The Witzard

During the height of his mid-90's heyday, Fiend chalked up studio time with both No Limit Records (Master P) and Ruff Ryders Ent. (DMX) . But the man AKA Ricky "International" Jones now calls Curren$y 's micro-label, Jet Life Recordings homebase. I was first turned onto Fiend about a year or 2 ago with Tom Breihan 's Stereogum entrance post; Breihan's future posts would chronicle Fiend 's cleverly-executed sample flips of The Specials and Washed Out originals. While Fiend somehow managed to record and release roughly 6 mixtapes between 2011-12, he's remained un-characteristically silent throughout the latter 1/2 of this year. "Wonderful" was quietly released Tuesday afternoon and features a Funky RJ2 beat and a guest verse from Jet Life labelhead, Curren$y . I'm not really sure where this one'll eventually end up, but let's hope that a Fiend/Jet Life mixtape materializes "sooner than later!"

"Hi, readers of Stereogum ! My name is Tom Breihan , and I'm the older of the two new guys around here. A few Internet Eons ago, I wrote the "Status Ain't Hood" blog for The Village Voice . For the past couple of years, I've been a staff writer @ Pitchfork . And yes, that means Brandon and I just acted out our own 80's body-switching comedy. He's Judge Reinhold . I'm Fred Savage . A few things about me: I'm tall enough that complete strangers point and stare. I come from the beautiful town of Baltimore, Maryland ; Perhaps you've enjoyed our byzantine crime dramas on television. I'm a dad. This past weekend, I moved from Chicago to Virginia , which was not fun. I like dogs and nachos and professional wrestling . I really, really like Rap music , so you can expect to see some more of that around here." "For my first post, my new bosses here @ Stereogum have graciously allowed me to pick a new song to share. I...