The Witzard

It's a collaboration that no one really expected, but everyone secretly dreamt about and longed for: [MF] DOOM & Clams Casino ! We're talkin' about the most mysterious man in Hip-Hop and rising Cloud Rap beat-maker, Mike Volpe (Clams Casino). The Nutley, NJ native's self-released Instrumentals 1-2 mixtapes (2011-12) are arguably right up there with classic DOOM albums Operation: Doomsday , Mm.. Food, and MADVILLAINY , and MF DOOM Meets Clutchy Hopkins. @clammyclams Tweeted early Monday morning, "new track (feat. DOOM ) available now at new site CLAMMYCLAMS.COM ," which in turn, linked to Soundcloud . "BOOKFIEND" essentially features DOOM spitting wordy, dense rhymes about occult leader Alistair Crowly , Kindle tablets, allusions to "November Has Come," whatever the Hell Tetragrammaton is, and Netflix over a spaced out Clams Casino beat... "It's Netflix to the head, second best trick to get chicks to the bed....

Earlier this year, 23-year-old Nutley, NJ native, Mike Volpe ("Clams Casino") released a mixtape chock-full of instrumental Hip-Hop beats - completely on a whim. Said mixtape, the aptly-titled "Instrumentals" was received with great praise far and wide! So, instead of making one of those cliché "Year-End Lists" like everyone and their brother, though I will admit that I briefly contemplated the idea... I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: Clams Casino - Instrumentals was hands down, the Mixtape Album of The Year ! And with that said, it's almost inappropriate to categorize this genre-jumping materpiece as solely "Hip-Hop." Soon after, Witch-House label, Tri Angle released a collection of original Volpe material: Rainforest EP (June 2011). For all intensive purposes, Clams Casino essentially created Lil B 's now infamous stream-of-consciousness #BASED musical stylings. One could further argue that Volpe also had a strong ha...