The Witzard

"GOING INTO THE SPACE... I GIVE SO MUCH OF MY HEART... OPENING MYSELF UP TO THE WORLD... AS MY SOUL BECOMES PUBLIC DOMAIN, [WHICH IS] A BEAUTIFUL THING... BUT WITH THAT ALSO COMES [YOU KNOW] HATRED [AND SH*T]... I'VE HAD TO GROW THIS CALLUS [AROUND MYSELF] TO PROTECT MY HEART," vocalist, producer, DJ, and yoga teacher Sumach "Gonjasufi" Valentine warbled within a crackly, baren Warp Records message dubbed Callus (Introduction) , which additionally included a fragment of his as-yet-unreleased song, "Surfinfinity." For those who may be largely unfamiliar, Sumach 's biggest claim to fame would likely be working alongside Jay Z and producer Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshu on his genre-eschewing Magna Carta... Holy Grail (which samples "Nikels and Dimes" ) and was once described by Pitchfork Senior Editor Ryan Dombal as "a scraggly, scary, smoked-out croak that creeps like the spiritual offspring of George Clinton and Leadbe...

It's pretty awesome how wildly popular something as arguably inaccessible as Daft Punk 's sun-soaked Pharrell & Nile Rodgers -assisted 1970's Soul-Funk revival, "Get Lucky" slowly became one of the break-out hits of last summer; "Getting lucky is not just sleeping with her, but meeting someone for the first time and it just clicking. There's no better fortune in this existence to me," Pharrell explained within a pre-album Creators Project segment. Their Grammy -winning album, Random Access memories featured vocal contributions from the lies of Julian Casablancas , Panda Bear, Paul Williams , Chilly Gonzales, as well as a couple aggro-production credits on Kanye 's latest Industrial-Rap album, Yeezus . While it's true validity has yet to be 100% fully confirmed, a previously unreleased Daft Punk & Jay Z track suddenly materialized on The Internet Monday afternoon. Kanye to The forum user LordLordLord uploaded "Computer...

It almost seems wrong to [mis]label an artist as blatantly prolific and broad-spanning as Shawn "Jay Z" Carter as a mere rapper; Since he's arguably a powerful entrepreneur, businessman, record exec, sports agent, club owner, and 1/2 of a dynamic power-couple. After releasing his Samsung -backed Magna Carta... Holy Grail album on July 4th, he's once again teamed up with iconic "99 Problems" music video director Mark Romanek to create a 10-minute "Picasso Baby" performance art film. Recorded last month at Chelsea 's own Pace Gallery , Romanek's team managed to capture 40+ hours worth of film over a 6-hour period with 8 meticulously-placed cameras. Loosely inspired by a similarly-minded Marina Abramović performance-art piece, The Artist Is Present , Jay Z & Mark Romanek packed the room full of creative types, eager super-fans, and journalists including: Judd Apatow , Alan Cummings, George Condo , Rosie Perez, Fab 5 Freddy , Taraj...

Once you're able to get past the semi-absurd notion that Jay-Z decided to employ former- N'sync er Justin Timberlake to re-sing some Nirvana lyrics, "And we all just / entertainers / and we're stupid / and contagious," "Holy Grail" is actually a pretty awesome album opener/lead single contender. While Jay-Z & Beyoncé were spotted at a Grizzly Bear show pre- Blueprint 3 and Empire of The Sun frontman Luke Steele actually sang back-up vocals on that very album, it seems as though Beyoncé 's 27-year-old Indie Rock -loving little sister Solange really has quite the influence on Jay-Z 's varied musical tastes; Not only does Magna Carta Holy Grail (MCHG) feature interpolated Nirvana & R.E.M. lyrics, but it also makes use of M.I.A. and Alternative Hip-Hop weirdo Gonjasufi samples, "Bad Girls" and "Nikels and Dimes" respectively. Thanks to Samsung Galaxies , MCHG has already "sold" 1 million+ cop...

Ye, I can almost picture it now: Justin Timberlake pleading with his semi-distraught wife, Jessica Biel , "But babe, it's NOT nudity...it's art!" Billboard reports that Timberlake's latest album, The 20/20 Experience has sold 2 million+ plus copies since it's March release and previous singles, "Suit & Tie" and "Mirrors" still remain firmly fixed atop the Billboard Hot 100 . Just in time for Fourth of July Weekend , Justin Timberlake unleashed a steamy new video-single for "Tunnel Vision," which was co-directed by Jonathan Craven, Simon McLoughlin , and Jeff Nicholas . Call it a gentlemen's rivalry, if you will, but some might compare Timberlake's scantily-clad music video to Robin Thicke 's original banned-from- YouTube "Blurred Lines" clip. Although one could also argue that Thicke basically stole Timberlake's Blue-Eyed Soul musical style [SWAG] or even vice versa. "Tunnel Vision...