The Witzard

Prolific LA-based emcee, producer, lyricist, mixing engineer, etc. Blu has left a lasting mark on the Indie/Backpack(?) Hip-Hop scene, crafting an impressive catalog instilled with the essence of the vibrant city he calls home. Johnson "John" Barnes, III—better known as simply Blu—has recorded and released a staggering amount of (largely self-released) albums, EP's, and singles since about 2006. Aside from his self-produced body of work, Blu has worked entensively in collaboration with artist like Bombay, Damu The Fudgemunk, Exile, Fa†e, Shafiq Husayn, Madlib, Mainframe as Johnson&Jonson, M.E.D. Nottz, Oh No, Ta'Raach as C.R.A.C. Knuckles, and Ray West. Now, the gifted lyricist has returned with a new album, The Color Blu(e) . Among Blu's most conceptual projects to date, The Color Blu(e) is an artistic thesis statement, celebrating and reflecting on a remarkable creative journey. The Color Blu(e) by Blu The word "Blu(e)" is featured in every ...

Just in time for Hanukkah, Your Old Droog AKA YOD has returned with his third full-length album of 2019. Jewelry was surprise-released on Monday, December 23, 2019—the first full day of Hanukkah—along with a special holiday blessing from Droog : "A Chanukah Celebration." Jewelry is the proper follow-up to both It Wasn't Even Close & Transportation , which were surprise-released in succession in a very similar fashion earlier this year. Jewelry is a sonic celebration of Your Old Droog 's own Jewish heritage, which he is now officially revealing publicly for the first time. For Jewelry , YOD recruited Tha God Fahim , Quelle Chris, Preservation , Edan, and CohenBeats on the production end of things with frequent collaborator Mach-Hommy as Executive Producer. Droog receives lyrical assists from the likes of Mach-Hommy , fellow Jewish emcee Matisyahu, The Metal Face Villain himself, MF DOOM , and Tha God Fahim. Jewelry 's companion cover artwork was desi...

Transportation by Your Old Droog Your Old Droog 's newly-minted Bandcamp page lacks much in lieu of a typical Artist Bio/Release Description and only contains a simple proclamation: " Y.O.D. is the best." Droog has come a long way from his early days as a Ukrainian-American immigrant, whom most people initially thought was an alter-ego of Nas; early on in his career, Your Old Droog received stamps-of-approval from both Sean Price & Prodigy (Mobb Deep,) as well as Sascha Jenkins, Edan, Homeboy Sandman, and countless others. I can recall the mass amounts of hype, mystery, and sheer confusion surrounding 2014's self-released Your Old Droog EP/LP , but my personal favorite Droog release was 2015's KINISON EP with its Rock "N" Roll & Stand Up Comedy-indebted edge. Your Old Droog 's second proper studio full-length, PACKS , was released in early 2017 and boasts collaborations with Heems AKA Himanshu (Swet Shop Boys,) Danny Brown, Chris Crac...

Sa-Ra Creative Partners , or simply "Sa-Ra" for short, were an Experimental R&B/Hip-Hop super-group consisting of producers, vocalists, and multi-instrumentalists tAz "TI$A" Arnold, Shafiq Husayn & Om'Mas Keith . Sa-Ra were active from the mid-90's through the early 2000's and were super-productive, equally mysterious, and extremely fruitful and creative; throughout various points in their career, Sa-Ra Creative Partners were either signed to or affiliated with Kanye 's G.O.O.D. Music , Sony Urban Music/Epic, Babygrande Records , Ubiquity Records, ABB Soul , Sound In Color, Domino Recording Co. Jazzy Sport, Blue Note Records , Wonderful Noise Productions, and Fresh Selects . For me, personally, my favorite Sa-Ra releases were EP's Glorious + Rosebuds , Double Dutch (Co Co Pops) / Death of A Star (Supernova,) and The Second Time Around , as well as 2007 Babygrande full-length, The Hollywood Recordings . Although, Sa-Ra 's re...

"Well, the track was inspired by one of the original titles to Sean 's album. He was going to name the album NIGGLETUS! at first, so I was going off that vibe. When we were making the beat, I wanted to make something that could stand next to "Bar-Barian" (which is one of my favorite songs by Sean .) That track is one of, if not the first, track he recorded for the album... we had no idea that DOOM would end up on it," one half of Crumzville, VA -based production team CRUMMIE BEATS , Fonkstarr , wrote within a recent email. Fonkstarr & .45 , collectively billed as CRUMMIE BEATS , produced five tracks included within Brooklyn emcee Sean Price 's posthumous fourth album, Imperius Rex . The track in question, "Negus" AKA "Notebook 00 - Negus," is the first release from [adult swim] 's just-launched THE MISSING NOTEBOOK RHYMES weekly series; essentially, between now and 11.14.2017, [adult swim] & Gas Drawls will be colle...

"Previously unheard vintage Thom Yorke remix of DOOM's "Gazzillion Ear." Thom sent us this nasty re-working back in 2009. It was marked "Man On Fire Remix," but no one heard it until last night when he dropped it on an epic [installment] of Benji B's BBC Radio 1 show," LexRecords wrote within a brief statement attached to their Thursday, September 8th Soundcloud upload of DOOM's mysterious "Gazzillion Ear (Thom Yorke Gazilli Remix)." It seems as though DOOM and long-time Radiohead frontman have maintained a mutual admiration for each other's work and wildly different aesthetics since around 2008-09—Yorke has included not only DOOM , but countless J Dilla , Madlib, Flying Lotus , Quasimoto, and MADVILLAIN tracks within numerous BBC Radio 1 DJ sets. Thom Yorke 's latest nearly 3-hour Benji B BBC Radio 1 DJ set included everything from Frank Ocean and Sampha to James Blake & Vince Staples' "Timeless...

"We reached out to DOOM to see if he was interested in giving us a track, and were told that the DOOMSTARKS project was close to completion and there was a song we could have... we jumped on it! I mean, it's [Ghostface Killah] and DOOM rapping together. It's pretty much my rap nerd dreams coming true. I think they bring something out in each other that's very exciting for me as a rap listener," Adult Swim 's own glorified fan-boy Jason DeMarco recently gushed to Uproxx , concerning of course, the cartoon network's acquisition of DOOMSTARKS' unofficial return-to-form, "Lively Hood." While his official title may be Vice President/Creative Director of Adult Swim On-Air , DeMarco himself simply managed to distill his responsibilities down to "basically, if it's on Adult Swim and it's NOT a show, it's my group's responsibility to make;" this including, but not limited to promo campaigns, network ID's, anima...

homeboy sandman is the sandman by blu "I understand you've been running from the man that goes by the name of the sandman," echoes an eerie back-laid sample delicately lifted from America 's 1971 Folk Rock album track, "Sandman." It's actually the lead-off track from illusive super-producer from Blu and seasoned underground rapper Homeboy Sandman 's surprise four-track download-able EP, homeboy sandman is the sandman . While they've previously worked together on a number of non-album tracks, most notably "Atlantis," which was released on Stones Throw this past June, this marks their first cohesive long(er)-form project. homeboy sandman is the sandman EP was released with little to no release information, aside from " homeboy sandman is the sandman produced by blu " and a handful of vague Bandcamp genre tags: " hip hop , hip-hop/rap, nwc rap , Los Angeles." It's largely a Jaylib -style rapper-producer a...

the only one. by exile & blu Late last night ["early morning"] while many of us were sound asleep, Blu quietly posted a mysterious link to his Twitter handle, @HerFavColor . Turns out that very link lead zealous fans to Blu & Exile 's long-awaited, mildly forgotten follow-up to Below The Heavens (2007). give me my flowers while i can smell them was written and recorded soon thereafter, only to be hastily abandoned upon partial completion in 2009 for reasons unknown. With that said, "flowers" is a raw, un-mixed/mastered 15-track album, but since this seems to be a common practice for the man simply known as Blu ... fans should expect to see a proper, fully mixed down version of the album up for wholesale within the next few months. Nature Sounds recently re-issued 2 [rough] Blu albums from 2009 in this very fashion: Open and HerFavoriteColo(u)r . While Blu & Exile have been relatively silent since 2007, they've been far from musically in-...