Labels: 5 Seasons, Arsonists Camp, flyer, Lynee Michelle

Born King - Phat Laces (Mad Thinkah Productions)

The latest from the always prolific Born King is a little different from his last few, as you might guess from the old school-themed artwork. It's a little less dark and impenetrable, a little more stripped down and accessible, beats not quite as weird and lyrics not as arcane, and while I appreciate hearing him in a different context, I think I do like hearing him do the stuff that makes him more unique. His brother, Singodsuperior, did all the beats, and I'm liking his production style. This is the 2nd time BK has dropped an album on June 8th and he says it'll be the last Born King album, and that he'll drop one more album under his Killa Fifth alias called Rise of the Lightkenz later this year, the 3rd he'll have dropped an album on October 31st. I'm sure he'll still be making music in some capacity even if he stops making solo albums, though, so I don't look at this as a 'retirement' at all. You can download the album at Articulate's site, and physical CDs are being sold at the Sound Garden.

Born King - "Final Call" (mp3)
This is the last song on the album and one of my favorites.

Labels: Born King, mixtape/album review, mp3

MAJOR LABEL SHOWCASE AUDITIONS

1 Up Entertainment invited you to:
MAJOR LABEL SHOWCASE AUDITIONS

When:
Saturday, September 05, 2009
3:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where:
CLUB REALITY
2625 WASHINGTON BLVD
BALTIMORE, MD, 21230

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, One Up Entertainment

Labels: 1st Family, Black Hole Rock Club, Comp, flyer, Huli Shallone, Smash, Tha Profitt

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Jade Fox, Minlus McCracken, Sean Toure

Greenspan - When The Sky Turns Green (DJ Benzi/IllRoots.com)

It's been cool to see Greenspan really flourish and get more recognition in the past couple years since I started to really pay attention to him and give him some props on this site and elsewhere, and his new mixtape was put out by a pretty well known DJ and a pretty well known blog. It's a nice tight concise 40 minutes, mostly original production, and while none of the songs are really knocking me out individually, I don't hear a weak link on here either. Tight rhymes, good taste in beats, Greenspan is just a consistent cat. There's a song on this called "Khloe Kardashian," which is just...seriously? Of all the (semi-)famous women you could title a song after? I think that Got Green? is still my favorite Greenspan release, but that one is tough to top and When The Sky Turns Green is not bad at all, download it at www.GREENSPANmusic.blogspot.com.

Greenspan - "You Know My Name" (mp3)
I really dig the way Judah, who produced about half the tracks on here, basically just took the Alicia Keys track, and added some drums and chopped it in some subtle ways, but mostly kept the vibe the same and didn't change too much.

Labels: Greenspan, mixtape/album review, mp3

New live reviews I've done on the City Paper's Noise blog in the last few weeks: Si-Notes/Shy Lady Heroin/Alicia Peace/Cream/Tiffany Couture/Amotion @ the Black Hole Rock Club, Soul Cannon/Ndelible/Ad Lib @ Club Reality, the Baltimore Music Festival @ Center Stage, Out Of Your Head collective @ the Windup Space, Longbottom/Your Daddy's Trio @ Joe Squared, The Cameron Blake Band/E. Joseph & The Phantom Heart @ the 13th Floor, Lazlo Lee & The Motherless Children @ the Metro Gallery and Our Lady Peace @ the 9:30 Club.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Black Hole Rock Club, Club Reality, Noise, Shy Lady Heroin, Si-Notes, Soul Cannon

Mania Music Group - Demos, Freestyles And Outtakes 2007-2008 (Year One) (Mania Music Group)

I think it speaks volumes about Mania Music Group that they would even have enough music they're willing to label "demos" or "outtakes" to put together a collection like this. Classic rap albums like Illmatic have demos and outtakes, but these days everything is fair game for mixtapes and few people seem to have any sense of quality control to seperate A material from B material. But for as much music as Mania's put out in the last year or two, they've been pretty consistent, partly because each release to date has been fairly short and had some kind of unifying concept or structure. So it makes sense that there'd be a good amount of stuff they mad that didn't fit into any of those compilations or solo EPs, and it's fun to hear it all here in kind of a casual presentation. This record opens with a weird pisstake called "Fish Hair" that's one of the funniest things I've heard in a minute, and retains that laid back vibe for most of the rest of the compilation. Kane, Midas and Ron G. all have solo tracks and some posse cuts together, including "Lunatic Fringe," and a good amount of this is freestyles, kinda in the same spontaneous-sounding format as the Mania Takeover mixtape, maybe even from the same session. If you're not already up on Mania's stuff, check out the Soul Food & Sushi compilation as an intro, then head to ManiaMusicGroup.com to hear this and the other official releases. See also my CIty Paper feature on the label and my live review of the last time I saw Kane and Midas perform a few weeks ago. Headphones and BeaLack will be the featured producers at this month's No Guts No Glory.

Kane Mayfield - "MySpace Song (Demo)" (mp3)
I don't know how old this track is, might've been made a while back before all the social networking lemmings jumped to Facebook (myself included, but not without a fight!). Kane really has a talent for talking shit, if you ask me he should just insult people on record all day. Really he should be making fun of cats on Twitter now, too, but dude broke down and jumped on the bandwagon, so I keep giving him a hard time about it.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron G.

Labels: Dru Hill, flyer

For fans of the infamous "everything but the location" flyer, here we have a flyer without the location or the date. I believe this event takes place on August 29th, but you wouldn't know from this. Maybe you can call the phone numbers listed on there and ask them for more dtails. Or tell them they suck at making flyers.

Labels: Barnes, flyer, Skarr Akbar

Tha Profitt / Scryptz - The Co-Op: Popular Catch Phrases / Motion Picture Music (Profitt Productions)

Profitt's got a new mixtape coming out soon that I posted a track from recently, but I was going through my CDs and realized he puts stuff out so frequently that I had one out a while back that I never posted about. This is a double CD, one by him and one by another Profitt Productions artist, Scryptz. Profitt's half has guest appearances by Skarr Akbar, Bossman and Comp. I've never really heard Scryptz before and he's alright, kinda ain't good at staying on the beat, which gets on my nerves a bit, but he's got a good ear for beats and generally raps like he means it and isn't boring. He references and gives props to Big Pun a few times, and I feel like that's always a really encouraging influence for an MC to have, Pun was the shit.

I've always been impressed by Profitt's grind and have been supportive of how much music he puts out, but I gotta say, he recycles the same songs on his CDs a lot, which I guess is part of the reason why he's able to drop mixtapes so often. 7 of the 20 tracks Popular Catchphrases aren't familiar to me, but for everything else this is the 2nd or 3rd or even 4th mixtape I've heard it on. Some of those songs are really good and I don't mind hearing them again, and I mean he sent these mixtapes to me so I'm not pissed like I might be if I was a fan buying all these CDs with the same songs over and over. Still, seems kind of odd and pointless to me. Hopefully that mixtape he's about to release has some new shit on it! Two mp3s, one from each disc:

Tha Profitt - "Piece Of Shit Whip" (mp3)
This song is hilarious and I identify with it entirely too much. I have driven some shitty, old-ass cars in my life.

Scryptz - "Hip Hop Obversations" (mp3)
I have definitely found myself thinking a lot of the things he says in this song from time to time.

Labels: Bossman, Comp, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Tha Profitt

Turntable Lab has the My Crew Be Unruly 12", which was released for last month's big show at Paradox, and features songs by DJ Class, Say Wut, Scottie B., the Chavy Boys and Ultra Nate. The City Paper Noise blog had a big recap of the show itself, with words by Brandon Soderberg and photos by Josh Sisk.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, DJ Class, Noise, NSW (Say What), Scottie B., Unruly Records

Labels: flyer, Height, Mickey Free

This is "Make It," E Major's second video from his excellent 2008 album Majority Rules, directed by Aaron Keeny.



And here's the video for "Paper Runnin'" by The Demonstrators (E Major's new group with DJ Impulse), directed by Garrett Guidera.

Labels: E Major, video

Labels: 100 Grandman, flyer, Skarr Akbar

Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio Vol. 4 (DJ Radio)

The 5th installment of the Street Radio series (there was a Volume 2.5 in there for some reason) comes about 3 years after the last one, and it seems like the series coming back after such a long dormant period is all part of the big push that Architects has been making behind AllBmoreHipHop.com and all the releases being pushed through there. And it seems like they're going at this all the way since the next volume is already being put together. This has kind of a good mix of familiar and unfamiliar names, has a few songs I've posted here like Bossman's "Break Me Off" remix, Ogun's "Go Long," and Mullyman's "Bmore Go Harder", and tracks by Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, Barnes, EJ, NOE, Heavy Gold, Banga Bill, and a lot of other folks I haven't really heard before or much. It's kind of a hodge podge, as any various artist mixtape will inevitably be, but some good tracks on here, some people I might have to check out based on this. There's two tracks with "swagg" in the title, which I should probably consider a good thing given how many more there could've been. You can download it, and the previous Street Radio mixtapes, on allbmorehiphop.com/architects.html.

Dave Da Barber - "I'm So Baltimore" (mp3)
I remember seeing 1st Fam perform this at the Black Hole a while back and it went over really well.

Labels: 100 Grandman, 1st Family, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Banga Bill, Barnes, Bossman, DJ Radio, EJ, Heavy Gold, Mullyman, NOE, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Street Radio

Labels: A-Class, Brakefast Records, Dirt Platoon, flyer, Jade Fox, Minlus McCracken, Ogun, Sonar

PUR Entertainment/ Triumphant Music Group. Inc

Presents:

HEAVY HITTER'S 6

Type: Music/Arts - Concert

Featuring:

Young Ones
Jay luv
Vision
Starrz
MLC
Lenwood
Shy
TY GUDDA
Sonny Redz
Wood
BMW
Roc Stalin
Savage
Micheal Wayne
Los
Joe Millz
Ransom
QG

Networking and Promotional Event for those with interest in the Entertainment Industry!

A Special Birthday Celebration For "Kessino" C.E.O of Triumphant Music Group. Inc

Drink Specials ALL Night!

Price: $10.00

Start Time: Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 9:30pm

End Time: Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 1:30am

Location: BLACKHOLE ROCK CLUB

Street: 215 GERMAN HILL RD

City/Town: Dundalk, MD

Phone: 443 740 0361 / 443 928 5167

Email: PURENTERTAINMENT1@GMAIL.COM / JKESSINO@AOL.COM

COME OUT N SUPPORT BMORES FINEST IN ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED MUSIC SHOWCASES THAT HAS EVER HIT BALTIMORE!
**ATTN: LOCAL ARTISTS***If you come out n bring your music i will b collecting it for up coming out of town showcases, promotional deals with Pur ENT as well as submissions for promotional spots on Pur ent wepage FOR FREE!

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, flyer, Los, Savage Da Beast, Shy Lady Heroin, Vision

Labels: 5 Seasons, battle, flyer, Mania Music Group, Only

Ty Gudda - Freshman Year (Blasfome Entertainment/Mid-Atlantic Mafia)

I don't know if this is Ty Gudda's first full-length release or what the Freshman Year title means, but he's definitely been around for a minute since I first heard him on mixtapes by Tufflon Dona and Musse Mus a couple years ago. I saw him at Sonar a while back and I got a copy of this CD, you can hear it on his MySpace page. It's not bad, pretty typical hardcore rap and he kinda sounds like Skarr Akbar with a higher voice. It's funny how he takes a tough stance on being anti-AutoTune but still does some cheesy "swagg" rap kinda shit, which in my opinion is a far worse trend right now.

Ty Gudda - "It Go" (mp3)
I swear, Baltimore has got to be the world capital of rap tunes with gunshot sound effects used as percussion.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: flyer, Greenspan

Labels: Brakefast Records, flyer, Pro and Reg, Steez Promo, Tha Profitt

Al Great - Greatness (Alevan Music Group/DJ 5 Starr)

I've heard a few projects from Al Great in the past, a couple solos and one from his group Alevan. He still flows way too much like Jay-Z to the point that it's boring, dude needs to get some other influences, kick something more original, something. Paint pictures, don't just trace him, you know? That said, he's got an ear, I fuck with his music. I wanna say what's up to DJ 5 Starr, a while back he gave me his card and was all, e-mail me, I wanna discuss something etc. etc. I e-mailed him, he didn't e-mail me back! Gimme a break, man, waste of my time to type out the address! Like virtually half the mixtapes I write about here lately, it's available for download at www.allbmorehiphop.com/algreat.html and Skarr Akbar designed the cover art (although Kelly Connelly snapped the photo).

Al Great f/ Duce Wayne - "Notice Me" (mp3)
This is by far my favorite track on the mixtape, partly because it's got a dope beat by E Dott of Alevan, and partly because it's one of the only original productions on the whole thing and just sticks out like a sore thumb for that reason. I said this last time but I really hope they go and do another Alevan project, there aren't enough good MC/producer duos and all these Al Great freestyle mixtapes just make him sound more anonymous.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar

The good folks at Motivated Artist Making Records are giving back to the community. School supplies are expensive and we want to help give back to our children. Notebooks, Binders, pens, pencils, backpacks, lunch boxes, loose leaf paper, folders, you name it! We need it! All the M.A.M. Records Artists and Staff will be on hand at each location below to collect school supplies. You can meet and greet the Artists of M.A.M. Records (Chris Stylez, Taz Spitta/Danilo, Princess Sha, Jonah and Jay McGraw) and hang out! Come on down to the locations below!

Tell a friend to tell a friend!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle
500 N. Caroline Street 4:00p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Cecil Elementary
2000 Cecil Avenue 5:30p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Westside Elementary/Middle 7:00p.m. to 7:30p.m.
2235 N. Fulton Avenue

Rosemont Elementary/Middle 7:45p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
2777 Prestman Street

See everyone there M.A.M Records Forever www.myspace.com/mamrecords410
Check out our School Supply Drive PSA video~
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=61778045

Labels: flyer

Unframed the show
Visual Art and live music beyond the borders

This world is a make up of cages, boxes and borders even art is put in frames while music is stuck in categories. Unframed is a visual art and live music series, removing the boundaries of genres so all artist can simply focus on being expressive without the prisons society places us in for marketing purposes.

Join us at un{FRAMED}
on Thursday August 20th 2009
At Club Reality
2625 Washington Blvd Baltimore Md 21230

Featuring:
David James of Indelible,
Soul Cannon
& The Love Peace Project

Visual artists specialize in the art of Photography,
will include…
Kelly Connelly
Tya Eyeni Anthony
Lenee Fotografer Free

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Soul Cannon

I wrote an essay titled Is 2009 The Year Baltimore Club Broke? that is my first piece for SpliceToday.com, kind of a long thinkpiece covering a whole lot of ground, hope it stimulates some discussion about the club scene and where it's going.

Labels: Baltimore club, magazines/newspapers, Splice Today

Dreko - Man On Fire (Arsonists Camp Entertainment)

Dreko is an MC with Arsonists Camp who I've seen and reviewed live before and been impressed by, and I knew he'd released an album a while back but I didn't get a chance to hear it until he reached out to me recently. It's pretty good, he's got a really abrasive delivery but spits some pretty honest, heartfelt lyrics, and sometimes he goes over the top with some real grimy aggressive rap if that's what you're into. I know he's got a newer CD coming out sometime soon that I've heard some good tracks from, too. You can download this at www.allbmorehiphop.com/dreko.

Dreko - "Sleep In The Dark" (mp3)
G Major produced this and it's a pretty weird, creative beat, real dark aggressive song.

Labels: Arsonists Camp, G Major, Lynee Michelle, mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: Brown F.I.S.H., flyer

Labels: Baltimore club, flyer, Ottobar

Heavy Gold - If Not Me Then Who? (Foreva Musik/Mid-Atlantic Mafia)

I wrote a City Paper feature on Heavy Gold about a year and a half back, when he was briefly signed with Epic Records. Since then he's been still grinding independently and doing shows, though, and this is the first mixtape I've heard from him in a minute. I'm kinda hot and cold on this one, some tracks he's just flowing like crazy and sounds really hungry, sometimes I just feel like it's on autopilot and I keep tuning out. Still, good guy, good to hear him still doing his thing. Some of his older songs like "Drug Dealer" and "Murder And The Dope" are on here, along with a lot of new material. The cover art's by Skarr Akbar.

Heavy Gold f/ C4, Kota and Mr. Green - "It's OK" (mp3)
This posse cut with I guess some dudes from Heavy's crew is really my favorite track on the mixtape, great beat and great vibe even if everybody's verse isn't totally on point.

Labels: Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar

Labels: flyer

Barnes - Block Work Featuring Barnes (DJ Jabril)

AllBmoreHipHop.com and DJ Jabril recently released the first volume of the Block Work series, which it looks like they're kind of grooming as a Baltimore answer to Gangsta Grillz, a kind of legacy brand for single-artist mixtapes, which I think is a shrewd idea, will be interesting to see how that pans out with future volumes. The first installment is with Barnes, who released an album on Street Official 3 years ago that I thought was pretty dope, had national distribution and a few songs on 92Q, although I dunno, the guy has never left a huge impression on me. This is good, again kinda generic but some hot songs. I heard great things about the last mixtape he had out but I haven't checked it out yet. I'm not wild about all the drops and DJ shouting, but again that's kind of the vibe they seem to be going for. Cover art's by Skarr Akbar, you can download the whole thing at WWW.ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM/BARNES.

Barnes f/ Bump - "Ay Boy" (mp3)
Man, I like this beat, it sounds fuckin' evil.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Barnes, Block Work, DJ Jabril, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Street Official

WJZ has recently had some familiar faces from the Baltimore rap scene on the air for interviews: the directors of Paused In Time and Jerome "Ro" Brooks.

Labels: video

The July issue of the venerable rap mag Murder Dog has a big big special feature on Baltimore's hip hop and club scenes, including interviews with Blaq Starr, Rye Rye, Scottie B. and Sean Ceasar of Unruly Records, Rod Lee, DJ Excel, Mullyman, Bossman, Say Wut, Jay Claxton, the Get Em Mamis, King Tutt, 100 Grandman, and DJ Booman. And I just heard that you can actually get a digital copy of the whole issue on the Murder Dog site and read it online, which is great, since I have not had any luck finding anywhere in Baltimore that sells it (if anyone knows a place, let me know and I'll post it).

Labels: 100 Grandman, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, King Tutt, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Rye Rye, Scottie B., Unruly Records

Bossman - ATM: After These Messages (DJ Jay Claxton/1Up Ent./N.E.K./MySpace Records)

A.T.M. is the other mixtape, along with Street Kings, that Bossman released when he dropped 2 mixtapes simultaneously a while back. The other one had more of a concept or theme running through it, whereas this one is more of just a general mixtape, building off the success of "Break Me Off" with more material in that vein, while also kind of responding to and making fun of accusations that he's 'gone commercial.' Dollars and Tony Manson have a lot of verses on here (although they're credited as D.O. and Tone, so I guess that's what they're going by now), musically it's in the same vein as a lot of the recent N.E.K. stuff, and has a lot of freestyles, as well as some previously released original tracks like "Flush 'Em" and the K-Swift tribute "I Wonder" and of course "Break Me Off." The new stuff is kind of hit and miss, though, and there's a Kanye-style AutoTune breakup song called "Losing U" that just plain sucks. B recently interviewed Bossman, and you can download A.T.M., along with several other Bossman mixtapes and independent releases, on http://www.allbmorehiphop.com/bossman.

Bossman - "Get Retarded" (mp3)
This is probably my 2nd favorite new track on here (after "Where It's At," which is only a snippet, looking forward to a full version of that), really freaky weird beat produced by Rame.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Bossman, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, One Up Entertainment

Here's a video DJ Class made himself for "I'm The Ish." I know some people are already making noises about being disappointed or underwhelmed by it, but I've been told this is not the official video and that the Chris Robinson-directed video is still forthcoming. And I think this is a pretty fun, impressive self-directed little video for Class to do, if you take it on those terms.

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

The Get Em Mamis - The Road To TerAwesome

It's funny, I've been writing about these girls for like 4 years, back from when they had a 3rd member and were called Tha Plague, but I never actually met them until a few weeks ago, outside Sonar at the Paused In Time release party. And they were really just hilarious, I think they were more excited to meet me than vice versa, which is ridiculous. Their set that night was really good and reminded me that I hadn't sat down yet to listen to their latest mixtape, which is a appetizer for their upcoming official album (I have no idea what TerAwesome means). The mixtape has 6 tracks with Darkroom Productions (including "When U See Us" from The Wire's soundtrack and last year's popular single "Cold Summer"), as well as the club-flavored "Your Boyfriend Do" produced by DJ Excel and "Roc With Me" produced by DJ Booman. And if you heard their freestyles from last year's "Cold Summer" campaign some of those are on there. Really this holds together about as well as an album and really raises my expectations for their LP. The City Paper ran a review by Michael Byrne last month, and you can download the mixtape at G.E.M.'s MySpace. Their Twitter is also really entertaining, although I'm still not gonna give into the peer pressure from them to get one myself.

The Get 'Em Mamis - "They Joc'n" (mp3)
This is one of the Darkroom tracks, I dig that string sample or whatever it is.

Labels: Baltimore club, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Wire

Labels: E Major, flyer, Under Sound Music, video

Labels: 5 Seasons, Arsonists Camp, battle, flyer, G Major, Ms. Stress

Tha Profitt f/ Skarr Akbar and TestMe - "You Think U Hard" (mp3)
Here's some dope new Profitt from his next CD coming soon, with some good guests on the track. Had to use the half-n-half pic, haha.

Labels: mp3, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Tha Profitt

Labels: Club Reality, flyer, Jade Fox