The Witzard Premiere: Mahatma Crowley & The Beholder's Trinity Unveil Part 1 of THE BEHOLDER'S MARK's Forthcoming 7-part Series, "AYAHUASCA" (Akashic Vibrations Records)
"In my early life, I forced break-throughs in danger to myself. I left these methods behind after realizing that everything I needed for self-discovery was already within me. I purged the facets of my being by compartmentalizing them into these living representations:
The Beholder's Trinity
. I needed to know who I was in order to understand who I could be.
"AYAHUASCA"
is my journey of self-understanding. It is my absolution. It is my sacred ritual,"
Occult Rap
originator
Mahatma Crowley
wrote within a recent statement.
"AYAHUASCA"
is the first part of a seven-part "visual story that will play out over the course of 2017" to accompany
Crowley
's 2015 debut,
THE BEHOLDER'S MARK [PROJECT 1]
and its recently unveiled follow-up,
iLLMAGIC [PROJECT 2]
. I'm ecstatic to be premiering
"AYAHUASCA"
today, here at
The Witzard
, on December 22nd,
The Winter Equinox
—as was
iLLMAGIC
released on
The Autumnal Equinox
, September 21st. Even the self-described
"Occult Rapper"'
s chosen nom de plum is a clever contradiction unto itself; a
Marilyn Manson
-esque amalgamation of
Mahatma Gandhi
and
Aleister Crowley
. For those who have yet to hear any of
Mahatma Crowley
's output, I would almost best compare it to something in-between
DMX
's unique brand of grizzled, often bark-delivered early 2000's
Hip-Hop
and
Death Grips' Hardcore Punk
-inspired
Noise-Rap
(which I affectionately like to refer to as
). Let's just say:
"AYAHUASCA"
may not exactly be what you might have grown to expect from your typical
Hip-Hop
video! #BEHOLDTHEMARK
"Sonically, Young Thug and Danny Brown were very impactful for me. There’s no one else executing experimentation in such a refined way. Vocally, you know it’s them as soon as they show up on a song—I think that’s so important today. They bring such a strong energy to their work and innovate on structure itself. Lyrically, Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto and Jay Electronica have been inspiring. I heard Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge) in 2008 and it really busted my head open... I knew then that when recording with my friends in a basement, I wanted to shift from talking about things I didn’t do and didn’t have, to saying something that actually mattered. Overall, without hearing Chance The Rapper, without Acid Rap, I never would have dropped public-facing tracks, simple as that. I would bump that album and people would ask me if he’s serious. I knew I wanted to illicit the same emotion in others: divisiveness," Mahatma Crowley insightfully replied when asked to detail some of the greatest influences on his Occult Rap sound within a featured interview right here at The Witzard. THE BEHOLDER'S MARK [PROJECT 1] and iLLMAGIC [PROJECT 2] are currently available for downloading and streaming purposes. Mahatma Crowley's next release, [PROJECT 3] is expected to be unveiled sometime during 2017. Merry Christmas, ghouls & gals!!!