Bossman and N.E.K. - Charm City's King Mixtape Vol. 2
NEK stands for North East Kings, kind of a UGK nod/ripoff, repping the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, been making moves as a group for at least a couple years before Bossman started his solo project and got a bunch of songs on the radio this year and moved somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand units so far.

2. Intro - Dollars
The members of NEK on this mixtape are Bossman, Dollars aka D.O. and Tony Manson (there's another dude, Cash, who broke off from the crew recently, which Bossman talks about on the new single "Off the Record" and a couple tracks on here). Dollars is coming 2nd, after the Bossman album drops, then Tony Manson coming 3rd. Dollars has 2 solo tracks on here (plus the posse cut verses), this one and track 19, "D.O.L.L.A.R.S.", and both are hot, although he's got the more generic east coast/Jay-Z wannabe flow where Bossman and Manson have that tight-lipped Baltimore accent where every vowel sound is squeezed up in the same way.

3. Battle Skit
please enter your password..you have 4 new voice messages and 3 saved messages...to play your messages, press 1...saved messages, sunday august 8th, 10:29...

listen, doggy, been month after month after month, doggy, of you duckin' me, doggy, I'm sick of you duckin' me, I'm tryin' to battle, I always will be tryin' to battle, doggy...I keep hearin' this "land and the city of the oh's, the city where they rock them oh's," doggy...doggy, what the hell is a oh? doggy, listen, and now I'm hearin' this "I did it, I did it, I did it"...nobody knows what the hell you did, doggy...don't wanna battle me, you duckin' me...listen, doggy, I will...gotta calm down, doggy, calm down, lemme give it to you right now, doggy, listen, doggy listen, doggy, I am a wild animal, doggy, whatever, doggy, I will come through your block...sting you like a hornet...niggas will be like "dayum, son...like a hor-net!"...listen, doggy, my flow is on another level, like noone else's doggy, whatever you wanna do, whatever you wanna call it, doggy, you're not comparin'...listen, doggy, late at night I put it on bitches, when I pull your bird, I don't be like, hey baby, can I buy you a drink, what's your number...nahh, none of that, doggy...all I have to do to pull a bird is go...CAW, CAW-CAW, CAW...like a parrot! listen, doggy...I got too much dough, doggy...niggas call me...Duncan Heinz...every broad that I get, doggy...I hit it from the back...I dunk in hinds! don't want none, doggy...

7. "I Did It"
His 2nd hit, follow-up to "Oh!", I wrote about it back when it dropped over the summer, and it really grew on me over time. Produced by One Up Entertainment (as are most of tracks on here that aren't freestyles), soul sample in 6/8 laid over a 4/4 drum pattern so that the piano notes from the sample kind of fall across the beat in this elegant, dragging way I've never heard anyone quite do before, it's really amazing considering that even a lot of mainstream producers don't know how to quantize a fucking 4/4 sample so it sounds tight and together. His voice is so perfect on this, clenched jaw and pinched, constipated vowels, saying "childs" instead of "children" but pronouncing it more like "chells".

hook (female voice sampled): I did it for real, I did it, I did it, I did it for real, I did it the way that my heart led me to, finding a star

verse 1: now I done seen cold winters with no blizzards, I'm talkin' when ya heart turn cold with no feelin's, we all some sinners, I got diminished, no matter how you look at it, man, we all winners, like 'Melo in the league and he knockin' down jumpshots, got your degree and you ain't have to pump rock, or you like me on the beat spittin' dumb hot, or you had to pump rocks to getcha own business, no matter if you did it, right or wrong you still did it, the skies is the limit, lotta stars, gotta pick it, just follow your heart, that's how I spit it, and if you dead broke without a job you still livin', still got time to shine, go and grind, go and get it, and you can be proud of yourself and say I did it, it's easy to spit it if you ain't never lived it, but I lived it, livin' proof, lemme tell you how I did it (hook)

verse 2: and to my grown sistas, my own sister, out there on your own, know it's hard with no mister, keep on, sista, you go, sista, no matter how it look, shawty, y'all all winners, you punch in the clock to put food on that table, trippin' on the block to put food on that table, don't worry about no labels, ho or a trick? you takin' care of home, yeah you did it, you the shit, if your kids ain't complainin', girlfriend you gainin', that's the type of gal that you gotta claim queen, mayne, I done seen the same, man, my sister, my mother, seen 'em both struggle and that's why I love ya, single black females, 2 or 3 childs, 2 or 3 baby fathers and they all fell, graduated from school, own cars, own cribs, ask mama how she did it, and this is what she said (hook)

verse 3: it was a cold winter, good old November, 23rd day, '81, that's when I entered, like woah timber, bout to drop ol' kippers, then my parents got locked, that made me more sicker, not one 9 to 5, had two 9 to 5's, and on top of all that, man, I was tryin' to rhyme, I was tryin' to grind, I was tryin' to shine, the story I'm sellin' these labels ain't buyin', so I started supplyin' that grain on the block, gettin' cream on the block, but all that had to stop like skrrrrr, 'cause now I got a daughter, it costs to be the boss so I gotta afford her, I got my game in order though my pockets got shorter, still punchin' on the clock, spittin' hot like Florida, the city's supportin' on the radio bangin', the land of the Oh! got everybody sangin', I did it (hook)

8. "Cock Up"
Corny comedy version of Akon's "Locked Up".

10. "Get Loose" (freestyle)
catch me if you can, it's the Boss to the man, gettin' bread like my first name ginger, man, I fold my hands and I pray e'y night, life is a dice game and rap is the dice, and I ice my wrists, ice my neck, even ice my fists, with all this damn ice this life's still a bitch, got a hustle on the side, still grind for a check, still ain't seen a check for this 1-2 mic check, take a walk in my Nike checks see if you feelin' tight, left without a deal when you knowin' you spit it right, you're blind to the flow, can't be seen and I'm outta sight, yeah I said it, B-O-crooked letter, bring any competitor, I'll put up the chedder, bet I'll leave you deader than Big and Pac put together, the game been in need since we lost B-I-G and P-A-C, R-I-P, I'm the R-A-P P-C-P with A-P-B out on the G-A-M-E, it's no I in team but there's one in king, so I wear the crown while all y'all bow, got half of the town ready to throw in the towel, it's Charm City's king, Bmore, say it loud, I got nothin' else to say, so fuck y'all, I'm out

11. "Dog"
The hook has a woofing "hoo!" thing like "No Problem", used in almost the exact same way except they're actually trying to sound like dogs on this. On the last track on the mixtape there's another message from the 'doggy' dude from track 3, going "now you even got a joint called All My Dogs and I'm not on it!"

12. Omar Skit
"yeah, what up niggas, this Charm City's king, the Bossman, chillin' in full effect with my nigga, the shotgun bandit, Omar from The Wire, man, we bout to lay shit flat, this shit live and direct"

"Brooklyn to Bmore, muthafuckas, what's good"

"bout to slide up in here and let my man get at y'all pussy ass niggas"

"niggas, what's really good, lemme tell ya what's up, boy, holla at ya muthafuckin' nigga, Omar from the muthafuckin' Wire, 3rd season gonna be crazy, reppin' the streets of Bmore, east side, west side, ya heard, my nigga, you heard Bossman, nigga, this is not a game, ya heard? gangsta life got no ups, just downs, full of frowns and hounds who just came home from pounds, you can be despised by men wicked or wise, who like to tell lies and walk around in disguise, they vowed never to vote, choke or flip fries, unaffected by lies, numb to the who's and why's, critical of the ones that try they best to fly. I myself? a carpenter, the hood, a tool to rise, see them other cats, they need to be tried, jealousy's a felony, so much poison in they lives, maaaaan...sup, Bossman, help me out, nigga!"

14. "Why" freestyle
The track that started a minor controversy, Bossman saying "why is Jada's album garbage but this song's so hot?" and people thinking it was meant as a diss (I dunno if this all went down before or after I saw Bossman open for Jada in September).

15. Why Skit
Really stupid skit with Bossman and someone smoking (or making those sucking sounds pretending to smoke like a Cheech & Chong record) and talking about Jada, and then the one who isn't Bossman singing about Jadakiss to the tune of MJ's "Human Nature". There's so many stupid skits on this CD, like 8 tracks are skits (and only the "doggy" one is funny at all), and it's supposed to be a fucking mixtape, I hope the album doesn't have this many skits.

17. "Face Down" (remix prod. by Blaqstarr)
The awesome fake club track with the spooky vibraphone-y synth!

23. Omar Skit 2
"Back that shit down, son, it's not a muthafuckin' game, we comin' hard, you heard? streets of Baltimore, we comin' hard, it's not a muthafuckin' game, Omar comin', dog, you know what this is, son! North East Kings, you heard? it's not a game. kings! big word right there, you heard? kings, baby! be the king at what you do, be a beast at what you do, you gonna sell them cracks? do the shit right, be a king about it. don't be a fuckin' corner nigga, gettin' cornered by the police, dog, get yo game right, the police is not stupid, yo, they watchin' us, The Wire's real! bea a king at what you do, don't be a nickel and dime nigga, don't be petty, keep them guns off the fuckin' streets unless niggas really need to see 'em, stop killin' my brothers and sisters, make that paper, yeah, but stop sheddin' that motherfuckin' blood, man, be a king at what you do"

25. "Need To Know"
Super intense freestyle over the Jin "I Got A Love" beat (which O-Dub dissed a couple times but it's one of my favorite Kanye beats of the year), Bossman talking all about the split with Cash, and then

26. Cash and Bossman "Re-Up"
and then the two of them going back and forth, clearing the air, taking turns with lines and finishing each other's rhymes Lox-style, great dramatic shit.

BOSSMAN DEBUT ALBUM "LAW AND ORDER" OUT DEC. 21st!!!!!

Labels: Bossman, mixtape/album review, One Up Entertainment, The Wire