The Witzard

Let's face it, there are a lot of great (and not-so great) Hip-Hop tracks, music videos, albums, mixtapes, EP's, etc. released on a weekly, if not even daily, basis; a person like myself, who single-handedly runs what I would deem a moderately "successful" publication, whilst working a 9-5, manipulating a relationship with my wonderful girlfriend, family, and friends, and leading a generally hectic existence, there isn't always time to cover every Hip-Hop release I would hypothetically like to within an average week's time. Hence, I've decided to enact a weekly " The Witzard's Week In Rap" (still a working title) column akin to Stereogum 's 5 Best Videos of The Week or Status Ain't Hood , which will hopefully, be published every Friday or Saturday night. It may or may not include songs/videos that I have/hadn't exactly had the chance to cover throughout the course of the week prior and will generally showcase five companion sh...

While he's remained relatively silent since releasing The Ecstatic (2009), Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey has seemingly completed his forthcoming G.O.O.D. Music "debut" while shacking up overseas. Bey has recently re-emerged from his self-imposed exile and decided to unleashed a pair of unexpected André 3000 -style features for A$AP Rocky 's At.Long.Last.A$AP as well as Eric Biddines and producer Paul White 's newly-minted Golden Ticket project. His latest presumably non-album loosie, "Marigolds" skillfully re-appropriates New Zealand -based Kiwi Funk-R&B duo Electric Wire Hustle 's 2009 self-titled album track, "Chaser." It's almost aesthetically reminiscent of Yasiin Bey 's long-aborted Top 40 Underdogs cover/freestyles initiative; wherein he boldly took on radio-friendly Kanye & Jay-Z , Lil' Wayne, and Chief Keef beats and ruthlessly flipped them on their heads. "Marigolds," on the other hand, was su...

Brooklyn veteran emcee Yasiin Bey , aka infrequent actor Dante Smith , recently "released" and 8-track video "collection" of expertly re-rapped MF DOOM covers, but BEYONDOOOM isn't exactly his first foray into Stones Throw -related material; Yasiin Bey 's 2009 album, The Ecstatic , his last record released under the Mos Def moniker, was essentially a loosely compiled Stones Throw beat tape. It's littered with cleverly re-purposed production work from the likes of Oh No , Madlib, J Dilla , Georgia Anne Muldrow, and MADVILLAIN : "Several Stones Throw artists and Stones Throw [released] instrumentals are included on Mos Def 's new album The Ecstatic , which will be released June [9th]," Stones Throw wrote in a detailed beat-oriented 2009 mini-press release. "Revelations," lifted from MADVILLAINY 2: The Madlib Remix album has very recently been used to score a 2-minute animated short created by Afrofuturism -centric graphic...

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...

"With bluesy organs, descending basslines, and one of the slowest, hardest-swaggering beats we've heard in a good while, "Everyday" calls upon [Rod] Stewart 's classic number "In a Broken Dream," re-contextualizing it as a tale of modern ennui (read: boredom )," as okayplayer effectively describes A$AP Rocky 's latest At.Long.Last.A$AP (ALLA) single, "Everyday;" recorded with a very unlikely cast of magnificent characters... Rod Stewart , Miguel, "Uptown Funk" super-producer Mark Ronson , and co-producer Emile Haynie. When it comes to ridiculous left-field collaborations, "Everyday" falls somewhere in between The Fat Boys' utterly awesome Beach Boys -backed "Wipe Out" and Kid Cudi 's surprisingly smooth Michael Bolton & King Chip -assisted "Afterwards (Bring Yo' Friends)." Ronson ingeniously managed to convince R&B crooner Miguel to passionately sing: "Everyd...

Los Angeles sister act HAIM have indeed dabbled with Hip-Hop in the past, whether it be nearly getting recruited as A$AP Rocky 's backing band or appearing on genre-blending Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino tracks... But now they've enlisted rising A$AP Mob emcee, A$AP Ferg to append a ferocious add-on verse to their Days Are Gone album stand-out, "My Song 5." It's not entirely unlike a visual Where's Waldo? of seemingly everyone Danielle, Este & Alana Haim have encountered or befriended while on the road over the last couple years; featured emcee A$AP Ferg , Ke$ha, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig , Grimes, Big Sean , SNL comedian Vanessa Bayer, Mama & Papa Haim , producer Ariel Rechtshaid, and even "Artemis" from It's Always Sunny . Leading up to it's Tuesday afternoon release, @HAIMtheband's long-rumored "My Song 5" video was subtly teased with cleverly edited 90's screen-grabs from Sally Jessy Ra...

"It's really druggy, ambient sh*t... I think people are gonna be intrigued by it because it's actually good," A$AP Rocky told MTV News about his debut instrumental Hip-Hop album, which was then rumored for a Summer 2013 FREE-release. "The name of it is Beauty [N] The Beast: Slowed Down Sessions, Chapter 1 . And it's because everything is like classical beautiful music and boom-bap Wu-Tang sh*t mixed together," he continued. Rocky unleashed the album's first track, "Riot Rave" late Monday night, nearly nine months after it's initial announcement. Internet meme-phenom Baauer helped co-produce the track alongside A$AP Rocky , who previously self-produced "Fashion Killa" from his own LONGLIVEA$AP album; directors Kostas Seremitis, Danilo Parra , and A$AP Rocky unveiled a 3-panel split-screen guerrilla-style "art video" that supposedly features "real life rioting" in accompaniment with "Riot Rave...

"The way to my heart: the Vanity 6 shuffle, @HAIMtheband ," Tonight Show bandleader and Roots drummer Questlove Tweeted mere hours after "If I Could Change Your Mind"' s late night release. Multi-instrumentalist sisters Alana, Danielle & Este Haim did in fact work alongside esteemed choreographer Fatima Robinson and director Warren Fu . For those of you who have been living under a rock these last few years, HAIM could essentially be likened to a Hip-Hop & R&B -infused all-female version of Fleetwood Mac ; they've previously collaborated with A$AP Rocky , Childish Gambino, and Kid Cudi on wax [record]. The fifth commercial single pulled from their debut Days Are Gone , "If I Could Change Your Mind" is a moody oftentimes dimly-lit affair, which kinda resembles an old Soul Train sound stage. Inter-splicing back and forth between synchronized dance sequences and two separate performance clips, Warren Fu has effectively created ...

Mr. Sexyback himself, Justin Timberlake , unleashed a surprisingly Boom-Bap -ified remix to his latest 20/20 Experience 2 single, "TKO" late Black Friday evening, which is slowly becoming a FREE music-giving holiday. Timberlake somehow managed to recruit J. Cole, A$AP Rocky , and his former "Like I Love You" collaborator, Pusha T (Clipse). While it might kinda seem like part of a larger label-contrived chart-topping master-palm, Justin Timberlake is actually an avid late 1980-90's Hip-Hop aficionado; case in point, The History of Rap (Parts 1-4) with Late Nite host-buddy Jimmy Fallon . Roots band leader/drummer Questlove [Jenkins] simply Tweeted, " #TKOremix so official! @JTimberlake, @PUSHA_T, @ASAPRockyTRILL & @JColeNC (w/ that post- "Control" flow) = COTDAMNY," which almost instantly piqued my interests enough to go check it out! It's very well-produced, which is rare for an after-the-fact remix of this calibe...

"I've always felt like "Life Round Here" wasn't [ever] really finished," lamented English singer-songwriter James Blake during a recent Noisey video-interview with new-found collaborator. Chance The Rapper . Arguably a First Wave Dubstep pioneer, Blake's music almost seems pre-fit for a sharp-tongued young emcee like Chance ; But it doesn't come off in that preconceived, label-suggested, and slapped together kinda way like other recent "crossover" hits (ie: A$AP Rocky & Skrillex ). It's pretty easy to tell that these guys are true admirers of each other's work, who have become fast friends. Fresh off a collaborative track with Lil' Wayne , Chance The Rapper recently revealed to online-magazine XXL that he and Blake met at this past year's SXSW and "kept in touch and started working together on a couple of tracks, including some original material... people seem to like ["Life Round Here"] a lot....

Now that his long-delayed Fool's Gold debut, OLD , finally has a proper release date (Sept. 30th), Danny Brown has unleashed it's Dirt McGirt -referencing lead video-single, "ODB." The self-proclaimed "dirty old man with a pill in his mouth and his dick in his hand" skillfully recruited frequent collaborator Paul White and [director] RUFFMERCY for "ODB," as well as A$AP Rocky , Purity Ring, Charli XCX , Freddie Gibbs, ScHoolboy Q , Rustie, A-Trak , and SKYWLKR, who also contributed to OLD 's currently unspecified tracklist. Let's just fuggedabout Kendrick Lamar 's recent #rapgame-rattling verse on Big Sean left-over "Control," Danny Brown easily out-raps and most likely terribly embarrasses nearly 3/4's of Hip-Hop 's so-called "top emcees," usually over jittery almost un-rappable Electro-Trap beats. Danny Brown and his genre-blending buddies Action Bronson & Trash Talk are soon headed out o...

Rising Brooklyn producer-of-the-moment Harry Fraud wrangled up a crazy/awesome posse of Internet -friendly rappers for his upcoming High Tide EP ; It'll feature frequent collaborator like Action Bronson , French Montana, and Chinx Drugz across 5 contained tracks. Lead single "Yacht Lash" positions JODY HiGHROLLER (RiFF RAFF) alongside Odd Future 's returning prince, Earl Sweatshirt . Harry Fraud successfully melds together a DIRTY Psych-Rock -drenched Hip-Hop beat, which leaves plenty of room for 32+ bars worth of swagged out bravado. Earl Sweatshirt effectively slays the first 1/2 of this track, only his 10-12th recorded appearance since returning home from juvie in Samoa (Feb. 2012). Sweatshirt laments about his triumphant return to prominence, "Nothin' much to my ethics / Bitch, I'm joggin' like I already won the election / Fuck it, shunning protection... Rest assured, I keep the label embarrassed." RiFF RAFF on the other hand...

Rather than just issue some dumb, pre-concieved press release/statement, veteran lyrical assassin Jay-Z decided to step into the studio and record a track about his involvement in a few current events. "Open Letter" bravely delves into slightly questionable shit like The Carters vacationing in Cuba (a restricted tourism zone) and having to sell his small fraction of the Brooklyn Nets in order to become a sports agent. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz co-produced the track, which also somehow manages to work in references to Kevin Hart 's infamous "You gon learn t'day" comedy skit and Bob Dylan 's Blood on The Tracks era single, "Idiot Wind" (1975). It's worth noting that Jay-Z most likely isn't working on a new album, cause his hair is pretty shaped up and well-kept ha, which in itself, basically alludes to time NOT spent in-studio. Here's a few well-written bars pulled straight from the painfully short Life + Times -b...

"Wild for The Night" is a pretty vain take on Hip-Hop 's own version of the infamous "sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll" lifestyle, that's quickly become a crusin' around/weekend ramp up kinda jam for my friends and I amongst countless 20-something Middle Americans . A$AP Rocky released it's debauchery-filled music video a couple days ago, which stars A$AP Mob, Skrillex , and Birdy Nam Nam rippin' it up throughout the Dominican Republic . Looks like Rocky & friends pissed away RCA/Polo Grounds' big budget allotted towards "Wild for The Night" and director Chris Robinson just happened to tag along and film all the hi-jinx that ensued. We're talkin' about everyday/above-average shit like hanging out on rooftops, gun-toting children, practicing karate kicks with friends, seducing hunnies on the beach, motorcycle burn-outs, a late night club gig, etc. The always fashionable A$AP Rocky sports a number of DKNY...

It seems as though Danny Brown & A$AP Rocky 's new-found friendship is based around a shared love for middle-aged women with "big tits and curvey asses" ... kinda like Kathy Griffin , for example; The 2 young emcees seem to have met while taking part in Noisey/VICE 's 5-part Back-and-Forth interview series. It was here that they first lamented about Miss Griffin 's dangerously delicious curves: "Who dat - The lady from Family Guy !? Kathy Griffin got a fatty, n*gga! The silly, goofy bitch" Once she heard they were both DTF, Kathy Griffin was surprisingly flattered and had A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown , and Russell Brand appear on her Bravo TV show, "Kathy" (Valentine's Day) . But anyways, while they have yet to trade bars on a LEGIT label-sanctioned track, looks like that'll all soon change with Old (Brown's rumored August album). Danny Brown leaked a partially unfinished version of "Kush Coma" late Tuesday a...

Anyone remember around like 200-05 when Paris Hilton somehow managed to coin the phrase, "That's HOT!" (loosely meaning crazy, sexy, cool)? Well, I feel like that's kinda how MTV ranks their equally ridiculous annual Hottest MC's list, cause Hip-Hop 's such a hard thing to quantize/generalize; It's more about sheer passion, love/loss, money, girls, heartbreak, shared experience(s), etc. While MTV has yet to reveal a finalized list, here's their partial rankings: Meek Mill , Future, A$AP Rocky , Kanye, Big Sean , Drake, Nas , and Rick Ross (#10-3). Kanye soon called into Hot 97 , basically lampooning MTV VJ Sway and the network's rapper-ranking process, "I mean, I gave Sway his first TV, man... I was living in Newark [NJ] doing beats for Jay-Z and Beans and all them, and I was getting a new TV and I gave Sway his first TV. I didn't really wanna like even call to talk about the [Hottest MC's] list. I just wanna tell every...

Depending on who you ask, LONGLIVEA$AP is easily the most progressive/digressive Hip-Hop album of the last 5-10 years! A$AP Rocky sprinkles in stylistic touches [musical nods] to Public Enemy 's youthful rebellion, Wu-Tang Clan's expert swordsmen-ship, Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right to Party" mentality, and Kanye 's worldly fashion sense throughout the record. While it leaked back in early December nearly a full month a head of it's impending Jan. 15th release date, it's the sheer power of featured rappers and producers that's either gonna make or break the eventual fate of LONGLIVEA$AP . Shit, almost 1/2 of the album's rapping friends are housed on 2 MASSIVE posse cuts, "F*ckin' Problems" and "1 Train:" Action Bronson , Danny Brown, Kendrick Lamar , Joey Bada$$, Drake , Yelawolf , Big K.R.I.T. and 2 Chainz. Florence [-The Machine], Gunplay, Pharrell , Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka 's assorted talents ar...

"Fuck 1 Time" is quite arguably the most gripping, utterly revealing music video of 2012. It was filmed in the post-apocalyptic-looking world that is Lower East Side [New York] after Hurricane Sandy ; Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire 's face is dimly lit by whatever lighting Shane Annas and crew could scrounge together... flashlights, police car "cherry tops," mag lights, cell phones, etc. It's an eerily realistic clip that chronicles one of the toughest, most unifying natural disasters our nation as a whole has been through since Katrina (2005). The track's pulled from Mr. MFN eXquire 's guerrilla mixtape, The Man In The High Castle , which Universal has essentially pulled from the vast cyber-waves of The Internet . Sonically, he kinda sounds like a comic book/ WWE -loving mix between Biggie & ODB . Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire rolls with a crew of up-and-coming New York area rappers: Action Bronson , El-P, Danny Brown , Das Racist , Go...

Kendrick Lamar generously unveiled a BRAND NEW non-album track, "The Jig Is Up (Dump'n)," to commemorate the sheer fact that good kid, m.A.A.d. city has already managed to move some 250,000+ units since it's initial [Oct. 23rd] release; It's a staggering call-to-arms aimed @ Lamar's critics and detractors, which just might end up being a sample of his long-rumored J.Cole -manned album. Kendrick Lamar even lets loose a couple quick jabs @ a washed up rapper who felt the need to voice his unwarranted opinions: "I pray to God this beat is good enough for Shyne , if not J.Cole your shit is trash" ha! For what it's worth, good kid, m.A.A.d. city sold 241,000 copies between Oct. 22-30th, taking second place on the Billboard 200 charts, just behind Taylor Swift . Most likely against Aftermath/TDE 's wishes, Lamar scrapped the potentially buzz-worthy Lady GaGa collabo track, bumped Dr. Dre & Mary J. Blige 's features to mere bo...

While André 3000 has been busy "recording a solo album," hawking Gillette razors/beard trimmers, and re-covering Hendrix covers ... Big Boi 's somehow managed to record & release 2 solo projects and produce the bulk of an album for Modest Mouse . All of this has collectively happened since OutKast 's long-lost last album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was released (2003) and on the heels of a long-rumored new album from the group, which no one really knows "if or when that will ever happen." Big Boi is currently putting a few final touches on his second solo LP, Vicious Lies & Dangerous Rumors ; This one's essentially the sequel to Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and it's currently slated for a Nov. 13th wide release. "She Said OK" is a mega-sized sultry cut that's co-piloted by Big Boi and Brooklyn Hipster R&B rapper Theophilus London , along with background crooner Tre Luce and Soulful producer C...