Props to Fader for the article on Baltimore hip hop in their current issue, and to Catchdubs for pointing it out (and for acknowledging GN's own extensive coverage in this field). The article doesn't appear to be online anywhere, but check for it on newsstands. Part of me is tempted to gripe ("they got someone from New York to write this?") or pick nits (and certain parts give me a very strong impression that GN was drew on as a resource, which is fine with me, that's one of the reasons I do this; go ahead and Google a lot of those artists and this is one of the only sites you'll come up with), but for the most part it gets the details right and rings true, Eric Ducker did a good job. It's especially good to see them balance out the background on Baltimore club with its role in hip hop. Local rap has practically always been a bridesmaid to club music (in the local marketplace and in whatever national perception there is), but it finally feels like the scales are tipping or at least balacing out a little more. And I can't be mad at a national magazine dedicating 6 pages to pictures of and quotes from Rod Lee, Bossman, Mullyman and Q, more quotes from Pork Chop and Debonair Samir, and namechecks of Tim Trees, B Rich, Huli Shallone, Nature's Problem, Comp, Dukeyman, C. Miller, Paula Campbell, Davon and K-Swift. I can't be mad at that. As it happens, I have a big Tim Trees post that ties into a lot of stuff in the article that should be going up soon. And this year I'm going to be putting in some serious work to further expose this music to out-of-towners.

Labels: B. Rich, Bossman, Comp, Huli Shallone, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee, Tim Trees