The Witzard

After 34 years largely unreleased, the Beastie Boys quietly dropped the music video for one of their most raucous offerings Wednesday night. "She's Crafty" originally appeared on The Beasties' 1986 Def Jam debut, Licensed to Ill. It appeared as the B-side to both "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn" and "Girls" on their respective 12-inch singles. "She's Crafty" appeared alongside "Rhymin' & Stealin,'" "Fight for Your Right (to Party,)" "Hold It Now, Hit It," "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn," and "She's On It" as part of a self-titled 1987 Beasties Boys home video release best known amongst collectotrs as the Licensed to Ill VHS. CBS Fox Video Music/Def Jam Recordings, also, released the six-song VHS tape on then-extremely popular formats Laserdisc and Betamax in both The US & Japan. "She's Crafty"'s newly-unveiled music video was filmed on April 1, 1987 ...

Pretending I'm A Superman Producer Ralph D'Amato (Left) & Director Ludvig Gür (Right) "Friends, I know it's been a little quiet on my side this past week, but, I assure you, everything is fine. Two weeks ago, my feature-length directorial debut, @thpsfilm, was released to a fantastic reception from critics and fans alike. It has remained in the Top 100 list of most-streamed films on @itunes for almost two weeks and still retains a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . However, today is a very special day for another reason: 21 years ago, the game that the documentary is all about, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, was released. It took the world by storm and changed the lives of so many people throughout the years. I cannot overstate how much of an impact this low-budget video game made by a team of 12 people had on my life. It changed everything! So, here I am, holding up my first copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PS1 (which was released as "Tony Hawk's...

Daniel Ledinsky & Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) are THE NEVERLY BOYS . While it appears as though they've released a few now-scrubbed songs and have, seemingly, had a couple false starts over the years, Ledinsky & Sitek have finally unleashed their proper debut album together as THE NEVERLY BOYS , Dark Side of Everything . Back when these Nation/world-wide shut downs first started happening a few months ago, as events, concerts, and whatnot started getting cancelled indefinitely, many artists began hosting livestreamed concerts, album listening parties, etc. It was Tuesday, March 17, 2020 and we saw a post on both THE NEVERLY BOYS & Dave Sitek 's personal Instagram page that Sitek would soon be hosting a late night stream of THE NEVERLY BOYS' then-untitled album on his page (@davesitek.) We, of course, tuned in, as did many other fans who had been hearing rumblings about the project for quite a while now; R&B/Psychedelic Soul-Funk singer and producer Migu...

It is now widely known that Tuxedo is a Nu-Funk/R&B duo consisting of one-time Stones Throw crooner Mayer Hawthorne and super-producer Jake One ; however, at one point in time, surrounding the release of their 2013 Tuxedo EP , Tuexedo 's members' identities were largely shrouded in mystery. I personally believe, that Tuxedo's nom de plume was, initially, a bit of a lighthearted tongue-in-cheek jab at Justin Timberlake's similarly-titled/sounding "Suit & Tie" single with JAY-Z. Tuxedo have since released three full-length albums: Tuxedo , Tuxedo II, and most recently, III AKA Tuxedo III , as well as a slew of Funk-tastic remixes, stand-alone singles, and Yuletide nuggets. For their latest single from III , "Toast 2 Us," Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One have enlisted frequent Stones Throw collaborator and multi-talented director / photographer / editor / creative / VFX artist Ross Harris . Tuxedo & Ross Harris previously collaborated ...

"DJ Bacon is one of Brisbane's best known and best loved DJ's. He began performing in the mid-1990's at some of the city's formative venues. Across 20 years in Melbourne and Brisbane, he has played at most of Australia's iconic club venues and events. He is a former QLD DMC DJ Champion and Qmusic Award winner. He is rightly famous in the Australian music underground for his effortless blend of Hip-Hop, Soul, and Funk from every era. DJ residencies across the country have included world-class venues, such as Laruche, Cloudland, Revolver (Melbourne,) First Floor, The Evelyn, E55, Kerbside, Lychee Lounge, X&Y Bar, Press Club, Bavarian Bier Cafe, Sake Restaurant, Rumpus Room, Brooklyn Standard, and more. DJ supports of note have included all-time Hip-Hop pioneers, such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ Shadow, DJ Dexter, Cut Chemist, Jurassic 5, The Roots, and many more. With his band, Briztronix, he has won QLD Music Awards, released 3 full-length LP's, and appe...

Not only is guitarist, keyboard player, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Adrian Quesada one half of newly-minted Karma Chief/Colemine Records Deep Soul signees Black Pumas , he's also, one of the founding members of Brownout. An 8-piece Latin Funk group hailing from Austin, Texas, Brownout has Soul/Funk/Breaks ties to like-minded ensembles such as GRAMMY-winning Grupo Fantasma, Blue Noise Band, and The Blimp. Brownout lists drummer/percussionist John Speice, percussionist Alex Marrero, bassist Greg Gonzalez, guitarist/keyboard player Adrian Quesada, percussionist Matthew "Sweet Lou" Holmes, guitarist Beto Martinez, trombonist Mark "Speedy" Gonzales, trumpeter Gilbert Elorreaga, and baritone sax player Josh Levy amongst its current members. I, like many music fans, I would assume, first heard about Brownout on an episode of Ozzy & Jack's World Detour last year entitled Texas Bloody Texas. Ozzy's son, Jack Osbourne, managed to track down the band, ...

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 Height Keech. I'm a rapper from Baltimore, MD . I grew up being the guy in the crew that didn't know how to make the beats I heard in my head... Now, I feel like I've found my own voice as a producer and I'm off to the races. These are some of the records [whose] production has inspired me, through the years." - Height Keech (Shark Tank) Dan's House by Shark Tank I. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) "A lot has been said about this album, so let me zero in on my favorite track: "Night of The Living Baseheads." The main sample is like a Jack-In-The-Box opening every two seconds. The change-up leading into the second verse feels like a transmission from another planet. Every little piece is perfectly executed, yet it feels like you’re on an insane train that could go off the rails at any second. It used to be way more labor-intensive to do all these weird one-off changes and flourishes; the ...

"Honestly, it's a very chaotic little commentary on a very chaotic time. Some of the sound bites come from campaign ads from 50 years ago; [it's] always a bit of a tightrope between serious and ridiculous," mix master maestro graciously Alan "illchemist" Friedman told me within a brief, yet self-explanatory Facebook DM'ed statement sent Thursday night. Now, take it with a grain of salt, but in my eyes, throughout the course of "A Story of Power," Friedman is essentially commenting on the current state of the nation and better yet, the world: social injustices, our comedy show of a 2016 Presidential "race," this ungodly wet, hot American summer, and general state of unrest—"it's a very, very mad world, mad world," as a wise man once said. "A Story of Power" has supposedly been sitting dormant on the back burner... or more so, the back of illchemist 's hard drive for a few months and as he put it him...

"It's very eerily current because of the horrible things that have been going on with gun violence and various shootings... We're still in process even as we speak and I don't want to really talk too much about who's in 'cause that's still kind of fluid. But it's going to happen in 2016 for sure and there's a couple of folks who have approached us, so we're going to see what the final tally's going to be. But the things I've heard so far are really, really powerful, really fiery verses, and some of the writers are responding directly [to] what happened in St. Paul, what's happening in Baton Rouge . There's a bit of that in the mix, as well as other conversations" long-time Living Colour guitarist and bandleader Vernon Reid candidly revealed to Billboard last month, in light of this year's all-too frequent police and civilian shooting epidemic. Living Colour have since recruited producer Andre Betts , Prophets of Rag...

"Just dropped the first video from #DEATHDRIVE, "Old Gods Ain't Dead," read a brief less than 140 character @mcsole Tweet; "Old Gods Ain't Dead," which was produced by DJ Pain 1 , premiered over at French online music magazine New Noise's site early Tuesday morning. I first made contact with Tim Holland aka Sole around 2010-11 during the crowd-sourced album roll-out campaign for his stellar politically-charged "rap as journalism" freestyle series, Nuclear Winter, Vol. 2 (Death Panel) . Soon thereafter, he released an album and companion EP with The Skyrider Band , two full-length solo albums across 2012-13, an instrumental Hip-Hop project, and a couple odds-and-ends compilations. " DEATHDRIVE combines modern Pop/Rap aesthetics with the political edge reminiscent of Hip-Hop classics such as Fear of a Black Planet . Sole & DJ Pain 1 utilize the Golden Era Hip-Hop approach of a rapper and DJ without employing gimmicks...

Matangi is slowly but surely becoming the Chinese Democracy of Indie Hip-Hop ; Initially delayed from December 2012 to January to April 15th and then seemingly shelved due to what they're calling an excess of positivity ha. M.I.A. was supposedly told by her label, Interscope that "[she needed] to darken it up a bit" (Gold Coast). "Bring The Noize," sadly no relation to the similarly-named Public Enemy/Anthrax track, is M.I.A. 's first proper single since earning a Grammy nomination with "Bad Girls" (2012), which will most likely end up re-appearing on Matangi . It's companion music video casts M.I.A. as a slightly more ethnic-looking hot pink-haired "Barbie Girl" who anymore, I think sounds a lot like Die Antwoord 's sharp-tongued frontwoman, Yo-Landi Vi$$er . Based off it's opening scenes, "Bring The Noize" kinda looks like one of those now infamous early 2000's P. Diddy -orchestrated all-white-every...

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire (formerly known as Mr. MFN eXquire ), a guy who frequently rhymed about "drunk driving on a Wednesday," frequently hangs out with the self-procliamed Adderall Admiral Danny Brown , and featured a blue-haired drunken stripper on his Lost In Translation mixtape cover. Somehow, he signed a major label deal with Universal Republic last year, released Power & Passion EP , followed by self-released The Man In The High Castle , and then disappeared for the better part of the next 6-8 months. It's been revealed now, after the fact, that Mrs. MFN eXquire [mother] was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which propelled him to take an imminent break from touring, do a "180 and kind of look @ [his] life," and ultimately sober up. Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire is currently prepping a comeback mixtape of sorts, mysteriously titled Kismet . It's rumored to drop "very shortly" and feature a bunch of like-minded young rappers... ...

Depending on who you ask, LONGLIVEA$AP is easily the most progressive/digressive Hip-Hop album of the last 5-10 years! A$AP Rocky sprinkles in stylistic touches [musical nods] to Public Enemy 's youthful rebellion, Wu-Tang Clan's expert swordsmen-ship, Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right to Party" mentality, and Kanye 's worldly fashion sense throughout the record. While it leaked back in early December nearly a full month a head of it's impending Jan. 15th release date, it's the sheer power of featured rappers and producers that's either gonna make or break the eventual fate of LONGLIVEA$AP . Shit, almost 1/2 of the album's rapping friends are housed on 2 MASSIVE posse cuts, "F*ckin' Problems" and "1 Train:" Action Bronson , Danny Brown, Kendrick Lamar , Joey Bada$$, Drake , Yelawolf , Big K.R.I.T. and 2 Chainz. Florence [-The Machine], Gunplay, Pharrell , Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka 's assorted talents ar...

"A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing (AROEE) is the culmination and logical progression of all the various aesthetics and approaches I have cultivated over the years. This album is at times sarcastic, belligerent, serious, poetic, and abstract. I rap about rappers, I rap about the empire, I rap about capitalism, labor, alienation and the environment. I offer critiques , I offer solutions. Sonically, this album bounces between classic Hip-Hop, Electronica & Experimental Dance, traditional song formats and tracks that barely resemble songs. When I think about the artists that inspire me, I look to Pete Seeger, Chuck D, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor ; Musicians who never let the immediate needs of the market dictate what they created..." "Like many that came before it, this album holds dear the Situationist notion that art is only doing its job when it's challenging the status quo. Unlike much music that has emerged under the banner of Occupy, t...

(1.) The album flows so smoothly and the beat selection is damn-near immaculate! How did you go about picking which tracks to include and sequence them? I tried to pick tracks that fit the theme of global revolution best, and went with those. I ended up cutting all the songs about more personal sh*t . I tried to sequence it more thematically as opposed to aesthetically. (2.) How exactly would you describe the overall sound (genre-wise) of A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing? It's Rap music. I've been calling it "Critical Theory Rap." Some people have called the production "glassy," I don't know what that means. * THE WITZARD EDIT: "This album is the culmination of a lot of shit, I hope you enjoy it... It's funny, it's poppy, it's not poppy, it's belligerent, it's personal, it's militant, it's everywhere." (Kickstarter Update #18) (3.) I'm not the most political person whatsoever... But ho...

Homeboy Sandman really is just a "simple kind of man." The recent Stones Throw signee has released 2 EP's, which properly display his rapping abilities over the past few months. Subject: Matter EP features Sandman rapping about some of life's most ordinary happenings; Some #VERYRARE topics for Hip-Hop @ least... creative art, socks, toothpaste , sexual encounters, mamacitas, canned goods, and daily showers. In a unique effort to promote Subject: Matter and it's proper follow-up, Chimera EP , Homeboy Sandman recorded 2 new tracks in an attempt to try and entice listeners to buy his new material. That shit was cleverly titled, "Subject: Matter Out Now" and "Chimera Out Now." Sandman managed to recruit producers Fred Ones and Audible Beats , ultimately obtaining 2 Golden Age -esque hard-hitting backing beats. So, head on over to Stones Throw , check out a combined Knocksteady-directed music video that was shot on Williamsburg Bridge . G...