The Witzard

Weekend Money (or W$ ) are a Hip-Hop/Electronic duo consisting of emcee NE$$ AKA @NESSTAGRAM and producer/vocalist Amar "Baghdaddy" Ibrahim AKA @AmarBagh & @Bagh3d . NE$$ & Baghdaddy originally hail from Philly & Iraq , respectively, but are currently based somewhere in-between Philly, Brooklyn , and Miami . Weekend Money , during their earliest aughts, were affiliated with now-defunct Das Racist and, at one point, were even signed to Heems' label, Greedhead Music . NE$$ is also, one-half of The A-Alikes , a crew with affiliation to dead prez and their "militant rhyme crew," People's Army . I can still vividly remember seeing W$ at one of Das Racist 's final gigs at Union Transfer in Philly right around the same time as their 2013 debut EP, Naked City . If I'm remembering correctly, I believe, Baghdaddy & NE$$ nearly ripped through the entirety of their genre-blending as-yet-unreleased 9-track EP. Now, if my memory is s...

"Steel Tipped Dove is a music producer and recording engineer in Brooklyn, NY who has the skills and desire to service your audio needs from vocal recordings, song mixing, podcasting, video scoring, etc. He has done work for Armand Hammer (billy woods & ELUCID,) Kool A.D. PremRock, Quelle Chris, SHIRT, and many more talented Underground Hip-Hop emcees. Hit him up at steeltippeddove.com . Here are three albums that were extremely influential on my overall style and sound:" cui bono by Steel Tipped Dove I. Viktor Vaughn (AKA MF DOOM) - Vaudeville Villain (2003) "This sh*t sounds like a movie. It's astonishing. I once took 'shrooms and sat in the room with the lights out and just watched DOOM walk around, go up and down these golden staircases—hitting the walls and sh*t to make the beats. The production on this album is so wild and detailed, it's incredible. If DOOM put this album out in 2025, it would feel brand new. "A Dead Mouse" really s...

"recorded in like, 2008 by mr. ski-mask on 1-inch analog tape at the electric pumpkin patch studio on the east side of buffalo . lindsey did guitar, i did drums, and me and ski-mask did synths. i wrote the song before i had a band in 2000," Jack Topht AKA Jack Toft AKA Jack Topht with The Vegetables AKA Little Cake n Jack Toft AKA Lindsey & Jack Toft AKA TEENWOLF AND JACK TOFT wrote within a recent email exchange regarding "Come On Nike." His rather unique style has been self-described as " Kool Keith meets Crass " and has often been labelled Awesome Rap , Folk-Rap, Americana Grime , Grunge-Funk, Grunge Rap Punk/Ska , "kooky, riveting Rap , wild freak Anti-Folk Noise/Free Jazz " ( Little Cake n Jack Toft ,) and "part rapper, part performance artist, part comedian/motivational speaker." Jack Topht 's largely genre-less style has been compared to the likes of Bob Dylan , Minutemen frontman D. Boon, Kool Keith , Le T...

It was a little strange, to say the least, driving into work this morning knowing that in a few short hours, New Jersey and nearly the whole United States would experience a period of total (albeit momentary) darkness for a few hours today, Monday, August 21st. I'm of course, talking about the Total Solar Eclipse , which will obscure roughly 76.9% of The Sun at 2:44 pm here in South Jersey and will experience various shades of darkness until about 4:00 pm. According to The Smithsonian 's Solar Eclipse app , The Eclipse will make its first point of contact in Oregon in about three hours and will last for approximately 2 minutes and 43 seconds in any given area across The United States and Greater North America . If you, like my co-workers, family, and friends and myself, were unable to attain a coveted pair of Solar Eclipse viewing glasses, you can still view The Eclipse by making a a home-made Box Pinhole Projector ; you'll just need a a long cardboard box or tube...

"When I was asked to contribute to Rough Trade Publishing 's A Song A Day to Keep The Pain Away (#SADRTP) benefit project, covering Grizzly Bear 's outstanding album cut, "Foreground" somehow felt like the right starting point; in the moment, I was reacting to the Trump Administration 's Muslim Ban , projecting a song about a relationship falling apart onto man and country," one-time Das Racist affiliate and frequent Heems collaborator Lushlife wrote within a recent statement. "Foreground" was released on Day #74 of a planned 90-day initiative by Rough Trade Publishing , which they vehemently attest aims to "help a little with the pain and perhaps, even inspire you. We hope so. We all need to be doing whatever we can to make 2017 a better tomorrow." Previous prescribers to their A Song A Day Keeps The Pain Away benefit comp. include Sondre Lerche , Nada Surf, King Khan , A Place to Bury Strangers, Superchunk , awesomely-name...

It appears as though reclusive early 2000's rapper, producer, and cold-cuttin' DJ Edan has finally decided to re-emerge from his self-imposed sabbatical and unleash his first batch of new material since 2009's "Echo Party" mixtape; Edan recently contributed production work to old sharp-tongued friend Mr. Lif 's long-awaited comeback single of sorts, "Whizdom," as well as Homeboy Sandman 's newly unveiled Kindness for Weakness album teaser, "Talking (Bleep)." Sandman 's latest Stones Throw Drip can likely best be described as a Hip-Hop -laden amalgamation of pop culture's beloved, often over-used "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH" filler phrasing for drab, long-winded, unnecessary, etc. conversation we're often subjected to throughout our every day lives – be it Ke$ha 's chart-topping No.1 single, Charlie Brown & The Peanuts' "WAH, WAH, WAH" diction substituted for adults talking, or Seinfeld prota...

"Holy sh*t! Here's a new song we made [with] Homeboy Sandman for our show together Friday," now-defunct New York Hip-Hop revivalists Das Racist Tweeted way back when in 2010, promoting a then-upcoming November 5th Southpaw gig along with a pre- Stones Throw Angel del Villar II ; if I remember correctly, "I'm Up On That" was the very first time I had ever been treated to the sweet, rhythmic sounds of Homeboy Sandman , who's comfortably seated as one of Stones Throw 's sharpest emcees. "Here's a new track from Homeboy Sandman , as the MC (and amazing live performer) kicks off a couple weeks of live dates through the east and southern states, culminating with a couple Texas shows with Stones Throw crew [Peanut Butter] Wolf , J Rocc & Guilty Simpson ," Stones Throw wrote in a recent quick-strike press release accompanying Sandman's latest non-album Soundcloud loosie. '"Nonbelievers" produced by EL RNTC . T...

"When Dev [Hynes] was 'Lightspeed Champion' , he had a little-known rap MySpace called 'Ni**a Bullshit' (2010). This was when we first started talking about a collaboration," rapper Himanshu Suri (professionally known as Heems ) recently revealed to Rolling Stone concerning his latest collaboration with singer-songwriter/producer, Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange . "I wrote some of the lyrics in college at Wesleyan , some before Das Racist in Bushwick , and most of it in my engineer Daniel Lynas' old studio with Dev [Hynes] in Dumbo ," Heems continued. "Home" was adequately described by one anonymous writer as " Dev provides fluttering guitar-work while Heems opens his chest cavity, removes his still-aching heart, [and] drops it on the floor in front of you;" the subject matter throughout Heems' forthcoming major label "debut" EAT PRAY THUG has been self-described as "much more personal than [ Hima...

EAT PRAY THUG , or "9/11 & Heartbreak," as he affectionately refers to it, is the by-product of Queens -based rapper Himanshu K. Suri (aka Heems )' self-imposed exile to Bombay, India a few years back. Although it's actually Suri's major label debut, EAT PRAY THUG is likely poised to be his first and last album, as @HIMANSHU has recently alluded that he's considering giving up his rap career and more or less defunct Greedhead imprint for a 9-5. Since unleashing a series of critically-acclaimed 2012 mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , Suri has maintained a relatively low profile; until unexpectedly dropping his 4-track SWET SHOP EP with buddy Riz "MC" Ahmed and a particularly zonked out theme song recorded for Japanese Vitamin Water last year. "'Sometimes" is about dualities, identity, and the space between spaces, Like so many other people, as first generation South Asian in the U.S. I often felt like I li...

Das Racist were hands down, one of the greatest post-2000 New York area Hip-Hop groups, who essentially created their own "outsider rap" scene, which would later harbor up-and-coming guys like Lakutis , LE1F, Mr. Muthaf*ckin' eXquire , Antwon, Kassa Overall , KechPhrase, Big Baby Gandhi , etc. Luckily enough, I had a chance to see Das Racist on their then unannounced 2012 "farewell tour" in Philly , a show which additionally featured a mini- Greehead label showcase: Lakutis , LE1F, and Weekend Money as opening acts. Since disbanding, founding members Himanshu "Heems" Suri and Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez have each released a number of critically-acclaimed solo mixtapes; well, Heems actually uploaded two mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , while Das Racist were still actively together. Suri then moved to Bombay, India between 2012-mid-2014 as part of a self-imposed exile, wherein he began recording material for his ...

While they generally make a unique brand of self-loathing, love sick Dream Pop , Swedish duo JJ (formerly known as "jj" )'s music has always been heavily influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B ; take their latest single "All White Everything" for example, sonically it's a crisp piano ballad accented by a sparse Hip-Hop drum pattern about mid-way through, who's title is seemingly an allusion to Jay-Z 's Kanye & Rihanna -assisted smash single, "Run This Town." It's our first legitimate taste from JJ 's forthcoming album for Sincerely Yours/Secretly Canadian V , which will be their first proper full-length since jj n° 3 (2010). Aside from it's August 19th release date, 12-song tracklist, and cryptic album artwork , little else is known about V . Roughly two weeks before unveiling the aforementioned information, bandmates and apparent couple Elin Kastlander & Joakim Benon quietly uploaded a 45-second JJ V album trailer...

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and rapper-producer Kassa Overall is a close affiliate of Kool A.D. and his now-defunct Hip-Hop crew Das Racist . I believe I first got in touch with Overall after discovering his stellar self-released Stargate mixtape, which featured him ferociously rapping over re-worked Katy Perry , Wiz Khalifia , and modern pop radio tracks, and he generously helped facilitate my 2011-12 interview with Victor Vazquez , otherwise known as Kool A.D. While he was previously signed to Vazquez's Greedhead off-shoot imprint Veehead , but since their disbanding, his current label situation is unknown. After years of preparation and recording, Kassa Overall is finally gearing up to release his first proper solo album consisting of entirely original production, which is tentatively titled Like Life , in the not so distant future; even though he's released countless group albums with PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS , TOOTHPASTE , and as an accomplished Jazz drummer has rec...

"I think [we're] probably the world's only Indo-Pak rap group - peace process never sounded so rowdy," @SwetShopBoys triumphantly Tweeted on the eve of their premier single release, "Benny Lava." It's former Das Racist member Himanshu Suri (Heems) new 2-man group with Pakistan by way of London rapper, Riz MC ; Heems on the other hand, is a successful New York -based rapper and entrepreneur of Indian descent. Swet Shop Boys decided to rhyme over a recycled 2011 Ryan Hemsworth beat, which takes it's name from a mondegreen, Internet video re-interpretation, that's aptly titled "Benny Lava." It's all firmly anchored by Heems' neck-snapping first four bars: "Yo, Himanshu with the pen, I'm killing it / The white man the villain, them deny them penicillin / Syphilis experiments, death to the Tuskegee men / Somewhere in New York they say death to the squeegee men." The companion Prashant Bhargava & Tanu...

Just mere minutes before the stroke of 12 midnight New Year's Eve 2013-14, @vampireweekend Tweeted out a pretty self-explanatory mini-message: " wintertime remix of "Step" featuring Danny Brown, Heems & Despot . Happy New Years from Vampire Weekend ," along with a smarturl hyper-link. It's the kinda thing that probably shouldn't work anywhere near as well as it actually does, and I'd guess that this is your typical Pitchfork staff writer's ideal wet-dream collabo scenario ha. "Step" (Wintertime Remix) builds off frontman Ezra Koenig 's original, penned for Modern Vampires of The City and acts as the B-side to lead single, "Diane Young" [see below]. When juxtaposed against Koenig's past relationship reminiscing lyrics, Danny Brown, Heems & Despot manage to fit in surprisingly well with "Step"' s running theme. While the track's supposedly based off an unreleased and re-purposed Sou...

Run The Jewels are already poised to be a little different than El-P & Killer Mike 's previous collaborations because it'll feature the 2 emcees trading bars, rather than just acting as rapper/producer. The LL Cool J -inspired "dream team" are planning to unleash a currently untitled free album [mixtape] by June on Fool's Gold . "Get It" is our first LEGIT taste of what Run The Jewels really have in store for the unsuspecting world of Hip-Hop , unless you count that short and sweet 90-second "Banana Clipper" sample. Tom Breihan recently attempted to describe "Get It" 's overall sound as "someone beating up Kanye 's "Clique" with an aluminum baseball bat," which I think is a pretty accurate description for El-P 's borderline mainstream, robot squall-accented brand of Experimental Hip-Hop . It's almost impossible to explain how HARD this track hits using mere words... so, here's a...

"The recurring theme in this group is we are all NASTY producers who can rap, NASTILY. [It's] a completely self-sufficient, well-oiled machine," Jonwayne lamented about Digital Diamonds , via Twitter late Friday afternoon. He released a Nirvana -sampling track online a few months ago along with Scoop DeVille under the group name, which has now expanded to include Chuck Inglish . It's Inglish's first major project since The Cool Kids went on indefinite hiatus [broke up?] While Jonwayne on the other hand, is currently busy mixing/mastering his proper Stones Throw debut and Scoop DeVille has produced tracks for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Das Racist (R.I.P.) and Kendrick Lamar 's recent hit singles "The Recipe" and "Poetic Justice." "Delirious" is a CLASSIC hard-hitting Hip-Hop beat that sounds like it might've been collectively co-produced by Jonwayne, Chuck Inglish & Scoop DeVille . It seems to sample some...

Bad-ass vampire/vampire slayer flicks have been a pretty solid Hollywood mainstay for the bulk of the past 50+ years; We're talkin' about shit like Dracula , Interview with a Vampire, The Lost Boys , Blade, Buffy Vampire Slayer , etc. - NOT those pussified, glistening love-stuck "vampires" from Twilight or whatever! While I was a little too young for The Coreys' Lost Boys (1987) and even Blade's late 90's reign of terror, I can vaguely remember Sarah Michelle Gellar 's sheer ass-whooping hotness... I guess former- Das Racist swordsmen Heems is a champion of OG vampires, too because from what I understand, his latest music video for "Desi Shoegaze Taiko" re-purposes Stephen Norrington 's opening scenes from Blade (1998). It's basically a Wesley Snipes -less scenario with a room-full of white people gettin' downright Funky @ some sort of weirdly awesome [and bloody unsanitary] vampire rave/BLOODBATH, which appropriately ...

(1) What's up, Kassa & TECLA!? First off, it's a pretty bold statement releasing your first mini-collection on the last day of the world! Was that intentional or just completely random? Nothing is unintentional. 2) How would you guys describe the overall sound of CABIN IN THE WOODS EP? What sorta music influenced it's creation, cause it's pretty unique sounding! Both of us come from musical backgrounds with extremely wide varieties. TECLA went from Classically trained pianist to Punk Rock front-girl, and Kassa went from Jazz drum virtuoso to mosh-pitting rapper so... When stuck in a cabin in the woods together, I guess this is what came out. (3) Let's just say today is the end of the world, for arguments sake... What are your plans for the day/night, all things considered? Same thing we do every day, pinky... (4) Is the apocalypse a running theme on CABIN IN THE WOODS EP and if not, what were you going for? We didn't actually have a theme. ...

"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...

I think one of the reasons that Das Racist works so well is because of the cross-section between Heems' great appreciation for Mainstream Pop melded against Kool A.D. 's desire to be weird/ Experimental . While Nehru Jackets (January) was just a bunch of Mike Finito-produced beats made from Indian samples, WILD WATER KINGDOM is slightly more commercial... almost directly influenced by post-2001 Hip-Hop : shit like The Blueprint , Dipset, Kanye , Meek Mill , and French Montana. Heems managed to hand-select some Funky "liquified" beats from Harry Fraud , Crookers, Beautiful Lou , LE1F, Steel Tipped Dove , Mike Finito, and Keyboard Kid . "I've become in touch with my astrological signs. I'm a Cancer , and I'm a Pisces Rising for my moon [sign], so I'm pretty fucking watery. I like water a lot and this past summer, I tried to be out by the beach as much as I could. I was out on the Hamptons , I was out on Martha's Vineyard , I was ou...