The Witzard

Jai Paul is a painfully mysterious British-Indian singer-songwriter/ producer who's really only released 2-3 tracks since signing with XL Recordings in 2010: "BTSTU," "Jasmine," and "Flip Out" (Str8 Outta Mumbai). Paul's forward-thinking brand of Space R&B has been embraced by Drake , Beyoncé, rapper XV , and he even appeared on Big Boi 's recent solo album, Vicious Lies & Dangerous Rumors . Practically out of nowhere, during Coachella 's weekend-spanning festivities, Jai Paul quietly uploaded his long-rumored self-titled debut album/mixtape to Bandcamp . It's selling for 7 GBP's, which converts to about $10.35 or "Name Your Price" and that gets your a download folder containing 16 untitled tracks. Jai Paul CD-R kinda sounds like a mixed bag full of rough demos, fully fleshed out songs, and random skits; Track titles have been speculated to include "Baby Beats," "A Thousand Light-Years ...

Having re-listened to it over the past few months, I must admit, Tom Breihan was right... Take Care is hands down, Drake 's strongest [full-length] effort since So Far Gone (2009). My personal favourite track and quite arguably the album's shining moment, "Take Care" has a deeply-rooted history. Originally penned by Blues singer-songwriter Bobby "Blue" Bland way back in 1966, Gil Scott-Heron re-appropriated "I'll Take Care of You" on his thirteenth record (2010). I'm New Here was liberated through XL Recordings , produced by labelhead Richard Russell , and features a wide array of newly-adopted musical stylings. Roughly a year later, Jamie xx was commissioned to produce a Dubstep -inspired remix album, We're New Here . Drake 's Boom-Bap version of "Take Care" is essentially a refurbished edit that beefs up the Tribal drums and subs in Rihanna for Gil Scott-Heron on the hook. Nearly 6 months after it's or...

Jai Paul is a mysterious London -based singer-songwriter & producer who basically has one sole, albeit wide-spread claim to fame: "BTSTU" (2012). Upon it's initial XL Recordings -fueled release, the track quickly blasted atop many online music blogs' year-end lists; Paul's melodies were even sampled by a few popular artists: Drake , Beyoncé, XV, Pusha-T , and Intuition . When I contacted Holly @ Air Force London ("other shit") back on 11/8-11/2011, she simply replied saying that " Jai [Paul] will be releasing his next single in the New Year and the album will some sometime after, please stay tuned." The Indie blog community as a whole, I included, has yet to hear a peep from either Jai Paul or Air Force London since "BTSTU." But man, that all changed late yesterday afternoon, right as the weekend was beginning to start... seemingly out of nowhere, Jai Paul uploaded a BRAND NEW [demo] track, "Jasmine" to XL Rec...

Frequent Gorillaz collaborator and 1970's Soulman , Bobby Womack is fixing to make a triumphant comeback with the release of his first album in nearly 20 years, The Bravest Man In The Universe (June 11-12th). Womack's music career was kick-started back in the early 60's with family band, The Valentinos and later as Sam Cooke 's backing guitarist. Recorded over the past few years along with friends Damon Albarn and XL Recordings head honcho Richard Russell , "Please Forgive My Heart" is our initial taste of the album; Man, it's a bubbling, piano-driven synth -heavy affair that's slightly reminiscent of Albarn & Russell's Electro -leaning collective outputs... But have no fear, Bobby Womack 's passionate, heart-felt vocal delivery first heard on revealing original hits [and covers] like "Fly Me to The Moon," "California Dreaming," "Across 110th Street," "Sweet Caroline," and "It's All...

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra...

"The Witzard (Pop Culture News Blog)" Sharpcheddar856 -- Airforcelondon show details 10:37 PM Greetings, Ben & Holly! Matt from "The Witzard" music blog here... I'm a 23-year-old college grad from South Jersey. An aspiring Businessman and Journalist, I started the blog about 2 years ago in an effort to share my knowledge of Pop Culture and sharpen my writing chops. To date, we have 50 Followers and rough 55,000 views and counting. My favourite genres are Punk, Hop-Hop , and Indie Rock ... But we try to cover all sorts of Pop Culture stories. After reading this recent Stereogum interview with Drake , I was compelled to peruse the web for some Take Care era B-sides. One of the first tracks I stumbled upon was "Dreams Money Can Buy," which I soon learned sampled Jai Paul - "BTSTU" (2010). An artist that I had admittedly never heard of before... with a quick Google search, I was lead to Jai Paul 's MySpace page and saw this ver...

The pursuit of "Peace, Love & Happiness" is a pretty basic, universally echoed sentiment... one quite often further solidified and paired up with musical accompaniment. Admittedly not exactly the most "genuine" public figure, Drake has never seemed so real and unguarded as of late; Well, @ least not since the early days of "Best I Ever Had" (So Far Gone) . Now, this may just be a premature evaluation of sorts... But I strongly believe that "Take Care" will serve has the Magnum Opus of Drake's similarly-named sophomore album. This, due in part to an appearance from the reigning Queen of Electro-tinged Smooth R&B and Hip-Hop, Rihanna . If you like what you hear, show your support and pick up a copy of Take Care when it's [widely] released this coming Nov. 15th. "Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it... and take care until next time," Tweeted Drake Monday morning, after the imminent album leak-age. For all inte...

Plain and simple... From a long-time music aficionado's point of view, the concept behind "Let 'em Come" (music video) is a very original and intriguing premise. For all intensive purposes: Nina Kate , Carmen Pie , and Michala Vano are Scroobius Pip , P.O.S. (Doomtree) , and Sage Francis - respectively. @ the video's start, we see the girls getting ready and pre-gaming... But then, as they fervently walk downtown to the bar, carefully sequenced raps start coming out. Ever so slyly rhyming and wreaking havoc throughout the pub, "The Real Scroobius" soon has a run in with Nina Kate and the gang [roughly 2:15]. Subsequently getting kicked out, they once again begin roaming the dark London streets. As Michala (Sage) comes into the fold, they hop into a cab and eventually bail without paying fare. The camera begins to wobble and pan out, as Nina, Carmen , and Michala progressively hit the bottle harder and harder. Leaving the apartment, we are again...