various artists - To The Rescue Mixtape (Young And Fly Records/Milestone Media)

When I was out at I think 5 Seasons recently I saw someone from Milestone Media, who are putting on the Making The Right Moves conference later this week, and they gave me a copy of this mixtape that the company's distributing along with Young And Fly Records. The main artist on the Young And Fly label, who appears on about half the songs here, is Shank Rock, and MC who's been making moves in Baltimore since the late '90s, and had a song back in the day that he was known for called "Baby Momma Hitta." I hadn't heard much from him the last few years, since an appearance on one of Ogun's The Movement mixtapes, and I always thought it was strange that a group with some Baltimore roots, the terrible hipster rap crew Spank Rock, came out with a very similiar name in the past few years, but I dunno, maybe it's a weird coincidence. Anyway, it's cool to hear a bunch of new stuff from Shank Rock now.

The other artists that make multiple appearances on the mixtape that I guess are also on the label are Phreestyle, Big Chief, Pluck, The F.A.Culty, and D Vigor. And there are some guest appearances from folks I'm more familiar with: Little Clayway, Nik Stylz, and Ray Victory. The mixtape is hosted by some radio DJ named Tab D'Blassi, who gets way too into the whole hosting thing; over half the tracks on the CD are these obnoxious skits where he's narrating some goofy story about sheisty record execs trying to keep Young And Fly Records down while Star Wars and James Bond theme music plays in the background. It would be corny if he did it once, but he does it literally 20 times, between every damn song, and it's not really even funny or entertaining, it's just tedious. Dude needs some Ritalin.

Pluck, Ray Victory, Shank Rock and Phreestyle - "My Block" (mp3)
Good posse cut, haven't heard anything from Ray Vic in a minute.

Labels: Little Clayway, mixtape/album review, mp3, Shank Rock