The Witzard

"Steel Tipped Dove is a music producer and recording engineer in Brooklyn, NY who has the skills and desire to service your audio needs from vocal recordings, song mixing, podcasting, video scoring, etc. He has done work for Armand Hammer (billy woods & ELUCID,) Kool A.D. PremRock, Quelle Chris, SHIRT, and many more talented Underground Hip-Hop emcees. Hit him up at steeltippeddove.com . Here are three albums that were extremely influential on my overall style and sound:" cui bono by Steel Tipped Dove I. Viktor Vaughn (AKA MF DOOM) - Vaudeville Villain (2003) "This sh*t sounds like a movie. It's astonishing. I once took 'shrooms and sat in the room with the lights out and just watched DOOM walk around, go up and down these golden staircases—hitting the walls and sh*t to make the beats. The production on this album is so wild and detailed, it's incredible. If DOOM put this album out in 2025, it would feel brand new. "A Dead Mouse" really s...

I just turned 25 a few months ago, but " Tumblr rappers" like kitty pryde really make me feel like a terribly out-of-touch old man! Thanks to my older cousins, I was raised on a steady diet of Wu-Tang Clan , No Doubt, Beastie Boys , Blink-182, Now #1-5 , Red Hot Chili Peppers , Biggie, Sublime , etc. The 20-year-old, freckle-faced songstress manages to shout out " CHEETAH GIRLS , HILLARY DUFF, JUSTIN BIEBER , S-CLUB 7, ATOMIC KITTEN & CLAIRE'S INC." on her Facebook Influences section; AKA a bunch of 90's-bred shit that I'd really be surprised if she was actually influenced by, cause I was about 11 in 1998 (S-Club 7) , but maybe. Bottom line, a lot of kitty 's [sarcastic] Tumblr-fied inside jokes and punchlines fly right over my head. I guess that 5-year age gap really does make a difference sometimes! Like what's up with all these weird acronyms? - D.A.I.S.Y. Rage EP and R.R.E.A.M. = Rash Rules Everything Around Me . I mean, I get the...

(1) What's up, Kassa & TECLA!? First off, it's a pretty bold statement releasing your first mini-collection on the last day of the world! Was that intentional or just completely random? Nothing is unintentional. 2) How would you guys describe the overall sound of CABIN IN THE WOODS EP? What sorta music influenced it's creation, cause it's pretty unique sounding! Both of us come from musical backgrounds with extremely wide varieties. TECLA went from Classically trained pianist to Punk Rock front-girl, and Kassa went from Jazz drum virtuoso to mosh-pitting rapper so... When stuck in a cabin in the woods together, I guess this is what came out. (3) Let's just say today is the end of the world, for arguments sake... What are your plans for the day/night, all things considered? Same thing we do every day, pinky... (4) Is the apocalypse a running theme on CABIN IN THE WOODS EP and if not, what were you going for? We didn't actually have a theme. ...

Let's face it, most of us in our mid-20-30's have probably "stumbled" our way into a couple sleazy strip joints by now. I've had my fair share of alcohol-fueled, cigar-accented conversations with shot girls about Portugal The Man and even an unexpected run-in with Joey Fatone (all in one night)! It sounds like Meyhem Lauren has chronicled a vaguely familiar experience on "10 Dollar Lap Dances." Released just in time for the season's traditional festivities, Mr. Thanksgiving himself laments about his [least] favourite gentlemen's club, which has an all-hours buffet, but still doesn't warrant his tips. Lauren and producer-friend Harry Fraud "walk in the dirtbag spot, shit down, and proceed to do wrong." He must've learned a thing or 2 about fine dining from chef-turned-rapper Action Bronson , who's featured on Mandatory Brunch Meetings (December 6th). Numbers-wise, it's guest list doesn't really seem to stack ...

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...

It kinda seems like Weekend Money were added to the Das Racist/Union Transfer bill in the final hour" ... But man, they've gotta be the TIGHTEST rap crew I've never heard of! Ne$$ & Baghdaddy proceeded to [brutally] open the show and were followed up by fellow Greedhead labelmates: SAFE, Lakutis , and flamboyant rapper LE1F . Impose Magazine goes on to cleverly point out that this is NOT the same Ness that Diddy notoriously sent across the frozen Brooklyn Bridge to buy a cheesecake on Making The Band 2 . Weekend Money Ne$$ was born and raised in Philly and is now co-aligned with politically conscious Hip-Hop group, dead prez . Since immigrating 1/2 way across the world, DJ Baghdaddy has been able to learn/produce under the wing of seasoned Roots beatsmith, Hot Sugar . Ne$$ had a chance meeting with Baghdaddy @ a party; While he had never produced a Hip-Hop beat before, the 2 ended up vibing pretty well... melding together Hip-Hip & Electro att...

Ikechi Nnamani decided to head to Nigeria for "Winter Break" [2011-12] in a combined effort to take a much needed break from UPenn , visit with family & friends, and simply de-stress a bit. It's 16 rudimentary Boom-Bap beats were largely recorded on laptop programs in a grass hut... likely adding to the album's overall "Old School" aesthetic. While they were originally released back in April , kechPhrase & Veehead issued a slightly re-packaged re-relased version of Kechstrumentals: Live from Nigeria, Tape 1 earlier today. Mishka is currently hosting a stream-able player containing the complete mixtape; So far, kechPhrase 's beats have been [or will be] rapped over and further embellished by Kool A.D. Fat Tony, Epic, Bill Ding, Chakuza (Germany) , and a few other talented wordsmiths. Pretty sample-heavy and chock-full of strings, synth flourishes, 808 drum patterns, and vocal excerpts... Kechstrumentals is definitely worth checking out! S...

Hyperbolic Chamber Music is essentially one long, free-form 22-minute-long posse cut commissioned by Mishka NYC and [entirely] produced by Ryan Hemsworth . Amongst it's included 27 up-and-comers are: MondreM.A.N. Squadda B, Kool A.D. Big Baby Gandhi , Fat Tony , and Shady Blaze . Average Russian-American John Q. Public and Das Racist -affiliated rapper, Aleksey "Lakutis" Weintraub appears @ some point during "Hyperbolic Chamber Music" 's latter 1/2. Lakutis' 2-3 bars have since been segmented into "Pool Party," which now has it's own companion music video... directed by Das Racist and Battles members, Dapwell and [drummer] John Strainer . Roughly a 2-minute affair, "Pool Party" comes off as weirdly low budget D.I.Y. yet surprisingly endearing and heart-felt. Dapwell manages to employ a gaggle of go-to camera tricks: swanky furniture, flashing lights, an e-cigarette, geometric shapes, and "explosive" stock ...

Himanshu "Heems" K. Suri is really the only [rapping] person who can ACTUALLY pull off sounding so smart/dumb all @ once, without coming off as a complete and total toolbag. It almost seems like "WOMYN," which was the premier track debuted from Nehru Jackets (June) and still my personal favourite... is being told through the voice of Saved By The Bell 's very own "AC Slater." Indeed, yet another fine Pop Culture reference from America 's favourite brown Indie Hip-Hopper ! Remember that one time that Jessie told him that girls don't like being called "chicks" and would much rather prefer "women" instead? Well, this is kinda like after that, when Slater [trying his absolute best] continued to use "women" in the totally wrong tense. OK well, maybe that last part didn't really happen on Saved By The Bell . But it's highly plausible and that what Heems & Mike Finito Lakutis proceed to do here, an...