The Witzard

"Nothin' leftover so I came back to the land with my homie Lil B and half of my bands... No sleep, stayin' up real late with my mans and out in Chicago droppin' sh*t off the top. They thought after Surf this sh*t would just stop. What's their problem? What's, what's their problem?" former Kids These Days affiliate and Kanye -influenced Chi-town emcee Chance The Rapper ferociously rhymes on "Last Dance"'s introductory bars; having previously described his 6-track Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape) recorded with eccentric Internet personality/rapper and motivational speaker Lil B as a "full-fledged album... it's a classic... it's a masterpiece." Free was supposedly recorded in one marathon day-long session, prior to Chance 's performance at last month's Pitchfork Music Festival , with completely off the dome bars and absolutely no pre-written verses "made the moment [they] met." " @chancether...

Not only did he appear within a self-satirical SNL 40 Wayne's World sketch dealing with last weekend's Album of The Year winner Beck 's near GRAMMY's acceptance speech-shattering events, Kanye additionally performed an emotional three-song medley towards the end of last night's 40th anniversary primetime special; Kanye appeared on stage, laying sprawled out across the stage floor under a dimly lit/low-hanging ceiling set-up performing "Jesus Walks" into a microphone dangling above his head. West slowly arose for the second segment of his medley — a fragmented chunk of his recent genre-blending collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney , "Only One" (suspiciously sans McCartney). For the third and final portion of his SNL 40 performance, Kanye was joined on stage by former Kids These Days emcee Vic Mensa and mysterious "Chandelier" songstress and in-demand producer, Sia for a dark, brooding animalistic performance of "Wol...

It's pretty safe to say that Chance The Rapper is quite easily the best thing to come out of Chicago since Kanye was a virtually unknown producer, making Soulful beats for Blueprin t-era Jay-Z . His latest mixtape, Acid Rap is 13 tracks-worth of sheer drug-fueled Psych-Rap weirdness; at just 19, Chance has already worked with now defunct Kids These Days , Hannibal Buress, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League , Nosaj Thing, Action Bronson , Twista, Jake-One , Childish Gambino, Ab-Soul , Blended Babies, etc. After the nearly insta-success of Acid Rap , Lil' Wayne 's people recently came a'calling for Chance The Rapper and co-producers Nate Fox, Peter Cottontale & Cam to conjure up a collaborative track. Nate Fox recounted the almost unbelievable scenario to Complex just the other day: " Chance texted me saying, "Come to the studio at 11." I get there at 11, and it's me and Peter, Cam, Chance , and Pat , and everybody's there. And he pulls us ...

Kids These Days are a bunch of super-talented, surprisingly Bluesy 18-20-somethings hailing from Chicago . The group which is fronted by MC Vic Mensa are headed out on a nation-wide tour this Fall with Asher Roth & Chuck Inglish ... includes young talent: Macie Stewart , Nico Segal, J.P. Floyd, Lane Beckstrom, Greg Landfair Jr , and Liam Cunningham . I think it's pretty safe to classify Kids These Days as a "Free Jazz" band, but they've also recorded music with Blended Babies , Chuck Inglish, The O'My's , and Asher Roth. It really boils down to being a Hip-Hop -infused style of Jazz that vaguely reminds me of The Roots or N*E*R*D 's instrumental chops. They're currently working with Wilco main man Jeff Tweedy , putting the final touches on Traphouse Rock LP, which'll finally see a [FREE] release on "Halloween Eve," Oct. 30th. Kids These Days premiered our latest taste of the album, "Who Do U-Luv?" online @ ...

Just in case you didn't already know, the 2012 Olympic Games kick off "across the pond" [ London ] this upcoming Friday night. In honor of the 2 week-long sporting event(s) and related festivities, Mick Boogie teamed up with Hypetrak to piece together Represent The Stripes ; an 18-track mixtape partially inspired by adidas Originals ' recently unveiled #represent campaign. "Midget Cough" features a hand-crafted beat from Party Supplies that slithers under a bunch of crazy-ass Action Bronson rhymes. Sonically, it sounds like either a Blue Chips left-over and/or an early preview of Blue Chips 2 . But God only knows where this one will finally end up! Man, I gotta admit, nearly all of Party Supplies' beats on Blue Chips were top-notch and Action Bronson really shone through all those damn guest rappers spread across Respect The Fly Shit (Meyhem Lauren) just a few months back. "Midget Cough" somehow manages to effortlessly reference ...

The Roots became Jimmy Fallon 's in-house band [comedic relief] when Late Night originally kicked off back in 2009. All the while, they've still somehow managed to produce 2 studio albums (How I Got Over & undun) , as well as supply session work for John Legend , Duffy, Booker T. D'Angelo , and the late Amy Winehouse . ?uestlove recently became little Blue Ivy 's godfather and started a road-side food service truck, "Quest Loves Food." Since re-discovering this new-found sense of fame that came along with their 13th full-length album, The Roots have been asked to curate 2 separate yearly festivals: The Roots Picnic and July 4th Jam (Philly). One of the first BIG festivals of Summer [concert] season, The 5th Annual Roots Picnic is actually taking place this upcoming weekend - June 2 & 3rd. The Legendary Roots Crew will be playing a full "solo" set, backing De La Soul , and re-creating Paid In Full with Eric B. & Rakim ; They al...

While on a recent holiday [trip] to "The Windy City," Action Bronson managed to link up with a number of Chicago 's finest up-and-coming musicians: Dangerously accurate rapper Rockie Fresh , sultry songstress Macie Stewart (Kids These Days) , and talented beatsmith Thelonious Martin . Bronsellini proceeds to lace up a descriptive tale of passion, lust, and debauchery over Martin's sparse Jazzy , brass-tinged beat... which is effectively bookended by a modest helping of Rockie Fresh's SWAGGER-filled flow and a dash of Macie Stewart 's Soulfully smooth croon. Quite aptly titled "Dear Heather," the sum of it's various parts essentially equate the story of a joyous fan encounter a la Eminem 's nearly 12-year-old hit, "Stan," but this time complete with a foxy little lady! Action Bronson & Friends' collaborative track is slated to appear on Ruby Hornet 's upcoming compilation, "Closed Sessions" (Vol. 2) . F...

I must admit, that in addition to becoming quite the talented rhymesmith... Asher Roth has also managed to become "The Master of Ambiguity," as of late. His latest effort, Pabst & Jazz (Sessions) was released earlier today to positive fan-fare, without a single premature leak; Aside from a couple planned "leaks" [promo singles], even the mixtape's tracklist was kept under lock and key up until today's wide-spread release. Pabst & Jazz marks a new direction for Roth... uncharted territory, which is laid back, Soulful , and Jazzy ! In fact, 14 of it's 16 tracks were produced by mysterious production duo, "Blended Babies." Chuck Inglish (The Cool Kids), 1500 or Nothin' , and Asher Roth himself also contribute slight production chops. Pabst & Jazz is a truly great mixtape; What a diverse batch of top-notch "Soul" baring recordings! After a few complete listens, I really can't pinpoint a skip-able track in the ...