was quite arguably The Year of Bon Iver ; Over the course of the year, Vernon somehow managed to strike up a lucrative friendship with Kayne & Jay-Z , harmonize alongside Nicki Minaj , appear on Gayngs' remix album - "Affiliyated," collaborate with The National and Dub Master James Blake , and hawking Bushmills whiskey. On top of all that, his long-awaited follow-up album (Bon Iver, Bon Iver) was released on Jagjaguwar . That very album ...

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of...

Parks & Recreation star and professional funny motherfucker, Aziz Ansari has ascended to the level of fame where he gets to be friends with Jay-Z & Kanye West ; That's him, after all, in the "Otis" video. But he's also very much a dorked-out fan, as the graphic below should make clear. During some recent burst of creativity, Ansari and buddy Matthew Shawver recently recreated all of Jay and Kanye's world-conquering anthem "Niggas In Paris" on the emoticon template Emojis . It's like a monument to the overabundance of spare time. Check it out below. - Tom Breihan (Stereogum)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for a good cover. When it comes down to it, the practice of covering songs is the sheer essence of Pop Culture : Taking something vaguely familiar, re-hashing it, and then re-releasing it to [eventual] wild success. One could even go as far to argue that sampling beats in Hip-Hop is a form of "covering." The latest cover to show up on my radar is Mike Posner 's recent version of Oasis - "Wonderwall" (1995). Posner's biggest claim to fame may very well be "Cooler Than Me," a track which was written-produced in his Duke dormroom. A Matter of Time was distributed to the masses through iTunes U with help from friends, Don Cannon & DJ Benzi . One proper album and a couple digital mixtapes later... Mike Posner liberated a BRAND NEW collection around Thanksgiving, The Layover . While "Wonderwall" is easily the stand-out track, the mixtape features a fine assortment of collaborators...

Let's face it, "orchestral" and "concept album" are basically taboo words in The World of Hip-Hop ; Terms which are not generally met with the most positive fanfare. Though, there are of course exceptions for every rule: Kendrick Lamar 's incredible 2011 mixtape street album, #Section80 - A fictionalized account of this generation's all too real prescription drug dependency and alarmingly high tolerance... and The Roots' just-released [Dec. 6] landmark 13th commercial effort, undun . Over the course of it's 14 tracks, ?uestlove & The Roots Crew effectively flesh out the life story of one Redford Stephens , undun 's titular character. Stephens' primary traits were grafted from a number of real life inspirational sources including The Guess Who , Sufjan Stevens' "Redford" character (Michigan) , Black Thought 's own friends-family, and a few small-time Philly drug dealers. Frequent Roots collaborators Dice Raw,...

"I'd like to stay in love with you all summer and after fall, I'll keep you warm through the winter." [Front] and center for Danny Brown at Fool's Gold. Cities Aviv speaks 
excitedly, like a fan first and a rapper second: "When I go to a show, I want to feel like, 'This dude is gonna kick me in the fuckin' face.' If they let you down live, it's to the point that you don't want to listen to the record anymore." - Cities Aviv (Spin, Dec. 2011) The manic young man behind mysterious musical pen name, "Cities Aviv" is in fact Memphis, TN 's very own Gavin Mays. Cities Aviv 's overall sound is essentially a haphazard juxtaposition of May's favourite genres: Indie, Punk, Hip-Hip , and Chillwave . Yes, that sounds like a formula to produce a completely terrible combination of sounds... Various media outlets have shown particular liking to May's Cities Aviv project; Even going as far as to dub him " Hip-Hop...