DNA - True Crime: Harm City, Volume 5 (Hosted by Skinny Suge)

This is a real big move. DNA's been doing mixtapes with Comp and putting occasional Baltimore artists on his mixes for years, but this is his first big Bmore all-star mix. I can't say I like every track on here but there's just so many must-hear songs on it that you have to cop it, songs by Dirty Hartz and Cooli Hi and D.O.G. and Scola that you've been hearing on 92Q, plus tracks by Bossman and Skarr Akbar and UnReal and Q and Comp. And yes, the Mullyman/Bossman beef records are on here, and no, I won't post the mp3's. I respect DNA and I'm gonna help him sell some CD's by making you go buy it at Downtown Locker Room or his site to hear those tracks. I will note that the Mullyman track is not exactly the same one that was getting played on the radio in October, it's the same vocals from the original diss with a new beat instead of the Black Rob instrumental. Anyway, check my review of the mixtape in the City Paper this week, and direct all press inquiries to C Love.

Barnes f/ Joe Budden - "Top Of The Game" (mp3)
Nik Barnes from Street Official Records with that Jersey dude, nice low key track that's been getting played on 92Q lately. Budden also did a track with Dirty Hartz on their last mixtape.

D.O.G. - "Big Business" (mp3)
"They told me you play a beat when you talk people will listen...guess I'm a rapper now." Another low key track, over a Simply Red sample, D.O.G. namechecking damn near every MC in Baltimore throughout the song. That's something I like about D.O.G., that he seems like a real humble student of the game who's watching everyone else and showing respect, like at the Ottobar show when he was one of the only rappers who I saw in the crowd watching everyone else after his set. This and his single with Jim Jones, "I Get Dough" are both on the mixtape and on his MySpace page, which also has the completed "Hello" video. I'm looking forward to the album, last release date I heard for Champagne Dreams was the 2nd week of March.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Comp, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., Dirty Hartz, DNA, Dru Hill, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman