This week the Baltimore City Paper published its annual Big Music Issue. In it, I wrote a feature about rap duo AK Slaughter, who are releasing their final EP and playing a farewell show next week, and I also wrote The Short List as usual.

(photo by Josh Sisk)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper

This week the Baltimore City Paper publishes its annual Big Music Issue, and my story in it, Knights of the Round Robin, is about the 5th annual All Rap Round Robin that will be taking place on August 19th at Floristree. I attended the show the last two years and am really excited about the additions to this year's lineup, could be their best yet. For the story I spoke to Height, OOH, Jones, Mickey Free, The Plural MC, King Rhythm and members of Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group, Disturbed Individuals and AK Slaughter (and the concert will also feature PT Burnem, Rapdragons and Secret Weapon Dave).

(photo by Frank Hamilton)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper, Brown F.I.S.H., Height, Kane, magazines/newspapers, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Soul Cannon

I wrote a post on the City Paper's Noise blog about the exciting lineup that was just announced for the 5th Annual All Rap Round Robin happening in Baltimore in August.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Brown F.I.S.H., flyer, Height, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Soul Cannon

On my other blog, Narrowcast, I posted a list of The Top 25 Concerts I Saw In 2010, and it included 3 very different Baltimore hip hop shows that I reviewed for the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog in the top 10:

* Bossman, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, TestMe & Smash @ the Black Hole Rock Club, March 17
* Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group & The Get Em Mamis @ the Windup Space, July 3
* Rap Round Robin with Mickey Free, PT Burnem, Rapdragons, Height With Friends & AK Slaughter @ Floristree, August 7

I'm way late on finishing my list of favorite Baltimore hip hop albums & mixtapes of 2010, but hopefully I'll get that up in another week or two.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Black Hole Rock Club, Bossman, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, lists, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, Mullyman, Noise, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Skarr Akbar, Soul Cannon

Mickey Free - Last Of The Tight Wiggers

Mickey Freeland is part of the whole indie rap scene in Baltimore that I've been posting about here more and more in the past year or two, the Rap Round Robin shows and groups like Height With Friends and Rapdragons. He's been rapping in Baltimore for a pretty long time, though, in the group Wounds in the late '90s and solo records as Bow 'N Arrow and later Mickey Free over the past decade, the first time I heard him was on records with Cex and Height like 8 years ago. I never really met dude or talked to him in person until last week, though, him and his brother Chris have been producing a lot of great records lately, mostly for Baltimore rock bands like Wye Oak, both really interesting talented dues.

Mickey's always stuck out to me as one of the more compelling MCs and all-around artists in the scene he's in, and that's really been cemented with his new album, which he hasn't hooked with a label to officially release yet but is streaming on Band Camp right now. I love how ballsy the title Last Of The Tight Wiggers is, even though it feels like kind of standard for every white rapper to discuss his race in analytical or blunt or self-deprecating ways, I feel like wigger is an interesting word to use or reclaim, both because it's kind of politically incorrect and is a twist on the N word and because it's pretty antiquated slang and I almost feel like most white rap fans or even white rappers these days aren't the type to get called that anymore. But it also kind of reflects the fun, cocky vibe of the album, Mickey has sex jams and goofy skits and is kind of a throwback to a more laid back '90s style of hip hop even when there are some pretty contemporary sounds and influences on here. Emily Slaughter from AK Slaughter and Height and Wye Oak make guest appearances.

Mickey Free - "Shock" (mp3)
I remember this song being a standout at the last Rap Round Robin show, really dope.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Height, Mickey Free, mixtape/album review, mp3

Some recent live reviews I've written for the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog: the Rap Round Robin with Mickey Free/Rapdragons/Height With Friends/AK Slaughter/PT Burnem/etc. @ Floristree, J Roddy Walston & The Business/Tommy Tucker & The Supernaturals @ The Ottobar and Casual Curious/Andrew Weathers Ensemble/Us And Only Us @ the Hexagon and Tears For Fears @ Rams Head Live.

(PT Burnem photo by Al Shipley)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper, Height, Mickey Free, Noise, Ottobar, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Rapdragons - Featuring Baltimore (Ltd Comp)

Ever since I interviewed these guys last year, I've been intrigued by their plan to feature a different Baltimore band on every track of their 2nd album; I talked about the record in my WYPR spring music preview and also posted a live version of one of the tracks. Then the album finally arrived, and is available for free download at the Ltd Comp site, but it took me a minute to getting around to checking it out. It was worth the wait, though, and I definitely feel like it's a far better album than their debut, really shows their ability to chop samples interestingly, and all the different kinds of bands they sample give them a really broad sonic palette to work with. If you follow the Baltimore rock scene at all, you're probably familiar with some of these bands, like Beach House, Ponytail, Double Dagger, Arbouretum, but even if you're not, this works really well as just a laid back stoner rap album. Rapdragons will perform at the Baltimore Rap Round Robin this Saturday, should be an awesome show.

Rapdragons f/ AK and Hanna Badalova - "Rap'n'Roll" (mp3)
This song samples the Art Department, a band I really like that are also about to release a new album. In a weird way it makes sense to me that Rapdragons would sample the Art Department because I interviewed both groups in the same year, at the same bar. AK from AK Slaughter guests on this track, and they'll also be at the Round Robin.

Labels: AK Slaughter, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rapdragons

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, Height, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, Height

Bed Of Seeds release show
@ The Hexagon
Friday, May 28

Height With Friends
A special mega-set featuring Mickey Free, Emily Slaughter, Gavin Riley, PT Burnem, Travis Allen, Brendan Richmond, Liz Aeby, Pam Kurowski and Rob Dowler of Nuclear Power Pants
http://www.myspace.com/height

Lord Grunge (of Grand Buffet)
http://www.myspace.com/thegrungeman

Weekends
http://www.myspace.com/weekendstheband

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, Height, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem

Rapdragons f/ Dustin Wong of Ponytail - "Early For Work (live at Mobtown Studios)" (mp3)
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Rapdragons recently became the 2nd hip hop act to do a 'microshow' with my friends at Mobtown Studios, performing a special set live in the studio for a small audience and recording it for posterity (the first was Cutthroat last year). The first half of their performance consisted of songs from their debut album, last year's Ten Stories High, and the second half was songs from their upcoming Featuring Baltimore, in which they sample a different Baltimore band on every song. At Mobtown they performed songs that sample the Art Department, Weekends, Existencils, and Secret Mountains, and had guest appearances by members of AK Slaughter, Future Islands and Ponytail, the latter on a song that samples Ponytail's "Late For School" that was my favorite part of the set. You can download and stream the whole set at the Mobtown site.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Mobtown Studios, mp3, Rapdragons

Height With Friends - Swiss Chard, Vol. 1 (SpliceToday.com)

Height With Friends have been on a good run since last year, releasing Baltimore Highlands, the companion remix album, and they have another album in the can for release later this year. In between, they got together with SpliceToday.com to release a free download release, the first in a series called Swiss Chard (incidentally, I tried Swiss chard for the first time last year and it can be really good, my wife cooks it up with garlic and rice). A few years ago, Height used to do a series of EPs called Utility Fog between albums, so I guess that's kind of what this series is going to be like, too. All of Height's albums are short, usually a half hour or less, and as a stopgap EP-type release this is even short, 5 songs in under 9 minutes. So it's not really substantial in and of itself or a good intro to Height, but if you already like his stuff there's some good tracks here to throw in a playlist with his other records. It also features a lot of his kind of abstract, chant-y material, so it's not as overtly hip hop as some of his other releases (although the last track is a Schoolly D cover/homage). Like the other With Friends releases, this features contributions from Mickey Free, AK Slaughter and P.T. Burnem, among others. Height With Friends are performing at the Windup Space this Saturday, and setting off on a national tour in a couple weeks, and Bmore Musically Informed recently posted a preview of a few tracks from their upcoming album, Bed Of Seeds, which will be out on May 1st.

Height With Friends - "Right Road" (mp3)
This is the first and longest track on the record, also my favorite, apparently it only didn't make the cut on a previous record because of length concerns.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Height, Mickey Free, mixtape/album review, mp3, P.T. Burnem, Splice Today

Height With Friends - Baltimore Highlands Remix Album (AuralStates.com)

Height is kind of at the center of the weird, exciting indie hip hop scene going on in Baltimore these days that was responsible for the Baltimore All-Rap Round Robin last summer, which was the best show I saw in 2009, and his group project Height With Friends also released the excellent album Baltimore Highlands last year. So it's not surprising that the collaborative spirit of that show and that album led to a remix album of every track from the original, with Height's vocals laid over all new beats, which was made available for streaming and downloading by AuralStates.com. Most of the people that did remixes for this also worked on the original Baltimore Highlands, including Jones, PT Burnem and King Rhythm, so it's really not too far off from the overall sound and vibe of the original, even if some individual songs get pretty dramatic facelifts. One of the things I praised the original album for in my City Paper review was that "his verses sound custom made for each track, with unique cadences that dart in and out of the beat," so it's kinda weird to hear that exact quality removed, and sometimes the new beats just plain don't fit as well, and sacrifice that comfortable, handmade quality of the songs. But it's still a really dope experiment and I hope this scene continues to bubble and get people working together in creative new ways. Height and a lot of his friends are playing Bmore Musically Informed's big show at the Ottobar This Sunday.

"Cold And Shaken (AK Remix)" (mp3)
This was the track I posed from the original album last year, and it makes sense to post the remix now both because of that, and because it's one of my favorite tracks on either record. AK from AK Slaughterr throws a pretty hard beat under the vocal, but then in the second half of the track he really chops up the vocals and takes it in a whole other direction.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Height, Mickey Free, mixtape/album review, mp3, P.T. Burnem

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mickey Free, Ottobar, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Over on my other blog, Narrowcast, I recently posted a list of the 20 best shows I saw in 2009, and the Baltimore hip hop artists on the list included Height, Mickey Free, AK Slaughter, Rapdragons, P.T. Burnem, Kane and Midas and Ron G. of Mania Music Group, Minlus McCracken, Jade Fox, Wordsmith, Soul Cannon, Si-Notes, Shy Lady Heroin, the Get Em Mamis and E Major.

Labels: AK Slaughter, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, Jade Fox, Kane, lists, Mania Music Group, Midas, Minlus McCracken, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Ron G., Soul Cannon, Wordsmith

AK Slaughter - A Personal Matter EP

AK Slaughter is a rap duo, comprised of Emily Slaughter and Aran Keating, that I first learned of last year when they released this, their debut EP, and Raven Baker wrote a City Paper feature about them. But I didn't really get a chance to hear their music, outside of their contributions to the Height With Friends album, until this summer when I saw them at the Baltimore All-Rap Round Robin show, where they really stood out as one of the most entertaining acts. And more recently, someone from their camp reached out to send me this EP and their new mixtape, so it's cool to finally get more acquainted with their music, which is kind of openly comedic and playful (3 of the 8 tracks on here are skits), with a lot of battle of the sexes trash talking bouncing off of the whole boy/girl dynamic of the group. And of course, the way they combined their names to make the group name sound kinda gangsta is funny as hell. It's a little over the top and obnoxiously cutesy for my taste at times, but at the same time I respect that they're in their own lane and doing what they do pretty well.

AK Slaughter - "Tomorrow" (mp3)
This track cracked me up, definitely convinced me that Emily Slaughter needs to be added to the growing list of dope female rappers in Baltimore.

Labels: AK Slaughter, mixtape/album review, mp3