The Witzard

Having re-listened to it over the past few months, I must admit, Tom Breihan was right... Take Care is hands down, Drake 's strongest [full-length] effort since So Far Gone (2009). My personal favourite track and quite arguably the album's shining moment, "Take Care" has a deeply-rooted history. Originally penned by Blues singer-songwriter Bobby "Blue" Bland way back in 1966, Gil Scott-Heron re-appropriated "I'll Take Care of You" on his thirteenth record (2010). I'm New Here was liberated through XL Recordings , produced by labelhead Richard Russell , and features a wide array of newly-adopted musical stylings. Roughly a year later, Jamie xx was commissioned to produce a Dubstep -inspired remix album, We're New Here . Drake 's Boom-Bap version of "Take Care" is essentially a refurbished edit that beefs up the Tribal drums and subs in Rihanna for Gil Scott-Heron on the hook. Nearly 6 months after it's or...

Jai Paul is a mysterious London -based singer-songwriter & producer who basically has one sole, albeit wide-spread claim to fame: "BTSTU" (2012). Upon it's initial XL Recordings -fueled release, the track quickly blasted atop many online music blogs' year-end lists; Paul's melodies were even sampled by a few popular artists: Drake , Beyoncé, XV, Pusha-T , and Intuition . When I contacted Holly @ Air Force London ("other shit") back on 11/8-11/2011, she simply replied saying that " Jai [Paul] will be releasing his next single in the New Year and the album will some sometime after, please stay tuned." The Indie blog community as a whole, I included, has yet to hear a peep from either Jai Paul or Air Force London since "BTSTU." But man, that all changed late yesterday afternoon, right as the weekend was beginning to start... seemingly out of nowhere, Jai Paul uploaded a BRAND NEW [demo] track, "Jasmine" to XL Rec...

I've really been meaning to dub up a GOLD Rush -themed STS post for quite some time... easily a solid week or 2 now. The latest edition of Sugar Tongue Slim 's weekly jam-flipping series is "We Threw a Party." Based around short, choppy vocal samples culled from a couple of Drake & Beyoncé 's most recent radio hits. Drake 's previously somber, pity-filled romp, "Marvin's Room" has now been transformed into a celebratory, albeit brief tune... just in time for the weekend! David Mack recently filmed the companion music video @ this year's OKP Holiday Jam , which sports quick cameos from the likes of The Roots Crew, Shaggy , and Big Daddy Kane . Fans should expect the complete GOLD Rush (mixtape) to drop in early February over @ STS's own personal "gold claim" [website].

Hip-Hop "Beef" is essentially a long-forgotten art form/promotional exercise. Infamous beefs of the per-Internet Golden Boom-Bap Era (1980-90's) include: 2pac-Biggie , Nas-Jay-Z , "The Bridge Wars," LL Cool J-Kool Moe Dee , and "The Roxanne Saga." A carefully designed marketing tool, beef is usually kick-started when one rapper does/says something that the other doesn't exactly agree with. Beefs are usually all in good fun and most times, end in a truce... One exception however, is the tragic deaths of former friends, 2pac & Biggie . Recent Internet -based beefs have included: Kanye-50 Cent , Nicki Minaj-Lil Kim , [The] Game -everyone, Eminem-Canibus (Mariah Carey) . In what may very well be the first size-able Hip-Hop beef of 2012, Common released a diss track aimed @ Drake just yesterday afternoon. Common-Drake 's feud stems back to Nov. 2011 when Common released "Sweet." The third single from The Dreamer/The Believer n...

Not long after the initial onslaught of 2012, essentially during the first minutes of this New Year ... my email inbox was graced with a message from one "Thomas Defferson" @ ILLAV8R . Labeled, "HAPPY NEW ∂eƒ Sound!! "A Song Called Anything" featuring Alex Isley " said email contained a BRAND NEW mp3 track from eclectic artist, Def Sound. One of my [early] favorite lyrical fragments from the track alternatively stylized and accented as "▲.song.called.åny†hing." has to be "If plan A fails - 25 letters left." Produced-recorded by equally eclectic artists, ®C & Brook D'Leau , "anything" really is a pretty solid blend of genres: Rock, Hip-Hop , Funk-Soul, Jazz , Dance, R&B, Electronic . Def Sounds. 's long-rumored sophomore album, "Anything: The Idea Machine" is coming soon(er) - This coming Spring. If you like what you hear, surf on over to Def Sound.'s Bandcamp page and check out his dense...

Romy xx, Jamie xx & Oliver Sim are currently isolated - hard @ work on the untitled follow-up to their highly successful debut album, "xx" (2009). The xx plan to release the set ahead of a string of Summer 2012 festival appearances. Jamie xx has said that his production style is now inspired by Club music and is "party-motivated." Since bursting onto the UK music scene, Jamie xx has worked with [remixed] the likes of Florence + The Machine , Drake-Rihanna, Gil Scott-Heron, Adele ... Shakira, Kwes , and Gorillaz . Later on in 2009, second guitarist-keyboardist Baria Qureshi parted ways with The xx due to "personal differences;" Qureshi was one of the band's 4 founding members - All of whom met in 2005, while studying @ Elliott School (London) . The first demo from "xx2," "Open Eyes" was released over Christmas Holiday . A sparse, feedback-drenched piano/guitar-based piece, you can tell that "Open Eyes" is a...

Riding on the coat-tails of Drake 's recent sophomore slump Take Care (700,000 units), Manchester beatsmith Star Slinger has now liberated a re-mixed and re-mastered take on "Over My Dead Body." Darren Williams released his very own Jetlag Edit of the recent album's opening cut @ Soundcloud over the weekend. For the most part, "DRAKE RMX" keeps the original track's integrity fully intact; Star Slinger appropriately accents "Over My Dead Body," with his signature vocal samples, Electronic bleeps and blips, MPC touches, etc. All the while, keeping a good amount of Drake's cadence and Boom Bap Hip-Hop feel there, too - The sole purpose of a solid remix: Nostalgia. Star Slinger 's proper label debut, "Dumbin'" [-feat. Reggie B. ] is now available, via Green Label Sound .

"The Witzard (Pop Culture News Blog)" Sharpcheddar856 -- Airforcelondon show details 10:37 PM Greetings, Ben & Holly! Matt from "The Witzard" music blog here... I'm a 23-year-old college grad from South Jersey. An aspiring Businessman and Journalist, I started the blog about 2 years ago in an effort to share my knowledge of Pop Culture and sharpen my writing chops. To date, we have 50 Followers and rough 55,000 views and counting. My favourite genres are Punk, Hop-Hop , and Indie Rock ... But we try to cover all sorts of Pop Culture stories. After reading this recent Stereogum interview with Drake , I was compelled to peruse the web for some Take Care era B-sides. One of the first tracks I stumbled upon was "Dreams Money Can Buy," which I soon learned sampled Jai Paul - "BTSTU" (2010). An artist that I had admittedly never heard of before... with a quick Google search, I was lead to Jai Paul 's MySpace page and saw this ver...

The pursuit of "Peace, Love & Happiness" is a pretty basic, universally echoed sentiment... one quite often further solidified and paired up with musical accompaniment. Admittedly not exactly the most "genuine" public figure, Drake has never seemed so real and unguarded as of late; Well, @ least not since the early days of "Best I Ever Had" (So Far Gone) . Now, this may just be a premature evaluation of sorts... But I strongly believe that "Take Care" will serve has the Magnum Opus of Drake's similarly-named sophomore album. This, due in part to an appearance from the reigning Queen of Electro-tinged Smooth R&B and Hip-Hop, Rihanna . If you like what you hear, show your support and pick up a copy of Take Care when it's [widely] released this coming Nov. 15th. "Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it... and take care until next time," Tweeted Drake Monday morning, after the imminent album leak-age. For all inte...