The Witzard

And I'm back from a nice, relaxing weekend getaway to Ocean City, MD : friends, cars, chicken, girls, beer, scooters, sun rays, etc. But it's great to finally be back home in good ol' Jersey ! Upon my re-entry to The Inter-web earlier this evening, I was pleasantly surprised with 3 FRESH Cocaine 80s tracks, which were slowly unveiled over the past 3 days. "This Can't Be a Crime," "Queen to Be," and "Take My Keys" were recently recorded by Chicago mega-producer, No I.D. While Cocaine 80s' choice nom de plume might implies a certain level of excess and debauchery, their collective musical output is far from it... Cocaine 80s is a Chicago -based group of talented behind-the-scenes players, which includes the likes of James Fauntleroy , Kevin Randolph, Rob Kinelski, Steve Wyreman , and Makeba . Since quietly forming roughly 1 year ago, the loose collective has released 2 digital projects, The Pursuit EP and Ghost Lady EP . The att...

The go-to phrase has always been, "Party like a Rockstar," but in recent months, I've almost learned that rappers party even HARDER! In a unique promotional effort for their upcoming film, the people behind Project X teamed up with Vice Records ... producing a series of short animated YouTube clips dubbed, "PARTY LEGENDS." Delicately sub-titled as "an oral history of absolute insanity," a handful of colorful rappers/actors have re-told the tales of their craziest party-fueled experiences. Precursed by the likes of Snoop Dogg , A-Trak , and Tyler The Creator _ Nas is the latest rhymesmith to present his own f*cked up story. He proceeds to lay down the details behind some random Queens[bridge] "kegger" gone terribly wrong, which was then re-re-animated by Jesse McLaren . It's nice to hear these generally "HARD" [tough] rappers mellow out a bit and tell some fun-loving stories! Tales that I bet we can all relate, even if on...

The Artist Formerly Known as "Mos Def," Yasiin Bey has finally taken a long-overdue break from his day job (film actor) to make an undoubtedly triumphant return to his first true love: Hip-Hop . In what appears to be The Soulquarian 's premier offering under his newly-adopted guise, Bey proceeds to remix a familiar Top 40 hit. "Niggas In Poorest" is the first in a series of socially-conscious Top 40 Underdog freestyles... and Yasiin Bey drastically flips Kanye & Jay-Z 's uncanny "radio single" (2011) on it's head. The weekly series will seemingly re-appropriate some of the year's finest Hip-Hop/Mainstream hits, albeit in thought-provoking, new light. The formerly lavish tale of over-indulgence has now been morphed into a painfully accurate lament of modern-day society. Of course though, @ it's stereophonic heart, "Niggas In Poorest" is in fact a politically-driven, racially-charged social commentary released just...

This cryptic message was packaged along with the 10/20-21 after midnight release of Cocaine 80s - GhOSt LaDy EP : " ...but one of the many had their soul forced from where it was once was, and realized it wasn't so scary floating there, just outside the norm... " Thus building off the loose story arc initialized with Cocaine 80s' 2 previous June 2011 efforts: "...and he sang softly to them, and told them that though their noses may bleed, there would always be tissue... (The Pursuit EP) ...and when they returned only a short while after, they were warmly welcomed back with promises of more dope...oh, so much more..." (Like a Fool - birdsong) . Once again, the gang's all here; A slew of earnest session musicians, singer-songwriters, studio engineers, etc: Common, No I.D. James Fauntleroy, Kevin Randolph, Rob "The Mixer" Kinelski, Steve Wyreman , and Makeba . Employing a similar Tweet -for-download promotional campaign, GhOSt LaDy EP is no...