The Witzard

Late last night, I noticed a Tweet from Roughneck Jihad (@roughneckjihad) which read, "Check our this continent-spanning Hip-Hop collaboration with the beat and cuts by @AwkwardUK and the rhyme by yours truly, Roughy Rough ." It included a mysterious YouTube link labelled "MC Roughneck Jihad and DJ Awkward "Dromedary."' Bay Area emcee Roughneck Jihad and Bristol, UK-based producer Awkward have, in fact, collaborated before, but, seemingly, not to this degree. Awkward mastered Jihad 's 2018 Red Herring Mixtape and years prior, produced "Amen" & "Barbarian" from Third Sight 's 2016 album, IV . Within a 2018 All-around Breakdown for his Red Herring Mixtape , Roughneck Jihad told The Witzard, "in addition, [ Awkward ] is remixing a narrative/comic book album, The Red Sentence , for me." Supposedly, according to Awkward , "DROMEDARY" is "just a taster and there will be more to come. Perhaps, so...

Happy New Year to all of our trusty readers! 2020 marks 10 consecutive years of The Witzard, which is a little hard to believe, even for me! It's been a great ride thus far and we greatly appreciate everyone that visits and supports our site on a regular basis! I'm hoping to do a full site re-design in 2020 (something I've wanted to do for a few years!) but my wife and I are expecting our first child this Summer... so, we'll just have to see what happens, honestly. Hope everyone had a happy and safe holidays season! Here's a selection of new singles that were released over the holidays; let's just call it a best of 2019 year-end/2020 kick-off singles feature. Truth be told, these are some of our favorite artists here at The Witzard and we're excited to see/hear what they have in store for 2020! Festive Beastie Boys artwork courtesy of Pollywog Crew (@pollywogcrew.) Sincerely, Matt "The Witzard" Horowitz It's A New Year, Wavy Baby! ...

As many of you may have already seen, last month, we published a comprehensive track-by-track breakdown fittingly dubbed Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique 30th Anniversary All-around Breakdown, Parts I-III or simply PB30 , for short. PB30 featured contributions from a talented cast of characters including fellow writers, musicians, artists, and like-minded Beasties die-hards "waxing poetic" on their favorite Paul's Boutique tracks, B-sides, and remixes. PB30 Part I (Side A) showcased Tracks #01-08. Part II (Side B) featured Tracks #09-14. & 15. "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" Suites a-i. and Part III encompassed B-sides and remixes from 1989 EP's An Exciting Evening at Home with Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego & Love American Style. Now, just about a month later, we've put together this PB30 Companion Playlist & Reading List feature showcasing Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique tributes from our PB30 contributors: Steve Baril, Broken Machine Films Prese...

"attempted or done before. (The vinyl edition will have extra-copious multi-panel artwork in its first print only. Hey collectors!) "Yea, but who cares what it looks like. What about the tunes??!!" Not only is Paul's Boutique harder than their hysterical historical multi-platinum Licensed to Ill outing, but it's "deeper." The record is a never ending flow of freaky, left-field samples (everyone from the Beatles to Mountain to a bunch of obscure '70s funk that one's ever thought about biting) that sucks you in and then spits you out, leaving you punch-drunk and frenzied. The Dust Brothers (Matt Dike, John King, and Mike Simpson) have outdone themselves on the production front, and have given the record an earthy home grown aura. And the Boys themselves are in tip-top form. Check this: "I got more rhymes than J.D.'s got Salinger" (from "Shadrach"). Taking you, the listener, on a psychedelic mind-trip, the Beasties ...

Posse In Effect 1 by POSSE IN EFFECT Not entirely unlike Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, Egon & John Doe , dj BC, Jeremiah Jae , and TT5BR before him, Awkward has unleashed a 10-track collection of Beastie Boys remixes fittingly called POSSE IN EFFECT 1 . Awkward is a UK -based producer/emcee/artist/DJ with affiliation to Los Angeles crew The Cloaks and Bristol 's Ghost.Locust Music . He has previously worked with clipping. The Kleenrz, Nocando , Open Mike Eagle, Self Jupiter (Freestyle Fellowship,) Third Sight, Zackey Force Funk , and Malakai's Stepchild AKA Stepasaur. We, here at The Witzard , actually, first heard about Awkward after he mastered Roughneck Jihad 's recent compilation album, The Red Herring Mixtape . In conjunction with Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz & Michael "Mike D" Diamond 's newly-released memoir, BEASTIE BOYS BOOK , Awkward has collected 10 choice cuts from throughout The Beasties' storied three decades-long caree...

When we last spoke with Third Sight emcee Roughneck Jihad, he was preparing to release his critically-acclaimed 2017 album, THE WRETCHED OF THE VERSE: A MICROPHONE MURDERER'S EXTENDED-PLAY RESPONSE TO UNABRIDGED WACKNESS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC TODAY. Since our comprehensive interview here at The Witzard, Roughneck hasn't slowed down one bit... releasing his IL Torsolo-produced Disco Sinistro EP, The Tarantula Bros. with Third Sight's "The Chef" DJ Du-Funk, and most recently, The Red Herring Mixtape. Next up for Roughneck Jihad is limited edition Tarantula Bros. vinyl, as well as his third solo album, Juan Sequitur (JS) expected to be released this Fall/Winter. JS will feature appearances from DJ Zuckell, Spex, Jason Lee, Abom, IL Torsolo, Sir Dino, Kwantize, and Teran. Enjoy perusing through Roughneck Jihad's Red Herring Mixtape All-around Breakdown below. "Red Herring is made up of tracks I recorded between 2008-12; production duties are held down by Mr....