Tim Trees was the first rapper in Baltimore to get a beat from Rod Lee, back in 2000, which is in effect the starting point for the current era of Bmore hip hop. Club music had already been dominating the city for a decade at that point, and there had been plenty of attempts at club/rap fusions, but it wasn't until Tim and Rod got together and set the standard with "Bank Roll", which was a huge hit, that people had a successful template to work with, club drums slowed from 130bpm way down to 90 so you can flow on it. And people hate on the Baltimore sound, especially in D.C., but fuck it, Rod Lee's drums don't sound any cheaper than, say, David Banner's. Tim's first album was produced roughly half by Rod, and half by another club producer, Dukeyman, who produced "Whoa Now" for B Rich 2 years later. But mostly it's been Rod Lee running the city since then, with monopolies on both sides of the game, club beats and hip hop beats. Countless local MCs got their first or biggest or only hit from Rod (off the top of my head: Bossman, Nature's Problem, Q, Mullyman, Little Clayway, Live Wire, Tyree Corleone, Pork Chop), and Tim and Rod teamed up again in '02 and '03 to do some big local R&B hits with Davon and then Paula Campbell. Tim's first album sold something like 10 thousand, 20 thousand, maybe more, but the 2nd LP didn't do as well, and he never got signed like everyone thought he would, so in the past couple years he's kept a relatively low profile. But he had top billing on both of The Movement mixtapes, including the standout on Vol. 2, "No Club Shit", and last fall he did a record with Paula on the "Breathe" beat that sounded like he wasn't planning on going anywhere. Plus he got a shoutout on Comp's song on the Johnson Family Vacation sdtk ("roll Tim Trees up" - "Rollin'").

Tim Trees - Dalton... Vol. 1 (BDAMORE RECORDS, 2000)

(I'm not sure what the title's about, but on a couple tracks he refers to himself as Timothy Dalton, so I guess he's shouting out his favorite Bond or something)

"Spit" f/ Manny
Pretty awesome intro, starting with nothing but cavernous bass drum pulse, and then Tim bringing a ridiculous double time flow over some of Rod's pizzicato strings like on that Q song "No" that he did last year.

"Yo, I'm So High" f/ Contact
Ridiculous beat by Dukeyman, maybe the best video game sample beat I've ever heard, 8 bit lazer guns going off everywhere with a squirmy 12th note melody.

"Green Eyes"
One of my favorite lyrics about Baltimore ever: "I mean I love my city, but this a cruddy ass town"

"Bank Roll"
"My necklace got me a nickname: treasure chest"

"We Don't Love 'Em"
His biggest hit besides "Bank Roll", probably my favorite. I love the fact that there's an UrbanDictionary.com entry for Tim Trees that quotes the opening lines of this song. The mp3 I put up is actually the clean version that's a bonus track on the 2nd album, basically a whole re-recording of the vocals with a lot of the really nasty stuff taken out or worded differently. I used this version so as not to offend your tender sensibilites, and because I like this way this one sounds a little more. My favorite part is how in the first verse he starts out talking trash, I don't need y'all chickens, y'all chickens need me, etc., but then he starts getting a little personal and vulnerable with "I put my trust in a broad and got scarred deeply/I be chillin' with my girl, and that girl would beat me", like he's got some serious baggage behind all his anger against women that he didn't even mean to let on.

"F.M.P."
Tim says he's "footloose like Bruce Springsteen", I think he's a little confused here. The last line of the last verse is "fuck you, Tim buck two at the same time/bullets rip through you, hit ya man, flatline", which is the hook for a song later in the album, "Timbuktu". He seems to do a lot of that stuff like Cash Money used to do all the time, taking a hot line from a verse and then turning it into the hook of a new song.

"Murder Scene" f/ Contact and Dirty Shawn
Fake newswoman "Sarah Bdamore" voice over: "special report from the 2500 block of Preston St. where police are attempting to abdicate a murder suspect known on the street Dirty Shawn, the scene is horrific. I now hear more bodies have been found, a hell of a price to pay for niggas talkin' too much shit". At least I think she says "abdicate", I guess she means "apprehend".

"Ya' Mean" f/ AE and Bassie
"if i don't represent hard then who will, Dru Hill? I mean they doing they thing, but they sing, I'm too ill"

Skit
I love how all the skits on this album are just people talking in some room with terrible acoustics, voices nowhere near the microphone, not like major label skit with fake scenarios reenacted in a vocal booth. "What Bdamore stand for? they got a nigga kidnapped, they know he got dough, so what do you do to him? you beat 'em more!"

Tim Trees - Dalton vol. 2 (BDAMORE RECORDS, 2002)

Intro
Tim's manager or whatever Manny: "yo...what the fuck's goin' on, my niggas? yeah, Dalton volume 2, nigga, we ain't clownin' around, know what I'm sayin'? Bdamore Records's gonna do it this year, y'all, Tim Trees will be signed this year, 2002, what the fuck, my nigga? hold it down for my man, know what I'm sayin', fuck the bullshit, fuck that bootleg shit, we on the rise my niggas, stop motherfucking hatin', clown ass niggas, sell units, nigga, holla at us, we might even help you motherfuckin' homos, nigga, do your motherfuckin' job to sell your shit, nigga, stop talkin' bout my man, keep my motherfuckin' man's name out yo motherfuckin' mouth, and that's what's up, nigga, holla"

"Family" f// Tony Boscoe, Stee and S.N.L.
Produced by Stay Getting, who have 2 or 3 tracks each on both albums, and almost the only tracks on this one that aren't by Rod Lee. This starts off with a way sped up helium chirpy sample from Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" that sounds absolutely ridiculous, and doesn't reappear for the rest of the song.

Skit
someone: "Baltimore has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy, the highest rate of AIDS within the black community, the highest rate of, um, teens killing teens, the highest rate of teenage suicide, and the highest rate of blacks killing blacks...in Baltimore, Maryland. And this is where we chose to live."

"410" f/ Little Clayway and Skarr Akbar
Posse cut putting up the area code, with two other local stars. Skarr Akbar has a big local reputation and is one of the only Baltimore MC's that's really gotten into the national mixtape circuit, appeared on some Streetsweepers and DJ L mixes, did some songs with the Heatmakerz, even did some acting and had a recurring role on The Wire, but due to some kind of politics he hasn't been able to get on local radio. I haven't heard much by him, but his song on the first Movement mixtape was really good, and he has the nicest verse on this.

Skit
"yo wassup, yo, this ya man Tim Trees, yo, I wanna take this time out to show my fans some love, ya' mean, cause I appreciate all the love and support, y'all give me you feel me, but um, if you listenin' to this shit right now through a bootleg CD, break this shit up right now, go to the store and cop the real joint, right. But I wanted to address these faggot ass hatin' ass niggas out here, man... I mean, these promo ass niggas, cuz, nah mean, I'm talkin' about all these niggas like...you ain't even on my level, you feel me? how many albums is you sellin', g? ya' mean? who's sellin' albums out this motherfucker, that's what it all boil down to, ya' mean?"

"Never Ever" f/ Rod Lee
The track before this, "Did You Miss Me" was supposedly the single but I never really heard it before copping the album, this is the only song I ever really heard on the radio. Starts with Rod's favorite synth horn patch, and has the most amazingly sick revving up bass sound leading up to the beat.

"T.I"
I'm not sure what the title means but it has nothing to do with the guy from Atlanta, who wasn't really famous in '02 when this came out anyway. One of the hottest beats on the album, though, Rod Lee claps in a weird choppy rhythm.

"Spit part II"
Another great doubletime flow like the first "Spit": "I know ya heard of me, young nigga named T with the big D-I to the C-K, N-I-N-E and a half, they call me Calgon cause I take ya chick straight away, oh your man don't like me, what you wanna fight me? split 'em to the white meat with a AK". I never even noticed that line until Lil Jon started saying "white meat" all the time, how far back does that go?

BONUS TRACK:
Paula Campbell f/ Tim Trees and Rod Lee - "How Does It Feel"
The song that got things jumping off for Paula in '03 and set her up to release an album in '04 and have a few more regional hits. The only time I've ever seen Tim in person is when Paula opened for Kanye at UMBC last year and he jumped onstage to do his verse. Probably one of my favorite TT verses, too. The whole song, she's on the phone with her ex, played by Rod, telling him off, and by the bridge he's begging "Paula please, pick up the phone". And then in comes Tim picking up on the line: "homeboy, here's the biz, I'm in the crib where you once lived, layin' on ya bed, playin' Playstation 2 with ya kids", while Rod helplessly sputters "who is this?" over and over.

Labels: Little Clayway, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees