The Witzard

The Heliocentrics, DOOM & Percee P (CREDIT: The GTAsoldier AKA Errol718) Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "Basically, through Egon, we were able to get Percee P to do vocals over an instrumental arrangement of "Distant Star," the first version of which was mixed by our friend and, at the time, Sydney-based co-producer of The Heliocentrics, Mike Burnham. We recorded horns...

"Holy sh*t! Here's a new song we made [with] Homeboy Sandman for our show together Friday," now-defunct New York Hip-Hop revivalists Das Racist Tweeted way back when in 2010, promoting a then-upcoming November 5th Southpaw gig along with a pre- Stones Throw Angel del Villar II ; if I remember correctly, "I'm Up On That" was the very first time I had ever been treated to the sweet, rhythmic sounds of Homeboy Sandman , who's comfortably seated as one of Stones Throw 's sharpest emcees. "Here's a new track from Homeboy Sandman , as the MC (and amazing live performer) kicks off a couple weeks of live dates through the east and southern states, culminating with a couple Texas shows with Stones Throw crew [Peanut Butter] Wolf , J Rocc & Guilty Simpson ," Stones Throw wrote in a recent quick-strike press release accompanying Sandman's latest non-album Soundcloud loosie. '"Nonbelievers" produced by EL RNTC . T...

" Tuxedo is Mayer Hawthorne & Jake-One . The mysterious Flaunt Edwards (AKA J.Rocc ) has taken their track "Do It" to his chopping block, and here's what emerged;" Not entirely unlike his Stones Throw label mates Madlib , Quakers, 7 Days of Funk , and Folerio, J.Rocc secretly moonlights as Disco-Funk -indebted DJ, Flaunt Edwards . Although, his sparse alternate discography only includes a few highly sought-after releases: Flaunt Edwards Was Here , a smooth 5-track collection of Soundcloud -issued edits and two seemingly untitled 7-12"s on Puff Puff Records (2013). "Do It" (Flaunt Edwards Edit) marks J.Rocc 's first thinly-veiled remix creation unleashed following a nearly two year-long break. It's a Funk -drenched extended edit of the premier pseudo-single from Mayer Hawthorne & Jake-One 's Tuxedo Funk EP/Tuxedo 's "debut album, [which] will be released on Stones Throw a month from today, March 3, 2015....

Rare Chandeliers sample mastermind and former Eminem in-house producer The Alchemist has already released two full-length projects so far this year and is gearing up to unleash a third; The Good Book is the unofficial follow-up to critically-acclimated Lord Steppington and Albert Einstein . Get On Down currently has The Good Book available for pre-order in a number of Bible -inspired formats, ahead of it's planned April 11th wide-release. Alchemist further described The Good Book as a "double album audio collage [where] I did one side and my bro Budgie did the other." They've prepared two exclusive physical versions, 1000 Bible -like packages with a 2-CD stash spot and 50 deluxe editions complete with a MicroG G-Pen and a copy of the BAU All Is Fair album. Along with the proper album announcement, BAU Music released a second single from The Alchemist 's side of the project, "With My Soul" assisted by buddies Action Bronson, A$ton Matthew...

" Share My Bed = MJ & Dilla 1st track, "Player Has Butterflies" ...wait [for] the rest," read a vague 2009 Stones Throw post. Beat Junkies co-founder and former Black Star & Jaylib DJ J. Rocc has seemingly been working on some sort of unspecified J Dilla/Michael Jackson mash-up project for the past 5+ years. Dilla was a known Jackson (5) super-fan and even sampled "Dancing Machine" for Q-Tip 's solo track "Move" (2008), originally appearing on his Beat CD '05 #3 web-bootleg. I can vaguely remember downloading a copy of my first J Dilla album, Champion Sound with Madlib (2003). It falls right between what I would consider his two greatest works, Ruff Draft EP and his magnum opus, Donuts . Little did I know, at the time, that Dilla's health was slowly failing because of lupus complications and a rare blood disorder; he ultimately passed away on February 10th, 2006. I didn't realize til a few years later, bu...

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'.....

Pay Jay , quite arguably the "Holy Grail" of unreleased J Dilla material, briefly leaked online a few years ago; The infamous MCA -commissioned vocal album that Dilla recorded with friends-producers ?uestlove & Karriem Riggins , Nottz, Kanye , Pete Rock, Supa Dave West , Hi-Tek, and Bink! [Dawg] . From what I can remember, it featured a pre- "Takeover" Doors ("Five to One") sample flip, a Funky Vanity 6 "Drive Me Wild" cover, and just one previously released track - " Fuck The Police." Thankfully, Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey recently re-gained the rights to a storage locker full of old DAT and 2-inch tape masters, which were obviously used to re-mix/master the 11+ tracks. Pay Jay Productions plans to release The Diary sometime during 2013-14 and it's material represents the unknown period in-between J Dilla 's self-produced Rap albums, Welcome 2 Detroit and Ruff Draft EP (2001-02). Standout track ...

"Today is February 7th, 2013, which means it is the birthday of one of the greatest Hip-Hop producers of all time, James Yancey aka J Dilla ; Today, he would've been 39 years old. It's incredible that every month of February for the last 8 years that Dilla 's life & music is celebrated around the whole world. It's also bittersweet because he was taken from us in such an early age when it looked like he was really get ready to take the world by storm. I [was] been very lucky & blessed to be part of his close circle of friends when he moved to Los Angeles . Not only was he was a talented individual and one of the nicest & humble guy I ever met, he was also a private person... You definitely [didn't] want to get on his nerves LOL!! I know there's a lot of Dilla Tribute mixes out there, and me personally, I don't think there's anyone that can out top a Dilla mix that was made by my fellow Beat Junkie & the 3rd member of J...

Ladies and gentlemen of This Fine Green Earth, Dizzee Rascal has in fact "made it!" While Rascal has without a doubt experienced a moderate amount of past success(es)... I think we can all agree that being sampled by Madlib and then interpolated as the sole element of a Black Star hook is a whole 'nother level of "industry success." So it seems that the one and only "Beat Konducta" (Madlib) listens to Dizzee Rascal ; For what it's worth, I'm really not all that surprised. "Fix Up, Look Sharp" originally appeared on London 's very own Grime posterchild's 2003 debut, Boy In da Corner . The self-produced beat for Rascal's break-out hit notoriously samples segmented portions of Billy Squier - "The Big Beat" (1980). Following the truly senseless 1996-97 deaths of both Biggie and 2pac , up-and-comers Mos Def and Talib Kweli courageously banded together in an effort to spread a message of "peace and love....