various artists - South Paw Entertainment (South Paw Entertainment)

South Paw is a Baltimore-based label comprised of two solo artists (D.E. and Gamin) and three groups (Lost Soulz, TriState and Kontroversi), plus a producer (Chris B.). The first time I heard South Paw was when they performed at the Bossman show at the Ottobar last fall, and copped the album after that but hadn't gotten around to posting about it. And since then, I've seen a few South Paw guys compete at Style Warz, and Lost Soulz seem to be doing a lot of shows these days, and were gonna open for Mobb Deep until the show got postponed. You can check out South Paw on their official site, and on CD Baby and MySpace.

Gamin - "Childhood" (mp3)
Gamin's other track on here, "All For Self," also appeared on DNA's Harm City 5, but this is the one I'm really feelin', it's just some personal stortytelling over a low key piano loop beat.

D.E. - "Fuck What You Pitchin'" (mp3)
This is like the polar opposite of the other track, it's just crazy aggressive. D.E. really stands out of the camp to my ears, maybe because it's easier to recognize the voices of the solo artists than the group members, you know how that is. First time I heard him was on a track with Mazon on the first Movement mixtape from '03. In my opinion this is Chris B.'s hottest beat on the album, all those 32nd notes on the kick drum are crazy.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, South Paw