The Witzard Premiere: Baltimore's UllNevaNo & Jumbled Channel The Ghost of Len Bias On "86 Draft" (Harford & Reckord Tapes/MGNTK.)
"[Lonise Bias'] son, who in his senior season at the University of Maryland, was widely regarded as the best college basketball player in America, a can't-miss talent with absurd hang time. Her son, who had been drafted with the No.2 pick by the NBA Champion Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986. Her son, who would be described in an autopsy report two days later as a "well-developed young Black male," 6-foot-7, 221½ pounds, otherwise fit and healthy and clean, with the exception of the copious amount of cocaine in his system..." ESPN E-Ticket writer Michael Weinreb wrote within a piece fittingly titled 'The Day Innocence Died.' MGNTK.-affiliated Baltimore spitter UllNevaNo and "teacher, husband, beat-maker & dish washer" John Bachman (otherwise known as Jumbled) have teamed back up for an EP entitled The Ghost of Len Bias. Jumbled & UllNevaNo first worked together on "Hampden Session" from Bachman's entirely self-produced 2016 album, [I wish it was longer] AKA WIWL.
Now, they've reunited for a proper rapper-producer follow-up EP. The Ghost of Len Bias EP is loosely based on the life and death of one of the greatest basketball players to (n)ever play in the NBA, 22-year-old forward Len Bias; lead-off single, "86 Draft" is, as Jumbled & UllNevaNo simply put it, "an homage to the legendary Bias, who died before he could share his talents in the NBA." Jumbled's sparse piano-led production work on "86 Draft" is tediously littered with audio snippets of NBA announcers and radio personalities ranting and raving about Len Bias: "THE BOSTON CELTICS SELECT LEN BIAS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND... THERE HE IS, LEN BIAS!!!" While we patiently wait The Ghost of Len Bias EP, feel free to ch-check out UllNevaNo and Jumbled's latest releases: illien rosewell-produced Confidence Is Everything 2 (CIE2) and 11/2016-released Action Shots cassette EP.
"We are proud to release "86 Draft" the first single by UllNevaNo & Jumbled from Baltimore. This song is from their upcoming EP, The Ghost of Len Bias. This track is an homage to the legendary Bias, who died before he could share his talents in the NBA. UllNevaNo writes most of his raps at his night job, while Jumbled gets up early in the morning to make beats. This duo came together due to their mutual love of raw raps and Boom-Bap beats; tired of releasing random singles, they teamed up for a 7-song EP (due out early September 2017.) They first worked together on a track on Jumbled's solo album [I wish it was longer], which came out last year."
- Jumbled & UllNevaNo