Thursday, January 31, 2008

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008



Yuk & C.U.T. - 3 Da Hardwae: Squadre Radio (For The People Entertainment)

Last month, I wrote a feature in the City Paper about For The People Entertainment, and posted a bunch of tracks from the label's roster. Two of the artists out of the crew that I hadn't heard that much when I did the article were Yuk & C.U.T., who are a duo and kind of a group within a group, since Squadre Committee is comprised of all the For The People MC's. And after I did the interview with everybody I heard from Yuk later and he hooked me up with some of the material he's working on for an upcoming solo project that sounds good, and this mixtape. Most of the tracks on here feature Yuk and/or C.U.T. (not to be confused with Cutthroat, another FTP artist), but almost everyone else from the label makes an appearance, Billo and Bear and Ace and Lil Shank. And it might be my favorite FTP release I've heard to date, or close to it, mostly because it does display the most of their sounds and abilities. C.U.T. is performing this Thursday, January 31st and also March 1st at Suite's Indie Night, down in the Belvedere Hotel. On this mixtape Yuk & C.U.T. shout out an album they have coming soon called Dedicated.

Yuk & C.U.T. - "Whut They Talkin' Bout" (mp3)
The two of them only rap on about 6 tracks on this mixtape together, and this is my favorite of those.

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'The Wire' Cast Comes Together

To commemorate the finale of the series, cast members Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), Corey Parker Robinson (Detective Leander Sydnor), Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow)* will be at the HBO Shop to sign the new deluxe soundtrack celebrating five years of music from The Wire.

When: Jan 31st, 2008 at 11:30am
Where: HBO Shop at 42nd and 6th Ave (NYC)

*Cast members subject to change.

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008



Keyaira Chanel Live Feb 1 @ The 5 Seasons!!
February, 1 2008 at The 5 Seasons
830 Guilford Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Cost : $10
Live Hip Hop Event also featuring special guest performances by TM the Giant, D.O.G, Amazon, Eze Jackson of Soul Cannon, Ray Victory, and many more!!

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I was recently contacted by Phillip from Crosstalk, a Chicago-based music distributor that specializes in dance music, and exports to Japan and Europe in addition to shipping around the U.S. They're looking for Baltimore club vinyl to distribute, because right now they only have a little, mostly from non-Baltimore labels, and it sells really well for them. So I'd love it if some local labels were able to take advantage of this opportunity and move more records out of town. I know a lot of Baltimore club DJs have moved to Serato and a lot of the big tracks don't even make it to vinyl anymore, but Crosstalk's sister company Super Bro also presses up vinyl for small labels. If you're interested in working with them, e-mail crosstalk@crosstalkchicago.com, tell them Al sent you. And if you distribute any records through them, let me know they'll be available. I hate that I write about all this great Baltimore club music on the internet and then most of the people who read about it can't find the records anywhere. There is a worldwide audience out there for this stuff, there is a profit to be made, so I hope somebody does something with this info I'm giving you right now. And if any other distributors or labels or stores are interested, drop me a line, I'll put your info up, too.

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Monday, January 28, 2008

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Noz from CocaineBlunts put up some great links to chatter on some language studies websites about Baltimore slang, in particular the unique use of "yo" as a pronoun. It's funny, someone from a magazine recently who asked me about Baltimore slang, and the first thing I brought up was the way folks use "yo" in place of "he" or "she." It seems like people in Baltimore have talked this way forever, but if anyone has any background on it or when/where exactly it started, you should go over to the Language Hat blog and comment. I could probably dip into my mixtape library and pull out a hundred Bmore rap lyrics that use "yo" as a pronoun, but, uh, that'd take a lot of work. Maybe if people really wanted to see that, though.

Sunday, January 27, 2008



Lil D - Mixtape Vol. 1 (Reina Williams Productions)

A while back at the Turntable Club I saw a performance by Reina Williams, a female MC/producer who left a big impression on me, and I put her on my most anticipated of 2008 list. At the show, she was giving out CD's by an artist on her label, Lil D. I don't know how old Lil D is, I think he says on one song that he's 17 but he sounds even younger, kinda reminds me Lil Boosie, that kinda high, screechy voice. This mixtape is alright, mostly freestyles over big radio songs, and then a few tracks at the end produced by Reina Williams. Reina is a lesbian and part of the LGBT hip hop community, so it's weird that Lil D says a bunch of "faggot" this and "faggot" that type bullshit on one song. Lil D and Reina Williams are performing this Monday at Hip Hop 101 at 5 Seasons.

Lil D f/ Reina Williams - "We So Fly" (mp3)
This is one of the 4 songs at the end of the mixtape produced by Reina, I wish there were more original songs on here, good shit.

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

So the 2 official soundtracks for The Wire have been out for a couple weeks now, and there's some good news and some bad news. The good is that the CDs have largely been getting positive, including my friend Tom Breihan's Pitchfork review, which favored Beyond Hamsterdam, and he featured Diablo's "Jail Flick" on a recent podcast. The bad news, or at least not great news, is that, as the Baltimore Sun's Sam Sessa recently reported on the Midnight Sun blog, according to SoundScan, only 2,000 copies of The Wire: And All the Pieces Matter and 400 copies of Beyond Hamsterdam have been sold in their first 2 weeks on shelves. Granted, CD sales in general are down, compilations are generally the hardest kind of hip hop album to sell, and The Wire is not really a hit show, even by premium cable standards. But I think I expected at least a little better than this (and a CD has to sell at least 3 thousand in a slow week to crack the Billboard 200). Hopefully, though, the good word of mouth will spread and as the 5th season of the show progresses, more people will pick up these great discs and check out the music.

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Friday, January 25, 2008

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Rock Da Mic Champinionship
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
To perform you must pre-register! Show up at the event to book for the next or call 410.507.3866.

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Thursday, January 24, 2008



The DMV Entertainment Music Awards were held this past weekend honoring participants of music scenes in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Viriginia. Congratulations to the winners representing Baltimore: Kelly Connelly (for Most Supportive Media) and B-Fly of Brown F.I.S.H. (for Best Spoken Word Artist). And also, congratulations to the other Baltimore nominees: Em Sea Water, Bossman, Shaka Pitts, Me'Aze Millioni, ShellBe R.A.W., Musse' Mus' and Sonny Brown.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008



various artists - The Show (1 Fam Productions)

1 Fam Music is a local label (not to be confused with another Baltimore crew, First Family Entertainment) that recently released a compilation album. The album features over a dozen artists, most of them singers, but also a few rappers, and there was a big concert last weekend featuring the artists on the CD at Centerstage, which I was invited to check but unfortunately missed, since I had to go out of town over the weekend for family obligations. But apparently there's going to be a DVD of the show, and more concerts at Coppin and Morgan State and UMBC soon.

The album is a really slick, well-produced project, someone named R.M. produced most of the tracks and gives it a really polished, consistent sound. I feel like there's a lot of R&B being made in Baltimore that I never hear, so it's nice to check some of it out and be pretty impressed by the talent on here, although since there's so many different artists on here with only one or two appearances each, it's kind of hard to get a handle on anyone's individual sound or personality. That's just something that inevitably happens with compilations that showcase unknown artists, though, I guess.

Adonna - "Who Is She?" (mp3)
Adonna is one of the only rappers who gets a solo track on The Show, and though sometimes hearing a rapper in the context of a mostly R&B album isn't the best way to get exposed to an MC, she really kills this track, I like it. And of course, I'm always supportive of female MCs carving out a place in the Baltimore scene.

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This month on http://noise.citypaper.com, I posted a couple more last gasps of best of 2007 lists, my top 10 shows of the year (including Kix, Avec, Skarr Akbar, Bossman, Mullyman, Barnes, Huli Shallone, Comp, B.O.M.B., ShellBe R.A.W., Jade Fox, B-Fly and G.E.M. among others) and a big year-end Club Beat column with my top 10 Baltimore club tracks of the year (including K.W. Griff, Blaq Starr, Rod Lee, Say Wut and Scottie B. among others) in addition to the top Baltimore albums of '07 list I posted last month. And my first concert reviews of the new year were of the MacGregor Burns Band/Good Guise/Mason-Dixon @ The Ottobar, Paloma/Flying Eyes/Dog Day Afternoon/Watershed/Icarus Rising @ the 8x10, and Ogun/B.O.M.B./PX/First Family/E Major/A-Class/UnReal/Ab-Rock @ the Turntable Club's benefit for Sonny Brown. Plus, of course, other people all over Noise posting Baltimore music news.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008



Thanks for the response for AbRock's's "Who (Do You Think You Are)" Video Shoot. We still need extras for Sat and Sundays shoot so if you haven't sent your info yet, do so.Thanks to those who have responded so far with contact info and availability (Deesha, Kadija, Tiffany,etc...much appreciated ). If you know somebody/anybody else who might be interested feel free to forward the info.

If coming to either shoot or both:

* send us your name via email (rockmics@gmail.com) or hit me via myspace.
* your contact info (phone and email)
* what day you are interested in coming. (If both specify)
* acting experience if any...

Finally, all we ask is if coming be committed to spending time the time allotted at the shoot. This is very important and cannot be stressed enough.

Saturday 1/26
We need about 10 people for stand alone shots / and work location shoot on Saturday morning for about a couple of hours. A lil bit of acting experience preferred but not necessary.

- needed to play co-workers/ and everyday people.
- looking for wide range of age/ race or gender (ages18 - 50)
- work attire and/ or regular street clothes..

Sunday 1/27
We are shooting the club and performance crowd scene. We need about 40 extras to come dressed for going to a lounge/ club/hip hop show attire.

Location: TurnTable Club 2139 Jefferson Street
Date: 1/27
Time: 12 - 4pm. Cameras start rolling @ 1pm sharp.

- Age range 23 - 40.
- need fly individuals/ musicians / artists/ regular folks/ hipsters/ soul sistas etc.
- need females, ladies bring ya friends. Hip Hop is not just for the fellas...lol
- urban fashionable clothing.

Still looking for
- Very Important 1989 or 1990 Toyota Camry.....holla @ us asap.

About the Video
Director - Hilton Carter
Artist -AbRock's
Song - Who (Do You think You Are) Featuring Marc Evens of Soul Centered - 1st song playing in link above..

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Monday, January 21, 2008

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Sunday, January 20, 2008


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Saturday, January 19, 2008

This week, the results of the 2007 Idolator Pop Critics Poll were published, and as a regular contributor to Idolator, I voted in the poll (see my ballot here) and put together an 80-minute mix CD for the accompanying 2007 In The Mix package. I wasn't sure what to write about for my mix, and had a few different ideas, but I'm glad I went with Baltimore music, since I'm sure anything else would've had a lot in common with some of the mixes the 30-something other writers made. My tracklist and essay about the mix are here, but I'm gonna go ahead and post mp3's of the whole thing here (since I've already posted most of these songs, or other songs by the same artists, on my blogs in the past year anyway):

1. The New Flesh, "Squeeze"(mp3) (from Vessel, Heartbreakbeat)
2. Avec, "In Character"(mp3) (from Lines, Civil Defense League/Doghouse)
3. Wye Oak, "Obituary"(mp3) (from If Children, Morphius)
4. Thrushes, "Ghost Train"(mp3) (from Sun Comes Undone, Birdnote)
5. Mario, "Skippin'"(mp3) (from Go, J)
6. Ckrisis, "Down For Whatever"(mp3) (from Muscle Up Vol. 2, Bird City Entertainment)
7. Bossman, "So Fresh"(mp3) (from End of Discussion, One Up)
8. Ogun ft. Che'Ray, Comp, Backland, Little Clayway, Skarr Akbar &
Bossman, "Just Us"(mp3)
(from Bmore Hero, Real On Purpose)
9. Young Dip, "D.T.T.W.C."(mp3) (from You See Me?, IMP)
10. Jade Fox ft. Eva Castillo, "Got 'Em Like"(mp3) (from Ashes of Another Life, self-released)
11. Ace ft. Billo, "Slow Ya Speed"(mp3) (from The Product, For the People Entertainment)
12. Silouette, "Chicken Box"(mp3) (from The Best of B-Ill: Chapter 1, Banga Bill Enterprises)
13. Tyree Colion, "Projects"(mp3) (from Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip, Darkroom Inc.)
14. Heavy Gold, "Charm City"(mp3) (from Tha Testa, Stay Gettin' Entertainment)
15. Height ft. Bow N' Arrow, "Smash Your Eyes"(mp3) (from Winterize the Game, Grand Man)
16. DJ Blaqstarr, "Crazy Leg Wit It"(mp3) (from The King of Roq, JB Starr Productions)
17. Rod Lee, "Enjoy Yourself"(mp3) (from The Producer, Unruly)
18. KW Griff, "Taking Over"(mp3) (from K-Swift the Club Queen Jumpoff Vol. 11, Doo Dew Kidz)
19. Say Wut, "Futuristic"(mp3) (from Beats Extraordinaire EP, Unruly)
20. Dan Deacon, "Jimmy Joe Roche"(mp3) (from Spiderman of the Rings, Carpark)
21. Cex, "Oregon Ridge"(mp3) (from Sketchi, Temporary Residence)

I kind of grouped the mix into genre sections, from indie rock (tracks 1-4) to R&B (track 5) to hip hop (tracks 6-15) to Baltimore club (tracks 16-19) to IDM or whatever it should be called (tracks 20-21). Track 3 is by a band who was called Monarch when I made the mix, but in the month since then they've changed their name to Wye Oak and signed to Merge Records, which is reissuing their great album in April. My full list of top Baltimore albums of 2007 is over at Noise.

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Hey Everybody! The new episode of Deep FLow TV this week is filmaker, Civil Jones All female Baltimore Documentary, 'Even A Man Can Do This'. I'm going to call it 'critically acclaimed' because the true Baltimore hip hop heads who have seen it have given it mad props. I did the filming and editing, Ms. Tris Beats and Reina WIlliams produced the background beats, 3 females took and contributed the pictures, and Civil wrote it. So as you can see, not only is it a documentary about Baltimore female hip hop heads but also all-female produced! Check it out for the next 2 weeks, regular show time in Baltimore CIty Fri/Sat 1am, Sundays 10pm ch. 75 comcast city cable check repeat scheduale on DeepFLowTV.com. in Anne Arundel County, this week Novembers 'Rock Da Mic' episode runs with Digga Saratoga reigning victorious and next week this new episode should start!

-Amotion

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008



Caddy Da Don - Fixed Fight 2.5: Exclusive Edition (Harup Entertainment)

Caddy Da Don won the "rookie of the year" award at the Blammy Awards a few weeks ago, and I gotta say I voted for him and really agree with that call, because he's kinda risen up and established himself in the Baltimore scene pretty quickly in the past year, in a way that noone else really has since D.O.G. came up a couple years ago. Just the fact that he's been the new name on a whole bunch of posse cuts recently, including the all-star remix of his own single "Whole City Behind Me," has really put him on my radar, and he's got all the guests from that remix on here, along with appearances by Comp and Huli Shallone. I even saw a Caddy Da Don wraparound promo van when I was driving down St. Paul the other day, and I haven't seen any local hip hop label with one of those since Da Bloc Inc. a few years ago, so he's definitely got a team behind him that's working hard to promote him. As far as his voice and his subject matter, sometimes he reminds me a little too much of Rick Ross, but he shows some real promise on a few tracks on here, especially "Brother's Keeper."

Caddy Da Don f/ Goose and Huli Shallone - "Black Girl" (mp3)
Since Baltimore is a big heroin town, Caddy flips Jeezy's "White Girl" to be about that instead of coke, along with Huli and Goose, who used to guest on tracks by Huli's old group, Nature's Problem.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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Monday, January 14, 2008



ARSONISTS CAMP BURNS DOWN THE 5 SEASONS "HIP-HOP 101" ARSONISTS CAMP EDITION
DOORS OPEN @ 9PM. MUST BE 18 "WITH PROPER I'D."

PERFORMANCES BY: ARSONISTS CAMP ARTISTS:
MS. STRESS
SI-NOTES
NIC SOPRANO
O.T.G'S HUNT
LYNEE' MICHELLE
G-MAJOR ON THE WHEELS w/DJ JABRIL

ALSO IN THE HOUSE: DMV ENTERTAINMENT & PERFORMANCES BY 2007 DMV AWARD NOMINEES.

SEE YOU TONIGHT!

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

The other day it was brought to my attention that the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies features an essay called “What Chew Know About Down the Hill?’’: Baltimore Club Music, Subgenre Crossover, and the New Subcultural Capital of Race and Space by Andrew Devereaux, which is available online as a PDF file. The piece uses The Wire and Baltimore politics as a jumping off point to discuss the origins of Baltimore club and its last few years of national exposure, and namechecks DJs and musicians like Scottie B., DJ Booman, DJ Technics, Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, K-Swift, Labtekwon and Blaq Starr. It also refers several times to things I've written, and cites the work of several writers I know (Tom Breihan, Jess Harvell, David Drake, Scott Seward, etc.), and it's interesting, if a little surreal, to see a lot of things I've written or read in the past few years put together in this kind of academic context, discussing issues like race and class and the people who've brought Baltimore club to a wider audience. I've never really wanted to be seen as a Baltimore club authority, I just remember 5 years ago there being virtually no detailed information or critical writing about it online, and wanting to do some small part to provide whatever little info I had to other people, and ending up maybe shaping a lot of discussions and impressions about it. There are a few things I could criticize the essay about (mostly minor factual errors not worth noting), but I'm glad Devereaux wrote it, and I hope it stirs more conversation on these topics, and brings people who know way more than me about the topic out of the woodwork to put in their two cents.

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Saturday, January 12, 2008



Ray Victory - By Any Means (Nite Life Entertainment)

I wrote about Ray Vic's previous mixtape Ready 2 Go a year or two back and recently got sent his new one, along with a copy of his new single "Everything Ain't Always Good" (which, I should add, is pretty good and I don't understand why it isn't on the mixtape). I like Ray, he's got a unique voice and occasionally has a hot line, but this mixtape gets kinda boring for me for the same reason the last one did, which is that every other song is over an industry beat or a "remix" of some mainstream R&B track by T-Pain or Beyonce or R. Kelly or something. Dude needs to find some talented producers and make some records for real, the original songs on here are by far the highlights, especially the two-part "Momma's Protector." This mixtape features an intro by C Love and guest appearances by Comp, B. Rich (who used to be in a group with Ray), and Caddy Da Don, and is available on Ray Victory's MySpace page.

Ray Victory f/ Shadina - "Hey Girl" (mp3)
Shadina is an R&B singer I saw perform at a show at the Latin Palace that I covered on Noise last year, I love how this song just samples a straight soul loop without really adding drums or anything, just letting it play for a kinda mellow vibe. Shadina has another collaboration with Ray Victory called "My Baby" on her MySpace page.

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Friday, January 11, 2008

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Thursday, January 10, 2008



Los tour dates:

Jan 12 Dallas @ Wish Ultra Lounge
Jan 17 NYC @ Kush Lounge
Jan 19 New Orleans @ The Metropolitan
Jan 25 Charlotte @ Tilt

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Wednesday, January 09, 2008



various artists - Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire (Nonesuch Records)

You already know what it is. I've been hyping up this album, and its companion piece, The Wire: " … and all the pieces matter", and updating you every step of the way from the original announcement to the official tracklist to my in-depth City Paper feature on the album. I posted a lot of these tracks on this blog when they were first released on local mixtapes, including all-time favorites like "Dance My Pain Away" and "Jail Flick" and "That's Da Sound" that I consider some of the best records to come out of Baltimore in recent years. In fact my only real complaint about this album is that it's too short. But the fact that Blake and The Wire's people made this a special release in addition to the regular soundtrack is more than I ever would've asked for or expected (plus, as I've said before, I'm thanked in the liner notes, which is awesome and a big deal to me). It's been out since Tuesday, and if you haven't bought it already, buy it this week. Although, if you only buy one of these 2 CDs, I might say buy the other one, since it has more music, a nicer package, and it has a better chance of charting on Billboard next week (right now at #73 on Amazon's music sales chart and climbing).

Ogun f/ Phathead - "What You Know About Baltimore" (mp3)
This track appeared on Hamsterdam Vol. 2 and I believe is due to appear in one of the episodes in the 5th season of the show, but I've never posted it here before. Great low key track, really honest about the city's situation but also determined to make it better, a theme that's always run through Ogun's lyrics, and I'm really glad they got him involved in the project, since I think of him as kind of the epitome of a hard working underground Baltimore MC.

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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Gov't Names 20 Most Anticipated of 2008

At the beginning of the past two years, I've posted lists of my most anticipated Baltimore hip hop releases for the coming year. Inevitably, those lists were full of the best known local MCs, some of them signed to major labels, and inevitably most of those albums (in the case of last year's list, 9 out of 10) never dropped. So while I'm looking forward to independent national releases by Darkroom Productions and 410 Pharoahs in the next few months, and I'd be hyped as hell about a D.O.G. album on Universal or a Los album on Bad Boy or a Heavy Gold album on Epic being released this year, I ain't holding my breath. Instead, this list is my 20 most anticipated Baltimore MCs who I've never heard a solo project by. I might've heard them as a member of a group, or doing guest appearances, or seen them live or heard a single, or songs on their MySpace page. Some of them might already be pretty well known within the scene, or even have a solo album that I just didn't know about. But these are the people I want to hear more from in 2008, whether or not they have anything scheduled to drop:

1. Verb
2. Symantyx
3. Sonny Brown
4. Diablo
5. Sean-Toure'
6. EJ
7. Greenspan
8. Shakean Da Analyst
9. Tonio
10. XO
11. Ammo
12. Gata Shiest
13. E-Nahledge
14. Young R.O.D.
15. ONLY
16. Tony Manson
17. Street Heat
18. Dave "Da Barber"
19. Reina Williams
20. Maniak Dre

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State Of The Arts are opening for Kool Keith and Jeru The Damaja at Sonar this Friday, January 11th, and their album Sun Ra Used To Say is now for sale on the iTunes store.

Monday, January 07, 2008



One of my colleagues at the City Paper, Robbie Whelan, wrote an article for the Maryland Daily Record about Darkroom Productions and the deal they just signed to release a nationally distributed album this year, and I am one of the authorities quoted in the article. The Wire soundtracks, which feature 4 songs produced by Darkroom, are out tomorrow, January 8th. I've had promos since last month, but just today I got official retail copies with liner notes and everything, and it was a real thrill to see my name in the thank yous at the end of both booklets. Go buy one or both of them this week! Go to the store, log onto iTunes, whatever! Seriously, don't make me beg!

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Hey all and welcome back from a great holiday and a excellent NEW YEARS!
Now lets get down to BUSINESS!

WE ARE BACK! AND WE ARE GOING TO BE BETTER THEN EVER MARK MY WORDS!

I saw the 2007 fuckups we made BUT in 2008 we will make Hip Hop 101 more better for YOU the ARTIST!

More special guest performers
More Open Mics (there wll be a small fee)
More Battles
More special guest Dj's
A BETTER NETWORK!

This week at HipHop 101 we will be celebrating a Squad of DEMONS. Who been putting it down for YEARS! this week ladies and gentleman HIPHOP 101 brings to you!!!!

THE SPITTERS CLUB!
Thats right you heard of them, You saw them, You felt them, you see them.. NOW IT'S TIME TO ACTUALLY ROCK ALONG WITH THEM!

This week we have live performances from!!

MAXXX MILLIONS
REINA WILLIAMS AND KALICO
ONLY
KIESHA STARR
SICK SENSE
TY-ILL
DREKO
FELON
TAH MURDER

AND A SPECIAL PERFORMANCES FROM THE ONE AND ONLY
SHAKA PITTS AKA SPITTS McMANN AKA THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE!!!

THIS COMING MONDAY AT 830 NORTH GUILFORD AVE BALTIMORE MD!

$10 FOR THE FELLAS
$5 FOR THE FEMALES

DRINK SPECIALS BEFORE 10PM
FOOD WILL BE SERVED ALL NIGHT LONG

DOORS OPEN AT 9PM
DOORS CLOSE AT 2AM

$1 SONNY BROWN SHOTS ALL NIGHT LONG

DJ JABRIL ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL

92Q'S OWN SQUIRRAL WYDE AND SHAKA PITTS WILL BE YOUR HOST OF THE EVENING

ID'S IS A MUST NO EXCEPTIONS

THIS IS A BOOKED EVENT!

THIS WILL BE A PACKED EVENT AS WELL SO MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR NETWORKING ON MONDAY NIGHT!

GREAT MUSIC, GREAT PERFORMANCES, NETWORKING LETS GET IT IN

OH YEAH JANUARY 14TH?
HIPHOP 101 WILL PAY HOMAGE TO ANOTHER LABEL AND SQUAD MAKING THERE WAY ON THE LOCAL SCENE!!
THE ARSONIST CAMP WILL BE IN THE BUILDING!! STAY TUNED!!

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

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Saturday, January 05, 2008



Bigg Patch - "Diamond Don" (mp3)
Just got the dirty version of Bigg Patch's new single in my inbox the other day. I'm liking this track, I guess it's off his next solo project on Unruly Records.

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Friday, January 04, 2008

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

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Wednesday, January 02, 2008



This week in the Baltimore City Paper, I wrote a feature about Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire, one of the two official soundtrack albums out next week. For the article, I spoke to some of the musicians featured on the CD, including Juan Donovan from Darkroom Productions, Mullyman, Ogun and Diablo, and ran down the whole album track by track, which also includes Rod Lee, DJ Technics, Bossman, Dirty Hartz, Tyree Colion and The Get 'Em Mamis.

There's going to be a release party event in New York this Friday with some of the artists on the album (plus D.O.G.), I'm still debating whether to make a road trip up to NYC for it this weekend. And both of The Wire's soundtrack CDs will be in stores next Tuesday, January 8th, two days after the season 5 premiere. I don't usually push hard for people to go out and purchase records that I write about. But seriously, the 6th is my birthday, and I don't want you to get me anything, just buy this CD. I already have promo copies of both and I'm still gonna go buy 'em, since I haven't seen the whole package with the liner notes and everything. The Amazon.com sales rank for The Wire: And All The Pieces Matter just for pre-orders has been climbing steadily, and I'd be really thrilled if it could make a respectable showing on the Billboard 200 during a slow post-Christmas sales week. I don't know about any particular soundtrack release parties or in-store events going on here in Baltimore, but if there are any please let me know so I can promote those, too.

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Born King - Krad Edis (Street Legal Entertainment/Mad Thinkah Productions)

Born King is an MC that I first heard a couple years ago when Me'Aze "Bosslady" Millioni gave me a CD of his solo material, and featured his song "Blue Lights" on a compilation she put out. He puts some pretty intelligent, thoughtful content in his lyrics, but he also has a tendency toward weird vague Satanic themes and conspiracy theory type stuff that crops up on this album here and there, which was released this past Halloween, and is available at the Sound Garden and a bunch of other local stores.

Born King - "Wake Up Call" (mp3)
This is the last track on the album and it's over 7 minutes long, starting with Born King rapping a verse or two about the situation of independent artists in Baltimore who get no support from radio or anything like that. Then the music fades out, and the rest of the track is just a discussion between Born King and someone else, not sure who, talking about the City Paper's 2006 Big Music Issue and touching on a bunch of other topics.

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

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2007's most posted topics on Government Names

About a year ago, I started making use of Blogger's posting labels, and tagging pretty much every post on Gov't Names to denote what kind of post it is (usually either a flyer for a show, or a review of a mixtape or album with an mp3), or what artists are involved. And I thought it'd be interesting, at the end of the year, to figure out what tags I used the most in 2007. The first number in parantheses is how many posts used that tag in 2007, and the second number is for the entire history of Gov't Names:

1. flyer (361/704)
2. mp3 (103/225)
3. 5 Seasons (102/202)
4. mixtape/album review (80/161)
5. Baltimore club music (76/144)
6. Sonny Brown (60/115)
7. Turntable Club (53/63)
8. Hip Hop 101 (48/84)
9. Bossman (42/110)
10. Ogun (40/81)
11. Sonar (39/64)
12./13. (tie) Comp (38/83) / DJ Booman (38/50)
14./15. (tie) Mullyman (36/92) / Baltimore City Paper (36/86)
16. Skarr Akbar (35/81)
17. Team Fifty (34/76)
18. magazines/newspapers (29/78)
19. Jade Fox (27/29)
20. B.O.M.B. (24/27)
21./22./23. (tie) Say Wut (23/27) / UnReal (23/44) / Ray Lugar (23/34)
24./25. (tie) Blaq Starr (21/40) / Tim Trees (21/45)

That includes 11 rappers, 3 Baltimore club producers, and 3 venues, among other things. Obviously I post about whatever and whoever I want, and I pay closer attention to some artists than others, and don't have tags for many artists I don't post about as often. But I only really post when they're something noteworthy, and each of those numbers represents a time that that artist played a show, or was on a mixtape, or appeared in the press or something. And Sonny Brown is the highest artist on the list mainly because of how many shows he hosted and organized, although hopefully this year he'll have more music to post about. So if you really want to know who grinded hardest in 2007, I'd say this list gives you a pretty good idea of that. And if you feel like I missed you or somebody by not posting about them enough, obviously you just need to make sure I get all your flyers and mixtapes in 2008. Happy new year.

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