The Witzard

It seems as though veteran TDE emcee Ab-Soul has ripped a page right out of one-time "label-mate" Action Bronson 's book of tricks, essentially rapping over an untouched Jackson Browne track, "These Days," once recorded by both Nico and Gregg Allman . While Browne's track shares it's title with Ab-Soul 's recent third album, These Days... "W.W.S.D." is actually an apparent non-album left-over; "What Would Soul Do" doesn't really even sample Jackson Browne 's original recording, Ab-Soul more or less manages to rap in-between or along with "These Days," which was included on Browne's second album, For Everyman (1973). "Yo, how the f*ck my new girl got me jealous of other girls / I think I live in another world," Ab-Soul ruthless raps as he fades in and out of Jackson Browne's subdued crooning, "And I had a lover / But it's so hard to risk another / These days," a clev...

While The Cool Kids have barely scratched the surface of their recent Retro-Rap return to form, rapper-producer Chuck Inglish is still planning to soldier ahead with his long-rumored album, Convertibles ; now coincidentally complete with an April 8th release on Dave Sitek 's newly-formed Federal Prism imprint. Chance The Rapper , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , Ab-Soul, buddy Sir Michael Rocks , and more are set to appear deep within. Federal Prism and Inglish's own Sounds Like Fun label unleashed a double-hitter of singles Thursday afternoon: "Legs" and "Came Thru/Easily" assisted by Chromeo , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul (respectively). Chuck Inglish, Dave 1 & P-Thugg have almost seamlessly melded together their separate styles to create the buttery smooth Disco-Funk/Hip-Hop hybrid, now also known as "Legs." Although I must admit, genre-blending collaborations like these don't always end up sounding as good as they might seem on p...

I mean... we just don't really post tracklists around these parts; It's kinda like a striptease, cause you can look but can't touch [or in this case, hear] anything ha. Although Queens emcee Action Bronson is generally the one exception to the rule(s). @ActionBronson leaked the tracklist for what he's dubbed "THE MOST INCREDIBLE PIECE OF ART EVER CREATED, I SWEAR," Blue Chips 2 early Thursday morning. Wholly produced by Bronson cohort Party Supplies , Blue Chips 2 will supposedly see a guerrilla-style FREElease on "The First Day it rains in NOVEMBER" "WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE DAYS OF NOVEMBER... NO MATTER WHAT." It's 19-song screen-capped tracklist boasts a gaggle of tasteful features from the likes of hype-man Big Body Bes , Meyhem Lauren, Mac Miller , Ab-Soul, and a certain "Legendary Special Guest In Which We Can't Disclose." While it's unclear as to whether or not Bronson's recently previewed Tracy Chapma...

It's pretty safe to say that Chance The Rapper is quite easily the best thing to come out of Chicago since Kanye was a virtually unknown producer, making Soulful beats for Blueprin t-era Jay-Z . His latest mixtape, Acid Rap is 13 tracks-worth of sheer drug-fueled Psych-Rap weirdness; at just 19, Chance has already worked with now defunct Kids These Days , Hannibal Buress, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League , Nosaj Thing, Action Bronson , Twista, Jake-One , Childish Gambino, Ab-Soul , Blended Babies, etc. After the nearly insta-success of Acid Rap , Lil' Wayne 's people recently came a'calling for Chance The Rapper and co-producers Nate Fox, Peter Cottontale & Cam to conjure up a collaborative track. Nate Fox recounted the almost unbelievable scenario to Complex just the other day: " Chance texted me saying, "Come to the studio at 11." I get there at 11, and it's me and Peter, Cam, Chance , and Pat , and everybody's there. And he pulls us ...

Every year around this time, XXL Magazine releases a slightly jaded, misguided XXL Freshmen list. It's kinda dumb because it usually features seasoned guys like Action Bronson (29) right alongside "young bucks" like Joey Bada$$ (18) and the term Freshmen generally connotes fresh meat. XXL 2013's Freshmen Class: The Mixtape includes 17 previously released/rare tracks from Bronson, Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q , Joey Bada$$, Trinidad Jame$ , angel haze , Logic, Dizzy Wright, Kirko Bangs , and Travi$ Scott. It's a damn good thing the DJ Drama -hosted mixtape's up for free download online; aside from Action Bronson 's "November Rain" (Party Supplies), a Joey Bada$$/Bronsolino team-up, ScHoolboy Q 's recent single "Yay Yay," angel haze freestyling over Purity Ring , and Ab-Soul/Harry Fraud 's "Back Then," its' pretty fucking terrible! A former top chef, Action Bronson is hands down one of the most skilled emcee...

While he's arguably years past his heyday, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers really set the stage for white-bred rappers and seems to have inspired a whole new generation's-worth of angry young white men: Atmosphere , Macklemore, RiFF RAFF , Asher Roth , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , etc. Mac Miller just never really seemed interesting enough for me to wanna check out. But it looks like he's starting to align himself with a slew of genuinely skilled rappers/producers that includes Earl Sweatshirt , Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs , Hodgy Beats, ScHoolboy Q , Thundercat, Pharrell , and executive producer Diplo. Mac Miller 's become a lot more interesting since he started releasing material under his assorted Larry Fisherman , Larry Dollaz, and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival aliases, too. We're talkin' about beautiful Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith covers, hard-hitting Hip-Hop beats, a 5-track Jazz EP, and an instrumental mixtape called Run-on Sentences (...

Anyone think Kendrick Lamar & Ab-Soul got a little confused?; because it sounds like they seriously think AWOLNATION 's break-out single, "Sail" (2001) is new or something. It's also worth noting that AWOLNATION's original track is featured in a commercial for History 's BADASS-looking Vikings show! ha. The Black Hippy/TDE soldiers decided to hop on what sounds like an on-the-fly "Sail" (Remix) for L.A. Leakers , who's DJ tags are littered all over it. From what I can gather, the tragically-named DJ sourMILK switched out most of the band's spaced out guitar licks for some slightly more Hip-Hop friendly drum hits. Take it away, Mr. Lamar : "I'm warning you though, if you love me you never go wrong / We can explore heavy feelings of breathing in Mother Nature 's air / Feelings of knowing I'm rather rare / But there's a reason for all of my madness, the gladness I am that your here." Fingers crossed th...

Talib Kweli 's latest mixtape, Attack The Block is a loose [street] album that's loosely based around a British Sci-Fi Thriller of the same name (2011). Kweli does his best to bridge that gap, effectively re-appropriating film dialog for his intro track, "Attack The Block!!!" Talib Kweli has always been a fairly active, politically- conscious rapper ever since he first burst onto the scene with Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998). Surprisingly, Attack The Block was actually released a few weeks earlier than expected... on Sept. 3rd, Labor Day Weekend instead of Sept. 18th. Co-presented along with DJ Z-Trip , the mixtape really is a generous offering - 18 tracks deep, 6 solo Kweli raps. It looks like Talib Kweli has managed to rope in some serious favors and scored guest verses from Black Thought , Skyzoo, Das Racist , Lil' Wayne, Killer Mike , Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ryan Leslie , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul ... In addition to production work fro...