Gritty Gang Mixtape (Real On Purpose Entertainment)

When I first started hearing about the Gritty Gang project last year, I was under the impression that it would just be the 3 solo MCs from R.O.P. (Ogun, Ammo and Profound) as a group, which would be cool in and of itself. But when they dropped this mixtape last month, it turned out they had something more ambitious in mind, incorporating a much larger family of Baltimore MCs in the project, including Skarr Akbar, EJ, ShellBe RAW, Tha Plague, and XO. There are some joints on here you might already know from other mixtapes, including my personal favorite "Gully Musick" by Ammo, "Raw" by ShellBe RAW, "What Party?!" by Ogun, Ammo and Profound, plus a lot of new music. You can buy the mixtape direct from Ogun's site, along with the Movement mixtapes and Ogun's solo albums. Shout out to Wink and the whole R.O.P. crew, I feel like they're a really central piece of this Baltimore hip hop thing.

Ammo, Ogun, and Profound - "I Know You Don't Love Me" (mp3)
When the R.O.P. crew performed as Style Warz last month, this was my favorite of their set, hilarious jack of the Tony Yayo track inserting Baltimore MCs' names into the hook: "I know you don't love me/you ain't the same when Bossman's around/I know you don't love me/y'all say Mario holds it down/I know you don't love me/y'all love it when Mullyman's in town/I know you love Tim Trees, love B. Rich/tryna run game on me, you can't win."

EJ - "Freestyle" (mp3)
Congrats to EJ, the Super Style Warz champ, he really earned that shit. I wish I had more music by him than just a handful of tracks from different mixtapes, I know people are really feeling him now, so here's a little something.

Arabz f/ Skarr Akbar - "Judgement Day" (mp3)
This might be my favorite track on the CD, it just sounds evil as hell and Skarr's verses are real intense. When are we gonna get that new album, Skarr?

Labels: G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar, XO