The Witzard

"I'm an actor, a writer, and a singer; some people have described me as a "triple-threat," but I kinda like to call myself... JUST A THREAT," Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino cooly detailed during his double-billing SNL host/performer monologue this past weekend, Saturday, May 12, 2018. Amidst his claims he "can do anything," Glover nonchalantly showed off his assorted skills including music-making, skateboarding, cooking, fixing lighting rigs, "playing" clarinet, and general awesomeness. Since his last critically-acclaimed album, "Awaken, My Love!" Donald Glover has launched Season 2 of his semi-autobiographical FX show Atlanta , made a cameo as Aaron Davis (The Prowler) in Spider-Man: Homecoming, worked on a now-shelved Deadpool cartoon series for FXX , has signed on as Simba in Jon Favreau's 2019 re-make of The Lion King, and will play a young Lando Calrissian in Disney/Lucafilms ' as-yet-unreleased SOLO: A S...

"Yeah, that's my grandfather. My grandfather's side of the family is a bunch of Jazz musicians. Nat & Cannonball Adderley , my grandfather's Richard Adderley , they played with Miles Davis ... and my grandfather, he's a beast," Rome Fortune ecstatically revealed to THE HUNDREDS writer Senay Kenfe during a 2015 Small VVorld EP -centric interview; Kenfe was inquiring about a suspicious underlying Jazz/Hard Bop influence running through his Beautiful Pimp I-II mixtapes. It makes a bit more sense, taking his Jazz roots into account, that Rome Fortune has worked with such a wide array of genre-spanning producers and musicians such as Neo-Soul -minded multi-instrumentalist Chris McClenney , Jazz -inclined Electronic producer Four Tet , Grimes -affiliated song-writer and producer BloodPop (formerly Blood Diamonds ), and Haitian-Canadian Hip-Hop/R&B producer KAYTRANADA . Rome Fortune can easily be categorized as a by-product of fellow ATLiens Out...

I'm almost positive that I myself, like many unknowing listeners, first heard the ferocious rhyming talents of Sugar Tongue Slim (STS) on The Roots' "Auto-Tune Baby"-borrowing How I Got Over (2010) bonus track, "Hustla;" an intriguing concoction produce by ?uestlove & Diplo, which was formerly inter-woven amidst an early M.I.A. & Prince Zimboo-assisted Major Lazer composition befittingly titled "Baby" (Switch Remix) . STS would self-release three volumes of his critically-acclaimed GOLD Rush freestyles series and later go on to join Black Thought-fronted Money Makin' Jam Boys alongside fellow Roots affiliates Dice Raw, Truck North, and Greg Porn. It would appear as though MMJB's post-Prestige indefinite hiatus has seemingly inspired STS to go ahead and form his own genre-blending Roots-esque Hip-Hop band, NAC; "Cultivated in Philly and created in LA, NAC is a unique band that have written music for artist such as John Legend,...

"Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still TWERKIN,'" that now-infamous Jay Z line single-handedly sums up the cultural assimilation of yet another once "cool" African-American trend, TWERKING. It's just something that "white bread" middle American women, not entirely unlike Taylor Swift , really shouldn't even be attempting to do in the first place. Atlanta -based Prog-Metal behemoths, Mastodon 's latest video treatment, "The Motherload" could likely coexist somewhere in the unlikely cross-hairs nestled in-between Sir-Mix-a-Lot and Danzig . "We weren't trying to make fun of Hip-Hop videos. It was a fine line, because I didn't want to come off as being sexist, so I thought that maybe the females took center stage and looked powerful and had this dance battle," Mastodon drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor recently explained to Pitchfork . Dailor additionally notes that he and his Mastodon bandmates along ...

While it's largely unclear exactly how Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune and British Electronic producer Four Tet managed to record their recent series of cross-continental collaborations, I'd like to think they followed the Jaylib model; legend has it that J Dilla & Madlib 's lone Stones Throw album, Champion Sound , was painstakingly assembled from dozens of beat/vocal CD-R's that were mailed back-and-forth between Los Angeles and Detroit . Rome Fortune & Four Tet unexpectedly released their second track together, "Lights Low" Thursday afternoon, which Fortune vaguely alluded is "Track 2 of ? between myself and Four Tet ..." For those not exactly familiar with either artists' work, "Lights Low" and "One Time For" don't sound totally dissimilar from Daft Punk 's Electro -tinged Hip-Hop collaborations with Kanye and Jay Z , "Stronger" and "Computerized" (respectively). Four Tet r...

I'm about 98% sure that I first stumbled upon Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet ) during my early exploration of Jaylib -era J Dilla ; the late great rapper-producer concocted a neck-snapping remix of Hebden's own "As Serious As Your Life" (2003) along with fellow Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson . While he's primarily regarded as a one-man band, Four Tet has branched out in recent years working with drummer Steve Reid , MADVILLAIN, Neneh Cherry , Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman , and has produced unofficial remixes for everyone from Lana del Rey to Justin Timberlake. Four Tet unleashed his latest foray into Hip-Hop late Tuesday afternoon; "One Time For" is one of two tracks recently recorded with rising Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune . Even though it may still be a little rough around the edges, "One Time For" is an extremely glitched out, drum-heavy Electronic Hip-Hop hybrid, which could very well be the start of a great collaborative ef...

for their latest video-remix treatment, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox recruited Puddles The Clown (aka Big Mike Geier ), a 7-foot-tall sad clown and Atlanta -based performance artist with a voice not unlike Tom Jones ; together, they recorded a sprawling "throwback"-style cover of Lorde 's recent mega-hit, "Royals" in Bradlee's living room. It's a pretty amazing track, nonetheless, which wouldn't have been entirely possible without Robyn Adele Anderson , Cristina Gatti, Adam Kubota , Allan Mednard, and of course, Puddles' gold-plated vocal chords. "Royals" is far from Postmodern Jukebox 's first go-round; in fact, they've recorded genre-shifting covers of everyone from Robin Thicke to Katy Perry and even laid down an entire Nickelback album, A Motown Tribute to Nickelback ! Bandleader-pianist Scott Bradlee has composed a staggering mix of re-arrangements, including all sorts of broad-spanning styles: Doo-Wop ,...

Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover ) hasn't really released much new material since unleashing last year's feature-heavy Camp follow-up mixtape, ROYALTY . But it sounds like the former Community star is planning to unveil what will likely be a new full-length mixtape [or album?], because the internet , "this winter break;" and if @DonaldGlover's Twitter feed is to be believed, it just might house collaborative tracks with buddies Kid Cudi , Flying Lotus, and Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), as well as his other recent web-single, "Centipede." because the internet 's latest rumored inclusion, "Yaphet Kotto" (freestyle) was uploaded to Gambino's Soundcloud page roughly a week ago. Preceded only by a Skylar-White -drowning- Breaking-Bad -like teaser trailer, "Yaphet Kotto" showcases Childish Gambino blatantly addressing his detractors: "Worst rapper to ever spit on an open mic / Worst rapper to ever get on so...

Since voluntarily self-dissolving his long-functioning Hip-Hop label Def Jux around February 2010, El-P has somehow managed to release 3 full-length records over a 2 year span, straying away from his previous crippling album/5 years pattern. Run The Jewels is actually El-P 's first proper album with close friend and fellow veteran rapper, Killer Mike ; It's Proto-Rap that pays homage to Hip-Hop 's "golden era" and even lifts it's boastful group name from a old school LL Cool J track, "Cheesy Rat Blues" (1990). Preceded by 3 equally glitched-out teaser singles: "Banana Clipper," "Get It," and Adult Swim -backed "36" Chain," Run The Jewels [album] was uploaded to Fool's Gold Records early Wednesday morning (June 26th) for FREE download. But for diehard record collectors like myself, Fool's Gold has also pressed up a limited number of specially-designed 2xLP/T-shirts/herb grinder/standard CD sets...