The Witzard

"Rolled Gold is a soulful Hip-Hop producer from Philadelphia, who has a versatile, life-long musical resume, ranging from Jazz to Punk Rock bands, Trap beats to live Neo-Soul groups, and more. His style has influence from Hip-Hop producers, such as J Dilla, RZA, and MF DOOM, as well as the timeless catalogs of Motown, Stax & [Philadelphia International Records]. While he has been sampling for most of his production, so far, this past year has been spent composing and recording friends and family to use as sample material. His next releases will be instrumental/remix EP's and a compilation album, all constructed from these original samples and compositions... These albums, in no specific order, are the first that come to his mind in his influence and evolution as a musician over the years." Rolled Gold's Healthy Ass Breakfast by Rolled Gold A. Madlib - Beat Konducta: Movie Scenes, Vol. 1-2 (2006) "This is the first album I heard, at age 13, that really ...

Still riding high on the success of his recent single with Rolled Gold & Reef The Lost Cauze , "Nite Owl's Theme," Ai-Que AKA Ai-Que MCBoogie AKA "The Multi-faceted Rap Machine" has returned with his debut full-length, The American Dream . Ai-Que is a Philly -based emcee "heavily focused on the cultural impact and unification of global communities." Ai-Que also, moonlights as co-host of The BANGERS & MASH PODCAST (@bangersandmashtheshow) along with Ali Miller FKA Truck North of The Legendary Roots Crew . On the eve prior to The American Dream 's Saturday, July 21st release, Ai-Que played a monumentous show with dead prez , Reef The Lost Cauze & DJ ANTLIVE at The Ardmore Music Hall hosted by D.R.E.S. Tha Beatnik . When asked what his greatest sources of inspiration and influence behind The American Dream were, Ai-Que stated he wanted to "create something that was sonically, more contemporary without compromising the...

"Honestly, it's a very chaotic little commentary on a very chaotic time. Some of the sound bites come from campaign ads from 50 years ago; [it's] always a bit of a tightrope between serious and ridiculous," mix master maestro graciously Alan "illchemist" Friedman told me within a brief, yet self-explanatory Facebook DM'ed statement sent Thursday night. Now, take it with a grain of salt, but in my eyes, throughout the course of "A Story of Power," Friedman is essentially commenting on the current state of the nation and better yet, the world: social injustices, our comedy show of a 2016 Presidential "race," this ungodly wet, hot American summer, and general state of unrest—"it's a very, very mad world, mad world," as a wise man once said. "A Story of Power" has supposedly been sitting dormant on the back burner... or more so, the back of illchemist 's hard drive for a few months and as he put it him...

" ["Suede"] featured the LA -based vocalist's signature rasp and slick talk over a chopped up sample of Gil Scott-Heron 's "The Bottle" courtesy of buzzing beatmaker Knxwledge , his partner in the duo collectively known as Nxworries ," NPR diligently reported late Tuesday afternoon. Nxworries is Stones Throw 's latest Jaylib -style rapper-producer concoction, consisting of Dr. Dre 's R&B crooning Compton -assisant, Anderson.Paak and prolific New Jersey/Philly -bred LA beatsmith Knxwledge . Their lone February-released single, "Suede" is an undisputed Snoop & Dre -influenced creation that's almost reminiscent of George Clinton 's own unique G-Funk -inspiring Parliament-Funkadelic sound. Stones Throw founder and label-head, Peanut Butter Wolf actually briefly appears within Nxworries' newly-minted "Suede" video as his Alyssa Milano -obsessed, Prince -esque alter ego, Folerio . Like-minded ...

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...

Throughout it's opening scenes, native Detroiters Daniel Zott & Joshua Epstein can be seen driving around familiar Motor City streets in a big green van while wearing Detroit Tigers jackets; Andrew Smart [director] then pans across various hard-working townspeople singing along with "We almost lost Detroit this time." Filmed over 3.5 days @ some 26 locations, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Jr. have skillfully morphed Gil Scott-Heron's vivid re-telling of near nuclear destruction (1977) into a story of "progress. About setting things right. Coming together as people and moving forward." Since including "We Almost Lost Detroit" on the tail-end of their debut album, It's a Corporate World , the track has almost become an anthem of sorts for both Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Jr. and working class America . Glimpses of quite a few popular Detroit "hot spots" can be seen within "We Almost Lost Detroit:" Burn Rubber, Supino Pizzeria , a...

Brooklyn rapper Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire has signed with Universal Republic , Billboard has learned and confirmed with the label. The news came on the heels of a SXSW 2012 panel eXquire participated on Wednesday (March 14), "The Importance of Online Video & Social Media," a topic in which the rapper is quite well-versed. Since posting his $400 video for "Huzzah" on YouTube last spring, eXquire ignited the attention of the Underground Hip-Hop community and the Indie blog circuit alike, making Pitchfork 's year-end list and attracting interest from rappers like Danny Brown and Das Racist , who guested on a remix of "Huzzah." - Andrew Hampp (Billboard) In November of last year, as the rapper's success began to rise, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire took to his Tumblr to share a few words: "What [an] ill fuckin' journey this year has been for me! When that New Year's Ball dropped, I would have never thought I'd be on...

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...

The rough blueprint for "Black Up" sounds pretty ambiguous on paper: De-constructed film version of Shabazz Palaces' critically acclaimed 2011 debut, Black Up ... a fragmented stream of consciousness short film, all set to a score made up of segmented LP tracks. With that said, Kahlil Joseph 's "Black Up" is truly a murky, concept-heavy affair, which co-stars Palaceer Lazaro & Tendai Naraire throughout. Joseph has proven to be a frequent collaborator of the Seattle -based Hip-Hop/Jazz Fusion artists. Shabazz Palaces' featured scenes are inter-spliced against "artsy" frames, littered with [quick] images of plants, streetcars, pork chops, bodies in trees... a Gil Scott-Heron tribute, interpretive dancing, Hip-Hop clichés , and the ocean. I believe that the film's soundtrack features samplings of several Black Up cuts including: "free press," "recollections," "youlogy," and some sort of Chopped ...

Das Racist - "Michael Jackson" "Below, is a track-by-track commentary on Kanye's [ My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ]. I wrote it on my Blackberry on an airplane 32,000 feet in the air, while listening to the album in its entirety for the first time. Kanye West is the most important rapper of the last 10 years and the most important rapper/producer of all of Hip-Hop.... 1.) "Dark Fantasy" Nicki Minaj's English accent is pretty bad. This is the 2nd most anthemic song on an album of anthems. Subtle anthemic swag. Trumpets. Pianos. Beat is dripping 90's Rap. Songs from the "Runaway" video now can't escape its imagery - which I think is dope. 'bravery in bravado'. Headless horseman motif - here Kanye and oral sex, there convertibles and Pusha T. Celine Dion is ugly. "The plan was to drink until the pain over / But what's worse, the pain or the hangover" - the stuff 90's aol personal profile favorite quotes...