The Witzard

DOOM STARKS & Jay Elec-Hanukkah (CREDIT: Arturo Torres) 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. Josh Leidy is a writer, producer, filmmaker, and co-host of the Serious Rap Sh*t Podcast and content creator for Culture Cypher Media. Follow Josh "Indi" Leidy (@indi_srs) on Twitter and Instagram to experience more of his work. Daniel Dumile—even in his youth as Zev Love X—showed an...

At this point in time, Jay Electronica and his long-rumored debut album have both become something of an enigma... although, with endless false start-ups and album "announcements," early this morning, 13 years after dropping Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge) Jay Elect has finally dropped his debut album, A Written Testimony. Timothy Elpadaro Thedford or Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah, better known as Jay Electronica, first burst onto the Indie Hip-Hop scene in 2007 with "Act I." As its title suggests, Electronica primarily rhymes over the Jon Brion-scored soundtrack to Jim Carrey's award-winning film Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and features soundbites throughout from Erykah Badu & Just Blaze. Since then, Jay Elect has, technically, only "officially" released a handful of tracks, including, "Exhibit A," "Exhibit C," "Letter to Falon," "Shiny Suit Theory," "A Prayer for Micheal Vick & T.I....

Get Down b/w Cross My Heart by Sunny & The Sunliners Sunny & The Sunliners were a San Antonio -based Chicano Soul band fronted by Sunny Ozuna that were originally active from about 1964-81 or 1988. Sunny & The Sunliners consisted of members Jimmy Edward , Amos Johnson, Jr. Johnny Zaragosa , and of course, namesake Sunny Ozuna , as well as various members through the years. The Sunliners released countless albums and singles on labels and imprints such as Tear Drop , Crazy Cajun, Freddie Records , Scorpio Productions, Inc. Okeh Records , Three M Records, Black-Whale Records , London Records, Darla , and Ozuna & Zaragosa's own imprint, Key-Loc . Sunny & The Sunliners' plethora of Funk -oozing material touches on styles ranging from Tejano to Rock "N" Roll , Soul/Funk to Latin-American, Jazz to Pop , etc. over their nearly 20-year career. However, almost 30 years after their disbandment, Sunny & The Sunliners garnered a bit of a career r...

"'[PROJECT 2] is a concept mixtape that covers the themes of fame, isolation, Armageddon, suicide, immortality, dark magick, and Christian mysticism. "Glass Half Empty" is the mid-point of this story and deals primarily with the emotion of helplessness... How do you see the glass? Can you see it any other way? Will my visions ever change? [PROJECT 2] on the horizon," self-described Occult Hip-Hop emcee Mahatma Crowley wrote within recent Facebook and Soundcloud statements... Mahatma Crowley's ghoulish delivery vaguely reminds me of his grizzled barking predecessors DMX, Ja Rule, Rick Ross, Yeezus-era Kanye, and at times, even Death Grips' frenzied frontman MC Ride. "Upon first hearing Crowley & The Beholder's Trinity's latest single, "Glass Half Empty" this past moon-lit Saturday evening, I was instantly reminded of his fellow Horrorcore peers Flatbush Zombies—who recently, for whatever reasons, played The Tonight Show Starri...

"I gave that lil' cockroach life, and he blasted me / N****s made all those memes, and they laughed at me... He's got 11 GRAMMY nominations, y'all not equal / Maaaan, f__k these white people / My grandma died at 82, scrubbin' floors / and n****s still runnin' 'round beggin' for awards," Jay Electronica ferociously rhymed on "The Curse of Mayweather" Monday; nearly an entire verse-worth of disses aimed at his one-time "Control" collaborator, Kendrick Lamar . Although, President Obama 's favorite emcee didn't seem to let Electronica's claims faze him, as he ended up winning five of 11 GRAMMY awards that very same night. I think it's pretty safe to say Kendrick effectively stole the show with his jarring live performance of "The Blacker The Berry/Alright/Untitled III," which juxtaposed he and a spirited Jazz band amidst an all-too realistic prison backdrop and a bonfire-lit African tribe scenari...

"For a while now, Guilty Simpson has been working on a new album with Katalyst of Quakers, the 30+ member rap supergroup who came out on Stones Throw a couple years ago. Expect an album soon. Until then, here's one fresh from the lab – "Vanguard Organization,"' reads Stones Throw's latest press release uploaded earlier today; a mere uncanny, perfectly-timed coincidence, Stones Throw have unleashed Guilty Simpson's "Vanguard Organization," which he self-describes as "a throw-away cut [that] isn't on the album," as I've concurrently been piecing together an all-inclusive 15-question interview for this very site. The Detroit native whose actively preparing his second full-length for Stones Throw, DETROIT'S SON, candidly covers everything from his "lost" 2005 album recorded with J Dilla, being mentioned in the same sentence as Radiohead, the current status of OJ Simpson 2 and Random Axe 2, working with elusive emce...

"Oh well, since it leaked... here's a better quality version," @JayElectronica exuberantly Tweeted early Friday morning, upon the unexpected leak of a low-quality version of his track, "Road to Perdition" 'guest starring' mentor and Roc-Nation label boss, Jay Z . It's the latest track Electronica's recorded and released 'with' Jay Z (behind "We Made It" and "Shiny Suit Theory" ) - 'with' in quotation marks because Jay Z 's feature in question on "Road to Perdition" is more or less composed of lines sampled from his American Gangster -centric track, "Success" (2007). "Road to Perdition" in fact, first appeared on Jay Electronica 's 2012 screen-grabbed 15-track Act II: Patents of Nobility (the turn) rough tracklist. Electronica's notoriously shelved album will reportedly also showcase the varied talents of Kanye , Serge Gainsbourg, Erykah Badu , Jay Z, Charlo...

Under the cover of night, late Saturday night into Sunday morning, Jay Electronica uploaded a new track with label boss Jay Z , "We Made It." It's pretty crazy to imagine, let alone actually hear, Jay Electronica rapping over a beat initially laced up by both Soulja Boy and Drake , which ends up being his third track released in a month's time (more than 2012-13 combined). According to okayplayer , Jay Z recently asked Electronica which "turn up" [hit record] they should attempt to jump on and he suggested "OG Bobby Johnson," but HOV ultimately picked "We Made It" instead. While it was initially released as Soulja Boy 's lead-off The King mixtape track, Drake further popularized "We Made It" during his Nothing Was The Same (2013) album roll-out campaign. Preceded only by rookie producer Purp Dogg 's extremely well-played Eastbound & Down -referencing intro, Jay Electronica ferociously rhymes: "Th...

There's an old English proverb that goes something like "just ask and you shall receive," a phrase which Twitter user @Erick_Grady can whole-heartedly attest to; he initially Tweeted, " @JayElectronica I think this would be a perfect time for you to drop that "Better In Tune" record" late Friday night. Following a week full of random photo-opps at SXSW , the reclusive rapper almost immediately uploaded "Better In Tune with The Infinite" from his long-rumored Act II: Patents of Nobility (the turn) to his newly-formed CRACKTRACKS Soundcloud account, FACT further reports that "Better In Tune" actually lifts it's string-based instrumental from Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto 's piece, "Bibo No Aozona" (2006). It also manages to inter-splice a re-appropriated intro speech from The Wizard of Oz , spoken word dialog from Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad , and the lush vocal stylings of LaTonya Give...

Mr. Sexyback himself, Justin Timberlake , unleashed a surprisingly Boom-Bap -ified remix to his latest 20/20 Experience 2 single, "TKO" late Black Friday evening, which is slowly becoming a FREE music-giving holiday. Timberlake somehow managed to recruit J. Cole, A$AP Rocky , and his former "Like I Love You" collaborator, Pusha T (Clipse). While it might kinda seem like part of a larger label-contrived chart-topping master-palm, Justin Timberlake is actually an avid late 1980-90's Hip-Hop aficionado; case in point, The History of Rap (Parts 1-4) with Late Nite host-buddy Jimmy Fallon . Roots band leader/drummer Questlove [Jenkins] simply Tweeted, " #TKOremix so official! @JTimberlake, @PUSHA_T, @ASAPRockyTRILL & @JColeNC (w/ that post- "Control" flow) = COTDAMNY," which almost instantly piqued my interests enough to go check it out! It's very well-produced, which is rare for an after-the-fact remix of this calibe...

Shouts to critically-acclaimed Hip-Hop producer, Just Blaze for bravely stepping into unknown, spray tan-glazed new territory; His latest genre-blending masterpiece, "BEHOLD! (Exhibit J)" was released online Wednesday afternoon. While it may come to a surprise to quite a few Hip-Hop heads, Just Blaze has been fucking around with House music for a little under 10 years now. While he wasn't producing countless hits for Jay-Z , Ghostface Killah, Saigon , Busta Rhymes, and Jay Electronica ... he managed to sneak in a few Hip-House influenced tracks: Cajmere Remix, Joe Budden - "Pump It Up," unreleased Rah Digga , and "Exhibit G, F & P" [Guido Fist Pump]. It sounds like Just Blaze ran into Fool's Gold label-head/resident DJ, A-Trak @ a holiday party a few years back, who's now gearing up to unleash his debut House EP. "Exhibit J" is a rough, NEAR[LY] FINAL cut that won't be featured on the EP, but you get th...

"The Ritual" is the latest released track from mysterious and already infamous rapper, Captain Murphy , who's true identity is still largely unknown - Even with 3 pretty STELLAR tracks nestled under his belt this early! Murphy first appeared with a brief verse on Flying Lotus' second Adult Swim single, "Between Friends;" Since it's July 23rd release, Captain Murphy 's identity has quickly become quite the "hot topic" across Hip-Hop ... He may or may not be a cleverly-crafted alter ego of either Flying Lotus , Earl Sweatshirt , or Tyler, The Creator . This whole mystery ego thing really reminds me of Quasimoto, King Geedorah , and even Humpty Hump [1990]. While "The Ritual" actually swiped it's primary beat from "Dear Moleskine" (Jay Electronica) , his other 2 tracks: "Mighty Morphin' Foreskin" and "Between Friends" seem to be [mostly] original compositions. iTunes' Info section s...

I don't think I've ever been so fucking elated [EXCITED] to see a tracklist for an album that doesn't really even exist yet!; Just a few mere hours ago, Jay Electronica Tweeted a screengrab of Act II: Patents of Nobility (the turn) in his iTunes , which was originally rumored to have been released online over Winter Break 2008-09. Jay-Z has supposedly been [with]holding Act II since Jay Electronica turned the final version into Roc-Nation back in March 2012 because he thinks "it has no single on it," which I find pretty hard to believe... considering the breath-taking gamut of featured talent: Kanye (2) , Erykah Badu, Sean "Diddy" Combs , Jay-Z (2), Charlotte Gainsbourg , The Bullitts , The-Dream, and even Ronald Regan/Serge Gainsbourg !? After while, my eye noticed that quite a few STELLAR, previously-released tracks like "Dear Moleskine," "Exhibit A-C" (Remix), and that Nasty Nas guest verse are noticeably absent from Ac...

Jay Electronica is quite arguably the most prolific, storied, and mysterious rapper(s) of our current generation all rolled into one; A man who's painfully short backcatalog speaks nearly endless volumes. Aside from a few batches of tracks with unknown origins, Electronica has only released about 5 single-worthy tunes since quietly appearing on the scene in 2004: 16-minute [debut] opus "Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge) ," "Exhibit A (Transformations)," "Exhibit C," "Shiny Suit Theory," and "The Announcement." Since Act I 's initial release (2007), it's proper Nas -assisted follow-up has often been long-rumored, time and time again. Frankly @ this point, I'm beginning to wonder whether or not it even exists. Soon after signing to Jay-Z 's very own Roc-Nation label in 2010, Jay Electronica announced the supposed completion of "Act II: Patents of Nobility (the turn)" via Twitter . Don't hold you...

Much to the delight of zealous fans, Black Star are back for Round 2, after a 10-year [semi-]hiatus. Since issuing Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998), the Boom Bap duo have stayed pretty silent; Excluding the occasional Mos Def feature, Talib Kweli Remix, or vice versa, of course. In honor of Black Friday #blackstarfriday 2011, Yasiin Bey & Talib Kweli released their latest single, "Fix Up" to iTunes' online data-base. Some of you may recall the fact that this very song was performed LIVE @ Colbert Report Studios a few mere weeks ago [Below]. Mind you, that was just Friday morning... Rounding off the day's nation-wide festive shopping excursions, Black Star liberated yet another new track: "You Already Knew" that very evening. Granted, this track isn't from Black Star 's long-rumored triumphant return - Although it will indefinitely appear within Black Star Aretha : a mixtape tribute crafted in honor of legendary songst...