The Witzard

It looks like a Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) remix is most likely the closest Justin Timberlake 's ever gonna get to Indie Rock super-stardom; Besides that time he played Bon Iver on "The Prince Show" alongside in-house SNL Beyoncé & Jay-Z impersonators. The former N'SYNC crooner seems to be focusing on music full force yet again, after a 6+ year-long absence from the music industry. Justin Timberlake hosted/performed on SNL this past Saturday (joining The 5-Timers Club ) and he's guesting on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon all week, shows airing March 11-15th. In what appears to be another act of cleverly-planned promotional, Four Tet 's label-sanctioned "Suit & Tie" remix was mysteriously leaked to The Internet late Sunday night, coincidentally followed up by a superior quality version the next day. UPDATE: It's been brought to my attention that The 20/20 Experience 's complete 70-minute tracklist is now streaming on iTunes...

Freeway pretty much pulled out all the stops for his latest mixtape, Black Santa EP : rapped verses from Iman Shumpert/Rasheed Wallace (The Knicks) and champion boxer Adrien "The Problem" Broner , a clever Kenny Loggins sample, spear-heading the State Property reunion, and releasing a DOPE holiday-themed mixtape just in time for Christmas . I've always thought that Freeway was a talented, criminally under-rated emcee and over the years, he's been affiliated with powerhouse labels like Roc-a-Fella , Cash Money, Rhymesayers , and G.O.O.D. Music. Freeway 's critically acclaimed debut, Philadelphia Freeway (2003) was [executive] produced by Jay-Z , Just Blaze, and Kanye ... as well as star-studded guest features from Snoop , Mariah Carey, Peedi Crakk , Nelly, and Nate Dogg . Black Santa EP features some note-worthy production work from the likes of Jake One , Statik Selektah, DJ SNS , and Jumbo Beats; But one particular track, "Roc Re-loaded" (Re...

The New Danger (2004), Mos Def 's STELLAR Hip-Hop/Blues Rock album recorded with Funky cats from Bad Brains, Living Colour , and a few other pioneering African-American Rock bands... has to be one of my favourite albums of ALL TIME! Dante Smith has always been a stylish, righteous, socially conscious rapper, ever since forming Black Star with like-minded friend-musician, Talib Kweli in the mid-90's. Mos Def recently pulled a "Cat Stevens," whole-heartedly converting to Islam , and changed his name to Yasiin Bey . "I Don't Like" is the third release that's been slow leaked from Top 40 Underdog , Bey's upcoming G.O.O.D. Music flip of Modern Radio staples. But don't get it twisted, this surely isn't Mos Def 's first rodeo; He managed to effortlessly re-work both Jay-Z/Kanye 's "The Takeover" and Grandmaster Flash 's "The Message" (1982) on The New Danger . Chief Keef, Lil' Wayne , and T...

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...

A$AP Rocky was almost destined to one day produce Hip-Hop greatness, ever since his my named him "Rakim." Being a music blogger, I hear about a lot of different rookie emcees the average week/month/year and "Goldie" is hands down one of the fucking greatest things I've ever heard! Built around a simplistic, yet hard-hitting beat created by the same dude who brought you "Niggas In Paris" (Hit-Boy) , Rocky effortlessly coasts over the MIDI keyboard beat, ghostly vocal chants, 1-2 drum pattern, etc. The companion music video to go along with "Goldie" was self-directed by A$AP Rocky , along with fashion designer Alexander Wang , on location across Paris, France . In all reality, Hit-Boy 's nearly-flawless "Goldie" beat is essentially worth nearly $3 million, since it might as well be A$AP Rocky 's first major release since signing with Polo Music Group way back in Fall 2011. I don't know what I really even specifica...

Ancient Egypt was quite the area of interest for this guy right here was back in grade school... pyramids, King Tut , mummies, scarabs, The Nile, Spinx , etc. Frank Ocean really seems to share the same mutual admiration for Egypt , as his new 10-minute opus is affectionately titled "Pyramids." Friday [June 9th] was a BIG day for Mr. Ocean! It was later revealed that a mysterious trailer which was leaked in the early morning hours in fact contained both a new track and proper album release date; channel ORANGE , Frank Ocean 's long-awaited debut LP, is finally slated to be unveiled on Def Jam July 17th. John Mayer supposedly managed to string together a guitar solo for "Pyramids'" mid-song tempo/stylistic shift. Fresh off the heels of some Coldplay support dates, Frank Ocean announced his first full-fledged solo tour: Seattle-Chicago , running from July-early August. I guess it's pretty safe to assume that "Thinking About You" will re-...

And I'm back from a nice, relaxing weekend getaway to Ocean City, MD : friends, cars, chicken, girls, beer, scooters, sun rays, etc. But it's great to finally be back home in good ol' Jersey ! Upon my re-entry to The Inter-web earlier this evening, I was pleasantly surprised with 3 FRESH Cocaine 80s tracks, which were slowly unveiled over the past 3 days. "This Can't Be a Crime," "Queen to Be," and "Take My Keys" were recently recorded by Chicago mega-producer, No I.D. While Cocaine 80s' choice nom de plume might implies a certain level of excess and debauchery, their collective musical output is far from it... Cocaine 80s is a Chicago -based group of talented behind-the-scenes players, which includes the likes of James Fauntleroy , Kevin Randolph, Rob Kinelski, Steve Wyreman , and Makeba . Since quietly forming roughly 1 year ago, the loose collective has released 2 digital projects, The Pursuit EP and Ghost Lady EP . The att...

(1) I really dig the high concept, mysterious/vagueness & Frank Ocean cameo behind "Thinking About You!" But the video might be a little hard for some viewers to follow... Can you please walk us through it's perceived concept? No way... The video is how it is, the intention is for the viewer to pull the meaning that they want from the video. To us, explaining it would sort of ruin the concept and self relate-able emotion that is evoked in most people. (2) I remember when "Thinking About You" was originally uploaded to Vimeo & then Def Jam soon yanked it. What made then now decide to adopt it as the track's Official Music Video? No idea, we were just as surprised yesterday when we saw it popping up all over the internet. (3) How did you guys initially get in touch with Frank Ocean to film his cameo? While small, his role as a nurse seems pretty pivotal to the video's overall concept. How much input did he really have in "Thinking About You...

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 ...

Mysterious, Hip-Hop -loving Dream Pop duo, jj burst onto the Indie music scene sometime back in 2009. Elin & Joakim soon inked a deal with Sweden -based label, Sincerely Yours . In a similar vein to Nine Inch Nails' "Halo" system, each of jj 's major releases thusfar have been labeled, "jj n° 1-3." My personal favourite jj project, "kills" was quietly liberated over Christmas Break 2010-11; Elin & Joakim 's interpretation of "the mixtape" was pretty similar to the American ideal... and featured 10 well-done, lush flips of a handful of 2010's most Popular hits: Dr. Dre, Taio Cruz , M.I.A. Jay-Z , T-Pain, Diddy-Dirty Money , and Kanye. jj essentially released an album's-worth of complementary material online over the course of 2011, some of which may [or may not] eventually end up re-appearing on "jj n° 4" (IN ETERNITY) . A few weeks ago, I emailed a batch of 10 questions over to jj and just th...