Bossman Vs. Skarr Akbar - Face Off: The Battle For Baltimore (Streetsweepers/Akbar Enterprizes/Crooked Streetz)

Last month in the City Paper, I wrote a review of 3 recent Skarr Akbar mixtapes, including this one. I already wrote about the other 2 here, The Cerebellum and The Bidding War Starts Now! This one is kind of a different deal, the best of Skarr stacked against the best of Bossman, mixed by DJ Booman and hosted by DJ Radio. Boss and Skarr are cool with each other and both went to Mervo and used to compete in battles a lot back in the day, so it's got nothing to do with beef. If you follow mixtapes then you know these kinds of "Vs." tapes are popular, and it's kind of cool that 2 MCs from Baltimore are even considered hot enough to be compared like this. Both of their buzzes are probably at an all-time high right now, too, with "Bang" becoming the first Skarr song that's been really embraced by 92Q, and Bossman's "A-Yo" shaping up to be the first single/video from his major label album. Bossman's also got a new track, the "Pushin'" freestyle, featured on Hiphopgame.com, and he's got a freestyle over Fergie's "London Bridge" on 92Q lately that's surprisingly good. Check out Skarr's performance at the One Mic battle tonight.

Skarr Akbar & Bossman - "Freestyle" (mp3)
This freestyle they did together over the beat from Cassidy's "I'm A Hustla" originally appeared on DJ Radio's Point Of No Return mixtape in early 2005. It's the only track I've heard with both them on it, I'd love for them to collaborate on an original song together, that could be a real powerful combination.

Skarr Akbar - "Dumpsta Juice" (mp3)
I remember this track from the first Skarr mixtape I ever copped, Show Me Your Soul, still one of his nicest tracks that he performs live a lot.

Bossman - "Hand Clap" (mp3)
This is about a year old and was one of the first songs Bossman dropped after getting signed to Virgin. It was produced by the Rockwilder and it's kinda catchy, but it never seemed to take off, and when I talked to Nieze from One Up about it he made it sound like they don't really like the song and it probably won't be on the album.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Bossman, DJ Booman, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar