The Witzard

CREDIT: Justin Mayer (@OldCity215) 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. "DOOM broke the rules. While some of the greatest emcees were playfully comparing themselves to Ghost Rider or The Incredible Hulk, DOOM had one better. He didn't plan to passively reference, he would create a universe and rule it with an Iron Fist. With one snap of that metal fingered fist, he created an alternat...

Last time we featured graphic designer, self-described "crafty veteran Punk Rock curator," and producer Justin Mayer, otherwise known as Old City, he had constructed a mash-up EP fittingly titled BL_CK B_ST_RDS . Old City juxtaposed MF DOOM's villainous rhymes against the musical backbone of English Crust Punks, Doom for a double-dose of... Doom! We've been hearing rumblings about a similarly-minded Old City for the last few years, which would seamlessly meld together Punk/Hardcore & Hip-Hop. Said album has since been billed as "a Punk Rock Paul's Boutique," which, as The Witzard regulars will well know, is right up our alley! Old City has been gradually rolling out what, at the time, appeared to be stand-alone singles since October 1, 2019; it was, then, when Old City unleashed his debut single, "Get Sued" Feat. Tre Marsh & Olmec, which, somehow, managed to sample Green Day a whopping 32 times. Get it? "Get Sued," which, in...

Aside from our aptly-named ongoing The Witzard Interview(s) series, 3 Fee High & Rising new artist featurette, and producer-selected playlist Beat-maker Bedrock , we really don't have a lot of recurring columns here at The Witzard. Partly because my fiance and I just moved into our first home together within the last month or so and also because there's just an influx of solid independent releases before year's end, I thought it might be a good time to start up a new recurring weekly wrap-up column tentatively titled, The Witzard's Take 5: Five Independent/Self-released Albums & EP's Worth Checking Out This Week. So, without further ado, here's The Witzard's Top 5 albums/EP's for the "week of" 10/27-11/3—a slightly expanded "weekly" edition to include a couple releases from last week, as well—in no particular order or ranking. Now, a few of these artists should be quite familiar to The Witzard regulars, while some might be e...

"I think a lot about genre-blending, so the relative novelty of mixing (MF) DOOM & Doom made a lot of sense to me. I've been a fan of mash-ups like Jay-Z at Studio One, WUGAZI, Leftöver Kanye , and Yeezer, but nothing that really touched Hardcore/Punk Rock," Justin Mayer AKA Old City wrote within a series of Facebook Messages. Just a matter of days ago, I got a cold-sent email, which started off by saying, "Old City, stage name of Philly-based musician/producer Justin Mayer, announces Black Bastards, a mash-up EP between rapper MF DOOM and Birmingham Crust Punk band Doom ." Old City is currently prepping the release of his villainous Black Bastards EP—presumably named after KMD's 1993 pre-MF DOOM album, Bl_ck B_st_rds—to be unleashed this Halloween and has been preceded by "the first and only" DOOM & Doom-melding single, "Air Crimes;" a frenzied mash-up consisting of DOOM's oft-remixed verse from Dabrye's 2006 Ghostly In...