The Witzard

"DEDICATED TO LOVERS OF MAXI-SINGLES AND EVERY JAZZY, ACOUSTIC BASS-DRIVEN HIP-HOP SONG, WHICH PROVIDED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A PRETENTIOUS, UNNECESSARY ARTSY RAP VIDEO DURING THE EARLY 90'S..." reads the reverse side of Long Beach rapper-producer Andy Cooper's latest "Here Comes Another One" 12-inch. If pressed, I would likely equate Andy Cooper's second solo album, the layered effect to something along the lines of Homeboy Sandman's First of a Living Breed or Beastie Boys' 1989 cult favorite, Paul's Boutique; an increasingly fun, charismatic Golden Age Hip-Hop-reminiscent album chock-full with an insane amount of genre-eschewing samples. the layered effect is entirely self-produced by Andy Cooper himself—particularly, note-worthy for his past work with Ugly Duckling and The Allergies—and plays out like a care-free, fun-loving Hip-Hop album of days past. After seeing Andy's "Here Comes Another One" video on Flea Market Funk ...

Alive by Places & Spaces Places & Spaces are a self-described "Hip-Hop Rap Boom-Bap Golden Age" production duo hailing from Switzerland consisting of old friends Naturetone and Zooki . "For the past 20-some years, Naturetone & Zooki went places, different places. In the early 1990's they made beats together and pioneered Swiss Hip-Hop as part of the group Three Tree Posse [AKA 3TP ]," reads Places & Spaces' Bandcamp description. Places & Spaces' first song, also titled "Alive," initially appeared on now-defunct label, World Around Records' final compilation, We Are World Around Vol. 6 . I actually had the opportunity to speak with Patric (Naturetone) as part of my label-encompassing We Are World Around Vol. 6 double-header piece earlier this year. Naturetone & Zooki first worked together as 3TP between 1993-95 and met back up again in 2016 at "some beat-making sessions run by a mutual friend for...

I'm currently working on ironing out the fine details for a premier of a Zilla Rocca remix of CURTA's "Rap Trope Questionnaire" (or CURTA ZR remix), which should be making its digital debut here at The Witzard shortly. While emailing back and forth with Zilla, Jake & Brent, Zilla nonchalantly mentioned he had a track on a compilation released by "the guys from this label I rocked with for a while, World Around Records;" said compilation was uploaded just one day prior on Valentine's Day and was fittingly titled, We Are World Around Vol. 6. Zilla further detailed that "World Around was based out of New England and put out some good, spacey East Coast Art-House records over the years, if you're not familiar with them" within his initial email. As a matter of fact, the deeper I dug into We Are World Around Vol. 6 (WAWA V6, for short), I realized that while I hadn't previously heard of the label, I previously had worked with a number ...