The Witzard

Brelstaff & Justo The MC have released a new track together today called "Swagu." Supposedly, critics are already saying stuff like, "This is very cool," "Where'd ya find this?" "It's fire," and "It's a classic, son." The newly-minted rapper/producer duo describe themselves as an "unlikely duo of Brooklyn MC Justo and... some idiot from Scotland called Brelstaff." Justo The MC has released projects with producers Elbe Kim, Ocho Vazquez, The Lost Info, maticulous, The Sicarioz, and DK. Brelstaff, on the other hand, has self-released a multitude of solo projects, beat tapes, etc. entitled Beats from Many Moons Ago, Vol. 1, In Human Terms (Beat Tape,) and "Familia," as well as Brelstaff on Vinyl Digital, between about 2020 and 20...37. Swagu (Prod. by Brelstaff) by Justo the MC "Swagu" boasts a dusty, scratch/soundbite-filled beat hand-crafted that sound slike it could have been used by...

John Morrison Diggin' for Records (CREDIT: D1L0) John "Liberator" Morrison is a self-proclaimed "Writer/DJ/Sample-flipper" hailing from Philly. Morrison is the host of Serious Rap Sh!t & Culture Cypher Radio and lists NPR Music , okayplayer, The Wire Magazine , and Bandcamp amongst his writing credits. John Morrison , additionally, functions as a Hip-Hop emcee and producer with remix credits on Lushlife 's MY IDOLS ARE DEAD + MY ENEMIES ARE IN POWER and Career Crooks' Thieving As Long As I'm Breathing . Morrison's debut full-length project, Southwest Psychedelphia was released on Deadverse Recordings in 2016 and there's currently a slew of remixes, flips, and non-album tracks uploaded to his Bandcamp page. However, in recent years, John Morrison has been on a bit of a hiatus/medical leave... as Morrison himself puts it, "on March 3, 2018, I was hospitalized with Flu-like symptoms and a searing headache. After nearly two weeks...

ZAIRISMS (vol 1) by Ila Zair Since conducting and publishing our 2016 Deconstructed Ego-centric interview, I've been in contact with Jaubi guitarist and producer Ali Riaz Baqar every couple weeks; he's been painstakingly writing, recording, and meticulously re-arranging his Hip-Hop-minded solo debut as Ila Zair ("Ali Riaz" backwards.) While Ali Riaz Baqar has been fine-tuning his premier release, Jaubi's The Deconstructed Ego EP has garnered wide-spread acclaim from the likes of Bandcamp Daily , Beat Tape Co-Op, Flea Market Funk, Music Is MY Sanctuary, and Stones Throw. With their Astigmatic Records-released EP, Jaubi have single-handedly introduced the Hip-Hop-loving world to a unique brand of Experimental Pakistani Instrumental Hip-Hop, largely due to their critically-acclaimed cover of J Dilla's "Time: The Donut of The Heart." I've personally heard at least three different versions of Baqar's self-produced beat tape, which through the m...

Creative Director Kyle Tierce (Dr. Quandary) with some final words on World Around Records: "One of the things we had always really enjoyed putting together, and which had also always been hugely successful, was our annual We Are World Around compilation series. Starting in 2010, we made it a tradition to kick off each new year by releasing a collection of new material from our roster and our extended family. We'd invite the whole gang, as well as whoever else we might be digging or working with at the time, to throw down some exclusive music, which we'd then weave together to create a tracklist. It was always amazing how well they would come together—in hindsight, they always sounded pretty polished and cohesive, even though they weren't pre-planned in terms of theme or whatever. We Are World Around, Vol. 6 wasn't any different. Within a couple days of emailing everyone, we had already received something like seven tracks, so we were well on our way to having ...

"My temple is half gun metal, other half Buddha smoke and coke sold to runnin' rebels, watch the devil," Philly -based emcee and writer Zilla Rocca ferociously quips within his latest Son Raw -produced throwback single, "98 Avirex Flow." Zilla shared a bit of information about its genesis and inception, via email: "I made this song after listening to a lot of Scaramanga 's classic album Seven Eyes, Seven Horns . I've always been a fan of Five-[percenter] Rap and I came up as an emcee in 1997-98, so I wanted to pay homage to that style. My man Son Raw sent me that beat probably 7-8 years ago and it always had that Raekwon/Terror Squad vibe to it. I never knew what to do with it, but I always wanted to use it. So, one day for fun, I thought "what would I sound like, if I wrote a straight up 1998 East Coast Rap verse?" There's some [Kool] G Rap in there, some Nas/AZ/Raekwon/Prodigy , and obviously, Scaramanga and Big Pun . I...

"Jaubi is a collective of musicians hailing from Lahore, Pakistan who aim to create whatever sounds good and whatever feels good. The emphasis is on amalgamating different musical styles such as Indian Classical music, Jazz, and Hip-Hop into short musical pieces," producer, guitarist, and kalimba player Ali Riaz Baqar wrote within a recent emailed statement. Jaubi (جو بھی) is an urdu word, which roughly translates to "whatever;" a sentiment that has directly influenced their band mantra of "creating whatever sounds good and whatever feels good." I recently stumbled upon Jaubi while researching for a then as-yet-unpublished interview with Basement Donuts mastermind and She's So Rad frotnman Jeremy Toy. Stones Throw wrote, within their piece titled LEONARD CHARLES - BASEMENT DONUTS - J DILLA TRIBUTE: "our friend DJ Mehdi, who passed away in 2011, was among the first to create a whole album inspired by Donuts, his 2006 mixtape Loukoums. The Roots g...

"'[PROJECT 2] is a concept mixtape that covers the themes of fame, isolation, Armageddon, suicide, immortality, dark magick, and Christian mysticism. "Glass Half Empty" is the mid-point of this story and deals primarily with the emotion of helplessness... How do you see the glass? Can you see it any other way? Will my visions ever change? [PROJECT 2] on the horizon," self-described Occult Hip-Hop emcee Mahatma Crowley wrote within recent Facebook and Soundcloud statements... Mahatma Crowley's ghoulish delivery vaguely reminds me of his grizzled barking predecessors DMX, Ja Rule, Rick Ross, Yeezus-era Kanye, and at times, even Death Grips' frenzied frontman MC Ride. "Upon first hearing Crowley & The Beholder's Trinity's latest single, "Glass Half Empty" this past moon-lit Saturday evening, I was instantly reminded of his fellow Horrorcore peers Flatbush Zombies—who recently, for whatever reasons, played The Tonight Show Starri...

Chicago-bred writer Ronnie Reese has had the unique opportunity to pen a number of Stones Throw on-site press releases – including Mayer Hawthorne, WHITE BOIZ, Myron & E, and Tony Cook – J Dilla's online biography, countless pieces for Wax Poetics, a number of Blue Note re-issues, and Dilla's posthumous 2007 Ruff Draft EP re-issue; although, Reese very well may have just written the single most important pieces of his career... the expansive liner notes for Now-Again's recently assembled compilation of Dilla's long-lost "MCA album," now re-titled THE DIARY . J Dilla's nixed MCA album, otherwise formerly known as "Pay Jay," would have featured outsourced production work from the likes of House Shoes, Nottz, Karriem Riggins, Hi-Tek, Madlib, and Pete Rock and is arguable, as coveted by Hip-Hop heads as a beat-laden version of The Beach Boys' long-fabled and heavily bootlegged SMiLE. I've recently been in contact with Ronnie Reese, whose...

" Dilla spent the better part of 2002 working on an album for MCA that featured his rapping over contributions from other producers with whom he had connected and whose music he respected. At the time, he was known primarily for his beats, yet reviled for his [emceeing] by mist anyone not from his hometown of Detroit . The project was to be an intentional freak of the industry," Chicago writer and film-maker Ronnie Reese wrote within his liner notes accompanying Stones Throw 's 2007 expanded re-issue of Ruff Draft EP . J Dilla 's ultimately scrapped and indefinitely shelved '02 MCA Album , or "Pay Jay," as it's long been referred, was recorded between his widely underrated BBE solo debut Welcome 2 Detroit and adventurous stylistic shift that materialized across Ruff Draft EP during his relocation from Detroit to LA . " Dilla had agreed to a one-year contract on MCA with an option for a second, provided he produced two accepted releas...

"[ "42" is] a song that's literally been in-the-making for over a decade. Wanted to flip this sample since '05 and I finally brought it to a producer and got the job done," Ukrainian-American rapper Your Old Droog , who was widely speculated to be Nas alias at first, recently told Complex upon the premier of his "42 (Forty Deuce)" music video. It was produced by Marco Polo and Droog himself, who together, somehow managed to expertly flip a sample of Nu Shooz 's 1984 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart No.1, "I Can't Wait." "42" was proceeded by its frenzied @CLEOFUS -designed single artwork about two weeks prior, which featured Your Old Droog front and center in an Elmo costume surrounded by a bunch of eclectic New Yorkers , but now, along with his Jonah Schwartz -directed video, makes a lot more sense in retrospect. "It's about a special place that I really used to frequent back in the days. The vi...

"I'm the epitome of all fly sh*t — jacket to the shoe sole / Two shooters, Flanagan, Caruso / Fly girl stuffed the drug in her caboose-o / "I see Bronson in the chartreuse coupe mo" / My eyes sparkle like a diva's mirror," charismatic sharp-tongued emcee Action Bronson effortlessly rhymes atop producer Tommy Mas' thumping James Bond -esque "Driving Gloves" beat; similar to a Jaylib -style double rapper-producer Underground Hip-Hop pairing, The Alchemist & Oh No are currently preparing to release their third full-length Gangrene album since initially forming back in 2007. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca [2012] left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz, Rock , and Fusion -tinged beats," reads a recent Mass Appeal Records press release, which effectively describes Mas' brooding, Surfaris "Wipe Out" -leaning production work. Est...

"Fresh off the heels of compiling a musically diverse compilation for GTAV 's Welcome to Los Santos , The Alchemist and Oh No are back, bringing their Gangrene noise on a whole other level with the release of their long-awaited third full-length record You Disgust Me ," Gangrene 's Nas -fronted label, Mass Appeal Records described in the Hip-Hop duo's latest Soundcloud press release. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz , Rock and Fusion -tinged beats;" not limited to, but including samples of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and 1960-70's Dutch Blues-Rock band, Shocking Blue . Frequent collaborators Action Bronson and Evidence appear alongside Gangrene new-comers Sean Price , veteran emcee Havoc of Mobb Deep, Your Old Droog , Fashawn, and Chuck Stranglers ... although we still have yet to hear that long-rum...

"Before I head out across the pond for The #EuroDROOG Tour , I'm dropping this joint produced by my man, DJ Skizz , that showcases my famed yet underutilized ' George Benson from Remulak ' impression — it's basically me scatting and rhyming along with the different sounds in the beat," Brooklyn/Ukrainian and uncannily Nas -sounding emcee Your Old Droog wrote on Soundcloud along with his latest track. "Senseless Killin' II" is the unofficial follow-up to Droog 's latest sonic 1-2 punch of non-album Soundcloud loosies, "Hidden Persuaders" and Statik Selektah -produced "Unlimited Metrocard." The #EuroDROOG Tour will kickoff in Dublin, Ireland this upcoming June 6th and wrap up nearly one month later in Dour, Belgium on July 17th; but not before Your Old Droog is scheduled to make seven stops in-between, hitting England , France, The Netherlands , Switzerland, and Germany presumably for the first time(s) in his...

"Last year, a mysterious rapper named Your Old Droog came out of nowhere with a self-titled mixtape. He sounded so much like Illmatic -era Nas that people thought it really was Nas , rapping under a Clockwork Orange -inspired pseudonym. Well, no, as it turns out, Your Old Droog is just some white guy from Coney Island ," Stereogum "Hip-Hop Head In Chief" Tom Breihan wrote in a recently penned Your Old Droog -centric piece. Following a whirl-wind year, which showcased two 2014-issued releases, Your Old Droog [LP] , critically-acclaimed Your Old Droog EP , and a handful of non-album singles, Your Old Droog unleashed an 11-track Rock -themed KINISON EP late Wednesday afternoon. It's littered with inventive Rock "N" Roll samples ranging from Johnny Cash to the Beastie Boys ("Pass The Mic") and at least 40+ cleverly inter-woven references including Sam Kinison , Pornos for Pyros, Rage Against The Machine , and Sonic Youth (track titles)...