The Witzard

About two weeks ago, we recieved an email from Esquire Classic editor and fellow music aficionado Alex Belth emailed us with a tip regarding an upocoming mix. We've previously showcased features on a number of hand-crafted mixes constructed by Belth, sometimes, known as Al Dente, and his music-making parter-in-crime, Alan "illchemist" Friedman. illchemist is a self-described audio provider, sound designer, editor, mixer, composer, musician, producer, voice-over, mash-up artist. Alan Friedman has previously worked with or remixed C + C Music Factory, Depecche Mode, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Steinski, Vitamin C. However, in more recent years, Friedman has been tediously creating and reelasing mixes of his own, all the while, running his own studio/hub, Audiolifer. Somewhere along the way, Alan Friedman met Alex Belth and they've been meticuliously mashing up and releasing music together since the early 2000's. Alex Belth & illchemist's mixes include, b...

"Honestly, it's a very chaotic little commentary on a very chaotic time. Some of the sound bites come from campaign ads from 50 years ago; [it's] always a bit of a tightrope between serious and ridiculous," mix master maestro graciously Alan "illchemist" Friedman told me within a brief, yet self-explanatory Facebook DM'ed statement sent Thursday night. Now, take it with a grain of salt, but in my eyes, throughout the course of "A Story of Power," Friedman is essentially commenting on the current state of the nation and better yet, the world: social injustices, our comedy show of a 2016 Presidential "race," this ungodly wet, hot American summer, and general state of unrest—"it's a very, very mad world, mad world," as a wise man once said. "A Story of Power" has supposedly been sitting dormant on the back burner... or more so, the back of illchemist 's hard drive for a few months and as he put it him...

"What's goin' on? My friend Alex Belth referred me to you. I'm releasing an album on Tuesday, [July 19th] on Hip-Hop Indie label Worldwyde Recordings . I'm lookin' to submit to magazines and blogs who write about or review Hip-Hop . Let me know, if that fits what you do," read a rather interesting cold-submitted email I received Friday afternoon; low and behold, Ras Beats is a Queens by way of Denmark Hip-Hop producer and DJ who used to work alongside Esquire Classic Editor Alex Belth at DJ Premier , Q-Tip, Pete Rock , The Beatnuts producer JuJu, Lord Finesse , and Large Professor's favorite late 90's East Village record store, The Sound Library . Rasmus “Ras Beats” Jensen has been "a Hip-Hop head since discovering turntables and records, raised on the greats of the golden era, Ras' production stays true to the original sound of Hip-Hop . Dusty records, drum breaks, chopped up, and re-arranged samples" reads a fragmented c...

"With all due respect to Babe Ruth, Pelé, and Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali was the greatest athlete of the twentieth century. The Champ passed away late Friday night in Arizona at the age of seventy-four due to respiratory complications. Esquire has a trove of memorable Ali pieces—he was manna from heaven for writers—beginning with Tom Wolfe's 1963 Esquire debut, "The Marvelous Mouth," published when the fighter still went by the name Cassius Clay. At 21 he was already fully aware of himself as a show-business creation, and Wolfe predicted a fascinating career for him in "boxing or show business or folk symbolism or whatever it is that he now is really involved in,'" Esquire Classic writer and curator Alex Belth wrote within a touching June 4th Muhammad Ali piece published following the three-time World Heavyweight champ's untimely death. Belth's Muhammad Ali: The Greatest of Them All was accompanied by a similarly-titled, Funk-laden "Tr...

Esquire Classic 's nearly 4-minute "Tribute to The Greatest" mash-up was quietly shared by @EsquireClassic this past Sunday morning, June 5th, along with a striking image of recently deceased three-time World Champion Muhammad Ali sorting through a collection of dusty 45's in a 1960-70's car along with the caption, "Ali spins the platters that matter;" Esquire 's digital archival curator and editor Alex Belth composed the mix along with frequent collaborator Alan Friedman (aka illchemist ). "I see it as an extension of the curation I do with print on the [Esquire Classic] site," Belth wrote within an email, which contained a 20-song tracklist from which he and illchemist meticulously composed a Soul-Funk -evoking soundbed to underlay beneath an array of Ali's finest spoken word material and fight commentary. Miles Davis , The Temptations, Bob & Earl 's House of Pain-sampled "Harlem Shuffle," Bill Deal & ...