The Witzard

"This song was pretty therapeutic in helping me come to term with a failing relationship. It failed not because we didn't work at it, but maybe because we worked too hard at it and it became this thing that we both started resenting on some level. By the end, we were kind of like two mismatching puzzle pieces that had been shoved together... It's hard a hard spot to be in and I've had lots of friends that have been in this same place in relationships. It wasn't a horrible relationship either and I think that's what makes it harder, when its good like 50-60% of the time, but is that a way to live? ["I Need You Closer"] kind of helped me just face it in a very literal sense. This was also the fastest song on the album to write, I think I started recording it at like 11am one day and by 9pm, it was done. I remember texting my friend being like, "you have to come sing some group vocals on this song with me RIGHT NOW, before the urgency expire...

Los Angeles by way of Philly Hip-Hop group NAC (formerly The NAC ) have previously written, produced, and recorded music alongside the likes of The Roots , RJD2, John Legend & Ludacis , Ciara, Miguel , TLC, The Money-Makin' Jam Boys , and Ne-Yo; NAC "is musically, somewhere [in] between Hip-Hop , Electronic Soul, and good time Southern Crunk " and consists of Roots -affiliated emcee Sugar Tongue Slim (STS) and producers-musicians Butta , Bizkit , and DJ Schoolie V . NAC 's self-released 7-track debut EP, Let's Make Some Music , was unleashed upon the unsuspecting world this past Friday, August 5th and was preceded by dance floor-ready singles "I Ain't Got It," "On The Floor," and Mass Appeal -premiered "Flashlight." When asked, what's your main mission aimed at newfound fans with your Let's Make Some Music EP ? NAC members Bizkit , STS , and Butta respectively replied: " NAC is here to bring the fun an...

"Last year on the Yeezus tour, someone gave Kanye West a single to listen to: It was "Experience," by Kacy Hill , a 20-year-old singer who happened to be one of his back-up dancers. Kanye met with Hill after his Atlantic City show, and immediately signed her to his label, G.O.O.D. Music ," NY Mag eloquently transcribed within their 'Top 10 New Female Musicians to See This Summer' featurette. While, as DJ Booth adversely points out, "Experience" was initially released back in December 2013 to little fanfare, only to be re-released on G.O.O.D. Music nearly a year later; "Experience" still remains Hill's lone Futuristic Indie Pop/R&B -reminiscent piece of work, although, now it's set to be included within her forthcoming proper debut, Bloo EP . Kacy Hill 's G.O.O.D. Music/Very G.O.O.D. Beats label-mates and arsenal of possible collaborators now includes the likes of talented industry-worn artists and producers su...

Kanye West , a man who very recently rapped something along the lines of "black Timbs all on your couch again / black d*ck all in your spouse again..." married his long-time girlfriend Kim Kardashian this past weekend. The Florence wedding ceremony held at the 16th century Fort di Belvedere was preceded by an extravagant pre-party held in Paris Friday night, which was seemingly attended by everyone from Rick Rubin to Jaden "White Batman" Smith ; in lieu of James Fanco & Seth Rogen 's tastefully declined "Bound 3" performance invitation, early reports suggest that Lana del Rey , Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli , John Legend, and illusionist David Blaine performed at various point throughout the wedding reception and ceremony. It just seems to be a sheer coincidence that Kayne 's new "YEEZi" sneaker partner, Adidas released a World Cup web-commercial complete with previously unreleased music on the same weekend as Kim & Kanye...

It's pretty damn awesome that Kanye & Joaquin Phoenix even hang out, let alone co-produced a track for Pusha T together; "King Push" is most likely culled from Phoenix's I'm Still Here era (2009-10), when he may or may not have quit acting to become a Hip-Hop producer/rapper. Pusha T previously lamented to Pitchfork back in August, "as soon as I heard it, I was like, 'Listen. I hope you're not playing this for me just to show me how good this beat is [Kanye] !'" It's a surprisingly Boom-Bap -rooted, Clipse -ready rattling beat, which it seems is now being pushed slightly ahead of My Name Is My Name 's previous semi-questionable Chris Brown -featuring "Sweet Salvation" single. Taking some much needed time off from Kanye 's recent "I Don't Like" ranting spree(s), G.O.O.D. Music & DONDA unleashed "King Push'" companion music video mid-Friday afternoon. Directed by Nathanie...

Not incredibly unlike their previous collaborative efforts with John Legend , Jay Z, and Al Green , The Roots take the "big band backseat" role on their upcoming record with Elvis Costello , Wise Up Ghost . It's stark-looking, minimalistic cover was supposedly modeled after Allen Ginsberg 's Howl , more specifically it's infamous City Lights Pocket Poets Series rendition (1955). Questlove Jenkins defined Wise Up Ghost as a "document of music of 9 cats... Helmed by 2 music dweebs & their hero," which was reportedly released on a few as-yet-undiscovered Record Store Day white label 12-inches. "Walk Us Uptown" was unleashed mid-Monday afternoon in the form of a Soundcloud stream and Mariana Blanco -directed sparse lyric video. Legendary American Jazz imprint Blue Note Records plans to issue Elvis Costello & The Roots' long-rumored Wise Up Ghost on Tuesday, September 17th. The album first came to fruition after Costel...

What kind of madman would spend the better part of a year recording and re-recording an anti-commercial mainstream Hip-Hop album (if that's even a thing ha) all while his celebutante girlfriend is carrying their unborn baby and steadily nearing her dude date, only to have mega-producer Rick Rubin come in and re-work the entire 10-track collection mere hours before it's deadline!? - Unsurprisingly, Kanye West . It's almost mind boggling how much steam Yeezus has garnered without a proper single or music video, aside from "New Slaves"' building-side projections across the world, and virtually no album track leakage until the Friday before it's Tuesday June 18th release! Aside from all that, Kanye decided to boldly stray away from any sort of legitimate-looking album artwork/packaging, instead opting for the ghetto bootleg CD-R look: no cover or booklet, empty jewel CD case, sparse tracklist on the reverse side, and only a Yeezus -marked piece of red ta...

I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that "Numbers On The Board" is my favourite Hip-Hop track of 2013 [so far], although Pusha T is quite honestly far from my favourite rapper. I mean, Wrath of Caine is great and so were/are Clipse . But Pusha T never really had that one stand out, defining moment for me and I think "Numbers On The Board" is finally it! Parisian director/graphic artist So Me filmed it's companion music video during a break in recording sessions for Kanye 's top secret new album; Rumored to feature Daft Punk , Chief Keef, Odd Future , Skrillex, John Legend , and 2 Chainz and could be out as early as June 18th. Kanye & Chief Keef both make brief cameo appearances towards "Numbers On The Board"' s end, pulled from Pusha T 's forthcoming G.O.O.D. Music debut, My Name Is My Name (July 16th). Whilst spitting rapid-fire verses over a gritty Don Cannon co-produced instrumental, Pusha T struts through ...

Actor-turned-musician Jamie Foxx described a track he recently produced during a Django Unchained/Success Secrets interview as "more or less, an Ennio Morricore Spaghetti Western theme, except with Rick Ross rapping on it." Tom Breihan's article was published in Men's Health last month and now the track in question, "100 Black Coffins," was finally released to the masses late Friday afternoon. It's a pretty interesting juxtaposition overall because for a good chunk of his bars, Ross raps from the perspective of Foxx's character - Django , a la ODB 's CLASSIC delivery on "Ghetto Superstar;" Django Unchained follows the story of a freed slave who ends up morphing into a ruthless bounty hunter @ the hand of Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and seeks out revenge and his long-lost love, Broomhilda. Quentin Tarantino additionally cast Leonardo DiCaprio , Samuel L. Jackson, Jonah Hill , Kerry Washington, and Don Johnson [Miam...

After 2 cancelled re-schedulings, I finally managed to see Childish Gambino live up in Sayreville, NJ with my buddy Ryan just about a month ago. Complete with lots of lights, "pyro," guitars, and violins, it seemed more like a KISS concert than a Hip-Hop show... definitely much more showmanship than I could have ever imagined! Donald Glover acts weekly on Community (NBC) and in his downtime, has begun to flesh out a pretty solid career moonlighting as an Indie rapper. Childish Gambino 's recent wide-spread release, Camp really helped solidify his unique brand of raps about [college] girls strewn across Dance -laden beats. Gambino previously self-released a slew of mixtapes and online albums between 2008-10, but Camp was still semi-misleadingly totted as his "debut album." Generally not one to enlist fellow emcees, Donald Glover seems to be changing his ways, as he's secretly complied a forthcoming feature-driven mixtape. 3 of 6 recently "lea...

I Admit by Aaron Livingston Philly Reggae-Soul singer Aaron Livingston has laid down some vocal tracks for 2 separate Roots albums, The Tipping Point (2004) and their latest effort, undun . Therefore making Livingston an "Honorary Roots Member" and putting him amongst the [fine] company of John Legend , Mos Def, Blu , Dice Raw, Sugar Tongue Slim , and Peedi Crakk. Aaron Livingston 's most recent full-length project, an RJD2 -produced album titled The Abandoned Lullaby was released back in Fall 2011. While Livingston's solo discography may appear to be pretty "scattered," he's also recorded tracks with Hot Sugar , The Mean, Young Vipers , and Hezekiah... as well as Greatest Hits, Vol. -1 . That aforementioned "Odds & Sods" compilation album is available for $5.00 (FREE) download over at Bandcamp , along with a slew of slightly-dated, yet fleshed out loosies. "I Admit" was unveiled on Thurs. May 3rd , but kind of cast a...

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 ...

Bon Iver head honcho, Justin Vernon has somehow managed to become quite the "enigma" in the world of Popular music over the past couple years: An independent, New Age Folk artist who's been able to bridge the gap between Indie Rock and Hip-Hop _ commercial obscurity and "mainstream success." On the heels of his feverishly-awaited 2011 "comeback" album - Bon Iver, Bon Iver , Vernon laid down some studio time in Hawaii with Kanye & Friends (Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, John Legend) , which eventually ended up on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Following generally wide-spread fan and critical acclaim alike, Bon Iver, Bon Iver was nominated for a set of 4 Grammy awards near the close of 2011. Shortly after the announcement, a slightly dated and previously unpublished Justin Vernon interview (The New Yorker) was issued; Included within it's pages were a handful of not-so kind words for the people behind The Grammy's . Vernon w...

I'm just gonna go a head and call this one early - Most Random/Awesome Collaboration of 201 2: Rick Ross & Chuck Inglish - "Party Heart" (BAWSE grunt). Nestled towards the tail-end of Rich Forever , the track almost feels like an appropriate "prize" for those successfully make it all the way to Ross' newest mixtape's end. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I'd hear Rick Ross properly lacing up a Boom-Bap , 808 -hitting [Throwback] Cool Kids -crafted beat. Stalley and 2 Chainz also contribute additional lyrical stylings to the heart-felt festivities. Man, I really hope Maybach Music Group decides to shoot an accompanying "Party Heart" music video! Rich Forever , intended to serve as an ample place-holder for God Forgives, I Don't , is now available for desktop download. Fresh on the heels of The Cool Kids' major label debut (When Fish Ride Bicycles), Chuck Inglish recently branched out on his own and releas...

Frank Ocean is by far the most restrained [musically talented, for that matter] and commercially accessible member of Odd Future . While his overall subject matter is still pretty messed up, it's more in that suave D'Angelo - Teddy Pendergrass type of way. It has yet to be seen if Ocean's public affiliation with the crude and rowdy OF sect will help or hurt his musical career. Frank Ocean is more like Redman anyways; Who was never really a legitimate Wu-Tang member, but without a doubt always considered a pivotal element of the group. A true vigilante of a "businessman," Ocean self-released his debut album Nostalgia, ULTRA online back in mid-Feb. (2011), while Def Jam continued to slack. Needless to say, the label execs. and [female] fans alike are now latching onto his every word. Frank Ocean is currently holed up in the studio, putting the finishing touches on his premier major label release. @ press time, Ocean has played roughly 3-5 live shows and is ...