The Witzard

No Sleep 'til Baltimore was a tribute/benefit show held at The Ottobar in Baltimore back on Friday, July 7th. It was billed as a "benefit to help local musician adopt" with "local musician" being producer John Bachman (Jumbled) and his wife Rachel . Not only was No Sleep 'til Baltimore a fundraiser to help The Bachmans earn money for their adoption, it was dually billed as a tribute to the Beastie Boys' monumental Rick Rubin -produced 1986 Def Jam debut, Licensed to Ill . Berko Lover did a rendition of "Girls," GUY GRAMS performed a roaring rendition of "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" MC Bravado & S.U. The Clique covered "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn," Drew Scott & Vans_Westly did "Hold It Now, Hit It" with a little help from Jumbled himself, The Hell Hole Store covered "Brass Monkey," and much, much more. By all accounts, No Sleep 'til Baltimore was a great suc...

A C U R A (back in my bag) by ialive "I was feeling a little overwhelmed and burnt out with doing shows and being a wack promoter, so I decided to sit down at my funk machine and do a jam; this is the result. I did all of this in a few hours—beat, rhymes, record, and mix. It's all about the music and it always has been about the music. THANK YOU! kidDEAD and I leave for a short run of shows this Thursday," Philly beat-maker, emcee, Rap-singer /song-writer ialive wrote within a recent Facebook post. ialive is of course, one half of The Hell Hole Store with fellow rapper-producer buddy Darko The Super and his latest single, "A C U R A (back in my bag)" is his first since April 2016's The Jelly EP . ialive further details that he doesn't tour as much a some of his road dog friends, but steadily maintaining a 40-hour a week schedule at his day job, booking shows for his rapper friends throughout Philly , and upkeeping a somewhat regular existence,...

BLKrKRT LP 2 by BLKrKRT (Blacker Karat) "I'm a lover of the Avant-Garde , Abstract, and Electronic [music.] My work is about the subjective nature of human experience through art, it's effects on the human psyche, and the efforts to create elegant, yet basic shapes, usually utilizing a post- Internet methodology. I like cutting up things and re-purposing them. I love to collaborate, especially via The Internet . I am a product of remix culture. I love to use samples, clip art, and font. I adore collage. Currently, I am actively pursuing an adventure in fashion design," Fort Worth, Texas -based Instrumental Hip-Hop producer BLKrKRT (Phil Ford) wrote within his about.me profile. I actually met BLKrKRT through my frequent collaborator and friend Darko The Super , who released Ford's The Witzard-premiered Okinato Black on his U DONT DESERVE THIS BEAUTIFUL ART imprint. Darko actually flipped Okinato Black 's "3,000 Words" into "God, F**...

Just about two months ago, my friend and frequent collaborator Darko The Super sent me an early Ruff Draft of his upcoming Rock sample-based album, Apocalyptic Bastard. I must say, it's a surprisingly accessible and dare I say, commercial album from the charismatic rapper-producer who released a whopping 10 full-length albums throughout the course of 2016. Apocalyptic Bastard contains samples and interpolations culled from the likes of Twisted Sister, Loverboy, Tears for Fears, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Slaves, They Might Be Giants, Steve Miller Band, Men Without Hats, Wheatus, and Comfort Food, in addition to countless others, and originals from All These Fingers and BLKrKRT; to the best of my knowledge, since December, it's been sent around to De La Soul producer Prince Paul, The Fabulous Downey Brothers, Wheatus, and Zilla Rocca. It seems a bit odd to say, looking back now, but over the course of the past 4-6 months since I first met Darko The Super—despite cou...

"I chose my favorites and most important songs. Made sure I added most of the ones I do at shows. I made the [2016] mix because I believe strongly in what I do, and know most of the people I send these albums out to, don't listen. I wanted to recap my year of releases, to prove to whoever listens and to myself, how hard I work," @DarkoTheSuper detailed within a recent statement sent to The Witzard . Like the title "2016 Sucked, But Darko Released 10 Albums & That's Pretty Cool" suggests, Darko The Super did in fact, manage to release a whopping 10 albums over the course of the past 12 months: starting with February 2016's CREEPAZOID! , The Hell Hole Store with fellow rapper-producer ialive , Stomachaches & Heartbreaks , All These Fingers -produced Carve a Happy Face On My Tombstone, We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free , Take Me to Your Computer, Your Mouth Is Bigger Than Your Entire Brain , a collection ...

golden pears by âtƒ "I wanted to make a full, lush-sounding album that retained lo-fi aesthetics... something that works as one big piece, instead of just a beat batch. Tried to mix everything together like I would a DJ set, hopefully it works. Also notable that I included a no-sample, guitar-based track ("duckling") and worked with an artist (Jared Pittack) on the cover. I usually don't included my non-beat music because it feels out of place, but it just felt appropriate to put it on there. Letting someone else design the cover was awesome, Jared came up with all that on his own and I think the tape is the better for it. Thx for the support man, cheers," self-described "electric wizard/cave-dweller" All These Fingers (âtƒ) wrote within a recent email containing his latest, and 44th released, mixtape: golden pears . I recently got in touch with âtƒ after hearing Future Islands frontman Sam Herring , aka sharp-tongued emcee Hemlock Ernst ,...

"I'd like to think of this album as more of a home-made mixtape you could burn to CD and give to Trick-or-Treaters . It's what I've been working on the past few months; music is a labor of love. I love releasing albums and sharing them with my friends and I intend to never stop. Put Down The Candy & Let The Little Boy Go! furthers that narrative. Maybe one day, I'll embrace my outer-adult to the fullest and find a real job. Til then, this is all I have," Evan Souza , better known as Darko The Super or Doc Heller , wrote within a message included along with his Trick-or-Treat -ready Haloween -themed mixtape. The Witzard previously premiered the mixtape's Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg -inspired title track , which Souza says was dually inspired by Slaves' recent Mike D (Beastie Boys) -produced album, Take Control . Darko The Super clever re-appropriated a line pulled from Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg 's Eazy-E dissing "F*ck wit Dre Day (and E...

"I made the beat [last week]. It's the first beat I made actually playing everything through my MIDI keyboard. I usually never do that. It felt good to have something completely mine in a way. I was listening to the new Slaves album [Take Control] produced by Mike D of Beastie Boys , before I made the beat; maybe that inspired the sound," Darko The Super (Evan Souza) wrote within a recent statement to accompany his latest single and music video, "Put Down The Candy & Let The Little Boy Go!," which he was kind enough to let me premier right here at The Witzard ! "Not too sure what the verses are about, but the chorus describes envying a friend and being dissatisfied with yourself because you're not in a better position like they are, but at least you know them. I wrote the lyrics while taking out the trash, getting a shower, and doing the dishes. I get most of my writing done doing daily tasks," Souza continued. Darko The Super addition...

Confidence Is Everything 2 by ullnevano x illien rosewell "If something works, stick to it until the chemistry or the spark is no longer there anymore—that's the approach that Baltimore emcee UllNevaNo ("you'll never know") and Norfolk, Virginia producer illien Rosewell decided to go with Confidence Is Everything 2 (CIE2) . Consider it new chapter to last year's first release, which was well-received by Hip-Hop heads and critics alike, to the point where Indie label Already Dead Tapes pressed up limited edition gold tape cassettes," read a pseudo-press release sent by the sharp-tongued emcee himself, UllNevaNo . " CIE2 finds Neva finding his mojo, [comfortably] over illien 's production and it shows over joints like the graveyard-digging "they all die" where it finds the emcees murdering household names and local emcees, to the groovy haunting chills of "12's over the wire," which he got inspired by Skyzoo ...