The Witzard

The Hanukkah Sessions - CREDIT: Lego Dave Grohl (@LegoDaveGrohl) Last year, Foo Fighters frontman and esteemed writer Dave Grohl and producer, multi-instrumentalist, and song-writer Greg Kurstin teamed up once more for The Hanukkah Sessions : a series of eight performance videos covering the likes of the Beastie Boys, Drake, Mountain, Peaches, Bob Dylan, Elastica, The Knack, and The Velvet Underground. Eight Jewish artists, one for each night of Hanukkah 2020. Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah, Grohl & Kurstin re-emerged with Night One of The Hanukkah Sessions 2021. "Welcome back to the menorah, y'all. Let's kick it this year's Hanukkah Sessions with one of Dallas, Texas' favorite Jewish daughters. So, put on your coffee shop spectacles and your Betsey Johnson dress and HAVA listen to this... "Stay" by Lisa Loeb," read a video description uploaded along with Night One's festive candle-lit offering. Yes, Dave Grohl & Greg Ku...

DOOM STARKS & Jay Elec-Hanukkah (CREDIT: Arturo Torres) Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. Josh Leidy is a writer, producer, filmmaker, and co-host of the Serious Rap Sh*t Podcast and content creator for Culture Cypher Media. Follow Josh "Indi" Leidy (@indi_srs) on Twitter and Instagram to experience more of his work. Daniel Dumile—even in his youth as Zev Love X—showed an...

Lor Shaman by URBN SHMN URBN SHMN (pronounced "Urban Shaman" ) AKA KendalL Ca$h is a Baltimore -based producer/beat-maker originally hailing from DMV —otherwise known as District (DC)/Maryland/Virginia —who was formerly a B-more area DJ. I actually, first heard about URBN SHMN earlier this morning, after long-time The Witzard affiliate and collaborator John "Jumbled" Bachman FWD'ed me an email from The Urban Shaman himself; fittingly titled " Urbn Shmn is taking lofi to Datpiff ," it contained URBN SHMN 's latest mixtape, Lor Shaman . It's been widely referred to as a " summer '18 mixtape" by URBN SHMN himself and contains remixes of chart-topping hits by Childish Gambino , Desiigner, Drake , Future, Gucci Mane , Lil Yachty, Migos , Rihanna, and more. While showcased on a recent episode of Baltimore FLIPS. URBN SHMN readily shared his sources of inspiration and influence, which includes Flying Lotus , Madlib, J Dill...

"'Made for Me" was actually one of the last tracks I added to the EP I hope to release later this year. I remember walking into the studio and hearing Mikhail (my producer) messing around with two different cuts of the same sample. One was very down-tempo and in the pocket, while the other felt lively with a real bounce to it. We went back-and-forth, debating which of the two we rocked with the most, but couldn't justify separating the sounds," Canadian rapper, producer, and song-writer David Versis wrote within a recent email. Upon first hearing his latest single, "Made for Me," I wrote a quick, semi-tongue-in-cheek "review" on Twitter which read: "'Made for Me" sounds like John Mayer meets Drake and it's actually pretty awesome!" Versis is a GRAMMY -nominated producer, who contributed to Wiz Khalifia 's 2014 album, Blacc Hollywood and produced Yo Gotti & T.I. 's collaborative single, "King ...

"So proud of my brother James Blake dropping the bigness tonight... Also, so proud of our song ["I Need a] Forest Fire" came from wonderful accidents and good friendship... James , or Jim as I call him when I'm upset with him, is such a powerful musician; to be like Aaron Neville , AND Aphex [Twin] ?" Bon Iver frontman and frequent James Blake collaborator Justin Vernon (@blobtower) exuberantly Tweeted on the eve of The Colour In Anything . Vernon and Blake previously collaborated on "Fall Creek Boys Choir" from mid-album Enough Thunder EP , although likely first rubbed shoulders due to this singular candid statement: "He's James Blake . Just go listen to his music and say, "hey, that's Kanye 's favorite artist." Justin Vernon contributed crooned backing vocals assists to "MONSTER" and the majority of Kanye 's sprawling magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , as well as a number of fractured ...

"The "Wolves" song came from a conversation that me and Drake had, where we was going to do an album together and the album was called Wolves ... me and Jay [started] talking about Watch The Throne , then Drake went and did all the records with [Lil'] Wayne and did the tour," Kanye unexpectedly revealed to The Breakfast Club radio host and one-time Catfish co-detective Charlamagne The God last February on the heels of his spirited SNL 40 medley. Lest we forget that Kanye once produced Drake 's 808's & Heartbreak -reminiscent "Find Your Love;" making Kanye 's recent " Yeezy , Yeezy, Yeezy, just jumped over Jumpman " What a Time to Be Alive interpolation and apparent Drake diss all the more perplexing. Not entirely unlike Paul McCartney -assisted "Only One" released over New Year's Eve 2014-15 , "FACTS" was quietly uploaded to Soundcloud mere hours ahead of this year's annual New Yea...

"How many times, Pusha T , did producers say to you, "come to the studio right now or we're gonna give this beat to Jay Z ?" Nardwuar The Human Serviette politely asked Pusha T during a 2013 post- Canadian show interview. "Well, one time.. and that was for the "Grindin'" beat and that was Pharrell Williams ... and he's supposed to be my best friend. Right? But this guy actually threatened to give the "Grindin'" beat to Jay Z , if I did not come to the studio right then and right there. I actually came, and I'm glad he did because that record was groundbreakin' for me, Pusha T exuberantly quipped. One 1/2 of early 2000's Virginia Beach -bred Coke Rap phenoms, Clipse , Pusha T – otherwise known as the newly-elected President of Kanye 's re-launched label, G.O.O.D. Music – is gearing up to unleash his long-rumored 2-part King Push album; part one, titled Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude features productio...

"I'm writing all the time, but recently I got the bug back. When it comes, it comes, and I can't force it, but... I got it back with "Hotline Bling" and all the other things I've been experimenting with," Erykah Badu recently told Noisey concerning her five-year gap between New Amerykah Part 2 (Return of The Ankh) and just-released But You Caint Use My Phone ; a clever allusion to Badu's own widely-acclaimed 1997 Live single "Tyrone," in which she famously laments, "you need to call Tyrone... but ya can't use my phone." "HOT LINE BLING BUT U CAINT USE MY PHONE MIX" (now re-titled "Cell U Lar Device" ) was initially conceived as an impromptu birthday present for a friend of Erykah Badu 's with assistance from Dallas -area producer Zach Witness , better known locally as one White Chocolate . "When I thought about doing the "Hotline Bling" remix, I thought about him. And the same ...

"I used to have tons of songs in my head, but since I couldn't play anything well and I didn't know how to use programs [so] I was never able to make them," Chicago emcee and former Cool Kids affiliate Hollywood Holt writes within his rather compelling Facebook Bio section. Now better known as simply HXLT (pronounced: "Holt" ), the former club-friendly rapper has returned with the lead-off single from his as-yet-untitled G.O.O.D. Music debut; " Holt 's manager told Billboard at the time of his singing that "it's like if Joy Division , The Strokes , and Dr. Dre made an album together."' Judging by "Live to Death," it would appear as though HXLT has somehow already managed to master the whole Psych/Punk Rock -leaning brand of Alt. Hip-Hop that Kanye 's former protégé Kid Cudi has spent the past five or so odd years aimlessly trying to hone and perfect. Although, prior to unleashing "Live to Death"...

"I'm the poster child for alleged drug dealers. These n***as mention my name with their little rumors and their little jewelers. That's no threat, that's no sweat," former Virginia Beach drug dealer and Clipse emcee Pusha T ferociously rhymes on his latest solo single; a Dr. Dre -sanctioned freestyle over Meek Mill 's "R.I.C.O," which notoriously kick-started Mill and Drake 's ghostwriter allegation-slinging beef. For the record, whether he in fact endorses and makes use of ghostwriters or not, Drake 's rapid-released double-header "Back to Back" and "Charged Up" absolutely slayed and effectively obliterated Meek Mill 's abysmal retaliation diss, "Wanna Know." "Real money ain't shy. No, lay it out... get a tan on it. They say numbers don't lie. Well, dope boy, put your bands on it," Kanye 's "Runaway" protégé poignantly rhymes elsewhere on "R.I.C.O," whic...

"Remember one night, I went to Erykah [Badu 's] house, she made tea for me. We talked about love and what life could really be for me. She said, "when that sh*t is real, you just know," Canada 's #1 Rap-Singer Drake crooned of an apparent tea-date with Miss Badu on "Days In The East." While it may or may not actually be a fictionalized re-telling, Drake and Erykah Badu 's mutual admiration doesn't seem to end with "Days In The East;" without any prior warning, Erykah-She ILL-Badu suddenly uploaded her slightly wordy "HOTLINE BLING BUT U CAINT USE MY PHONE MIX" to her newly-minted Soundcloud page Friday evening. ANALOUGE GIRL {IN A DGITAL WORLD} aka THE MIGHTY AFRO DIGHTY herself plays bells, in addition to providing original vocal accompaniment, on "HOTLINE BLING" along with her cast of highly skilled players: producer/keyboardist Zach Witness , guitarist Ben Hixon , and Ethan Worland on "brushes...

It seemed lie a pretty blatant, clear-cut call to arms to me when Brooklyn rapper-turned-actor-turned-stand-up comic Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def suddenly challenged any brave three-man posse up for the challenge to a battle rap-style cypher between himself, King Los , and Roots emcee Black Thought this past weekend; "me, Black Thought , and King Los vs. anybody e'erybody... battle anybody. [...] I'm tired of these dudes pretendin' like they dope. You alright, but relax. The dope n***as that think they dope — you ain't as dope as you think. You cool, but you ain't that deal. And we don't have to make no back-and-forth corny records about it." Although, for reasons unknown, Bey has since reneged his previously-incited battle rap challenge, which happened to fit right in, in light of Drake & Meek Mill 's recent well-publicized beef. He's more of less accusing YouTube user and apparent affiliate rrvid718 of uploading said call to arms vi...

Despite the fact that London -based Electro-Dubstep producer "Jamie xx" Smith is just now getting around to putting out his "debut" album, In Colour , on Young Turks , he's already managed to release countless [read: "three"] non-album stand-alone 12" singles, produced a nearly flawless remix album for Gil Scott-Heron , and has worked with everyone from Florence + The Machine to Drake & Rihanna ; believe it or not, Florence Welch 's stripped down Drake cover, "Take Care" actually flipped Smith's own production work from Scott-Heron's We're New Here (2011), a full-length remix of his first album in some 16 years. One of the first times I ever heard Jamie xx 's music was actually on his string and marimba-laden xx -assisted "You've Got The Love" re-work from Florence + The Machine 's critically acclaimed debut, Lungs . " Young Thug did a whole version of the song and Popcaan did a w...

"BIG UPS TO THIS NEW @DRAKE FIRE PROD. BY @FRANKDUKES [AND] @BOI1DA FT. @RIVERTIBER ON THE PART 2 VOCALS #NOTELLIN #6HITZ," @badbadnotgood frantically Tweeted upon the release of Drake 's surprise mixtape/album , IF YOUR READING THIS ITS TOO LATE , late last month. That very track, Tiber aka Tommy Paxon-Beesley 's own original composition, "No Talk" went unreleased... until yesterday afternoon when The FADER premiered it; "I've been working with Frank Dukes for a minute. He made a dope sample with my vocal stem, which Boi-1da put drums on top of, and I guess Drake liked the beat and recorded to it," BBNG -affiliated multi-instrumentalist River Tiber lamented to The FADER . "No Talk" is a glitchy Electro /percussion-aided emotive track, which in its original form, honestly, doesn't sound all that far removed from your typical Emo-Rap Drake beat. While it seems as though they might have sampled "No Talk"...

"did a song with @SBTRKT called "NEW DORP, NEW YORK" - listen 2 the radio 1 rip if u like" Columbia scholar @arzE Koenig Tweeted late Tuesday afternoon. The mysterious masked London -based producer has been hinting at the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed self-titled 2011 LP for quite some time now and recently released a series of mid-album Transitions EP's . Wonder Where We Land will see a wide release on Young Turks this forthcoming September 22-23rd; SBTRKT has recruited his frequent collaborators Sampha and Jessie Ware along with Chairlift songstress Caroline Polachek , A$AP Ferg, Warpaint , Denai Moore, Koreless , Raury, and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig . The aforementioned Koenig-featuring track, "NEW DORP, NEW YORK," serves as the album's lead/teaser single; it's a weirdly fitting modern mash-up of Post-Dubstep break-beats and a slightly re-tooled infamous line cherry-picked from "Ballroom Blitz" (...

Under the cover of night, late Saturday night into Sunday morning, Jay Electronica uploaded a new track with label boss Jay Z , "We Made It." It's pretty crazy to imagine, let alone actually hear, Jay Electronica rapping over a beat initially laced up by both Soulja Boy and Drake , which ends up being his third track released in a month's time (more than 2012-13 combined). According to okayplayer , Jay Z recently asked Electronica which "turn up" [hit record] they should attempt to jump on and he suggested "OG Bobby Johnson," but HOV ultimately picked "We Made It" instead. While it was initially released as Soulja Boy 's lead-off The King mixtape track, Drake further popularized "We Made It" during his Nothing Was The Same (2013) album roll-out campaign. Preceded only by rookie producer Purp Dogg 's extremely well-played Eastbound & Down -referencing intro, Jay Electronica ferociously rhymes: "Th...

Fresh off their recent Best Alternative Music Album Grammy win, Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio has announced a six-date Drake -referencing wordy-titled "Would You Be Interested in a Mira Tour? Tour 2014." BAIO , who's actually the second cousin of Happy Days teen-actor Scott Baio , released his second Electro-Dance EP (Mira) back in October; and to coincide with the tour web-announcement, Chris Baio uploaded a 41-minute DJ mix titled, "Would You Be Interested in a Mira Tour? Tour 2014 Tour Mix" to Soundcloud late Friday morning. While it's currently without a proper tracklist, BAIO 's mega-mix includes plenty of unreleased music, off-kilter Dance tracks, Tribal beats, semi-dated House rhythms, etc. But after Shazaming a few random sonic-moments, I was able to identify a handful of interesting artists: Dense & Pika , Bjørn Torske, Meramek , and an extended remix of BAIO 's very own Future Classic EP title track, "Mira....

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...

Right around Thanksgiving , one Aubrey "Drake" Graham made a pretty lofty promise to release 4-6 new tracks online before year's end; not unlike the four-song combo-pack released online nearly three months ahead of his latest album, Nothing Was The Same . The first in a series that's since been effectively dubbed New Year's Eve Anthems , "We Made It" is in fact a Soulja Boy freestyle remix, with a Kenny Powers -led intro: "The only thing I'm seeing I'd like to put an amend on... perhaps a little more room here for the fixinsssss!" It previously appeared on Soulja Boy 's recent The King mixtape, sans Drake 's added lyrical assist. Thematically, "We Made It" has a similar underlying tone to "Started from The Bottom" and Drake 's unhinged fierce delivery seems to be cut from the same cloth as his former "Versace" remix. " Drake probably has almost an album's-worth of stuff reco...

I think it's pretty safe to say that The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) comfortably teeters the fine line between glitched-out smooth New Age R&B and hard-hitting Hip-Hop ; while the same could arguably be said for 16-year-old New Zealand new-comer, Lorde . Her break-out single "Royals" 1/2 jokingly shouts out semi-common bravado-worthy shit like: diamonds, "gold teeth, Grey Goose ... Cadillacs, Cristal, Maybach ... jet planes, islands, [and] tigers on a gold leash." But now, the Lorde/Weeknd connection has been further solidified, as Tesfaye recently managed to conjure up and release his own "Royals" remix. My beautiful girlfriend said earlier, and I paraphrase, that it "makes her wanna dance lol and she could [likely] hear this remix in a future movie!" Following the wide-spread release of her first 2 EP's (Love Club & Tennis Court) , Universal Republic plans to unleash Lorde 's proper debut album, Pure Heroine between ...