Bosslady presents Baltimore State Of Grind: 21 Different Ways Pt. 1 (House Of Platinum Records)

Bosslady's been doing her thing promoting shows, running a label and P.R. company, and pushing mixtapes like the On Da Grind series. This is a new series on a kind of ambitious tip, nothing but songs about or featuring Baltimore in the title. She got a lot of the joints you should know already, like Bossman's "Oh," Diablo's "Jail Flick," and Comp's "B-More Anthem," plus heat from UnReal, Amadaye, Ogun, ShellBe RAW, Ray Lugar, Brown F.I.S.H., Tha Plague, M.O.L., Huli Shallone, whole lotta folks. The release party show was a real fun night, too. K-Con did her thing with the Hustle & Flow style cover art, and you can even order the album off CD Baby. She's already looking for songs for Pt. 2, so get in touch with her if you want to get on that. And Bosslady's birthday is on Tuesday, so here's an early birthday shout out to her.

BORNKING - "Blue Lights" (mp3)
BORNKING is an artist on Bosslady's HOP label, and a while back she gave me his street album, which I still have to write a post about sometime. This song is from a sampler for his forthcoming official album Bornified King, though, and I first heard it a few months ago when C Love posted it. I have to echo her sentiments that it's about time someone in Bmore hip hop addressed the whole situation with the Citiwatch cameras with the flashing blue lights that have been going up all over the city over the past year. There's been a few offhand references to it ("they done put cameras up over all the main strips" from D.O.G.'s "I Get Dough," and Midas's freestyle line "I shine in the hood like them blue lights"), but BORNKING is the first dude to dedicate a whole song to the topic. The closest one to my apartment used to be a few blocks away, but then a few weeks ago they put one up right down the street above the intersection where my girl waits for the shuttle to go to work every morning, and she says it makes her feel safer. It only had the blinking blue light for a day or two, though, now there's no light but I dunno if that means the camera isn't on or they're just being more on the low about it. Still, it's some strange shit, I have mixed feelings about it and I don't like how mysterious the city's being about them.

Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3)
Today on my other blog, Narrowcast, I posted Randy Newman's "Baltimore," Nina Simone's cover of it, and this song, which samples the NS version. I'm sure most of y'all already know "Oh Baltimore" well, but it's still one of my favorite Mully tracks and I wanted to shed some light on the song's origins.

Labels: Bosslady, Bossman, Diablo, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, ShellBe RAW, UnReal