Since Baltimore club music has a much stronger identity and following than any hip hop that's ever come from here, inevitably rappers are gonna get with the club producers and use that sound, but since club beats are way too fast for most dudes to rap over, you end up with fusions like this, where Rod takes a classic club track (which is itself an old school "It Takes Two"-esque breakbeat) and slows it down from 130bpm to more like 105, there's a remix of Young Gunz "Friday Night" that's like that (not sure who it's by, they say their name in place of Just Blaze's but I can't make out what it is, sounds like "Samir" or something like that), and B Rich's "Woah Now" even had kind of a club sound to it. Anyway this is good, not quite as anthemic as it wants to be but the droning synth horns and shouting on the hook are cool and Bossman gets in enough local references to make it a suitable hometown pride joint.

Paula Campbell - "Lean Back" remix

An R&B flip on the new Terror Squad, and it's pretty cool, although there's only so much you can do with a Scott Storch beat that's at best a slight improvement on "Clap Back".

Nature's Problem f/ Lil Flip - "That Ain't Nothin'"

NP had a big local hit a couple summers back, "Shake It Shorty", which might've gotten some play outside the city but I'm not sure. Either way I'm surprised they managed to get Flip on a song, and it's kind of funny that it's one of those tracks where Flip laughs at anyone who brags that they just got a deal for only half a mil when I'm sure Nature's Problem isn't even doing numbers like that.

Red Dot & Backland f/ Whyte Out and Bone Crusher - "Bedda Not Say Nothin'"

More Bmore/dirty south collabs! BC just on the hook but it's real hype with the beat. Red Dot was a finalist on one of those lame MTV mc battle competitions, and Whyte Out* was a champ on Freestyle Fridays on 106 & Park, so apparently guys in those things like to stick together. Like most white rappers, Whyte Out gives himself away by the way he pronounces R's, and has an annoying labored flow and says stuff about word selection on the verge of perfection, etc.

*I keep making the annoying typo of writing Lil Whyte, the Triple 6 affiliate, when I mean Whyte Out, the Freestyle Friday guy who's from Beltsville, Maryland. My bad.

Labels: Backland, Bossman, Huli Shallone, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee