Articulate - "I Get Loose" (mp3)
Here's a new track from Articulate produced by Rickie Jacobs. Those guys and Born King are a real interesting circle right now, lotta good music coming out of that group. This track was for a mixtape for HipHopRuckus.com but it's too dope to just sit between some fuckin' Juelz Santana interview audio, gotta give it some props here.

Labels: Articulate, mp3

41yo.com is a great new Baltimore music website from Brandon Soderberg of No Trivia and the City Paper, I'm sure I'll be linking back there a lot in the future but I'll just say right that if you bookmark Gov't Names you need to bookmark that shit too. The best stuff on there so far includes a big great Mania Music Group article that includes an entertaining video full of footage of Midas and Ron G. and Kane, a piece about the Kanye remix of DJ Class's "I'm The Ish" (also including an mp3 of Class on the remix of "Move" by Mims) and a guide to Baltimore on Twitter, and posts on Blaqstarr and Mz Streamz.

I've been meaning to update my blogroll for a minute, probably gonna do that later this week, so feel free to remind me what sites I need to include. It's really tough because I wanna focus on interesting/relevant/frequently updated sites that focus on local music in general and avoid self-absorbed "what I had for lunch" artists blogs and Twitters, but maybe I can find some kind of balance. Also, you'd think that random Mickey Mouse rap blogs that have nothing to do with what I cover on this site would stop hitting me up for a "link exchange," which is a stupid practice to begin with, but they just keep on doing it.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Mz Streamz, Ron G., video

Panama a.k.a. Da Spanish Kid is a new artist from Baltimore who had a bit part on "The Wire" a couple years ago (as the guy bullying Bubbles and Sherrod), and his video "Play Your Position" featuring Skyzoo has apparently been getting some play on MTV Tres and MTV2. The song was produced by Black Jab, also from Baltimore.

Labels: Black Jab, Panama, video

Jim Jones f/ Rell, NOE & Starr - "Rain" (mp3)
The new Jim Jones album Pray IV Reign is out this week, and NOE is featured on like 5 different tracks. I'm not gonna say it'll do big things for him or that you need to run out and buy it, because Jones is garbage and the album is looking like a flop, but still, all of NOE's verses on it are good and it's cool that he's getting that kind of exposure. NOE's latest mixtape Deal Or NOE Deal is out there, check that out if you haven't already. I'm guessing Blogger might take this post down, too, but let's see.

Labels: mp3, NOE

Shaka Pitts is putting together this list of top Baltimore songs, they're currently accepting submissions and I'm gonna be one of the panelists. I don't know if there are any deadlines or anything yet, but I hope there's a good turnout and we get a great list, because I'm gonna be embarrassed if we get sent a bunch of bullshit and have to pretend that's the best Baltimore has to offer. Apparently people can also nominate artists, who will be asked to submit a song, too, so if there's someone you think should be included, feel free to throw their hat in the ring yourself:

BALTIMORES TOP 50 SONGS

Here's your chance to decide Baltimore's top 50 songs!! Send a labeled mp3 to top50@spittsmcman.com

Please
send the song name/artist name/producer name, and the studio or
engineer who recorded/mixed the song. the file should look like this

song name_artist name.mp3

The submissions will be listened to by a panel of 12 people consisting of
media, artist, music professionals and music lovers. 9 of the panelist
will be from the Baltimore metro area and 3 will be from other states.
The top 50 will be uploaded to www.spittsmcman and narrowed down to the
top 10. The top 10 will be aired on a special show of Real Talk With Spitts Mcman.
The artist of the the top 10 songs will get an on air interview with
Spitts McMan and automatic consideration for participation in shows
with national acts @ Ram Head Live. All genres of music is welcome!!
..
Shaka Pitts
aka
SPitts McMan
The Voice Of Baltimore Hip Hop
www.spittsmcman.com

Labels: announcements, Internet radio, lists, Rams Head Live, Shaka Pitts

DJ Class f/ Kanye West - "I'm The Ish (Remix)" (mp3)
I told the story of this record and how it came to be a hit in my Baltimore City Paper feature a few weeks ago, but let me just rewind for a quick chronology of the last few months. November 2008: DJ Class leaks the record to Baltimore DJs. December 2008: the record spreads to LA and the south, and Jermaine Dupri and Trey Songz hop on the track. January 2009: the record goes national, DJ Class signs to Universal Records, and he goes in the studio with Lil Jon for the official remix. February 2009: Pitbull jumps on the Lil Jon remix. So that brings up to speed to March 2009: Kanye West sees DJ Class perform "I'm The Ish" in LA, and brings him to Hawaii to record another remix of the track. I'm not even the biggest fan of Kanye's recent AutoTune phase, but I'm just psyched as hell to see someone of his stature co-signing a Baltimore club record, it's the kind of thing I wasn't sure I'd ever see. Kanye even says "my crew be Unruly" at the end!

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Class, mp3, Unruly Records

In the past month or so on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog, I've posted a bunch of new concert reviews: Ms. Stress, Si-Notes, Shy, Mz Streamz and others at Tayland Promotions' Queen Of The Mic 2 @ Sonar, Greenspan and others at No Guts No Glory @ 5 Seasons, George Clinton @ Rams Head Live, Eureka Birds @ Mobtown Studios, the Awesome Fest @ the Sidebar, open mic night @ 8x10 and Witch, Earthless and Vincent Black Shadow @ the Ottobar.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, battle, Greenspan, magazines/newspapers, Ms. Stress, Mz Streamz, Noise, Ottobar, Si-Notes, Sonar, Tayland Promotions

DJ Booman - Return To The Real EP

DJ Booman has been on such a great run lately, from the hip hop stuff with Mullyman and 410 Pharaohs to the Baltimore club stuff with his solo records and the upcoming Doo Dew Kidz album. Last summer he released The Return EP, and in November he dropped another EP with a few more new club tracks. This one's a little shorter, just 5 tracks, but it's got some joints I could see DJs really digging, including a Bmore remix of Beyonce's "Single Ladies." You can stream and purchase both of Booman's recent EPs on his MySpace page.

DJ Booman f/ Jimmy Jones - "Slick Flair" *
I listed this in my top 10 Baltimore club tracks of 2008, just because I think the way they flipped that Ric Flair sample is funny and it's a really catchy song.

(photo by Jefferson Jackson Steele)

* Blogger DMCA takedown notification strikes again, so no more mp3.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, The Baltimore Scene

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, Bossman, Comp, flyer, Huli Shallone, Mullyman, Smash, TestMe, Verb

Mike Malachi f/ Ron Rico, Agg and Skarr Akbar - "Super Smash Bros. Melee" (mp3)
It's been a couple years since I heard anything new from Mike Malachi, but his new album Malachi's Way 2:Malachi's Revenge is due out in June. The tracks on his MySpace page right now are sounding really good, especially this one, which features a few guests, including his producer Ron Rico on a verse.

Labels: Mike Malachi, mp3, Ron Rico, Skarr Akbar

Labels: Internet radio

Kane Mayfield - "Headbussa" (mp3)
A little something new from the Mania Music Group camp, I believe it's a single from an album coming out later this year. This is a more accessible than Kane's Prelude To BladeRunner/Dealer EP but still has his sense of humor, some real clever lines. Mania is performing all the way out at Guilford College in North Carolina this Friday.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, mp3

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, flyer

I generally don't like the idea of cluttering up music blogs with personal real life stuff except for the most significant announcements, but I guess this qualifies: my wife Jennifer and I are expecting our first child in October. We just started really telling people outside of family and making it public in the last few days, but we've known for a minute and are pretty excited. So if I've seen scattered or anything lately, that's probably why, or maybe it's not but that's the excuse I'm gonna be using.

Labels: announcements

A-Class - Motive Response (Brake Fast Records)

A-Class is probably, be some distance, the single best and most dominant MC on the Baltimore battle rap circuit the past couple years. The list of events he's made an impression at just goes on and on: winner at Show Me What You Got, Word War (my bad, it was The Masters I was thinking of there) and the Scribble Jam preliminaries, runner-up at Style Warz and One Mic, etc. I interviewed him for Mic Life Magazine last year, but I didn't really get around to really jamming his solo album from 2007, which is for sale on iTunes and CD Baby, until recently. One thing really striking about this album is how short and concise it is: 12 songs in 30 minutes, most of them under 3 minutes, like every song is trimmed of the fat and is just down to the basics of beats and rhymes, and Brake Fast Records has some really strong producers. If you've ever seen A-Class perform, you won't be disappointed by the record, he's just a guy who's mastered his craft and shows it in a really direct, no-frills way.

A-Class - "Turnfiya" (mp3)
Usually it's not hard to single out a song from a release to post here, but this one I just kinda grabbed at the moment because it sounded good, but there's not really any weak tracks here.

Labels: A-Class, Brakefast Records, mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: 5 Seasons, battle, flyer, Shaka Pitts

Kojo - I Did It In A Day 2 (Deep Flow Studios/Pressure Tank Productions/Dyzastar Ent.)

Kojo is a rapper from Annapolis that I've heard a couple projects from but wasn't really sure if I'd write about them here since this is really a Baltimore site and I'm not trying to cover the whole Annapolis territory. But I know he's tight with Deep Flow Studios and they're important in Baltimore and he works with some Bmore artists, so it's all good I guess. Kojo is kind of known for doing an entire mixtape in one day, did his first in 2005, and then did this sequel a year or so back. I was just thinking that he was kinda early on that trend because Saigon and Statik Selektah are about to release a CD they recorded in one day, and I also heard that Gucci Mane is gonna record a new mixtape the day he gets out of prison, so it seems like the thing to do now, and I gotta give him props for being early with that. I believe he's doing a 3rd in this series soon. There's a lot of guests on here, almost every song, and aside from TestMe and Amotion, I dont really recognize most of the names, I guess it's mostly Annapolis people. Some good production, but I really hate some of the R&B vocals on here. Deep Flow shot a DVD of the whole process of the day they made this that's packaged with the CD.

Kojo f/ TestMe - "Get It 4 U" (mp3)
I saw Kojo and TestMe perform this song together at Club Taste once, these guys go way back and it's cool that they still collaborate a lot, since TestMe is all over the radio now. It's funny, I always give TestMe a hard time for sounding too much like Lil Wayne, and there's footage of him rapping with Kojo on the DVD from back in like 2003 and 2004, and he did rap completely differently now, it's a shame he can't just sound like himself like he did back then. This song is dope, though.

Labels: Deep Flow, mixtape/album review, mp3, TestMe

Labels: Bigg Patch, flyer, Unruly Records

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, flyer, King Tutt, Scottie B., Unruly Records

Caleb & Saleem - Outgrown These Walls (Rashunow Publishing)

This week in the City Paper I reviewed this album, which is a collaboration set up by Baltimore Unsigned on WTMD between a rapper, Saleem of Saleem & The Music Lovers, with a country/rock singer, Caleb Stine. I've always heard Saleem's name here and there but never really heard his music or covered him on this site before, so this is kind of an odd introduction to his music (though I've heard Caleb Stine's own records before), but it's really an interesting collaboration and their styles mesh in a surprisingly organic way. Saleem & The Music Lovers are opening for Common at Sonar this Thursday.

Caleb & Saleem - "We Write Blue" (mp3)
This is the first track and I really feel like it sets the tone well and shows how well Saleem's rapping and Caleb's singing fit together.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, Saleem

Labels: 5 Seasons, DJ Booman, flyer, Huli Shallone, Team Fifty

King Tutt - The Evolution EP (Unruly Records)

When I picked King Tutt as the best club music producer in the City Paper's 2007 Best Of Baltimore issue, I was really trying to look ahead, and find someone less known that was showing a lot of potential, instead of just giving the award to someone more established who'd already gotten it before like Rod Lee or Blaq Starr. And King Tutt already had some classics under his belt, like "Shake My Ass" and "African Chant," by that point, but I feel like he really has been making a name for himself more and more in the year or so since then, and this EP that Unruly released last year really solidified that.

King Tutt - "Let's Go" (mp3)
I remember before this EP was out and I went to Tutt's house to interview him for my Club Beat column, and when he played this track my eyes just got real big, like I just couldn't believe these loud bold synths he was working with.

Labels: Baltimore club, King Tutt, mixtape/album review, mp3, Unruly Records

Labels: Shaka Pitts, Sonar, Tayland Promotions

On Thursday night, Baltimore Sun writer Sam Sessa held a little party for his nightlife blog Midnight Sun, and handed out his 'Best of the Best of the Best' awards, and I was one of the recipients. I don't know how to feel about an award that addresses me as 'baby,' but otherwise it was really nice, I'll have to put it next to my other recent award. Full rundown of winners here and a recap of the event here.

Labels: announcements, Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers

Poe & Rasheed- Diverse Hustle (Dogg University R-Sinal Records)

Here's another mixtape that I kinda dug out of my stack of neglected CDs and can't really remember where I got it, although there's an Akbar Entertainment Designz logo on it so I guess Skarr Akbar did the artwork, maybe I got it from him. Comp also makes a guest appearance on here, as does someone named Shitty Brains, which has to be the best rapper name I've heard since Fish Gates. Anyway these guys, I don't really know about these guys, they generally rap in kinda slow simple cadences that almost feel old school, but sometimes that plainspoken approach works. The first couple tracks were so incredibly dull I thought this was gonna be like that all the way through, but it got a lot better throughout the course of the CD, some real joints on here. Check out R-Sinal Records on MySpace.

Poe & Rasheed - "Play Book" (mp3)
For this track, a producer named Jack Da Hustler samples one of my favorite songs of all time, John Coltrane's "Naima." He chops one note in a kind of interesting way but doesn't really use the track to its full potential, but still I got a soft spot for this song anyway because of that sample.

Labels: Comp, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar

Labels: flyer, Saleem, Sonar

NOE - Deal Or NOE Deal (DJ Daa One)

My review of NOE's latest mixtape is in this week's City Paper. It's got a bunch of songs with Jim Jones and other Byrd Gang dudes, including that "Swagga From Us" song that I already voiced my opinion about a while back, and there's a good track of him freestyling live on 92Q. The last track has a short 'preview' of an unnamed song which I assume is going to be his single because it's awesome and sounds like it could be huge, I can't wait to hear the full track.

NOE f/ Si-Notes and Chalie Bo - "For Starters"*
Si-Notes is a female MC from Baltimore that I first heard on Ms. Stress's last album, and she really stands out on the 2 tracks she appears on here, I wanna hear music from her.

* Blogger took down this post because of the mp3 link because of a copyright infringement notice, despite the fact that it was a track taken from a fucking mixtape released for free to the internet by a DJ, not any record label.

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore City Paper, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, NOE, Si-Notes

Labels: 92Q, flyer

Labels: Ab Rock, Club Reality, flyer, Sonny Brown, UnReal

Warzon Snaakes - MME Mixtape (Warzone Records)

Most of the CDs in my stack I can remember where I got them, who handed it to me at what show or when it was mailed to me. But sometimes one gets stuck in the middle of the pile for so long I can't really remember anything like that, and I just kept looking at this one, with this weird animated snakes cover art and the weird group name and MCs with names like Stevie Sparkman and O.G. Cokamo and Kobra Kamanda and Ace TZ and Dew Dirty and Dizzy D. Williams, but not actually listening to it, maybe because it seemed more interesting in my mind than it could be in reality. And of course, it's not that interesting to listen to, but it is actually pretty good, just some garden variety Baltimore tough guy rap, but there's kind of a nice off kilter Wu Tang kinda feel to how these guys do it that's in keeping with the names and the artwork. This is really one of the better kinda hardcore releases I've heard in a while, I wonder why these guys aren't more well known.

Stevie Sparkman and Kobra Kamanda - "Here We Come" (mp3)
I've always liked beats like this, where the hi-hats are at this ridiculous fast tempo but kind of low in the mix, and the real pulse of the song is a real slow kick/snare rhythm.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, Symantyx, The Baltimore Scene

Labels: Baltimore club, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, flyer, KW Griff, Mullyman, Mz Streamz, Tim Trees, Verb