The Witzard

While my recent Best Albums, EP's & Mixtapes of 2016 List didn't include any type of "Honorable Mentions" section, if it had, it would have likely included the likes of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Blink-182, Nxworries, and J-Zone (for Fish-n-Grits). Aftermath crooner Anderson.Paak and beat-maker Knxwledge's full-length debut as Nxworreis, YES LAWD! It's equal parts The Roots, D'Angelo, J Dilla, and Drake; a perfect mix of Hip-Hop and modern day R&B, easily one of Stones Throw's absolute strongest, most cohesive releases in years. I really haven't given Nxworries' YES LAWD! a whole lot of coverage here at The Witzard (aside from the early singles) and have really just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to write about Anderson.Paak & Knxwledge again... until this past Thursday afternoon, when I heard about Nxworries' "SIDEPIECE" music video filmed at Stones Throw "in the dungeon" by director Ross ...

In a crazy cyber-world where "Underground Hip-Hop" is widely accepted across so many Indie music blogs, suburban areas, and rich Hipster kids... I guess, this was really only inevitable with time; Last night @ a FADER/Vitamin Water -funded party in Portland , 2 Indie blog darlings, Kendrick Lamar & Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast) , took the stare together for the first time. They performed a slightly re-tweaked version of "No Make-Up (Her Vice)" with Cosentino subbed in for Colin Munroe on the hook. The understandably surprised Portland biker crowd went NUTS! - Singing along and cheering wildly @ the track's close. "uncapped" is a concert series that heads across college campuses, putting on tandem shows that pair up unlikely acts anywhere from Rick Ross to Passion Pit . "No Make-Up (Her Vice)" originally appeared on Kendrick Lamar 's album-length drug-themed concept mixtape, #Section.80 . He's currently hard @ work on...

Contrary to popular belief, Das Racist 's version of "The Recipe" (Gwyneth Paltrow) actually pre-dates Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre 's single version, which was released first. Since "Meet The Frownies" [sample] was only issued in 2010, this all had to happen over the past 2 years... Scoop DeVille gave a rough version of the beat to Das Racist before ever even meeting Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre . But because Aftermath somehow managed to release "The Recipe" first, it may seem like Kool A.D. & Heems are beat-jacking, which is entirely off point. Anyways, here's Das Racist's final take, "Gwyneth Paltrow," now accompanied by some sort of found footage of 2 weird-ass 1970's "putty face" re-molding performance artists. Victor Vazquez directs or something...

The good people over @ VICE recently asked Das Racist to host an interview show of "rappers interviewing rappers" for their new music channel, noisey . Himanshu & Kool A.D. will reportedly alternate weeks hosting "RAP SHOW;" Episode #1 was uploaded just this past Friday [The 13th] and features Heems sitting down with Compton 's favourite rapper, Kendrick Lamar . Imagine if Eric Clapton interviewed Jimi Hendrix and they talked about... notepads, lucid dreams, black hippies, "The N word," Home Improvement , 80's babies, and essentially everything BUT music. Well, this is exactly like that. Pretty cool concept nonetheless. I just hope that Das Racist & Kendrick Lamar decide to record and release a track together! Future episode of RAP SHOW will feature Himanshu & Kool A.D. interviewing Wiley, Tyler The Creator , Bun B, Killer Mike , Mystikal , Gunplay, etc. Make sure to go pick up [download] copies of Relax , Nehru Jackets , and...

"No matter what he does or with whom he does it, Kendrick Lamar always manages to put his stamp on a track. He is a force of personality who can influence even the static logoified personage of old Andre Young , whether through vibe or straight up writing his verses. The Rap Cognoscenti has a low opinion of ghostwriting. I don't have a problem with it, as writing like this is often a collaborative process and has been going on forever, like Tony Asher writing lyrics with Terry Sachen and Brian Wilson . I don't feel less emotionally invested in the line, "I can hear so much in your sigh" because Wilson didn't write it. Dr. Dre is known to work like Michelangelo , getting other dudes like Scoop DeVille to paint the ceiling for him when he is the one behind the blueprint. He sounds excited for the first time in years! Much has been written about the precedents for Kendrick Lamar 's style (with him, "style" must be italicized), writers combin...