This week the Baltimore City Paper ran a cover story written by Jaye Hunnie about Keys, the female rapper who came to fame a couple months ago with a YouTube diss of Nicki Minaj. Alongside Jaye's lengthy article is my brief review of Keys's mixtape, Infiltration, and interestingly today it seems like all the feedback is about what I wrote, including a lengthy comments thread on the CP site, chatter on my Twitter, and people sending me personal messages on Facebook about how I'm 40 years old and shouldn't be writing about hip hop. Previously I'd only once briefly made a reference to Keys on Government Names, and had for the most part not written anything publicly about her because, to be honest, I was hoping this whole thing would blow over. I've long been a major supporter of the dozens of talented female rappers in Baltimore, and wrote a big CP story, Ladies First, about that part of the local hip hop scene 3 years ago, so to be honest I was just kind of bewildered that someone who wasn't any more talented than a lot of those artists who've been making records and doing shows for years got all this publicity the easy way, dissing a major label artist. Some people have made this out to be a personal vendetta or have implied that I've met Keys or have some kind of personal history there, but it's all just me being a music fan and calling it as I see it. I hope all this hubbub motivates some people who aren't already drinking the Kool-Aid to download Infiltration and call it as they see it, because seriously, it ain't all that. I hear 30 mixtapes as good as this or better out of Baltimore every year.

(photo by Rarah)

Labels: Baltimore City Paper