The Witzard

Late last night, right after midnight, we recieved a rather mysterious Bandcamp Notification email out of the blue. It arrived on behalf of Mello Music Group and said, "Greetings, Matt Horowitz, Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean just announced EGO, check it out here." "Here's what they say about it: "Detroit's Guilty Simpson and Boom-Bap producer Gensu Dean combine for a new album arriving Oct. 8th feat, Marv Won, Black Milk, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Yarbrough, and Skyzoo," said early morning email continued. Along with the announcement of 12-track EGO , Mello Music Group additionally shared an initial preview of the album with "Don't Pull." Boasting Gensu Dean's dusty SP-1200 & MPC3000-aided production style and Guilty Simspon's grizzled tough-as-nails rhyming style, "Don't Pull" is definitely a head-banger and we're excited to hear the rest of EGO. EGO by Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean Gensu Dean & Gui...

Red Dillicious by Free Tillman "This project came together organically. I had just bought some new equipment and wasn't really comfortable with my drum sounds, so I decided to loop someone else's... and who has better drums than J Dilla ? I was looking for samples from my music collection and came across Fiona Apple 's Tidal ," beat-maker, writer, and social media personality Free (Lee) Tillman wrote within a recent email. "Throughout my life, I have been a recording engineer, a journalist, a rapper, a stand-up comedian, and a music video director. And I have had recognizable success in exactly zero of those things," Tillman writes within the Amazon description to his 2016 Kindle book, How to Fail at Everything: A Practical Guide for Coasting Through Life . On his Soundcloud page, Lee Tillman simply proclaims: "I make videos, I take pictures, I write Tweets , I write books," complete with links to his various platforms. Red Dillicious ...

"Today, New York -bred emcees Wiki & Your Old Droog are sharing a new collaborative EP. What Happened to Fire? is a 5-track joint effort that demonstrates a chemistry between Wiki & Droog that could only come from both artists growing up in New York City ; narrated by found samples of Kool Keith , the focus of the EP for Wiki & Droog was having fun while putting down the best bars possible," read a press release I received late last week from Nick X Dierl at Orienteer (formerly Liberal Arts and Life or Death PR ). What Happened to Fire? EP was recorded in tandem with an art installation under the same name, which ran at Romero Gallery in late 2016. " What Happened to Fire? was recorded at Wiki 's Chinatown apartment as the installation was being formulated and displayed and the art that accompanies the EP contains imagery from the gallery." Your Old Droog was compared to Nas early on in his career and was even believed to be some sort ...

"We recorded "Letting Off Steam" here in [Australia] in 2014. We both dug that joint, but it didn't make the album for various reasons; so, good to let the peeps hear it. Written and recorded in the same day. Just a dope vibe, really. Guilty killed that beat. Mad flow on that... "Love" is a joint we also had to leave off the album due to the album length. Neither of us like long records. It's a dope jam and Guilty's message/ lyrics are amazing. I really wanted peeps to hear that joint. Its deep. I mixed it again and got a much better mix, which is the one you [hear] released a couple of days back. That's all I can tell you." – Detroit's Son and Detroit & Extras producer Katalyst "Right now, all I'm listening to is beats. DETROIT'S SON is my favorite album. And I'm in a time capsule, bro – I'm still listening to The Commodores ha! I'm really into my own wave right now. I mostly listen to Jazz , when I...

"Hit the HASH [button] at retrohash.com to uncover secret raps over @black_milk madness..." @asherroth somewhat cryptically Tweeted late Wednesday afternoon, accented by a "#hashwednesday" hashtag; a trend which can be attributed to the bulk of Roth's recent post- RetroHash activity, consisting of fully fleshed out non-album tracks haphazardly uploaded to his Asher Paul Roth Soundcloud account. Hash Wednesdays roll call additionally includes Chuck Inglish -produced "That's Cute," "Oren's Not Sure," Fat Tony -assisted "Sushi," "Taking My Time," and Nottz -produced "Blow Yr Head" amongst other questionable non-album loosies. Although many of Asher Roth 's one-time fans and detractors might have quickly written him off as a mere "one-hit wonder" during the five years between "I Love College" -featuring Asleep In The Bread Aisle and his nearly flawless second album Retro...

"Worked with Guilty on Quakers through [Stones Throw] . Then we met when he was here in [Australia] on tour. Hung out with [him] and Phat Kat in the studio. Those guys were digging the new beats I had, and when Guilty went to LA to do the video for "Fitta Happier," he mentioned that we were vibing in the studio and he was into the beats and working together," Katalyst recently wrote within an emailed conversation. "We recorded "War Drums" while Phat Kat and Guilty were in town for that tour. Stones Throw thought it could be a great fit for his next album and hit us up and I was into it," Australian -based producer Ashley Anderson then continued, concerning his relationship with collaborator Guilty Simpson . Katalyst produced the entirety of Simpson's Psych-Rock -tinged DETROIT'S SON at Quakers band-mate and Portishead founder Geoff Barrow 's local Invada Studios . Stones Throw unexpectedly dropped DETROIT'S SO...

While tough-as-nails emcees Guilty Simpson & Danny Brown don't seemingly have much in common (aside from mutual collaborator Black Milk ), the two like-minded lyrical wordsmiths are surprisingly cut from the same battle-worn "cloth." Simpson & Brown both just so happen to have unleashed newly-minted material yesterday, August 3rd: "Animal" produced by Quakers beatsmith Katalyst and "Worth It" produced by Lil B affiliate, Clams Casino , respectively. Late Monday afternoon, I curiously Tweeted @guiltysimpson , whom I recently had the opportunity to interview for this very site , inquiring if he and Mr. Brown had ever worked together; to which he quickly replied with a video still of Elzhi 's "Fire" Remix featuring Black Milk , GUILTY SIMPSON, Fatt Father , DANNY BROWN, and Fat Ray . Lest we forget, Guilty & Danny additionally teamed up way back in 2010 on Quelle -produced Detroit State of Mind 4 mixtape cut, "Mu...

The Chain Gang somehow managed to seamlessly splice together a bunch of stop-motion [animation] clips to construct Sean Price 's latest music video, "STFU (Part 2)." Before it's all said and done, we see Super-Price courageously fending off a pack of angry killer apes with a microphone... getting some calcium fortification, pilot a spaceship, re-enact a couple album covers, run through the jungle, etc. All of Sean Price's milk-fueled hi-jinx were animated by crafty illustrators, Haroon Gilian & Whitney Alexander ; "STFU (Part 2)" will appear on Price's long-awaited Mic Tyson album, along with previously-released tracks "Haraam" and "I See." Rome York directed and released a quick, 1:30-minute music video last week to go along with "I See," which was in fact pre-empted by "Sean Price Plays Tennis" back in early Sept. Duck Down Records are finally gearing up to liberate Mic Tyson on Oct. 3...

Danny Brown is most likely far from your average rapper; Granted he regularly brags about "drinking & smoking," but he's been somewhat weirdly well-received by Indie Rock blogs and endearing fans alike. Maybe it's Brown's affinity for non- Hip-Hop beats, stark realism, cutting-edge threads, outsider appearance... or that Trent Reznor -reminiscent side-swoop haircut. Whatever the reasoning behind it, ex- Pitchfork contributor Eavvon O'Neal felt compelled to shadow and film Danny Brown for a few days back in February. The final edit has been dubbed Detroit State of Mind , a mini-documentary which Brown himself simply describes as, "really like a movie/reality show pilot or some shit ... you laugh, u cry and someone dies at the end lol." Overall, Eavvon O'Neal 's filmed account is a candid 20-minute look into Danny Brown's everyday life. Un-charistically "normal" happenings include: hanging out with family, getting a ...

Simply Having by Black Milk & Melanie Rutherford " Black Milk chops up one of his favorite Christmas songs and links up with Melanie Rutherford for the re-make. Check the artwork, I guess Charlie Brown & company's fighting skills are on point as they each have a pair of [Jordan] Concords . *shrugs... I never understood this shoe fetish people have. Dah well? [Here's a Merry Christmas to all you 2dopeboyz & girls out there!!"] - Shake

A$AP Rocky 's involvement with fellow up-and-comer, Danny Brown 's BRAND NEW "Blunt After Blunt" music video has been long-rumored. While the final cut has finally been liberated, additional rumored friends/collaborators that were set to appear [ Kendrick Lamar , Dave Chappelle , and Mos Def Yasiin Bey ] are noticeably absent. A$AP Rocky's directorial debut is executed surprisingly well: Dark undertones, vivid color use-age, simplicity! "Blunt After Blunt" is without a doubt one of the darker and more effective cuts on XXX - Thanks to SKYWLKR 's lush, dirty production style. Danny Brown is all about repping his hometown of Detroit ... collaborating with as many link-minded D-based artists as possible: Random Axe , Black Milk , SKYWLKR, Dilla (R.I.P.), House Shoes, Rosalinda Ruiz, hexmurda , etc. Both Danny Brown and A$AP Rocky have a few solid outputs currently on the market: Black & Brown EP, XXX , and LIVELOVEA$AP - respectively. A r...

Danny Brown is far from shy about his love affair with prescription drugs and is often coincidentally referred to as "Adderall Admiral." Since releasing his 2010 debut project: The Hybrid , Brown has constructed a joint street album with Tony Yayo (G-Unit) , liberated a loose concept mixtape - XXX , dubbed up a RELAX ing verse for Das Racist , and appeared within Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire 's posse cut [remix]: "Huzzah!" Motor City Brown 's latest contribution to the world is... some appended bars to an alternate remix of AraabMUZIK's flip of The Big Pink 's come-back lead single, "Stay Gold." Come Nov. 1st, Fat Beats will unleash Black & Brown EP; A collaborative 10-track effort... a sequel of sorts, between Detroit "Boom-Bap" pioneers, Black Milk and Danny Brown . Thanks to a tip provided by the lovely PR wonder Rosalinda Ruiz, I was directed to an easily accessible full stream of said joint EP. With the excepti...

Live instrumentation is essentially the elementary basis for nearly any and all Hip-Hop compositions; Whether it be sample source(d) material or the interpolation [re-creation] of said raw audio. During a time period in which Hip-Hop was proclaimed "dead" (2006-10), groups like Will Sessions have since re-invigorated a sense of new-found life into the genre as a whole. Will Sessions are an 8-10 musician deep Detroit crew fronted by trumpeter, Sam Beaubien . Making good use of a full-bodied "throwback" sound, which features drums, bass, guitar... in addition to trumpet, keys, sax, trombone, and percussion. Since forming as a solo endeavor in 2007, Will Sessions has progressively morphed into something much larger and greater. Live in concert, they've moonlighted as The Guilty Simpson, Black Milk , and Phat Kat Big Band(s) ... Plus having separately logged studio-time with the likes of Elzhi , Mayer Hawthorne , Slum Village, 14K, Black Milk , and Buff1 . R...

"In the spirit of lyrical exercise, I figured I'd start a chain of freestyle releases entitled "The Penny Freestyle Series." As a kid, Penny Hardaway was my favorite basketball player, hands down. Labeled the "Second Coming," he took the mid-90's by storm! We all know [that] if his knees didn't give out, he'd be listed in the Top 50 of All Time, Hall of Fame , the works. So, what would have happened if Penny's knees DIDN'T go out on him? He would've [easily become] one of the greatest ever. Hence where I come in... For this week's Penny Freestyle Series , we conclude with "Wikipedia Rap" [Lupe Fiasco - "Failure" ]. This is the final entry in the Penny Series . I honestly had a blast knocking these out for y'all week by week. Click the cover for "Wikipedia Rap," and see the link below for the full collection, in case you missed any of the previous verses... The Penny Freestyle Series ...