The Witzard

"Yoooooo! Back in 2011, @monkmiyagi [Hodgy] and I connected and put out some music. When we dropped "Nagoya," it really helped me out a lot. Since then, our friendship has grown and we have a lot more music together; "BARBELL" is the first song to come from that. It is also the first single from Hodgy 's debut solo album, Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide . Hodgy , I'm grateful for your friendship and I hope you like it because there's a lot more music coming from both of us JD X ," @jontidanimals wrote on Instagram over the weekend on the heels of Hodgy 's first single from his forthcoming December 2nd full-length debut. "Recording "BARBELL" back in May—often, I sit around with my acoustic [guitar] and record harmonies, as a kind of meditation process. I find it soothing; this was one of those, which I then turned into a beat, which @monkmiyagi turned into a track," Jonti continued late Friday night. Fireplace: The...

" DOOM 's verse was [an] interesting one. DOOM 's concept was that it's a text message. He text messages me while I'm not home, so he comes to my house anyway and starts borrowing all kinds of sh*t, you know, villain-style," veteran Oxnard -bred emcee MED (aka Medaphoar) revealed about his recent sample-heavy collaboration with fellow West Coast emcee Blu , prolific Stones Throw producer Madlib , and masked rhyming supper-villain MF DOOM , "Knock Knock." "I was like, 'what the f*ck is that?' So, there's this whole verse about him going to my house, drinking my beers, [and] going through my DVD's. It's so hilarious and genius," MED ecstatically continued. MED Blu Madlib , as they've been collectively referred to as of late, first linked up on MED -curated Bang Ya Head 3 label comp. cut, "Your Life" produced by Blu 's Below The Heavens collaborator, Exile . Madlib was almost accidentally broug...

While it might not exactly be the righteous ear-piercing RAGER you'd expect from a Trash Talk/Flatbush Zombies team-up, "97.92" is a pretty legit-sounding thankfully Nü-Metal -less Rock -tinged Hip-Hop banger; frontman @LeeSpielman notes that it's first-time beat-maker(s) and fellow bandmate " Garrett [Stevenson] and Kellen on the beat." Even though Trash Talk are signed to Odd Future Records , they really haven't dabbled too much into Hardcore Punk/Hip-Hop hybrids, aside from two Spielman-assisted tracks on Hodgy Beats' quick-strike Untitled EP 2 (2013). Stereogum premiered "97.92" mid-Monday morning, which Trash Talk & Flatbush Zombies collectively recorded together at Converse 's own Williamsburg -based Rubber Tracks studio recently. If The Internet -propelled rumor-mill is to be believed, both groups are currently working on new music; Flatbush Zombies leaked a new track, "LiT" from their upcoming I...

When Odd Future first came out (2007), it seemed like they were pretty against working with an outside producers. But they've since slightly broadened their horizons, working with a handful of various producers: Kanye , Flying Lotus, Pharrell , James Pants, The Alchemist , RZA, BADBADNOTGOOD , Samiyam, and supposedly even MF DOOM . Late Tuesday night, without any prior notice, rhyme or reason, OFWGKTA uploaded "Look" to Soundcloud ; It's produced by Nottz Raw , a Virginia -based beatsmith who's worked with everyone from Asher Roth to [The] Game . Tyler The Creator, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt manage to utterly RIP apart Nottz 's hard-hitting beat over the course of nearly 5 minutes. While it's chock-full of righteous-minded bars-on-bars , some of my personal favourite lines include: "Barnacles, now I gotta brag / [Beamer] drive right by you nig*as like I was kinda fat / with a paint job that's flatter than Miley Cyrus...

Stones Throw alums J. Rocc & M.E.D. (Medaphor) initially linked up last summer to assemble a podcast-contained mixtape; Collectively operating under the group name "Axel F," it featured a collection of largely original tracks and previously unreleased material. Now, exactly 1 year later to the day (July 9th) later, J. Rocc & M.E.D. have unleashed a brand new track from their forthcoming Rebel's Theme LP, "The Set." It's unclear if Axel F. is intentionally named after Beverly Hills Cop 's Eddie Murphy name-checking title theme or not, but either way... this is about as down and dirty, intentionally grimy-sounding Hip-Hop as it gets! M.E.D. 's semi-confrontational verses are slickly inter-spliced between J. Rocc 's neck-snapping, sample-accented production work. A few of those hard-hitting Boom-Bap 'd couplets include: "Big beat knockin', streets keep watchin', big things poppin', Pee Wee stoppin'.....

"Goodbye" and "Wicked" are comfortably nestled towards the tail-end of Hodgy Beats' just-released 7-song EP, Untitled 2 ; More often than not, this type of blatant Hip-Hop/Punk Rock fusion are relegated to cheesy one-off single status. But it sounds like MellowHype & Trash Talk are planning something a little more long-term: "No one knows about it. That shit is on the super-low," Hodgy Beats told Red Bull , referencing an upcoming album. "We spent last week [April] jamming and shit, finishing up writing and stuff," added Trash Talk bassist Spencer Pollard . Looks like "Goodbye/Wicked" are amongst the first tracks culled from those very sessions, while a full joint Odd Future Records -backed album still lacks any sort of solid release date. Honestly, "Goodbye" is my personal favourite of the 2 and man, it's one Hell of a brooding, heavy, Lee Spielman -assisted, guitar-filled closing track. It's a dam...

While he's arguably years past his heyday, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers really set the stage for white-bred rappers and seems to have inspired a whole new generation's-worth of angry young white men: Atmosphere , Macklemore, RiFF RAFF , Asher Roth , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , etc. Mac Miller just never really seemed interesting enough for me to wanna check out. But it looks like he's starting to align himself with a slew of genuinely skilled rappers/producers that includes Earl Sweatshirt , Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs , Hodgy Beats, ScHoolboy Q , Thundercat, Pharrell , and executive producer Diplo. Mac Miller 's become a lot more interesting since he started releasing material under his assorted Larry Fisherman , Larry Dollaz, and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival aliases, too. We're talkin' about beautiful Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith covers, hard-hitting Hip-Hop beats, a 5-track Jazz EP, and an instrumental mixtape called Run-on Sentences (...

Numbers-wise, Stones Throw 's Quakers [collective] is just about as MASSIVE as it's earth-shattering name-sake: 41-track album, 35 members, 3 producers. Because of Quakers' sheer size, it's almost ludicrous to try and summarize the wide scope of their self-titled debut... I have a copy, but have yet to listen straight through in one sitting. Guilty Simpson & M.E.D. are 2 of the countless featured rappers that Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Katalyst , and 7-Stu-7 recruited to come in and lay down verses. Quakers and Quakers (Instrumentals) are both now available for purchase over @ Stones Throw on vinyl, 2-CD, or mp3. Temporarily backed by The Quakers All-Star Brass Band , Guilty & M.E.D. abrasively lace up "Fitta Happier." Barrow pulled samples from 2 separate 1997-2000 era Radiohead tracks, "Fitter Happier" and "The National Anthem," now re-interpolated and complete with a horn section. It's companion Eric Coleman -di...

Not unlike the vast majority of middle American youth, my initial reaction after first see/hearing Odd Future was, "What the fuck!? That was AWESOME!" Post- Late Night with Jimmy Fallon thoughts: Wu-Tang Clan, Jackass , and The Neptunes . I'd heard of OF before Tyler & Hodgy 's fateful Roots -backed performance of "Sandwitches," but I must admit that I missed the boat when Bastard and the other [solo] online releases came out (2009). To be completely frank, I was a tad bit put off by Tyler The Creator and company's vulgar rhymes about murder, rape, hate, etc. Because let's face it, no one's really that obscene, unless they're a serial killer; and either way, that shit's got to get old after while! "Yonkers" was great... Goblin, Nostalgia ULTRA , Untitled EP , "64" [Bass Drum of Death], "Earl" and his mysterious disappearance/return, The Internet , etc. OF Tape 2 , which is out now, marks the crew...

Frank Ocean uploaded his latest track, "Whip Appeal" to his personal Tumblr account earlier this evening. Like many of his other recent "releases," the track was pulled from the bulk of Internet servers just a few hours later [presumably by Def Jam ]. Soon after "Whip Appeal" was yanked, Ocean hopped back on Tumblr to clarify that the track probably won't be appearing on Nostalgia, ULTRA 's major label re-release, which might never even see the light of day. Frank Ocean has logged studio time and penned hits for the likes of Nas, Justin Bieber , Kanye & Jay-Z , John Legend, Beyoncé, Bridget Kelly, Pharrell , and Brandy . Since he self-released what would have been his debut project on his own back in February 2011, Frank Ocean and Def Jam have been on not so good terms... But his currently untitled premier release is expected sometime during 2012. "Whip Appeal" is roughly 5-minutes long and features Ocean lamenting about ...

Despite [or maybe because of] the fact that he's been mysteriously absent from the Odd Future click since their 2010-11 rise to fame... Earl Sweatshirt quickly became the group's most storied and sought-after member. Sweatshirt managed to release one sole, albeit spectacular, album before disappearing: EARL (2010). Depending on who you ask, Earl Sweatshirt 's mother sent him to "Coral Reef Academy," a boarding school-like facility in Samoa for either drug use, rapping , disobedience, or depression. It's all somehow morphed into a tangled web of truth, lies, and deception that involves an attention-hungry man named "Tyler Craven." But the one thing I think we can all unanimously agree on: EARL was and still is an AMAZING album - Quite arguably one of Odd Future 's strongest, most consistent releases to date! There's been little blog-worthy Earl Sweatshirt -related news since back in Summer '11. While recent web rumblings seemed to ...

Sine & Moon 's deep "roots" date way back before any seasoned listener would ever even believe: The mid-1990's. "Saturday Night Songs," the album's inaugural track, was recorded by Jonti Danilewitz in his homeland of South Africa Australia @ the ripe, young age of 13. Essentially a collection of old, new, re-mixed/mastered, and appended tracks, which starts out with that first song Jonti ever recorded. Jonti initially configured the album in the form of a mix CD commissioned by Stones Throw and released back in August 2011. Essentially, a wide array of 13 [15] genre-jumping 4-track records; Plus an MF DOOM -esque rapped co-starring appearance from partner in crime, Jonwayne (2007) to top it all off. Since it's original release, Jonti has been hit up with such an abundance of fan requests for individual tracks... that Stones Throw decided to re-release an updated, albeit FREE version of Sine & Moon . In preparation of the Jan. 10th ...

These here, my friends, are a few of the things that "Blog Dreams" are made of: 1-3 buzz-worthy new-comers, chemistry, kinship, spur-of-the-moment collaboration, creativity... sex, drugs, and violence. With little-no concrete information to springboard off of, this post will almost purely consist of cold, hard reporting! Hodgy Beats' complex rhyme schemes are cleverly strewn across the bleeps and blips of a Jonti -produced beat. Overall, the final product [dubbed "Nagoya" ] is truly a brilliant juxtaposition of the interesting pair's Pop tendencies and sheer aggression. A beat which was reportedly created, flourished, laced, and completed over the course of one mere night (9/27-28). Hodgy Beats is a flourishing member of LA -based Odd Future and it's sub-crew, MellowHype ; While Jonti [Danimals] is a talented multi-instrumentalist /producer, hailing from Sydney, Australia and Stones Throw Records . Be on the look out for Jonti 's debut long-p...