The Witzard

Tanya Morgan is a Hip-Hop group hailing from Concinnati, Ohio and Brooklyn, New York. Its current line-up includes emcee, producer, and DJ William Donald "Donwill" Freeman (Don) and emcee and producer Devon "Von Pea" Callender (Von.) Tanya Morgan has remotely recorded and released four full-length albums, an online mixtape, and countless EP's and singles since their formation in 2003. Now, Don & Von are back with their fifth full-length album, simply titled Don & Von. This time, the duo steps out from behind the odd moniker to show listeners that they exist in a world that's all their own. The 12-track album tackles a wide range of topics, including their tenure in the Hip-Hop game, police brutality, and being Black in America. For Don & Von, Tanya Morgan recruited a handful of their old collaborators from back in the day when they first met in the okayplayer Forums. Don & Von features guest vocals from Miss Jack Davey (J*DaVeY,) Kooley ...

WalyO is a mysterious Connecticut-based producer and beat-maker. Sonically, his style of music often falls somewhere in-between remixes and mash-ups; almost like a musical version of Marvel's beloved zany WHAT IF...? comic book series. However, a press release asserts, "WalyO is NOT a remixer, instead, he creates brand new tracks by chopping up various acapellas from many different songs and re-arranges them into new verses on beats that are in the taste of the so-called artists." Following the success of his 2018 Diplomats-centric project Dipset, We Still Bangin', WalyO has returned with the first single from his next like-minded effort. N​.​W​.​A. Feat. Michael Jackson - "LA Riots" will appear within WalyO's upcoming sophomore project, his own rendition of Dr. Dre's fabled as-yet-to-be released magnum opus, Detox. Honestly, a collaboration between N.W.A. & The King of Pop is not as far-fetched as it sounds on paper... as Michael Jackson's...

Let me just preface this week's slightly abridged edition of The Witzard's Week In Rap by first explaining that while I could be covering Kanye 's "newly updated, remixed, and remastered version" of haphazardly-assembled steaming pile of s*it The Life of Pablo , I'm not even going to be giving his second of what could likely end up being umpteenth mixes, recently dubbed a "continuous process" by Def Jam , the sheer satisfaction of even buying into and covering it; however, with that said, his Sampha -assisted "Saint Pablo" (formerly titled "Closest Thing to Einstein" ) from his second of three rumored in-the-works albums, Turbo Grafx 16 , is likely as strong, lyrically verbose, and dare I say, self-reflective as Kanye 's sounded since Jay Z -helmed Watch The Throne or even 808's & Heartbreak . For what it's worth, a couple contenders for "honorable mentions" released sporadically throughout the week s...

Heralded as a greenhorn rapper-producer project that's "shaping up to be easily the best thing on Stones Throw in [recent] years," despite the fact that they only have a mere two released tracks under their belt; Nxworries (pronounced: No Worries ) have managed to hone in a unique sound that could characteristically be best described as the missing link between George Clinton 's ground-breaking Parliament-Funkadelic and N.W.A. & Snoop Dogg 's G-Funk sub-genre of 1990's West Coast Hip-Hop that Clinton himself unknowingly helped inspire. Once distilled down to its R&B -leaning Hip-Hop core, Nxworries is essentially a sparse Jaylib -indebted "2 turntables and a microphone"-style project consisting of New Jersey -bred beatsmith Knxwledge and Dr. Dre's latest protégé, LA crooner Anderson .Paak . "He was a big part of me finding a sound that I was looking for and a tone that people are more familiar with now... when I started ...

Not unlike it's infamous 1988 predecessor, "Film The Police" is an urgent call to arms... a call to the young people of the nation to right common injustices. Essentially, it's an anti-violent protest song against often overlooked senseless instances of police-citizen brutality. In recent years, police brutality has become a far-reaching worldwide problem; One which has remained null in the United States , until this recent ring of "Occupy [insert city]" protests. Since many Millennials (1980-2000) were far too young to recall the dramatic events surrounding the release of N.W.A. 's "Fuck The Police," they [we] have now developed an updated message to match the current state of the nation: "Film The Police." It's a quite simple concept... if you see police brutality taking place, keep your distance, whip out your cell phone, and document that shit! The time is now to take action and MAKE HISTORY, my friends! ["Film The P...