Tyree Colion - Tyree Colion presents Hustle Hard Blvd (Rare Entertainment)

If anyone ever asks me who the hardest working rapper in Baltimore is, I'm probably gonna have to tell them Tyree Colion. I don't know if it's because he was locked up for 11 years and he's making up for lost time, but for whatever reason, dude's work ethic is ridiculous. Last fall, he dropped the double CD mixtape The Problem And The Solution, along with a DVD, and now, less than 6 months later, he's back with a triple CD mixtape. Man, dude must live in a vocal booth. When I first heard about it, I figured maybe there'd be a lot of guests filling up the discs, but it's pretty much all Tyree, only a dozen or so tracks with features, out of 60. And he doesn't even do a lot of freestyles over industry beats, it's mostly original songs, and man, any one of these discs is better than a lot of people's whole CDs. I can't say I like every song on here, there's some ideas that aren't pulled off successfully, like the rude bwoy flow on "Blame It On," but for the most part it's real consistent. Tyree kinda reminds me of Pac, in that he doesn't have the craziest flow, but he's got so much to say, and you have to keep listening to see what he's gonna say next.

Apparently the release party ended up not happening, but later that week, Bilal Bahar of Crushforce called me up and got me a copy of the CDs before the artwork was even done. Bilal is a good dude that I've met at a few shows, and he's the host of the mixtape, and also works on WMAR's Baltimore Saturday Night with Steve Rouse, which Tyree appeared on a few weeks ago. Bilal mentioned something to me about Tyree getting arrested, and the other night at Style Warz, the runner-up was SL Danga from the Young Hustlers, who kept saying "Free Colion, he'll be home soon." So I guess Tyree is having some problems right now, hopefully that will work out alright for him. I don't know if the mixtape has been officially released yet or if they're holding it up because of that, but if you get a chance to get a copy, cop it. Free Colion!

Rare Ent.'s MySpace page has a few songs up for download, including my favorites "Blocka Blocka" and "My Projects" (both of which were produced by Darkroom Productions). Here's some more, though, one track from each disc:

Tyree Colion - "C.O.L.I.O.N." (mp3)
Good way to start off the tape, explaining his name and his backstory over a fly beat and a new flip on an old chorus.

Tyree Colion - "Huh Man" Remix (mp3)
The original "Huh Man" was over the beat from Cam'ron's "Get Em Girls," and while Tyree always played it in his live sets, I don't know if any Baltimore MC can leave their imprint on that beat more than Verb's "Get Em Verb." And that might be why Tyree went ahead and re-did the song with a new beat, produced by Skarr Akbar, and it's a banger. I remember the first time I heard the new version was when Tyree performed it at the Little Clayway release party, and I couldn't wait to get a copy of it.

Tyree Colion - "Time After Time" (mp3)
Usually I'm not real into Tyree's laid back ballad-type songs, but he did some cool shit with this Cyndi Lauper sample, nice doubletime flow, some political lyrics.

Labels: Darkroom Productions, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Tyree Colion