All though May, it's been Club Month on 41yo, and Brandon's been posting all sorts of audio and artwork from classic Baltimore club records by Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, K.W. Griff, DJ Equalizer, Scottie B., Say Wut, Dukeyman, DJ Excel, Frank Ski, DJ Class, DJ Technics and many others. If you haven't been following it, you really gotta go catch up on it now that the month is coming to a close, a lot of amazing stuff in there.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Class, DJ Equalizer, DJ Excel, DJ Technics, Frank Ski, KW Griff, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Scottie B.

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer

Chubb Rock & Wordsmith - A Crack In The Bridge Mixtape (DJ King Assassin/HipHopDX.com)

Wordsmith's collab album with Chubb Rock, Bridging The Gap, will be out nationally in just a couple weeks, on June 16th on E1 Music and Unruly Records, and the first video is already out. To warm up for that release, though, they put out this free mixtape download of songs that aren't on the album, and I gotta say it's almost as good as the album itself, and definitely worth a look. Wordsmith got a couple Baltimore artists, Articulate and Soulstice, guesting on the project, and also members of his Nu Revolution Camp crew (Kontact, Black Knight and Sly Solomon), Chubb Rock has some solo stuff, it's a nice short mix with a good balance of the 2 artists. Wordsmith and Chubb Rock will be performing on Jimmy Kimmel next Friday, June 5th.

Wordsmith f/ Articulate and Black Knight - "The New Street Kings" (mp3)
I like seeing Wordsmith and Artic link up on a track together since I feel like they've got similar musical styles and really both put out music online really consistently and make themselves accessible in that way, good combo. This track's produced by Strada, who did a lot of both the mixtape and the album.

Labels: Articulate, mixtape/album review, mp3, Unruly Records, Wordsmith

Labels: battle, Brakefast Records, Ogun, Shaka Pitts, Sonar

Labels: flyer, Minlus McCracken

Bossman f/ Gucci Mane, Raheem DeVaughn, Jim Jones and NOE - "Break Me Off (Remix)" (mp3)
"Break Me Off" is already pretty much the biggest record of Boss's career to date, but it hasn't quite popped off nationally yet, so hopefully a remix with a few big names will put it over the top. Jones brings along NOE to do a few bars back and forth on his verse, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear another Bmore artist on here since I didn't see NOE officially billed on the track anywhere else on the net. Raheem does a nice little melodic addition to the chorus, One Up flipped the beat with some new drums, and Gucci kills it on the opening verse. Nah Right posted this the other day too, along with "Back It Up" and DJ Class's "Dance Like A Freak," although the track didn't seem to get a great response over there (or at least all the comments are about how tight Bossman's shirt is in the picture in the post). Also spotted it on 41yo.com.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Bossman, DJ Class, mp3, NOE, One Up Entertainment

Labels: E Major, flyer, Ogun, Sonar

"My Ice Cream" by D'asar and DJ Jonny Blaze is a pretty crazy new Baltimore club track that's already got a video where you can learn the dance that goes with the song. Jonny Blaze is also performing at the Hexagon this Saturday, May 30th.

Labels: Baltimore club, flyer, video

The Artscape website has a page where you can vote for 1 of 5 local unsigned artists, to decide who will get to perform on the main stage at this year's festival:

For the People Entertainment
Ellen Cherry
Jinxxx
Thrushes
Wordsmith

I know and/or have seen 4 of those acts live, and Jinxxx's stuff linked on the site sounds good too, so I can't even call it or say which way I'm voting, it's just a really good selection this year and I'm happy to see 3 hip hop acts included. Voting ends on May 31st and the winner's announced June 3rd.

Labels: announcements, For The People Entertainment, Wordsmith

So this is it, it's been a nice trip down memory lane. I hope people don't take the ranking too seriously, the numbers are really just there to organize it and make it look a little better, but really all these songs I fuck with really heavy and I hope each of them gets a few new fans from these posts. Going back to a regular schedule of new music on Thursday:

1. Tim Trees - "Bank Roll" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
2. Skarr Akbar - "Bang" (mp3) - August 19, 2006
3. Dirty Hartz f/ Mullyman - "That's Da Sound" (mp3) - June 5, 2006
4. Say Wut - "Hornz Joint" (mp3) - June 21, 2005
5. Bossman - "Off Da Record" (mp3) - January 19, 2005
6. Silowette - "Chicken Box" (mp3) -
7. Jimmy Jones & Booman - "Watch Out For The Big Girl" (mp3) - December 24, 2005
8. Ckrisis - "Down For Whatever" (mp3) - August 16, 2007
9. DJ Class - "I'm The Ish" (mp3) - November 11, 2008
10. Sonny Brown f/ Mr. Wilson & Mo Gant - "You Ain't Shit" (mp3) - June 8, 2008

Labels: Bossman, Dirty Hartz, DJ Booman, DJ Class, lists, mp3, Mr. Wilson, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Skarr Akbar, Sonny Brown, Tim Trees

Labels: flyer, Los, Yung Gist

Labels: flyer, Pro and Reg, Sonar, Tayland Promotions

Labels: Bossman, flyer

Here we go, WHOLE LAAAAAT:

11. Diablo - "Jail Flick" (mp3) - August 16, 2005
12. D.O.G. f/ Blaq Starr - "Ryda Gyrl" (mp3) - June 26, 2006
13. Rod Lee - "Dance My Pain Away" (mp3) - June 2, 2005
14. Comp - "Whole Lat" (mp3) - February 13, 2008
15. Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3) - May 19, 2006
16. Ogun f/ Che'Rae - "My Life" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
17. Bossman - "Dat Night" (mp3) - February 4, 2005
18. DK - "A Part Of History" (mp3) - March 21, 2006
19. Heavy Gold - "Charm City" (mp3) - February 16, 2006
20. Labtekwon - "Uhnnn Huhnnn" (mp3) - August 29, 2005

Labels: Blaq Starr, Comp, D.O.G., Diablo, DK, Heavy Gold, Labtekwon, lists, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Rod Lee

Labels: A-Class, Brakefast Records, flyer

Labels: 5 Seasons, Annexx Click, battle, Darkroom Productions, flyer, Shaka Pitts, YoTrakz

Really getting down to the wire now, last 2 installments coming on Monday and Tuesday:

21. Blaq Starr - "Get My Gun" (mp3) - June 21, 2005
22. Backland - "Bonus Freestyle Friday Battles" (mp3) - May 5, 2005
23. Tim Trees - "We Don't Love 'Em" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
24. P-Shellz "Fingaz Down (The Hack Anthem)" (mp3) - December 4, 2008
25. DJ Booman f/ Ray Lugar, Lic Shots and Mullyman - "Move Over" (mp3) - February 20, 2008
26. Comp - "Harder" (mp3) - January 15, 2005
27. Bossman - "So Fresh" (mp3) - March 9, 2007
28. J-Roc - "Crown The King" (mp3) - August 24, 2008
29. Barnes f/ Highs-N-Pistol - "Tattoo Tears" (mp3) - June 7, 2006
30. Skarr Akbar - "The Hood Legend" (mp3) - August 31, 2005

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Barnes, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, DJ Booman, lists, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees

Labels: Club Taste, flyer, Tayland Promotions

Labels: Baltimore club, flyer

Man, I'm loving that most of the mp3s I've been throwing out for this series of posts have been getting like 30 downloads or more, makes me wonder how many people are actually grabbing every single song they don't already have, which I think would be really awesome. Maybe after it's all over next week people can start leaving comments with what their favorite songs are, which I'd like to see a lot:

31. Diablo - "Round My Hood" (mp3) - March 11, 2006
32. Debonair Samir - "Throw It Up" (mp3) - March 28, 2006
33. Little Clayway - "B-More Hip Hop" (mp3) - April 2, 2006
34. E-Nahledge - "F.W.Y.B." (mp3) - January 23, 2007
35. Paula Campbell f/ Rod Lee and Tim Trees - "How Does It Feel" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
36. Mullyman - "Party Walk" (mp3) - April 26, 2008
37. Raphael Saadiq f/ C.J. Hilton and Stevie Wonder - "Never Give You Up" (mp3) - October 7, 2008
38. N.E.K. - "Face Down (Remix)" (mp3) - June 17, 2005
39. Ogun f/ Jitter B.U.G. and EJ - "Bmore (Remix)" (mp3) - December 24, 2005
40. Born King - "Blue Lights" (mp3) - May 19, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Born King, CJ Hilton, Debonair Samir, Diablo, lists, Little Clayway, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee, Tim Trees

The stuff I've posted on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog in the last few weeks has included a Club Beat column with James Nasty, a look at Club Reality, and live reviews of the Station North Spring Music Festival, Mongoloidian Glow/Pariah Piranha/Embarrassing Fruits @ the Baltimore Taper's Talking Head show, and the Gaslight Anthem/Pela @ the Recher Theatre.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Club Reality, magazines/newspapers, Noise

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Jinxxx, Minlus McCracken, Pro and Reg

And the hits just keep coming! Or really, songs that for the most part were hits in my mind only, or for a relatively small group of people. I surprised myself, though, when I looked at the whole 100 and realized that almost half the songs were things that had been played on 92Q at some point or another. Mostly club songs, but still, it's nice to think that many songs I've genuinely liked have impacted the station's airwaves, as much flak as people give the station about local artist airplay:

41. The Arabz - "Alright" (mp3) - January 15, 2006
42. C.R. - "Know You Better" (mp3) - June 16, 2006
43. K.W. Griff - "Tony Track" (mp3) - July 6, 2006
44. Golden Seal f/ Ooh of Brown F.I.S.H. - "Sistahs Pimpin'" (mp3) - July 13, 2006
45. Labtekwon - "Dr. Strangelove" (mp3) - July 20, 2006
46. Huli Shallone - "This My Hood" (mp3) - March 15, 2005
47. Davon f/ Tim Trees - "Be Ya Friend" (mp3) - July 27, 2005
48. B. Rich - "Whoa Now (Bmore Version)" (mp3) - July 25, 2006
49. Dirt Platoon - "Movin'" (mp3) - August 7, 2006
50. Mania Music Group - "Lunatic Fringe" (mp3) - November 13, 2008

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore club, Brown F.I.S.H., Dirt Platoon, Golden Seal, Huli Shallone, KW Griff, Labtekwon, lists, Mania Music Group, mp3, Tim Trees

The New York Times ran a story this week by Jon Caramanica about DJ Class. In related news, Class was just in Baltimore shooting the "I'm The Ish" video over the weekend, and as for a chart update, the song has now appeared on 6 different Billboard charts, and is currently at No. 94 on the Pop 100, and No. 32 on the Rhythmic Top 40. Billboard even ran an article about him.

Labels: Baltimore club, charts, DJ Class, magazines/newspapers

Note: this show has been cancelled and will be rescheduled later in the year.

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Huli Shallone, Tha Profitt

Wrapping up the first half now, we're really getting into back to back songs I straight up love. Once again, there's a totally unintentional theme with a lot of songs I posted in 2006 originally, which makes sense since that was probably the most exciting year for me personally, in the history of running this site:

51. UnReal f/ Sonny Brown - "Hell 2 Pay" (mp3) - September 9, 2006
52. Cutthroat - "If I Die" (mp3) - October 15, 2006
53. Tyree Colion - "My Projects" (mp3) - November 19th, 2006
54. Blaq Starr - "Stop" (mp3) - August 22, 2005
55. Brown F.I.S.H. - "45" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
56. 410 Pharaohs - "Watch Her Shake It (aka Hammer Dance)" (mp3) - July 29, 2006
57. ShellBe R.A.W. f/ XO - "Damn Shells" (mp3) - August 7, 2006
58. B.I.G. Status - "Line Up" (mp3) - January 10, 2006
59. Bossman - "Oh" (mp3) - June 9, 2005
60. Bigg Patch - "Supa Ugly" (mp3) - July 25, 2006

Labels: B.I.G. Status, Baltimore club, Bigg Patch, Blaq Starr, Brown F.I.S.H., Cutthroat, lists, mp3, Sonny Brown, Tyree Colion, UnReal

WALE with UCB
G.E.M. featuring DJ BOOMAN : Greenspan
Mon, May 25
$10 ADV / $15 DOS
9 PM
All Ages
Club Stage
@ Sonar

Labels: DJ Booman, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Greenspan, Sonar

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, open mic, Shaka Pitts

Jeff made a suggestion in the comments box for one of these posts the other day that I should do a 5th anniversary show, too. I wish I had the time or energy for it, but these days I really don't. Maybe next year, maybe I'll hang in there for a 10th anniversary, really hard to say what the future of the site holds, although I could easily see myself trucking along for years and years. Anyway, more songs:

61. Mullyman f/ JI-900 - "Realest To Run It" (mp3) - January 21, 2006
62. Tim Trees - "Don't Make" Freestyle (mp3) - May 5, 2005
63. Height f/ Bow'N'Arrow - "Smash Your Eyes" (mp3) - May 28, 2007
64. Los - "10-Minute Million Dollar Massacre Freestyle" (mp3) - June 20, 2007
65. Rod Lee - "Hammerjacks Theme" (mp3) - May 17, 2006
66. Minlus McCracken - "MuFucka" (mp3) - August 21, 2007
67. K-Spin - "Why I'm Hot" (mp3) - September 20, 2007
68. Young Dip - "D.T.T.W.C." (mp3) - October 3, 2007
69. Say Wut - "Futuristic" (mp3) - December 30, 2007
70. PenDragon - "How Does It Feel" (mp3) - December 29, 2008

Labels: Baltimore club, Height, lists, Los, Minlus McCracken, mp3, Mr. Wilson, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), PenDragon, Rod Lee, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees, Young Dip

Thanks to Sasha Frere-Jones on New Yorker mag blog and Brandon Soderberg on 41yo.com for shouting me out on recent posts about Baltimore club, and the music influenced by it coming out of Philly and Jersey. I'm definitely not going to lay claim to any kind of expertise or authority on the latter part, though, since I don't really listen to it, and anytime I comment on it, it turns it to some stupid us vs. them thing, as if I speak for anybody but myself. I mean I've already got Philly people painting me as some kind of crazy racial segregationist and accusing me of dissing people I've never met or written about in my life, and I've been trying to put that whole stupid debate behind me for a couple years now, so arguing any further about 'authenticity' is probably a dead end for me.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, magazines/newspapers

They are trying to put us out of business because we refuse to stop hosting HIP HOP shows at THE BLACK HOLE. Since we decided to do HIP HOP, many different departments of Baltimore County began to pressure us to stop thi HIP HOP shows. The Police Department has conducted a number of operations during HIP HOP events. They say that they are recieving anonymous complaints, such as public urination and drinking in the parking lot. That is how they justify the HARASSMENT. Not once have they been able to discover any such wrongdoing. The Fire Department has performed numerous inspections, each time citing us for numerous violations. The Department of the Environment has cited us for numerous violations, including shutting the kitchen down for the weekend because our Food Manager's Certificate had inadvertently expired.

On April 12th, the Police Department conducted another operation involving at least 9 police cars and a patty wagon. We were doing nothing wrong. That didn't matter. The police falsify a report saying that we were overcrowded. The report said that theshow went on until 2:23am and we were still partying. If you have ever been here you know this is bullshit. We always close before 2 a.m.

Our surveillance system recorded the whole event and it shows how the Police Department made up shut just to get the Liquor Board, Fire Department and the Department of the Enviroment to shut us down. We were investigated by the Liquor Board. The Fire Department SHUT DOWN the second floor. The Department of the Enviroment has filed charges claiming that our customers were smoking in the club. The Building Inspector now claims tat the second floor is not approved for commercial use.

We have registered all that the County has thrown our way. We could have given in a long time ago and just stopped doing HIP HOP shows. We just could not do it seeing how much the HIP HOP community is targeted unfairly and how the performers just want a nice stage to showcase their talent. The time has come where we need you help in letting the County know that the HIP HOP scene cannot be targeted anymore. The Black Hole is barely hanging on and they know it. Unless we show them that we are watching and they are accountable for what they do, the County and their Departments will continue to treat people however they want. So we decided to throw a HIP HOP party to let them see the support we have, in just three days notice and how, like all HIP HOP shows we have hosted, there are NEVER AND PROBLEMS!

SATURDAY MAY 16, 2009
9:00PM- 2:00AM.
FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL.
$1.00 MIXED DRINKS UNTIL 11:00PM.

We are asking all performers that have performed at the Hole, to join the show, wether on the stage or not. Just email us so we can schedule the set times.

We need all of you or another club that hosts HIP HOP will fall

PLEASE REPOST THIS BULLETIN AND FORWARD IT TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS, THANKS!

Hosted By:
Hip Hop At The Hole

When:
Saturday, May 16, 2009

Where:
The Black Hole
216 German Hill Road
Baltimore
21222

Description:
All Performers That Wish to perform must message us b ack, so we can set performance times.

WE NEED YOU ALL OF ANOTHER CLUB THAT HOSTS HIP HOP WILL FALL.

Labels: announcements, Black Hole Rock Club, flyer

There's a lot of 2008 in this batch, I guess just coincidentally. There was a lot of good music last year, though!

71. Jade Fox f/ Eva Castillo - "Got 'Em Like" (mp3) - January 19, 2008
72. K.W. Griff - "Taking Over" (mp3) - January 19, 2008
73. Unstoppable Nuklehidz - "Pass It On" (mp3) - December 1, 2007
74. E Major - "How You Wanna Carry It?" (mp3) - March 29, 2008
75. Ogun, Tim Trees, Little Clayway, Comp, Mullyman and ShellBe RAW - "Bmore Shit" (mp3) - June 6, 2006
76. DJ Rod Lee - "Birthday" (mp3) - July 8, 2005
77. DJ Excel f/ Emmy - "All Nite Long" (mp3) - August 4, 2008
78. Articulate - "Capital Punishment (Homage to Big Pun)" (mp3) - August 21, 2008
79. Wax Musicians - "Here We Go" (mp3) - September 21, 2008
80. Greenspan - "Mt. Rockmore" (mp3) - December 29, 2008

Labels: Articulate, Baltimore club, DJ Excel, E Major, Greenspan, Jade Fox, KW Griff, lists, Little Clayway, mp3, Ogun, The Unstoppable Nuklehidz, Tim Trees

Labels: flyer, Jade Fox

As per yesterday's announcement, I'll be doing this every day or thereabouts until I get to the top 10. I'm still listening to tracks and finalizing parts of the list, though, so if anyone has any artists/songs they wanna rep for and make sure I consider (if they're not in there already), feel free to say so in the comments. Or really, let me know if there are any songs I'm re-posting that you missed the first time and are really enjoying now:

81. King Tutt - "Let's Go" (mp3) - March 10, 2009
82. Dappa!!! Dan Midas f/ RapMan Ron G. - "Push Start" (mp3) - December 2, 2008
83. K.W. Griff - "Pork & Swift" (mp3) - January 13th, 2009
84. Tonio: From Da Top - "U Mad?!?" (mp3) - April 5, 2009
85. Blaq Starr - "Hands Up, Thumbs Down" (mp3) - June 29, 2006
86. Verb - "Get Em Verb" (mp3) - January 17, 2006
87. Nature's Problem - "Shake It Shorty" (mp3) - August 3, 2006
88. Dave Da Barber f/ Caddy Da Don, Tim Trees, XO, and Block Hugga - "Eastside Of Baltimore (Remix)" (mp3) - August 6, 2007
89. Wordsmith f/ The Profitt, Reggie Webb, Greenspan, Skarr Akbar, Soulstice, Pro & Reg, Sly Solomon, Steadfast, Tislam the Great & E-Major - "B-More Baritones" (mp3) - February 22, 2009
90. UnReal - "Luv Me" (mp3) - January 17, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, King Tutt, KW Griff, lists, Midas, mp3, Ron G., Tha Profitt, Tim Trees, Tonio, UnReal, Verb, Wordsmith, XO

This week in the City Paper I have a feature about Lynee Michelle, the Baltimore-based R&B singer/songwriter who released her album Love, Lynee Michelle this year.

(photo by Rarah)

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Lynee Michelle, magazines/newspapers

On this day in 2004, I threw up the first test post on this site. At the time, music was still a pretty tiny piece of the blogosphere and it seemed like you could count all the existing rap blogs on your fingers. So when I finished exams at the end of that semester and had some free time on my hands, I started up this little page with some friends and message board acquaintances whose writing I liked just to have a space to talk about new songs and stuff that interested us. It started out with no real focus, and for the first year or so Government Names was probably known mainly for the weird Canadian kid who had a ridiculous amount of knowledge about Houston hip hop more than anything I did. But I posted about some Baltimore stuff from the very beginning, and as my interest in covering this underexposed scene grew and the other contributors gradually stopped posting, I decided to make that the site's sole focus, and it's been really rewarding and fun. This site got me bank into freelancing as a music critic after being away from it for a few years and gave me a whole new passion for it, and I've met a lot of cool people and heard some great music and hopefully introduced some people to some songs they loved.

Over the past 5 years, I've posted roughly 700 songs, but I've always prided myself on the fact that I try to be selective and find the best tracks to share, or ones that I have something to say about, especially now in the age where the 'best' rap blogs are usually the ones that indiscriminately throw up every new song without writing anything about it or even listening to it first. If someone sends me a single or a leak, I usually only post it if I genuinely like the song, and when I'm writing about a full-length I try to post my favorite song from it (although sometimes even the best song off a CD isn't very good, but hey). So I feel good about a really large percentage of the music I've posted, and wanted to kind of highlight what I think was the best of the best. So to mark the anniversary, I'll be re-posting my top 100 mp3s from the site's first 5 years over the next couple weeks, 10 at a time every day or so, with links to the original posts they appeared in. All due respect to the musicians, I can't thank them enough for making songs that I want to listen to and tell people about on a daily basis. Here's the first installment:

91. Labtekwon - "Soybeans and Tofu Cheese" (mp3) - October 8, 2006
92. James Nasty - "You So Hawt" (mp3) - April 30, 2008
93. Mullyman f/ Backland, Comp and Sonny Brown - "Gangsta Wit Me" (mp3) - August 12, 2005
94. Caleb & Saleem - "We Write Blue" (mp3) - March 12, 2009
95. Mania Music Group - "Gotta Believe It" freestyle (mp3) - April 21, 2009
96. Blaq Starr - "In The Air" (mp3) - March 1, 2007
97. Bossman - "You're Wrong" (mp3) - August 24, 2006
98. Mike Malachi f/ Ron Rico, Agg and Skarr Akbar - "Super Smash Bros. Melee" (mp3) - March 21, 2009
99. Caddy Da Don f/ Tim Trees, Huli Shallone, Los, Skarr Akbar and Bossman - "Whole City Behind Me (Remix)" (mp3) - November 4, 2007
100. Scola f/ Rod Lee - "Turn It Down" (mp3) - August 3, 2006

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, Huli Shallone, Labtekwon, lists, Los, Mania Music Group, Mike Malachi, mp3, Mullyman, Ron Rico, Saleem, Sonny Brown, Tim Trees

Labels: Club One, flyer, Yung Gist

Labels: battle, flyer, Tayland Promotions

Baltimore rapper Wordsmith's long-awaited collaborative album with hip hop legend Chubb Rock, Bridging The Gap, is due out nationally via Unruly Records and Koch/E1 on June 16th, and they just released the video for the lead single "Old 2 The New." The song is produced by Strada and the video is directed by G-Light Films. Wordsmith and Chubb Rock will also be releasing a mixtape, A Crack In The Bridge, this week.

Labels: video, Wordsmith

Labels: DJ Booman, DJ P-Funk, flyer, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, Sonar

Tonio: From Da Top f/ Skarr Akbar, D.R.O.P. and Los - "17" (mp3)
I think people were really digging the solo track from Tonio that I posted last month, so here's another new song from his upcoming release, Grind Hard Or Find God (Special Edition). It's a little reunion for Da Bloc Ent. with all of the label's past and present artists on a posse cut, Shaka Pitts on the boards, Akbar on the track.

Labels: Los, mp3, Shaka Pitts, Skarr Akbar, Tonio

I've posted about Mullyman's "I Go Harder" a couple times already, but the highly anticipated video for the DJ Booman-produced track finally hit YouTube today. It was directed by D.C. rapper Tabi Bonney, who's always had good production values on his own videos and has managed to get some of them on TV, so hopefully this one will get some exposure like that. There was a premiere held in D.C. this week and there's gonna be one in New York in a couple weeks, so they're going pretty big with this. Watch the video and see how many artists you recognize in the cameos.

Labels: DJ Booman, Mullyman, video

Labels: flyer, Sonar

ScholarMan - A Meeting With Andre Kostelanetz EP (Soganic Music)

Before seeing him live barely 6 months ago, I'd never heard of Scholarman, but he's quickly becoming one of the most productive MCs in Baltimore, someone to really watch in '09. So far this year, he's released an album, a really impressive video, and put up two free EPs on his website. Apparently this record came out of ScholarMan picking up an orchestral record by Russian arranger Andre Kostelanetz and just deciding to chop up samples of it into a whole bunch of beats. I've always liked the idea of hip hop producers taking a particular record or artist and just finding as many ways as possible to turn that raw material into new tracks, so it's cool to hear that approach in action over the course of one release.

ScholarMan - "Not Give Up" (mp3)
There are some dope beats on here where I'm not totally crazy about the guest MCs, but this is my favorite solo track by just ScholarMan on this release.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, ScholarMan

Afton Live Presents...
MLC (Money Long Click) : STRUXX DENALI : LEFTY : NORM SKOLA presents GRINDHOUSE : KID TWIST : MAINTAIN : YOUNG-N-THUGGIN : EAZY : ORLANDO : BRUCE X-RATED : M.C.F : CHET : MANN UP KID : AIMEE
Thu, May 14
$9 ADV / $12 DOS
6 PM
All Ages
Club Stage
Sonar

Labels: flyer, Sonar

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Sean Toure

Bossman f/ DJ Class - "Back It Up" (mp3)
It was pretty exciting to turn on the radio Monday and hear this, probably the 2 artists with the most momentum coming out Baltimore right now teaming up for a new club banger. It'll be interesting to see if this really builds on what "Break Me Off" and "I'm The Ish" are already doing and becomes a big song in and of itself. Bossman just released 2 new mixtapes on his MySpace page but this song isn't on either of those, got an exclusive right here for y'all, thanks to 1Up for that. In related news, "Break Me Off" was reviewed in the last issue of The Source, and there's yet another "I'm The Ish" remix, this one featuring Estelle, which you can hear over on 41yo.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Bossman, DJ Class, magazines/newspapers, mp3

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, Comp, flyer, Ogun, Tha Profitt

Labels: DJ P-Funk, flyer, For The People Entertainment, Mzery, Sonar

Doo Dew Kidz - Greatest Hits Mix Volume 1

The Doo Dew Kidz, particularly DJ Booman, have had such a great run lately that it's really a great idea for them to do something like this, just as a little reminder of their 20 years of music before the new stuff, a primer for people that don't know and a nice trip down memory lane for those that do. They recently gave out this mix at the Winter Music Conference and put it all online as a free download and it's a really fun listen from front to back. It starts out with a lot of the classics, "Watch Out For The Big Girl" by Jimmy Jones and "You Big Dummy" by K.W. Griff, then moves onto more recent tracks and club remixes of contemporary hits like "Don't Stop The Music," and toward the end of the mix, there's some hip hop collabs like the 410 Pharaohs stuff with Labtekwon and some of Booman's recent tracks with Mullyman. 41yo.com already did a post on this mix as well as a video interview with the Doo Dew Kidz and Mullyman.

DJ Booman - "Bumpin' (Sweet Dreams Mix)" (mp3)
This has been a personal favorite for a long time, just a great example of how a simple little vocal hook and a banging beat can kind of become more than the sum of their parts in Baltimore club music, and this version with that little Eurythmics loop creeping in is dope.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, KW Griff, Labtekwon, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman

Labels: flyer, Shaka Pitts, video, YoTrakz