Mullyman - wiRemix Volume 2 (DJ Booman/Major League Unlimited)

I posted about the first mixtape in this series a few weeks ago, and the third is actually out already, but I wanted to get to the second before that. It's on Mullyman.com and DatPiff.com, and much like the first, it's kind of a short run through new freestyles and old songs, with 'wiRemixes' of recent hits like "Say Yeah" and "Conlomerate" and "Drop," as well as "Rich Kids" by Tabi Bonney, who directed Mully's last video. There's also some old classic Mully cuts like "Oh Baltimore" and Booman's "Move Over," with some stuff I haven't heard before sprinkled in.

Mullyman f/ DJ Booman - "Conglomerate wiRemix" (mp3)
Man, Booman is a better rapper than a lot of people who just rap, always good to hear a new verse from him, 41yo (R.I.P.) posted this a while back too.

Labels: 41yo, DJ Booman, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman

Gritty Gang - Street Certified Goods (Real On Purpose)

Three years ago, Ogun pulled together big diverse cast of Baltimore MCs for the first Gritty Gang mixtape, and for a while I didn't hear anything about the Gritty Gang and thought maybe it was just a one-off. But now there's a whole new mixtape out, with the same title as the first one, bringing back the whole concept. A lot of people that were on the first mixtape make appearances (Skarr Akbar, Ammo, Rockwell, Q Gutta, G.E.M.) along with a lot of people that weren't (Sonny Reddz, Kuan, Talal, Barz), everything recorded at Architects Recording Studio. 41yo posted a couple tracks that were leaked in advance, and you can hear more on the Gritty Gang MySpace page.

Sonny Reddz - "War Pop Off" (mp3)
I've only heard Reddz on a handful of guest spots in the past so this is really the first solo track I've heard and he really murders it, this is just a great violent banger.

Labels: 41yo, Architects, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar

Over on Idolator that Rye Rye's video is now out for "Bang," which was produced by Blaq Starr and features M.I.A. Also, 41yo posted a making of and a remix by DJ Booman. A little more surprisingly, Atlanta rapper Stat Quo also did a remix of "Bang."

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Booman, Rye Rye, video

41Yo has run some notable interviews lately, and I haven't really linked to any of them, so I'm just gonna do a whole rundown of them: a video interview with Kneel Knaris, an audio interview with DJ Excel where Excel actually remixes his own interview and puts a whole musical backdrop under it, a video interview with Skarr Akbar, a written feature on Ogun, and video interviews with Get Em Mamis, and Doo-Dew Kidz and Mullyman. Brandon only provides a YouTube version of the last one, "if you prefer your videos to look really terrible," but my computer really hates Vimeo so that's the only one I've really been able to watch in full. What I was able to watch was cool, though.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mullyman, Ogun, PX, Skarr Akbar, video

New video from NOE called "Gladiator," directed by Jonah Schwartz and it looks really dope, first saw this on 41yo. Good song, too, hadn't heard this on any of his mixtapes so I guess it's new.

Labels: 41yo, NOE, video

Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Oh Baltimore (Bang On Ya Drums Mix)" (mp3)
RapMan Ron G. - "Baltimore (SP1200Remix)" (mp3)
A few years ago I wrote a blog post about Mullyman's "Oh Baltimore," and how it sampled Nina Simone's "Baltimore," which itself was originally recorded by Randy Newman, and I lamented that no Baltimore artists had yet sampled the Newman version. When 41yo recently did a post about the Mully song, I made a comment kinda reiterating that point, and pointing out that Jade Fox and Ron G. had recently done songs with the Nina Simone sample, but still noone had used the Newman track (ok, I said it was Midas, but I was away from my home computer and blanking on the details there). Anyway, apparently the Mania Music Group folks were paying attention, and decided to do a couple tracks off of the Randy Newman sample: a downtempo one from Ron G. with some typically dense, thoughtful lyrics, and a fun uptempo almost-club one from Midas. Between this and "Lunatic Fringe" these guys are using my thoughts all over the place, I might gotta start demanding a liner note shout out or something, haha.

(photo by Al Shipley)

Labels: 41yo, Mania Music Group, Midas, mp3, Ron G.

Kneel Knaris - Going Sane In A Crazy World (Street Legal Entertainment)

I posted a song from it a few weeks ago, but now the whole solo debut from Kneel Knaris is out. I've known him from PX (Parts Unknown), and from being a hip hop karaoke champ legend, but on this album he really comes into his own, weaving the whole album together into a cohesive theme, and making it all about his own struggles with bipolar disorder. There's a lot of introspective rap out there where you get an MC talking your ear off about their problems or addictions or whatever, and I feel like that can be a really indulgent and risky area to get into if the artist doesn't have a real focus or discipline, but he just goes at it really creatively, hitting a different angle with every song.

Last week I was sitting on the front steps at Street Legal talking with Sonny Brown and Kneel, and Sonny said this album was really inspirational to him and made him want to put more of his experiences in his music, which I thought was a huge compliment. The song I posted before, "Never Gonna Make It," I think really sums up the album well. And one thing Kneel said was that he wouldn't be able to make a record like this now, because he's feeling better now than he was when he wrote those songs, which was good to hear because really, some of this stuff is intense, he really goes into some dark feelings, and it's good that the music helped him get past them. E Major makes a guest appearance, and also did the cover art. The album is out now in stores, on iTunes, and on Amazon, where it's only $6.99, which is a great look. Also check out 41yo's review of the album.

Kneel Knaris - "Two Women (Night And Day)" (mp3)
This is one of my favorite songs on the album, because it really takes the bipolar theme of the album in a different direction and kind of looks at two different crutches, caffeine in the daytime and alcohol at night, and builds around that concept in a really dope way (which also explains the cover art).

Labels: 41yo, E Major, mixtape/album review, mp3, PX, Street Legal

A few weeks ago I posted about a couple new Get Em Mamis songs, "Work" (produced by Darkroom Productions) and "Rock Wit Me" (produced by DJ Booman), now there's a video out for both songs, which was directed by Mr. Gray of 7/8 Productions and looks pretty great. Caught this over on 41yo.com.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, G.E.M./Tha Plague, video

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.

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

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

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

Kneel Knaris - "Never Gonna Make It" (mp3)
I've had Going Sane In A Crazy World, the solo album from one half of PX (Parts Unknown), for a minute, but the street date is May 19th and since that's a ways off, I thought I'd run a quick little post until then. Here's one of my favorite tracks, and 41yo also recently posted some audio from the album along with Kneel's thoughts on a few songs.

Labels: 41yo, mp3, PX

The Get 'Em Mamis - "Work" (mp3)
Here's a new G.E.M./Darkroom Productions collaboration that there's apparently a video in the works for. There's another new Get Em Mamis track, "Roc Wit Me" produced by DJ Booman, that's been getting a lot of attention out there lately, too, on 41yo and the Fader blog.

Labels: 41yo, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mp3

Baltimore producer Fusion Unltd. recently released the video for the first video from his upcoming album Cold Fusion, it's called "The Sun" and features Little Brother, Nickelus F., Hall of Fame and Skillz. I've been meaning to post it for a minute, already spotted it on 41yo and a few other sites.

Labels: 41yo, Fusion Unltd., video

41Yo.Com Presents Soul Food & Sushi: A Mania Music Group Mixtape

It's funny, a couple weeks back when I was writing my live review of Mania Music Group's show at the Quarter, I was listening to a playlist on my iTunes of all the music the label's released for free on the internet in the past year (three artist EPs, two group compilations, and a handful of one-off tracks and singles), and I was thinking how all that music distilled into a best-of would be pretty killer. Evidently, Brandon Soderberg of 41yo.com had the same idea but actually acted on it, and compiled his favorite Mania material together, stringing it together with some interview clips and exclusive audio, for this 70-minute downloadable mixtape. If you've been keeping up with the label there won't be much new to you here, but if you've managed to read this site in the past year without hearing their music yet, this is probably the best introduction you could get. The cover art makes use of Rarah's great photo from my City Paper feature last year.

RapMan Ron G., Kane Mayfield and Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Gotta Believe It" Freestyle (mp3)
Brandon's big article about Mania last month opened with a few paragraphs describing this track in really close detail, and he really summed up why it's so entertaining and how it represents a lot of these 3 MCs' different strengths and unique qualities. Ron G. has some of the most hysterical ad libs I've ever heard.

Labels: 41yo, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron G.

PenDragon - "Amen" (mp3)
Some new Drag, produced by Mark Shotta, I like this one. 41yo also recently posted a new collaboration between PenDragon and Articulate, "Short & Sweet," that's pretty good, too.

Labels: 41yo, Articulate, mp3, PenDragon

Bigg Patch - Diamond Life Don: Return of the Space Cowboy (Diamond Life Records)

Bigg Patch has a new album on the way called Aries Rising, and he's been floating some music out there in anticipation of its release. There's a couple tracks from the album that 41yo recently posted, and new video for the song "Diamond Don" that I posted last year, and this mixtape. This is just a quick little teaser release, though, only 22 minutes long and heavy on freestyles, but it's still pretty decent, good beat selection, some encouraging original tracks. He still does a lot of the stuff that's always kind of annoyed me about his music, like repeating his name and certain phrases in his verses over and over, and using choruses from popular songs instead of writing hooks (on one track he just does the "Duffle Bag Boy" chorus for no apparent reason), but once you get past those things he has some good music.

Bigg Patch - "Gangsta" Freestyle (mp3)
This is over the beat from the Bun B/Sean Kingston track that was out about a year ago...as a quick aside, I remember seeing a bunch of MySpace bulletins from a different Baltimore rapper who had a freestyle over this track on his page, but he was trumpeting it like it was his own song, like "NEW SINGLE FEATURING BUN B AND SEAN KINGSTON," I always thought that was really funny and kinda pathetic, like...why even bother fronting like that?

Labels: 41yo, Bigg Patch, mixtape/album review, mp3, video

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