The Witzard

Late last night, right after midnight, we recieved a rather mysterious Bandcamp Notification email out of the blue. It arrived on behalf of Mello Music Group and said, "Greetings, Matt Horowitz, Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean just announced EGO, check it out here." "Here's what they say about it: "Detroit's Guilty Simpson and Boom-Bap producer Gensu Dean combine for a new album arriving Oct. 8th feat, Marv Won, Black Milk, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Yarbrough, and Skyzoo," said early morning email continued. Along with the announcement of 12-track EGO , Mello Music Group additionally shared an initial preview of the album with "Don't Pull." Boasting Gensu Dean's dusty SP-1200 & MPC3000-aided production style and Guilty Simspon's grizzled tough-as-nails rhyming style, "Don't Pull" is definitely a head-banger and we're excited to hear the rest of EGO. EGO by Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean Gensu Dean & Gui...

QUAKERS are a Hip-Hop super-group consisting of three producers: Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow,) Supa K FKA Katalyst (Ashley Anderson,) and 7STU7 (Stuart Matthews.) Barrow is a founding member of Portishead, as well as BEAK>, and a co-founder of Invada Records, along with Ashley Anderson & Fraser Stuart. Anderson appears to have first met Barrow when they worked together on a remix, attributed to "Portishead," of Machine Gun Fell*tio's "H*rny Blonde 40." In addition to QUAKERS, Ashley Anderson is, also, an active member of both Moonrock with Michael Wright and Space Invadas with Steve Spacek. QUAKERS' third producer, Stuart Matthews, is an engineer at Invada Records and has contributed to recordings for Portishead, BEAK>, Anika, Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury, Crippled Black Phoenix, Turbowolf, and more. QUAKERS released their staggering 41-track self-titled debut on Stones Throw Records on 2xCD/LP formats in 2012. It boasted features from a wide...

ARTIST CREDIT: MC Blue Matter & Simone Cihlar 2020's most "unlikely" collaborators, Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson and New Zealand-bred producer and multi-instrumentalist Leonard Charles have returned with their second single, "My Inspiration," billed together as The Leonard Simpson Duo . Later this month, they plan to unveil their similarly named full-length debut, LSD on Berlin, Germany-based imprint, Jakarta Records . Last year, just before year's end, The Leonard Simpson Duo burst onto the scene with their Psychedelic/Acid Rock-tinged single, "Nobody," which sampled "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore" from New Zealand's own Marlon Williams & Aldous Harding. "Nobody" was debuted over at esteemed publication HipHopDX last year, as well as across Jakarta Records' Bandcamp page, along with a full-fledged LSD album announcement. For "My Inspiration," Leonard Charles sampled and, no pun intend...

A pair of unlikely collaborators, revered Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson and New Zealand-bred producer Leonard Charles , have joined forces to form a new rapper/producer group, The Leonard Simpson Duo . Both sharing a mutual admiration for and connection to J Dilla , Guilty & Leonard first collaborated on "Breaking Over You" for Japan-based WONDERFUL NOISE PRODUCTIONS in 2017, which we were fortunate enough to premiere right here at The Witzard . While working on his very own "Basement Funk" re-interpretation of J Dilla 's magnum opus, Donuts , Basement Donuts , for HIT+RUN/WONDERFUL NOISE , Leonard Charles shared his then-progress with Guilty Simpson during a visit to his Auckland, NZ-based studio; "I asked him if he wanted to hear the versions I was working on. I was really nervous about playing it to him because I was f*cking with one of his close associates' music, but... he was feeling it and genuinely appreciated my creative approach to r...

DJ Nu-Mark is, likely, best know as being one of the in-house DJ's for critically-acclaimed/widely loved Los Angeles-based Hip-Hop crew Jurassic 5; although, Mark Potsic (affectionately known as "Uncle Nu") is also, a talented producer, turntablist, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and film composer, in his own right. In addition to Jurassic 5, Nu-Mark has spent time playing with groups 4 Player Co-Op, Blendcrafters with Pomo, TRDMRK with The Pharcyde founding member Slimkid3 & Austin Antoine, Rebels of Rhythm, and Afrika Bambaataa-helmed Zulu Nation. DJ Nu-Mark has either composed music for—both solo and with Jurassic 5—or appeared within a multitude of feature films and documentaries including Coachella: The Movie, Keepintime: A Live Recording, MacGruber, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Ride Along 1 & 2 starring Ice Cube & Kevin Hart, Rock The Bells: The Documentary, and the upcoming Shaft 2019 sequel/re-boot co-starring Samuel L. Jackson & Jessie T....

How's it going, ladies and germs of the music-loving Internet? Today, we here at The Witzard are proud to present to you, a brand new column: Rap Videos Killed The Radio Star. It's a collection of six of our personal favorite music videos released within the past month or so. Also, full disclosure: my wife and I are leaving for our honeymoon to Italy this upcoming Wednesday and I just wanted to do a bit of a wrap-up/send-off of some Hella dope new music, before temporarily signing off for a couple weeks. This inaugural edition of Rap Videos Killed The Radio Star showcases choice selections from Blockhead Feat. billy woods, Open Mike Eagle & Breezly "Breeze" Brewin, BULLIES AKA Denmark Vessey, DRXQUINN & Azarias, ILL BILL & Stu Banga with Goretex, Knowledge The Pirate, Reckonize Real & Guilty Simpson, and Zilla Rocca. I would also, like to send a very special shout-out to the directors of these very music videos: Mr. Oz (@claytoi,) Lil Kydd, Shawn John...

Shawn Johnson is a multi-talented artist, who makes digital art and videos, as well as Instrumental Hip-Hop . For his digital art efforts, Shawn goes by @oldsoulbrother AKA NEKTR (@SHONJART) and has released music, over the years, as Shon J. Mr.J with Mr. Backside, OLD SOUL with Optimus Prime , and as part of Hip-Hop/Rock band, NOGENRE559 with affiliation to The Natural High, Amajin Records , and Alpha Force . Shawn Johnson has worked with and created Cut-and-Paste-esque music videos for The Witzard mainstay Purple Dialect , Slum Village emcee T3, Westside Gunn & Conway affiliate Benny The Butcher , J-Zone & Pablo Martin's The Du-Rites, Ali Miller FKA Truck North (The Roots,) K.A.A.N. and Lance Skiiiwalker . I've previously spoken with Shawn Johnson concerning his work on Purple Dialect 's "Cocoa" video, as well as Shon J & Mr. Backside 's 32-track Mr.J beat tape; however, in recent months, Shawn has been mentioning a number of hig...

While Port Arthur, Texas emcees Bun B & Pimp C were commonly referred to as Underground Kingz (U.G.K.) I would strongly attest that Broownsville emcee Sean Price AKA Sean P! AKA Ruckus/Ruck from Heltah Skeltah was, indeed, and "Underground" King in his own right. Sean P , unfortunately, only spent 43 years on this Green Earth, although, he had been rapping since 1995 after his crew, Boot Camp Clik , appeared on Smif-N-Wessun 's Wreck Records debut, Dah Shinin' . Honestly, my earliest personal memories of Sean P! date back to my 12 years spent stocking shelves at Shop Rite ; sometimes, at night, I used to help my buddy, Jared Jenkins , stock the bread shelves and he was always bumpin' and big uppin' Sean Price . I guess, what really stuck with me first, aside from his relentless rhymes, was Sean 's tendency to take his name and blatantly insert it into common Pop culture phenoms, movie titles, etc. which was a great promotional tool in the...

I Had An Accident Records (IHAA) is a Spokane -based tape label we've grown particularly fond of in recent months, if you haven't yet already noticed. IHAA is owned and operated by one Damien Miller (@damienbtc74) - yes, that's in fact, the same "Damien" from Luke Sick & Damien 's phenomenal, yet incredibly too short EP, Strike The Clutch . First recommended to me by John "Jumbled" Bachman , I unfortunately, wasn't able to score one of Luke Sick & Damien 's extremely limited edition tapes, but Strike The Clutch was highlighted within The Witzard 's Rap EP Wrap-up this past March. Damien was actually, gifted the label from former I Had An Accident owner and founder Justin Bieler with his first "official" IHAA release being Mathias Kruse x Brenky 's Eustress / Wormhole from May 2016. I Had An Accident has released tapes and digital albums featuring the likes of Noise/Hip-Hop 's finest beat-makers, emce...

Jeremy Toy is a New Zealand -based Shoegaze revivalist and one half of She's So Rad , who moonlights as "Leonard Charles:" a Hip-Hop -leaning producer, multi-instrumentalist, and Basement Funk originator. Since releasing his critically-acclaimed J Dilla tribute album, Basement Donuts , Leonard Charles has teamed up with Jellphonic, Reggie Blunt & kutcorners for a Rick James covers EP entitled ALL NIGHT LONG ; earlier this year, he joined forces with Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson for "Breaking Over You" 7-inch on Japanese imprint WONDERFUL NOISE , which was premiered digitally right here at The Witzard . However, in recent weeks, Jeremy Toy was unfortunately, involved in a hit-and-run accident after a Leonard Charles gig and was left with two broken legs. Now, with nothing but idle time while his legs slowly heal, Toy has vowed to return to recording material as "Leonard Charles" from his bed with beat machine and a crate-full of reco...

"I have a She's So Rad EP I am working on, dreamy Shoegaze stuff. I have a Leonard Charles Modern Funk [album] with a Lo-Fi Disco tint full-length record that is nearly complete, a Basement Funk record that will feature Wildchild , Guilty Simpson, Declaime AKA Dudley Perkins , Team Dynamite, and Georgia Anne Muldrow , and then, I still have a few things up my sleeve... but I gotta stay focused on these records, for now. I am easily distracted by amazing music and stupid plans!" Jeremy Toy AKA Leonard Charles replied when asked what he had planned following Basement Donuts . Basement Donuts is, of course, Toy's 2016 album-length debut as alter-ego " Leonard Charles ;" a Basement/Modern Funk album recorded in his basement as a 31-track tribute to Stones Throw /Instrumental Hip-Hop pioneer, producer, and rapper James "J Dilla" Yancey . During the interview prep leading up to our November 2016 The Witzard interview, Leonard Charles casually ...

"I could easily talk about how loud I blasted [ Public Enemy 's] Fear of a Black Planet (1990) daily from my Yorx Entertainment System in junior high or pumped [ Company Flow 's] "8 Steps to Perfection" (1996) and everything else recorded from my Stretch & Bobbito tapes in the Burger King kitchen, after closing time during my shifts or dip into how DJ Premier made beats that were completely abstract, but made them instant norms by nature of his talent. But, in truth, when I sit and make a beat, I don't feel the influence of other Hip-Hop producers too heavily anymore, even less than I feel when I write rhymes. I've settled into something pretty original, not without influence, but kind of it's own thing, for better or worse. So, what I'd rather talk about is my relationship with Progressive Rock music and how it spurned my definition and coining of the term "Progressive Hip-Hop." I still love some good old Prog-Rock ,...

"I was asked to perform at a J Dilla Foundation fundraiser at a bar in Auckland, Neck of The Woods, 13th Feb. 2016 to celebrate the music of J Dilla and to also raise funds. My biggest influences as a producer are Pete Rock, No I.D. Diamond D, DJ Premier, and J Dilla. So, to be asked to play the fundraiser was a big deal for me. I wanted to do something on the night that would capture the creative essence of what I hear in J Dilla's work. To me, Donuts, is the ultimate expression of creativity. I remember first hearing it and being overwhelmed by how much emotion it stirred in me. It has everything: hard beats, mind-blowing sample chops, lyrical message, and some subliminal heavy sh*t... so, for the gig, I thought it was worth going all out and trying something really extreme—to cover Donuts as note-for-note, track-for-track as possible, but in a Basement Funk/home studio vibe. I had spent a year experimenting with modding old Roland drum machines, building 8-bit synths out ...