The Witzard

"We've been getting a lot of questions about a collaborative album that Madlib & Mac Miller supposedly created. Here's the real story: What exists is what the two had originally intended—an EP's worth of music that was supposed to be the start of something. The end point wasn't planned out or even discussed. The idea was to create for creation's sake. The two met after Mac recorded the last verse on Freddie Gibbs' Piñata album. By early, 2015 Mac had batches of Madlib's beats and was recording songs. The two ate tacos at Eagle Rock's Cacao Mexicatessen and discussed ideas. Madlib played one of Mac's tracks in July of 2016 at a European festival and Egon texted Mac to tell him; "Whaaat, what song, why isn't there any video evidence!!!" was the reply. Followed by "Let's do an EP." This process continued throughout 2017, as Mac got the latest beat batches, continued recording, and continued his commitment to th...

"The band we know as Phony Ppl is a mix of people, time, and sound that's been nurtured over generations in Brooklyn " currently consisting of members: Elbee Thrie on vocals, Elijah Rawk on lead guitar, Matt "Maffyuu" Byas on drums, Aja Grant on keyboards, and Bari Bass on, of course, bass guitar. Since forming in 2009—amidst self-releasing 3 albums and an EP on Phony PPL LLC — Phony Ppl have had the unique opportunity to perform alongside Domo Genesis , Erykah Badu, Fetty Wap , Kali Uchis, Mac Miller , Odd Future, Princess Nokia , The Roots, Snake Hips , and more. Now, following a brief hiatus, Phony Ppl have returned with their first new material since Yesterday's Tomorrow (2015.) Last week, okayplayer premiered "Before You Get a Boyfriend," which effortlessly blends together Soul , Funk, Hip-Hop , and R&B-leaning sounds into a "noGENRE" musical mix the site deems "an ice-cold summer daydream." Phony Ppl '...

Flying Lotus' latest Warp Records -released creation, You're Dead! features a wide array of contributions from an unlikely gamut of collaborators including Kendrick Lamar , Snoop Dogg, Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock , Angel Deradoorian, frequent collaborator Thundercat , and even Lotus' own rapping alter-ego Captain Murphy; but according to a flurry of late night Tweets the other night, for whatever reasons, additional tracks recorded with super-star guests Pharrell , Chance The Rapper, Mac Miller , and supplementary Kendrick Lamar material were ultimately scrapped. Aside from dwelling on what could have been... Flying Lotus unleashed the first Lamar-assisted single from You're Dead! , "Never Catch Me" nearly one week prior to the album's release, last Wednesday, October 1st. It's an oddly heartwarming life-affirming, death-defying clip, which only showcases a brief milli-second glimpse of Steven Ellison (Lotus) himself, who's quietly seated ...

While The Cool Kids have barely scratched the surface of their recent Retro-Rap return to form, rapper-producer Chuck Inglish is still planning to soldier ahead with his long-rumored album, Convertibles ; now coincidentally complete with an April 8th release on Dave Sitek 's newly-formed Federal Prism imprint. Chance The Rapper , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , Ab-Soul, buddy Sir Michael Rocks , and more are set to appear deep within. Federal Prism and Inglish's own Sounds Like Fun label unleashed a double-hitter of singles Thursday afternoon: "Legs" and "Came Thru/Easily" assisted by Chromeo , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul (respectively). Chuck Inglish, Dave 1 & P-Thugg have almost seamlessly melded together their separate styles to create the buttery smooth Disco-Funk/Hip-Hop hybrid, now also known as "Legs." Although I must admit, genre-blending collaborations like these don't always end up sounding as good as they might seem on p...

I mean... we just don't really post tracklists around these parts; It's kinda like a striptease, cause you can look but can't touch [or in this case, hear] anything ha. Although Queens emcee Action Bronson is generally the one exception to the rule(s). @ActionBronson leaked the tracklist for what he's dubbed "THE MOST INCREDIBLE PIECE OF ART EVER CREATED, I SWEAR," Blue Chips 2 early Thursday morning. Wholly produced by Bronson cohort Party Supplies , Blue Chips 2 will supposedly see a guerrilla-style FREElease on "The First Day it rains in NOVEMBER" "WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE DAYS OF NOVEMBER... NO MATTER WHAT." It's 19-song screen-capped tracklist boasts a gaggle of tasteful features from the likes of hype-man Big Body Bes , Meyhem Lauren, Mac Miller , Ab-Soul, and a certain "Legendary Special Guest In Which We Can't Disclose." While it's unclear as to whether or not Bronson's recently previewed Tracy Chapma...

While they've released 2 quick-strike 12" EP's together, there's always been an underlying promise of a larger Madlib & Freddie Gibbs project: "Cocaine Piñata." Even though it still has a "due later this year" loose release date, we now have a tentative guest list: Raekwon , Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown , Domo Genesis, Joey Bada$$ , Ab-Soul, BJ The Chicago Kid , Meech (Flatbush Zombies), Casey Veggies , Mac Miller, Polyester The Saint , and G-Wiz. Adult Swim 's own Williams Street Records imprint has unleashed a non-album (or possible Cocaine Piñata ) track, "City" with Karriem Riggins , which they uploaded to Soundcloud earlier today, slightly ahead of it's Monday Internet -wide release. For what it's worth, "City" also kinda duals as an unofficial Supreme Team reunion; Madlib & Karriem Riggins' long-defunct golden era Hip-Hop revival crew that's only ever put out a few stellar hard-to...

Diplo has been a very busy man lately; a full-length with Snoop Lion , that new Major Lazer record, produced a track for Mac Miller , formed an audio-video channel with Skrillex & A-Trak , etc. Sometimes it's pretty easy to forget that Thomas Wesley "Diplo" Pentz is a former Philly teacher who just so happened to single-handedly pioneer Hip-Hop/Dancehall/Moombahton/Dubstep . Fully employing his Major Lazer alter-ego, Diplo 's latest creation is a remix of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' recent mega-hit single, "Can't Hold Us." Diplo then recruited 1st Klase to re-work to Hip-Pop beat into an Island riddim, which Trinidad -based rapper Swappi 4D proceeds to lyrically shred to pieces! Essentially, all that remains from the original are that Microsoft Outlook piano lick and Ray Dalton 's smooth "Can we go back, this is the moment. Tonight is the night" central hook. Macklemore 's verses seem a little haphazardly sprea...

Headed into Philly on a whim with my buddy Mike last night (Friday), speeding down 676 and over The Ben Franklin Bridge . Kanye 's site listed 22 new projection cities across America/Europe , including 3 planned Philly locations; Eastern State Penitentiary 's guerrilla-style showing was listed as 10:30-11:30. I called up my girlfriend once we got there, which was around 11:10 and only waited about 10-15 minutes longer amongst a group of roughly 100+ people trying to decide which side of the street to stand on. A black panel van with some sort of New York labeling pulled up and after knocking into someone's truck, pulled out a generator and started setting up as the crowd got more and more restless, starting to block the oncoming late night traffic. Kanye 's so damn obnoxious... like who would really think to project their face on building sides across the world from 9-12 @ night!? It's almost like he's gotten progressively crazier since The College Dropout...

While he's arguably years past his heyday, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers really set the stage for white-bred rappers and seems to have inspired a whole new generation's-worth of angry young white men: Atmosphere , Macklemore, RiFF RAFF , Asher Roth , Mac Miller, Action Bronson , etc. Mac Miller just never really seemed interesting enough for me to wanna check out. But it looks like he's starting to align himself with a slew of genuinely skilled rappers/producers that includes Earl Sweatshirt , Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs , Hodgy Beats, ScHoolboy Q , Thundercat, Pharrell , and executive producer Diplo. Mac Miller 's become a lot more interesting since he started releasing material under his assorted Larry Fisherman , Larry Dollaz, and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival aliases, too. We're talkin' about beautiful Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith covers, hard-hitting Hip-Hop beats, a 5-track Jazz EP, and an instrumental mixtape called Run-on Sentences (...

Maybe Earl Sweatshirt really was locked up in a Samoan juvenile detention center from 2010-12 or maybe he was just "chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool" for a while. Whatever the real deal was, Odd Future 's 19-year-old protegee is back and after a string of non-album loosies, he's finally prepping his long-awaited sophomore album. Doris is rumored to feature production work from Pharrell , Flying Lotus , BADBADNOTGOOD , Samiyam, The Alchemist , Christian Rich... and guest vocals/instrumentals from Thundercat , Frank Ocean, DOOM , Om'mas Keith, Action Bronson , and his fellow Odd Future cohorts. Earl Sweatshirt quietly released "WHOA" late Monday-Tuesday night and eventually proceeded to break The Internet; Tyler, The Creator contributes a few ferocious bars, as well as directorial duties [Wolf Haley] for it's terribly AWESOME zonked out music video. I mean, getting introspective and deep is cool and all... But I can really...

Talib Kweli 's latest mixtape, Attack The Block is a loose [street] album that's loosely based around a British Sci-Fi Thriller of the same name (2011). Kweli does his best to bridge that gap, effectively re-appropriating film dialog for his intro track, "Attack The Block!!!" Talib Kweli has always been a fairly active, politically- conscious rapper ever since he first burst onto the scene with Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998). Surprisingly, Attack The Block was actually released a few weeks earlier than expected... on Sept. 3rd, Labor Day Weekend instead of Sept. 18th. Co-presented along with DJ Z-Trip , the mixtape really is a generous offering - 18 tracks deep, 6 solo Kweli raps. It looks like Talib Kweli has managed to rope in some serious favors and scored guest verses from Black Thought , Skyzoo, Das Racist , Lil' Wayne, Killer Mike , Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ryan Leslie , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul ... In addition to production work fro...

When Instrumentals first dropped last year, it had that underlying "something great is going to happen" sort of feel and now a year later, on the heels of Instrumentals 2 , something great HAS indeed happened! Even when just looking @ it's commercial reception, Instrumentals achieved leaps and bounds for an independent online release; The collection was eventually label-released and re-mastered. This homegrown success is essentially what allowed Clams Casino to make the type of high-profile beats that he's managed to create in recent months. Gaining dual acceptance into both mainstream/underground circles has allowed Mike Volpe [Clams] the chance to work with Lil B , Soulja Boy, Florence + The Machine , G-Side , The Jealous Guys, and Big K.R.I.T. In fact, most of the instrumentals featured across Instrumentals 2 have been stripped down and re-purposed as vocal-less edits. These tracks previously housed either A$AP Rocky , The Weeknd, Lana del Rey , Squadda B , W...