The Witzard

"It's a summation of everything up to now; a nice way to present it before we release the newer sound of our more recent writing," Leeds -based producer and Krrum co-vocalist Alex Carrie wrote within a recent email. Carrie started Krrum as a sparse bedroom-produced solo endeavor back in 2010, after a stint playing trumpet in various British Ska bands, "a strange tenure working in a historical cave, and a dead-end job at a local Derbyshire butchery. Krrum quietly unleashed his debut Evil Twin EP in January 2016 and slowly trickled out a string of well-received Soundcloud singles and has since expanded to include Harrison Warke on lead vocals, drummer Charlie Webb , and Thomas Trueman on keys. Krrum 's members collectively drawn influence and inspiration from fellow Pop -minded artists as far-spanning as Gorillaz , Metronomy, Justice , Hot Chip, Jai Paul , and Kanye. Although, they already released a simple cut-and-paste "Evil Twin" video ab...

Off in their own little [ Zef stylized] world, Die Antwoord somehow manage to take arguably out-dated, corny Pop Culture nuances and try to make them semi-"relevant" once again. So, with that said... maybe the almost instantly controversial full-body "blackface" paint might just be a twisted send-up to that one time Eddie Murphy or Dave Chappelle wore white face paint ha. Die Antwoord seem to be re-invigorating a long-forgotten feud with Lady GaGa in their newest music video for "FATTY BOOM BOOM," too. In typical Rap beef fashion, a tranny GaGa impersonator rocks a meat dress (no pun intended) and eventually becomes a lion's tasty dinner; Only after finding her way on foot to a South African gynecologist after her Big 5 "tour bus" breaks down, then birthing a small insect. Now, that's all inter-spliced against performance footage of Die Antwoord lacing up "FATTY BOOM BOOM" ... whilst wearing full-body costumed ...

"thanks kathryn obvious" by kitty pryde Kitty Pryde is a 19-year-old rapper hailing from Daytona Beach, FL who almost sounds like a strange blend of Lil B #BASEDGOD and reigning Pop princess, Katy Perry . She's going through the same experiences/mishaps as your average middle American teen, except it's being re-told along with a clever Hip-Hop cadence: Facebook infidelity, prom date woes, non-repliant texters, boy troubles, etc. Kitty Pryde recently complied a 15-minute setlist for her first New York area show, which went down this past weekend. It's the accumulation of a discography that can all be easily downloaded over @ Bandcamp . "Okay Cupid" is essentially an ode to Pryde's 3-ring binder-solidified crush, Danny Brown . Director Brian McKay quickly filmed it's companion music video @ a friend's yardsale last month and it's received some 400,000+ YouTube views ever since. I'm not 100% sure if Kitty Pryde's being T...

Bon Iver head honcho, Justin Vernon has somehow managed to become quite the "enigma" in the world of Popular music over the past couple years: An independent, New Age Folk artist who's been able to bridge the gap between Indie Rock and Hip-Hop _ commercial obscurity and "mainstream success." On the heels of his feverishly-awaited 2011 "comeback" album - Bon Iver, Bon Iver , Vernon laid down some studio time in Hawaii with Kanye & Friends (Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, John Legend) , which eventually ended up on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Following generally wide-spread fan and critical acclaim alike, Bon Iver, Bon Iver was nominated for a set of 4 Grammy awards near the close of 2011. Shortly after the announcement, a slightly dated and previously unpublished Justin Vernon interview (The New Yorker) was issued; Included within it's pages were a handful of not-so kind words for the people behind The Grammy's . Vernon w...

While I honestly can't say that I physically own any of her 3 critically-acclaimed CD's... I can however admit that I've thoroughly enjoyed and loved what visual artist-turned musician, Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam has been able to do for both Pop Culture and humanity since 2000-05. I'm just gonna go ahead and go out on a limb, cause we're all "friends" here - Right? There isn't very much ACTUAL news to report on here... But I'm just gonna give it my best shot! While M.I.A. 's latest Romain Gavras -directed music video was debuted online Friday afternoon, along with that new Nicki Minaj -featuring Madonna track, "Bad Girls" is far from BRAND SPANKIN' NEW; It originally appeared on M.I.A. 's post- /\/\ /\ Y /\ odds-and-ends mixtape, Vicki Leekx (2010) and was produced by Timbaland -associate, Danja . M.I.A. performed [a segment of] "Give Me All Your Luvin'" alongside Nicki Minaj, Cee-Lo , and LMFA...

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's July 2018 and to be honest, I'm really not even sure what exactly this is/was supposed to be... but from what I can put together, it's some type of "Top 40 "Hitlist"' AKA a breakdown(?) I asked Diarrhea Planet guitarist Evan C. Bird to put together about 6-7 years ago. If you're reaing this now, in 2018, it saddens me to inform you that Diarrhea Planet have, unfortunately, decided it's time for them to disband; however, DP have also, decided to "SHRED THEE WELL" with 2 final shows to be held September 7-8, 2018 at EXIT/IN in Nashville, Tennessee. It seems like Diarrhea Planet has simply, run it's course, but let me just say this: it was extremely fun while it lasted, fellas! Blue Scholars - Cinematropolis: Seattle Hip-Hop ! These guys have been on the top of my list since The Long March (2005). These guys are from Seattle and they're not exactly new, but Cinematropolis is definitely a departure f...

Hip-Hop "Beef" is essentially a long-forgotten art form/promotional exercise. Infamous beefs of the per-Internet Golden Boom-Bap Era (1980-90's) include: 2pac-Biggie , Nas-Jay-Z , "The Bridge Wars," LL Cool J-Kool Moe Dee , and "The Roxanne Saga." A carefully designed marketing tool, beef is usually kick-started when one rapper does/says something that the other doesn't exactly agree with. Beefs are usually all in good fun and most times, end in a truce... One exception however, is the tragic deaths of former friends, 2pac & Biggie . Recent Internet -based beefs have included: Kanye-50 Cent , Nicki Minaj-Lil Kim , [The] Game -everyone, Eminem-Canibus (Mariah Carey) . In what may very well be the first size-able Hip-Hop beef of 2012, Common released a diss track aimed @ Drake just yesterday afternoon. Common-Drake 's feud stems back to Nov. 2011 when Common released "Sweet." The third single from The Dreamer/The Believer n...

Self-proclaimed "Ringtone Rapper," Soulja Boy is that young, instantly successful artist that everyone loves to hate. Soulja's detractors proclaimed that he's one of the highly "disposable" rappers that have allegedly "killed" [ruined] Hip-Hop in recent years. His die-hard fans will obviously fire back with examples supporting the exact opposite. I must admit that I am in fact one of those fans; Albeit a close observer who's followed Soulja Boy 's career path over the years, but a fan nonetheless. A creative 21-year-old young man hailing from Chicago , Soulja Boy 's overall message is surprisingly positive and violence free - In an era of "Hard as Nails" gun-slinging rappers, DeAndre Way is a rarity: Guy simply traveling down the straight-and-narrow who claims absolutely no gang affiliation whatsoever nor a violent, blood-drenched past. Soulja Boy initially burst onto the music scene with debut single/turned viral meme, ...

"[ Bon Iver 's] a fucking genius! I'd never seen nor heard of him in my life, and I looked up, and I was in a fucking 5 x 5 room with a white guy, smoking weed... and his voice is like something I've never heard, and he's using words that are far from common. Within 20 minutes, I realized why Kanye had him there." - Rick Ross (Billboard) Justin Vernon probably never imagined that his high-pitched primary band, Bon Iver would ever garner so much widespread acclaim, let alone 4 Grammy nominations. 2011 was quite arguably The Year of Bon Iver ; Over the course of the year, Vernon somehow managed to strike up a lucrative friendship with Kayne & Jay-Z , harmonize alongside Nicki Minaj , appear on Gayngs' remix album - "Affiliyated," collaborate with The National and Dub Master James Blake , and hawking Bushmills whiskey. On top of all that, his long-awaited follow-up album (Bon Iver, Bon Iver) was released on Jagjaguwar . That very album ...

Riding on the coat-tails of Drake 's recent sophomore slump Take Care (700,000 units), Manchester beatsmith Star Slinger has now liberated a re-mixed and re-mastered take on "Over My Dead Body." Darren Williams released his very own Jetlag Edit of the recent album's opening cut @ Soundcloud over the weekend. For the most part, "DRAKE RMX" keeps the original track's integrity fully intact; Star Slinger appropriately accents "Over My Dead Body," with his signature vocal samples, Electronic bleeps and blips, MPC touches, etc. All the while, keeping a good amount of Drake's cadence and Boom Bap Hip-Hop feel there, too - The sole purpose of a solid remix: Nostalgia. Star Slinger 's proper label debut, "Dumbin'" [-feat. Reggie B. ] is now available, via Green Label Sound .

The art of compiling and releasing cast off left-overs and B-sides has been a long-standing tradition in both Hip-Hop and Indie music; Pivotal to their natural progressions, since concurrently forming back in the 1980's. Hip-Hop artists and fans widely refer to the practice as the "mixtape:" A release which generally complies unclear-able samples and nearly-completed left-over tracks. Promotional tool used around the time of album release(s). Now, Indie Rock artists and devotees commonly refer to the medium as "mix CD [tape]:" More of a fan-run thing, mix CD's are often burned for a love interest and usually posses a running theme or mood. UPDATE: The "apocalyptic" date, 11/11/11 did in fact approach and complete. So, that means that Small Black - MOON KILLER (mixtape) was liberated earlier this morning. Yadda, yadda , yadda... Direct download link. This includes 2 Heems features, Nick Minaj-Carpenters samples, Star Slinger-Phonetag R...