Mz Streamz - It's Alive (Milkcrate Records)

Mz Streamz is a young female MC from Baltimore, I think she's only 19 or 20, but she's been working with Debonair Samir and Aaron Lacrate and getting a lot of publicity lately. You might have heard her on their Club Crack album last year or you might have heard the remix of her single with Skarr Akbar, or you might have seen her in the Baltimore Sun or at last year's Queen of the Mic battle. But she finally released her first mixtape this year, and although I think she's got a decent flow, I'm not totally sold on her, she comes off a little anonymous. And, like Bret McCabe noted in his City Paper review, the pacing and variety of the mixtape is a little over the top, going from hip hop beats to Baltimore club to Go-Go to '80s pop to Miley Cyrus and back, and while she's versatile enough that she can rap over pretty much all of it, you don't get much sense of her, and her personality, whatever it is, gets overwhelmed. I always say I like fast-paced mixtapes that don't let you get bored, but I feel like I finally heard a counterexample that convinces me that it's possible to go too far over the top, because this CD is kind of exhausting to listen to, there's no breathing room between tracks and it just gets annoying after a while, plus you've got Fatman Scoop yelling over it all.

Mz Streamz f/ DJ Class - "Fo'real" (mp3)
This is a cool collab, as usual Class makes dope tracks.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Class, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mz Streamz