The Witzard

"What's goin' on? My friend Alex Belth referred me to you. I'm releasing an album on Tuesday, [July 19th] on Hip-Hop Indie label Worldwyde Recordings . I'm lookin' to submit to magazines and blogs who write about or review Hip-Hop . Let me know, if that fits what you do," read a rather interesting cold-submitted email I received Friday afternoon; low and behold, Ras Beats is a Queens by way of Denmark Hip-Hop producer and DJ who used to work alongside Esquire Classic Editor Alex Belth at DJ Premier , Q-Tip, Pete Rock , The Beatnuts producer JuJu, Lord Finesse , and Large Professor's favorite late 90's East Village record store, The Sound Library . Rasmus “Ras Beats” Jensen has been "a Hip-Hop head since discovering turntables and records, raised on the greats of the golden era, Ras' production stays true to the original sound of Hip-Hop . Dusty records, drum breaks, chopped up, and re-arranged samples" reads a fragmented c...

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...

Fresh on the heels of their forthcoming collaborative Jazz-Rap album with Ghostface Killah , awesomely titled Sour Soul , Canadian -bred instrumental trio BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) have spearheaded an unofficial GHOSTDOOM/DOOMSTARKS "reunion;" Ghostface and infrequent rapping partner/producer, [MF] DOOM have been teasing their mythical tentatively titled "Swift & Changeable" album for about 10 years now. BBNG recruited Ghostface Killah & DOOM for their third Sour Soul pre-release track, "Ray Gun," which as a recently released statement reads, "was inspired by 1960's and [70's] music, taking inspiration from the recording techniques and production of that era." While "Ray Gun"' s companion retro-fitted Rob Schroeder (Lodger Films) -directed video doesn't appear to feature BBNG, Ghostface Killah , or DOOM , "the video instantly transports you into a bizarre retro-futuristic world as "The Mask" ...

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...