The Witzard

Ikechi Nnamani decided to head to Nigeria for "Winter Break" [2011-12] in a combined effort to take a much needed break from UPenn , visit with family & friends, and simply de-stress a bit. It's 16 rudimentary Boom-Bap beats were largely recorded on laptop programs in a grass hut... likely adding to the album's overall "Old School" aesthetic. While they were originally released back in April , kechPhrase & Veehead issued a slightly re-packaged re-relased version of Kechstrumentals: Live from Nigeria, Tape 1 earlier today. Mishka is currently hosting a stream-able player containing the complete mixtape; So far, kechPhrase 's beats have been [or will be] rapped over and further embellished by Kool A.D. Fat Tony, Epic, Bill Ding, Chakuza (Germany) , and a few other talented wordsmiths. Pretty sample-heavy and chock-full of strings, synth flourishes, 808 drum patterns, and vocal excerpts... Kechstrumentals is definitely worth checking out! S...

Ever since it's 1975-80's inception, "the struggle" has been a consistent, underlying genesis of Hip-Hop . But anymore, the originality's long gone in mainstream Hip-Hop ; These days, everyone's so manufactured and "cookie-cutter." The genre's final hope just might rest within Das Racist's collective of Brooklyn -based artists, producers, labelmen, etc. My attention was first drawn to [rapping college student] kechPhrase last Summer when he made a few original beats for Kool A.D. Since then, I've paid close attention to his career's gradual progression and I'm happy to say that we've stayed in touch throughout his blooming wave of early success. Chalking his past releases up as a test run, kechPhrase is prepping the release of 2 BIG companion projects: Slight Progress EP and Slight Progress (3rd World Dreaming) . "Can I Flow?" is the latest track from Slight Progress EP and shouts to Ikechi Nnamani for let...