The Witzard

Hangar Rarities by HANGAR 18 For this article, I've decided to employ one of the oldest writing tactics from deep within my journalistic bag-of-tricks: "WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY..." Hangar 18 was Hip-Hop crew consisting of emcees ALASKA & Windnbreeze and DJ paWL . Hangar 18 , named after the Megadeath song of the same name, was together from 1994-2009 and released two albums— The Multi-Platinum Debut (2004) and Sweep The Leg (2007)— El-P 's legendary and now-defunct Definitive Jux Records AKA Def Jux . Hangar 18 also, self-released both THE SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION CD (2003) and a 2006 compilation album entitled The Donkey Show, Volume 1 with remixes and features from Cryptic AKA Cryptic One , Blockhead, Aesop Rock , Bill G. and Blueprint . Hangar 18 's members were also, part of larger New York/Tri-State Area crew Atoms Family , along with Cryptic One , DJ Cip-One, Jestoneart , Kasm, Molecule , Whichcraft, Genesis , Osirrus, Cannibal Ox ...

The Attitude by WORDS HURT THE ATTITUDE EP is the latest release from ALASKA & Lang Vo 's group, WORDS HURT . Although, it consists of 9 tracks, the EP only clocks in at just under 11:30 with the longest track lasting a frantic minute and 55 seconds. As many of you may remember, Lang Vo , actually, mentioned WORDS HURT 's then-unnamed EP within The Witzard 's December 2017 interview with both ALASKA & Lang : "I think, this time around, we were mostly dealing with fresh-ish material, on both ends. We actually made a whole EP and were going to release it for fun, but scrapped it and started over and made SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS . We are still going to release that EP for free soon..." As Lang Vo mentioned, WORDS HURT in fact, recorded THE ATTITUDE EP prior to their 2017 full-length, SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS , and initially, intended to release it before or in place of the album. While you may not hear it right off the bat, THE ATTITUDE EP was...

Tim "ALASKA" Baker (@alaska_ATOMS) and Lang Vo (@langkimvo) are two aging "Rap Dads," I believe, I met on Twitter about a year or so ago. Both Lang & Tim had note-worthy Hip-Hop careers during the late 1990's to early 2000's and then, took periods of self-imposed sabbaticals to get married, have kids, and do other things Rap Dads do. Now, ALASKA & Lang Vo are back in full-force and collaborating as WORDS HURT. Lang met Tim around 2014-15 when the Def Jux vet enlisted the former's skills behind the boards to properly mix his then-latest project, OutKast-remixing ALKAST. ALASKA also had a verse on "Impulse Control" alongside emcee Elsphinx from Lang Vo...Is Just An A**hole. Not long after, Lang hi-jacked Tim's acapellas to make his own remix collection entitled ALKAST:REMIXES , which would soon become the first official WORDS HURT release. What we have here, is the third part in a 3-pronged initiative—a collaboration between The Witz...

Soul Music for the Soulless by WORDS HURT "The single is called "World's Worst Life Coach." It is from the album SOUL MUSIC FOR THE SOULLESS , which drops on Tuesday, November 28th and is available for pre-order. It is a comical take on New Age bullsh*t, personal branding, life coaches, and modern conformity," Words Hurt said within statement accompanying "World's Worst Life Coach," premiering right here at The Witzard . Words Hurt consists of emcee ALASKA and producer Lang Vo , who first worked together on "Impulse Control" from Lang Vo... Is Just An A**hole (2005.) ALASKA has been rhyming for nearly a quarter century and as part of the late 90's New York Indie-ground scene, his group Hanger 18 was once signed to El-P 's world-renown Definitive Jux AKA Def Jux imprint. He's also part of The Atoms Family collective and has released projects with Cryptic One as IT , Crack Epidemic with Kojo, ATOMS , Zilla Rocc...

"Hi people, my name is Cryptic One, a producer from Brooklyn, NY and I have been making beats since 1989. Yes, you read that correctly, I am THAT old. With that said, when asked to write about a few albums that had an influence on my production, I was initially overwhelmed with a seemingly infinite number of important works to mention. After long deliberation, I narrowed it down to these five; keep in mind that on any given day, I could easily pick five different picks that were just as important to me. So, with no further ado, here is my Beat-maker Bedrock:" I AM by IT I. Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle (1988) "This was the record that helped me understand how sample-based beats were made. The whole album was great and a big influence on me, but specifically, there is one song from the album that really set things off for me: "[Because] I Got It Like That." But first, a little background/history: In the 80's, Hip-Hop wasn't th...

"I used to watch Run-D.M.C. videos on my grandmother's TV in South Philly; then, I had to hide Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg CD's from my parents when I was 10-years-old. I used to make Rap tapes on my dad's stereo system. I would record every episode of BET's Rap City in high school on VHS. In college, I started my first Rap group. After college, I started my own Indie Rap label. Today, my first album released on a record label is out. And I can't believe it!" Zilla Rocca ecstatically wrote within a Friday afternoon Facebook post. Friday, May 19th was the release day for the seasoned South Philly rapper-producer and remixer's major label "debut," Good Luck with That on Toronto-based Indie Hip-Hop label URBNET. Zilla recently formed Career Crooks with his long-time friend and partner-in-crime Small Professor (Small Pro) and ahead of Good Luck with That, they released two hard-as-nails pre-album collections: last year's Sin Will Find You: The C...