The Witzard

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and rapper-producer Kassa Overall is a close affiliate of Kool A.D. and his now-defunct Hip-Hop crew Das Racist . I believe I first got in touch with Overall after discovering his stellar self-released Stargate mixtape, which featured him ferociously rapping over re-worked Katy Perry , Wiz Khalifia , and modern pop radio tracks, and he generously helped facilitate my 2011-12 interview with Victor Vazquez , otherwise known as Kool A.D. While he was previously signed to Vazquez's Greedhead off-shoot imprint Veehead , but since their disbanding, his current label situation is unknown. After years of preparation and recording, Kassa Overall is finally gearing up to release his first proper solo album consisting of entirely original production, which is tentatively titled Like Life , in the not so distant future; even though he's released countless group albums with PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS , TOOTHPASTE , and as an accomplished Jazz drummer has rec...

I think one of the reasons that Das Racist works so well is because of the cross-section between Heems' great appreciation for Mainstream Pop melded against Kool A.D. 's desire to be weird/ Experimental . While Nehru Jackets (January) was just a bunch of Mike Finito-produced beats made from Indian samples, WILD WATER KINGDOM is slightly more commercial... almost directly influenced by post-2001 Hip-Hop : shit like The Blueprint , Dipset, Kanye , Meek Mill , and French Montana. Heems managed to hand-select some Funky "liquified" beats from Harry Fraud , Crookers, Beautiful Lou , LE1F, Steel Tipped Dove , Mike Finito, and Keyboard Kid . "I've become in touch with my astrological signs. I'm a Cancer , and I'm a Pisces Rising for my moon [sign], so I'm pretty fucking watery. I like water a lot and this past summer, I tried to be out by the beach as much as I could. I was out on the Hamptons , I was out on Martha's Vineyard , I was ou...

While it was just announced late yesterday afternoon, WILD WATER KINGDOM is quickly shaping up to be[come] his second mixtape of 2012, and Heems has already tapped a wide array of beat-makers for possible inclusion: Diplo , Le1f, Harry Fraud , Yorrissey, " @keyboardkid206 , @beautifullou1, AND @MikeFinito ." Making a pretty un-characteristically bold move, Yorrissey (BLKHRTS) decides to employ a tricky sample pulled from Shoegaze godfathers, Echo & The Bunnymen on "Killing Time." It sounds a lot like Donnie Darko from the get-go and after a re-purposed vocal fragment [hook] plays out, Heems comes in... rapping full-force about being bored? For all intensive purposes, "Killing Time" just might be the true genesis of Slacker Rap-Rock . Along with friend-producer Yorrissey , Heems somehow manages to find the middle ground between self-loathing 80's Indie Rock and Underground Hip-Hop . Heems recently stated on Twitter that Beautiful Lou ...