The Witzard

Madlib x Meyhem Lauren x DJ Muggs - "Fresh Out The Water" music video still (SOURCE: YouTube) "Long story short, I was working on an album with [DJ] Muggs and I was working on an album with Madlib. When all three of us ended up in the same room, we started playing songs from each project and immediately realized that we should make a collaborative album. The other two projects are completed and still coming out in the very near future, but the first thing on the agenda is MEYHEM x MUGGS x MADLIB's CHAMPAGNE FOR BREAKFAST dropping on April 7, 2023..." Meyhem Lauren posted on his personal Facebook page Thursday morning. And we can fully attest, this pretty much echoes the same sentiment Meyhem told us when we interviewed him for UK-based publication GrownUpRap late last year. When we asked Mey, "What do you have planned for us next?" he replied, "Meyhem/Madlib LP, Meyhem/DJ Muggs LP, Meyhem/Harry Fraud LP, Meyhem/Buckwild LP, and a few comp...

Let it be known on-record: Action Bronson is easily one of our favorite emcees! Maybe, it's his zaniness, charisma, orsharp-tonged emceeing skills, love for food, natural wine, wrestling, and obscure 90's films, next-level sample selection, or propensity for randomly bustin' out a backflip. In addition to his emceeing skills, Bronson is an acclaimed chef, television personality, and actor on the rise; he has his own food/travel show on VICE, F*CK, THAT'S DELICIOUS! and has appeared on-screen in Game Over, Man! The Irishman, and, most recently, The King of Staten Island. However, maybe, most amazingly, during Quarantine, thanks to his close friend and personal trainer, Dave Paladino (@davepfit) has lost upwards of 100 pounds! Bam Bam Bronsolino, as he's often called, released his most recent amazingly-titled album, Only for Dolphins , during Quarantine, as well, on Loma Vista Recordings/Caroline International. Yes, this now means Action Bronson AND Marilyn Mans...

It's almost a bit hard to believe that in 2020, The Alchemist & MF DOOM haven't released a full-length project together. Although, it appears as though they have a few mutual friends/collaborators in Earl Sweatshirt , WestsideGunn, Madlib 's brother Oh No , and Egon from Now-Again Records. So, it doesn't seem entirely unlikely or 100% out of the question. However, the average fan may not be aware, DOOM & Alchemist have, in fact, worked together on a number of occasions on a couple lesser-known one-off tracks: "DOOMSAYER" was briefly released as part of DOOM 's mysteriously scrapped THE MISSING NOTEBOOK RHYMES series for [adult swim] in 2017 (a Young Guru -producer version was released in 2012) also, in 2017, Alchemist produced "2STRINGS" from WestsideGunn & MF DOOM 's super-limited edition WESTSIDE DOOM Griselda Records/Daupe! 12-inch. Then, without much prior notice, Alchemist jumped on Instagram Live this past Mon...

ARTWORK BY: Ed Ptskor (@edpiskorcartoonist) It's been a while, but The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up column is back! Over the course of the past month or so, there have been a plethora of solid Hip-Hop EP's released online; a quick, concise 30-minutes or less format that's seemingly, replaced the mixtape/"street album" format of years passed to become your favorite underground rapper/producer's go-to promotional tool. Here, for this latest edition of The Witzard's Rap EP Wrap-up, we'll be profiling eight EP's released throughout November 2019 and maybe, a couple from a month or so prior, as well. Featured below, in no particular order, are EP's from the likes of Action Bronson & The Alchemist, Almost Elijah, CRASHprez & knowsthetime, ialive, Mikah kHill, Pecue, Rolled Gold, and Teek Hall. Along with a brief write-up on each release, you'll find a select track from each EP, as well purchase links to buy or stream online. If this one...

Last week, America's #1 Rap-Singer Action Bronson AKA Bam Bam Baklava AKA Mr. Wonderful released his first single, "White Bronco," since parting ways with long-time label, Atlantic Records . "White Bronco," the title track from Bronsoliño 's forthcoming WHITE BRONCO album/mixtape on EMPIRE , was produced Griselda Records ' in-house producer Daringer (@daringer_) and featuring The Special Victims Unit (@thespecialvictims) or The SVU , for short. It's all still a little mysterious, but it appears as though The SVU were/are Action Bronson 's live backing band on VICELAND 's The Untitled Action Bronson Show , billed as the network's "first food-oriented late night talk show" and as of 2018, was "the only culinary late night talk show on North American television." It appears as though The Special Victims Unit consists of @bae_bro AKA Paul Wilson on keyboards, @matt.carrillo AKA Young México on saxophone, @...

Lunch Meat EP by The Alchemist Action Bronson and long-time friend, collaborator, and food travel cohort The Alchemist have once again teamed up for 2 minutes and 47 seconds-worth of Jazz -inflected Boom-Bap bliss; previously having worked together a number of times since Blaxploitation -like Rare Chandeliers (2012) but not on a proper collaborative full-length project since, Bronson & Alchemist have reunited for "The Hopeless Romantic" from the latter's Lunch Meat EP . The Alchemist also drafted sharp-tongued emcees Roc Marciano , Westside Gunn & Conway (Hall N' Nash,) Styles P , and Benny The Butcher for his Lunch Meat EP , which features instrumentals for all four emcee-assisted tracks on Side B . To coincide with the release of Alchemist 's Lunch Meat EP this past Friday, Action Bronson & Alan The Chemist recruited artist E Money (@theedollarsign) AKA E$ to create a series of original illustrations and pieces of artwork inspired by Bro...

"The silver vehicle featured in ["Du-Rag vs. Headband"] is also an E31 8 Series BMW , an “M8;" the only prototype ever produced (one that was reportedly not even road safe) was locked away by BMW in the company’s Giftschrank (poison storage). BMW and The M Division had strongly denied that the car was even a possibility, since the initial stages of its development. The only public showing of the car happened on August 17, 2012 during The Legends of The Autobahn car show held in Carmel, California . The car was specially shipped from Germany for the appearance," Genius contributor @ebuzzell wrote, appended along with "Mash the petal of the 850 ; sound like the thunder cracking." Sharp-tongued Flushing, Queens rapper and former chef turned television personality Action Bronson surprise released his latest non-album single, "Du-Rag vs. Headband" last night at 10:00PM on his VICELAND travelling food show, F*ck, That's Delicio...

“We went out to LA with [Action Bronson] last month—me, him, Alchemist , and Sean [Mahon] recorded an entire EP of material under the name Jericho . Jericho may be a project that we drop, that’s really under-the-table, no one knows about that yet. Jericho may just be like a multi-genre, no label EP that may cross genres from Hip-Hop to Electro to 80's Pop . We may bridge the gap with that actually, because some of the stuff we recorded for that, one of the songs sounds like a late 80's Smokey Robinson record and sh*t. And then, there’s some Surf Rock on there that sounds like The Beach Boys and Bronson’s rhyming on it," Party Supplies multi-instrumentalist Justin Nealis revealed to HipHopDX way back in January 2014. Nealis, at the time, proclaimed that he aspired to be "like The Black Keys ; they blew up in Rock and had a few Rock records out and then, they went on and used that leverage to call up Raekwon on that BlakRoc sh*t." Party Supplies ...

Let's face it, nearly any avid supporter of either basketball or Hip-Hop can likely attest to the beloved genre and stadium-filling sport's frequent cross-sectional analogies and often unexpected collaborations; be it Skee-Lo 's 1995 Buffalo Springfield -interpolating "I Wish," Action Bronson 's sprawling genre-defying Blue Chips series, Jurassic 5 's trunk-rattling "What's Golden," or somewhat less favorable Michael Jordan & Bugs Bunny -helmed Space Jam soundtrack, Shaq 's head-scratching Kazaam soundtrack, or Kobe Bryant 's short-lived rap "career." Hip-Hop 's latest rhyme-laden page added to the NBA 's ever-growing playbook is brought to you by none other than Philly 's finest Legendary Hard-working Roots Crew and Jimmy Fallon 's long-time Tonight Show Band . The Roots seemingly penned "Champion" specifically for inclusion as the official 2016 NBA Finals Theme Song and in retrospe...

"I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth... I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter," revered Jazz-Funk pianist Herbie Hancock wrote within the liner notes to the 1997 CD re-issue of his Headhunters -assisted Head Hunters (1973). Mere hours after making his first ground-breaking appearance on late night TV, giving Fallon 's predecessor Seth Meyers a rather laxed, yet incredibly amusing, tutorial on how to cook char-grilled octopus, rapping chef Action Bronson unexpectedly released our first taste lifted from his long-rumored Blue Chips 7000 (formerly titled Blue Chips 7 ) in the form of Meyhem Lauren & Jah Tiger -assiste...

Freddie Gibbs , to the best of my knowledge, has never released a proper mixtape in the typical fashion of Hip-Hop culture; a cohesive collection of re-appropriated beats borrowed from popular artists and "freestyled" over, which are given away for FREE or next to nothing. However, it would appear as though that very notion might change soon enough, as Rappcats/Madlib Invazion have unveiled plans to release a limited run silk-screened 12-inch containing "Cocaine Parties In LA" and its sparse instrumental on Side B. Gibbs previously unleashed a cocaine-laden remix of Kanye & Kendrick Lamar 's Madlib -produced G.O.O.D. Fridays (Vol. 2) submission and eventual The Life of Pablo bonus track, "No More Parties In LA." It's reportedly a track left on the cutting room floor, for whatever reasons, during the recording of Kanye 's sprawling 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , just one composition from six CD-R's-worth of hazy...

Now, I wouldn't exactly go ahead and bet my life on it, but I'm almost positive the first Hip-Hop album I ever bought with my own money was Will Smith's squeaky clean, parent-approved Big Willie Style (1997) and after that, I believe it was the slightly less embarrassing and arguably, far more genre-shaping Power In Numbers (2002) by recently reformed Los Angeles six-piece Jurassic 5. Hip-Hop, as you well know even if you just remotely follow this very publication, is by far one of my all-time favorite genres, along with Hardcore Punk and Indie Rock. Throughout the five or so years I've been single-handedly running The Witzard, I believe I've done a few of these Best of... or year-end lists (most recently, in 2013). While there were a handful of undoubtedly great Indie Rock, R&B, Punk, etc. albums released throughout the course of 2015, I've decided to compile a Hip-Hop-centric Top 10; with that said, here are a few cross-genre honorable mentions worth a s...

" Black Atlass is quite literally the only artist on earth to soundtrack Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent ads while featuring on Action Bronson songs," reads part of a recently published Fool's Gold Records press release. "This diverse appeal is a testament to the captivating voice of Alex Fleming , the young singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who created Black Atlass as a vehicle for his unique vocals, heart-on-sleeve lyrics, and experimental production techniques," it descriptively continues. Fleming is of course, the deeply soulful voice crooning "I nearly lost my mind. All a motherf**ker got is time, time... I nearly lost my brain dealin' with this motherf**kin' pain, so bad" on Action Bronson 's infectious Party Supplies -produced MR. WONDERFUL stand-out, "A Light In The Addict." Alex Fleming previously unleashed his critically-acclaimed debut, Young Bloods EP and a beautiful, free 10-track album t...

London -based music producer Mark Ronson simply has NO BOUNDS; we're talking about the fearless genre-blending visionary who single-handedly spearheaded Amy Winehouse & The Dap-Kings' 21st century Doo-Wop revival, or revamped "New-Wop" sound, produced Lily Allen 's early Reggae/Dancehall -indebted hits, and has since worked with everyone from Duran Duran to Billy Joel -sampling Rap -singer Action Bronson . Ronson's own New-Wop -indebted Uptown Special is quite easily one of the year's greatest mainstream success stories and arguably, an "underground sleeper," due in part to the assistance of Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker and Miike Snow multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wyatt . Mark Ronson recently decided to re-team with buddies Parker and Wyatt for the first time since recording Uptown Special , along with guitarist Kirin J. Callinan and Jay Bratten on Moog synthesizer, to record a live in-studio cover of Queens of The Stone Age ...

"I'm the epitome of all fly sh*t — jacket to the shoe sole / Two shooters, Flanagan, Caruso / Fly girl stuffed the drug in her caboose-o / "I see Bronson in the chartreuse coupe mo" / My eyes sparkle like a diva's mirror," charismatic sharp-tongued emcee Action Bronson effortlessly rhymes atop producer Tommy Mas' thumping James Bond -esque "Driving Gloves" beat; similar to a Jaylib -style double rapper-producer Underground Hip-Hop pairing, The Alchemist & Oh No are currently preparing to release their third full-length Gangrene album since initially forming back in 2007. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca [2012] left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz, Rock , and Fusion -tinged beats," reads a recent Mass Appeal Records press release, which effectively describes Mas' brooding, Surfaris "Wipe Out" -leaning production work. Est...

While he isn't preoccupied melding together the sultry melodies of Rod Stewart and Miguel for an A$AP Rocky track or recruiting his sharp-tongued Albanian-Jewish buddy Action Bronson for a widely unreleased "Uptown Funk!" remix, super-producer Mark Ronson somehow managed to record and release one of the most downright Funky , yet commercially accessible albums of 2014-15; Uptown Special has already yielded one undeniable world-wide mega-hit with Ronson's infectious Bruno Mars -assisted "Uptown Funk," but now they're attempting to score similar chart success with it's proper B-side, "Feel Right." "PARTY PEOPLE, I'M VERY PROUD TO PRESENT THE VIDEO [FOR] "FEEL RIGHT" FT. @ItsMystikal DIR. BY @brunomars & @cameronduddy !!" @MarkRonson exuberantly Tweeted this past Monday afternoon. Although they make a quick cameo appearance towards the end, "Feel Right" solely features mini- Mystikal look-a...