Norm Skola - "Nobody Move"
The next song that's going to rule Baltimore and jumpstart a career like "Oh" and "this Is My Hood" before it. Skola's been kicking around the city for years, had an EP out back in 2000, some other singles and press clippings, but nothing like this. "Nobody move, nobody get hurt/somebody move, somebody get merked/this is how it sound when I put in work/and this is how it sound when you put in the earth", sounding kind of like a cross between Cassidy and Jada, but a young Jada, back in like 98 before his voice got really guttural, over a blazing Jay Funk beat full of rickety snares and horn blasts.

Tyree - "Shake It Fast, Take It Slow"
"Rod Lee hit Tyree with a banger, now every rapper in the city in danger", Rod creeping up on a new style, a little less minimalist than usual, with a big thick synth line coming down the end of every few bars. And that amazing part where everything but that ticking hi-hat stops and Rod grabs the mic with that voice that's rocked a million club jams: "hold up ladies, make your way to the dance floor, my man Tyree wantin’ to see you take it to the floor and shake it fast and then take it slow", and then the beat switches up for a verse in that subtle way that Three 6 does a lot, with pummeling kick drums and a low low bassline that stays for the last chorus.

Hazmatt and Erica Kane - "Wait A Minute"
Two of 92Q's on-air staff on one track, so you know they’re gonna spin it, but it's actually kinda hot. Big gated 80's snare drums that I'm pretty sure are from a Phil Collins record but I'm not sure which, with thin crisp Crime Mob-sounding drum machine beat over it. Hazmatt raps on the air all the time, I wrote about one of his songs once, he's alright, but the shocker is Erica, who apparently not even a lot of the 92Q people even knew she could rap, and she totally shows him up, ok flow but big charisma and these amazing parts where she breaks into a fast singing part and changes up her voice. I don't know if that's her real name or she got it from the Aaliyah song but she uses that as her intro music all the time, the one time I saw her in person she was fine as hell. She's also got a track where she raps over that new Amerie song.

Also, if you missed the link in the comments of a previous post, Weapon Shaped has a post about B Rich with a mp3.

Labels: B. Rich, Rod Lee, Tyree Colion