Brown F.I.S.H. - Bootleg III: F.I.S.H. & Friends... The Mixtape

Brown F.I.S.H. is a pretty important group in Baltimore hip hop that I feel like I've never really given enough coverage to on here, partly because a lot of their activity predates this site (I remember seeing them open for Black Sheep way back in '02). Plus, they're really deep into a whole different side of the scene (roots reggae and slam poetry and live R&B bands) that I'm not as into, although I totally respect what they do. In 2006, they did a special invite-only show called "F.I.S.H. & Friends" that was basically an unplugged performance with no sound system and a lot of special guests. I remember getting the invite but I wasn't able to go for some reason or another, and kept hearing how great it was afterwards. Now, there's a DVD full of footage of the event, which looks like it was a lot of fun, and this album/mixtape/compilation-type CD, which basically compiles a lot of remixes and collaborations the group recorded from 2004 to 2007, along with some performances from that show. There's just a lot of jams on this, including all-star remixes of "45" and Golden Seal's "Sistahs Pimpin'," and guest appearances by D.O.G., Symantyx, Greenspan, Heavy Gold, B-Fly, C Love, EJ, and Skarr Akbar.

Brown F.I.S.H. f/ Symantyx and Greenspan - "Cry Baby" (mp3)
Symantyx and Greenspan are two of the new Baltimore MCs who I've been the most impressed with in the past year or two, so I feel like Brown F.I.S.H. are really watching the scene and taking notes when they put both of them on a song like this. OOH has a line on here about how Brown F.I.S.H. was pissed when they didn't get a trading card back when City Paper did them, and I didn't really decide who got one or who didn't at the time, but I have to admit, that was definitely an oversight, Brown F.I.S.H. should've gotten one.

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., C Love, D.O.G., EJ, Golden Seal, Greenspan, Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Symantyx

Next Friday the 2nd annual Baltimore Crown event is taking place at the 5 Seasons, and there's a lot of performances scheduled as well as an MC battle, which will be judged by the crowd, and a producer battle, for which I've been asked to serve as one of the judges. This year there's also going to be awards voted on by the public for various categories, and info on voting is here (there's a "Best Blog and/or Website" category, hint hint).

Labels: 5 Seasons, A-Class, announcements, B-Fly, battle, Dirt Platoon, flyer, Kane, Minlus McCracken, Ogun, Sean Toure, Shaka Pitts, Sonny Brown, Symantyx, UnReal

It's been a while since the last time I did a DVD post, but I've gotten some lately, so let's talk about 'em a little bit:



Even A Man Can Do This is a documentary about the women in the Baltimore hip hop scene, artists or otherwise, directed by Civil Jones. It's been in development for a while now, I talked about the film a bit in my article on the same topic, Ladies First, in the City Paper last year, but now it's done and I got a copy a few weeks ago. Actually, there's a scene at the very end where Civil Jones shows the article and shouts me out and gives a plug to Government Names, so I appreciate that. The film is just one hour long but covers a lot of ground, and features appearances by G.E.M., C Love, Ms. Stress, ShellBe R.A.W., B-Fly, Ms. Tris Beats, Jade Fox, and Golden Seal, among others. One of the most impressive things about it is in addition to the female director, pretty much everyone behind the scenes on the project is a woman: Amotion from Deep Flow did most of the camera work, and the score was all by female producers Ms. Tris Beats and Reina WIlliams. My favorite part of the movie is the footage of Symantyx's set at the 5 Seasons show, I was really impressed by her that night and that performance is the main reason I check for her music now.



Baltimore Real Talk Volume 3 is the third (duh) DVD from County from Little King Entertainment, and I know he went through a lot to get this one finished. I think he was supposed to have it done almost a year ago and then he got arrested while filming outdoors and there was a whole situation with him getting equipment confiscated and losing footage and having to work on it some more. But he finally got it done, and obviously he had no shortage of footage because this thing is 3 hours long. In my opinion, that might be a little too long, because even though I know and listen to a lot of these artists and am interested in the subject matter, some of the individual segments could've been edited down to be much shorter and more to the point. He still got some great stuff in here, including appearances by Los (who spits a great freestyle), Heavy Gold, NOE, Comp, Barnes, D.O.G., B.O.M.B., M.O.L.
Bigg Patch, and Mullyman.

Paused In Time is a documentary about Baltimore hip hop that I got contacted to do an interview for a while back. At the time they said it was gonna be a DVD, but since then I guess they decided to release it on their YouTube site in 8 or 9-minute 'webisodes,' and I guess the whole thing will be out on DVD at some point later. So far 4 webisodes have been posted, and my interview hasn't been in any of them yet, but that's alright since I don't really feel like I said anything interesting, maybe they should hit me back and try to get me to say something more substantial or opinionated than what I gave them before. Anyway, here's what's up so far:

webisode 1 featuring Beat Box:



webisode 2 featuring Comp:



webisode 3 featuring Komplex:



webisode 4 featuring Bossman and Ty Gudda:

Labels: B-Fly, B.O.M.B., Barnes, Bigg Patch, Bossman, C Love, Comp, D.O.G., Deep Flow, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Golden Seal, Heavy Gold, Jade Fox, M.O.L., Ms. Stress, Ms. Tris Beats, Mullyman, NOE, ShellBe RAW

The DMV Entertainment Music Awards were held this past weekend honoring participants of music scenes in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Viriginia. Congratulations to the winners representing Baltimore: Kelly Connelly (for Most Supportive Media) and B-Fly of Brown F.I.S.H. (for Best Spoken Word Artist). And also, congratulations to the other Baltimore nominees: Em Sea Water, Bossman, Shaka Pitts, Me'Aze Millioni, ShellBe R.A.W., Musse' Mus' and Sonny Brown.

Labels: B-Fly, Bosslady, Bossman, Brown F.I.S.H., Musse' Mus', ShellBe RAW, Sonny Brown

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., flyer, Jade Fox, Mic Life Magazine

The City Paper's annual Big Music Issue is out today, so go pick that up. My big piece in it this year is Ladies First, an examination of the huge amount of female talent in Baltimore hip hop right now. I interviewed B-Fly, Jade Fox, ShellBe R.A.W., Nik Stylz, Kelly Connelly, Tufflon Dona, Amotion and Symantyx for the story, and tried to at least mention every local female MC I knew of that I didn't get a chance to talk to. The other story I contributed to was Baltimore's Jukebox, where we sat down with various local musicians and played them other local music and discussed it. I talked to Midas and a couple members of the band Thrushes, and also producer Say Wut, although it looks like his part wasn't used (I feel really bad about that since his interview was cut from my article in last year's issue too, but at least I got to feature him on Noise recently), and other writers spoke to Scottie B. and Ogun, among others. I haven't gotten a chance to look through the whole issue yet but I'm looking forward to reading everything else, especially the piece on one of my favorite record stores, Dimensions In Music.

(photo by Sam Holden)

Labels: B-Fly, Baltimore City Paper, C Love, Deep Flow, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Golden Seal, Jade Fox, magazines/newspapers, Midas, Ms. Stress, Ogun, Scottie B., ShellBe RAW

The latest stuff I've had up on http://noise.citypaper.com in the past month: The Club Beat with DJ Equalizer, some rap show reviews of Rock Da Mic Wednesdays at Club Taste, Hezekiah, Oddisee, E Major, Sean Toure, Ab-Rock and UnReal @ the New Turntable Club, and Even A Man Can Do This 2 @ 5 Seasons with ShellBe R.A.W., Jade Fox, B-Fly, G.E.M. and Symantyx. Also, some rock show reviews of Sloan @ the Black Cat, Elvis Costello @ Ram's Head Live, and 98 Rock's Noise In The Basement showcase at Fletcher's with Empty Gratitude, Armoreta, Gatsby Gets The Green Light and the Dangerous Summer.

Labels: 5 Seasons, B-Fly, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Deep Flow, DJ Equalizer, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Jade Fox, Noise, Sean Toure, ShellBe RAW, Team Fifty, Turntable Club, UnReal

Labels: 5 Seasons, B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Jade Fox, ShellBe RAW

This looks like a cool event. Ogun also wanted me to spread the word that his new mixtape will be available at this performance.

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., C Love, flyer, Golden Seal, Ogun, Ray Lugar

You might remember couple months ago when I posted about B-More Vibe Magazine, who was holding a poll to decide who would be on the cover of their next issue. Well, Ms. Stress won it the first time, and now they're doing it again, and the options are Ogun, Brown F.I.S.H., B-Fly (who's currently in the lead), ShellBe RAW, Golden Seal, Skarr Akbar and Backland. So go ahead and vote for your favorite and see how they do.

Labels: B-Fly, Backland, Brown F.I.S.H., Golden Seal, magazines/newspapers, Ms. Stress, Ogun, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar

D.O.G., Greenspan, and B-Fly
@ Eden's Lounge
15 W. Eager St.
8pm, January 29th

Labels: B-Fly, D.O.G., flyer

Labels: B-Fly, flyer

What: EP release (A Prequel to The B-FLY X'Perience...An EP)
When: Friday, November 3rd.... Doors open @ 9 Show starts@ 10
Where: M.A.P. 218 W. Saratoga St. (same place they hold Organic Soul)
Cost: $10.... $7 with a copy of the EP (EP's on sale, $3 THAT NIGHT ONLY)

Thank you in advance for your continued support of Brown F.I.S.H. and Brown F.I.S.H.,LLC ventures!!!!

Labels: B-Fly, flyer

Labels: B-Fly, flyer, Golden Seal, Ms. Stress, ShellBe RAW

The Best Of Both Worlds, part 3: Dukeyman
A more detailed examination of the music discussed in my Baltimore City Paper article about the crossover between Baltimore club music and hip hop.

Ron "Dukeyman" Hall is one of the OG's of Baltimore club music period, countless club classics going back the early-mid 90's and all that. It's a shame that only one brief quote from him ended up in the final cut of my article, since he had a lot of interesting stuff to say about the current state of club music and his perspective on the hip hop scene. Here's some of my favorite hip hop beats that he's done:

B. Rich - "Whoa Now (Bmore Version)" (mp3)
People around here hate on B. Rich but he was really doin' his thing for a minute, even if it didn't really pan out, and Dukeyman's beat on this was one of the first real national looks for the Baltimore club sound. This is the original version that blew up in Baltimore, before Atlantic signed him and did a more polished remix for the video and all that. Dukeyman did most of the beats on that album, and produced a song on this year's Born Rich too.

Tim Trees f/ Contact - “Spaced Out (Yo, I'm So High)" (mp3)
This cut from Tim's first album might be my favorite hip hop beat with a video game sample ever, it's from Galaga or Space Invaders, one of those old games, it's just sick how well put together it is.

Bigg Patch - "Supaugly" (mp3)
This is a Bigg Patch joint that I first heard on the first Street Radio mixtape, crazy beat and easily one of my favorite joints by Bigg Patch.

B-Fly - “Take Me As I Am" (mp3)
B-Fly is a member of Brown F.I.S.H. that Dukeyman's done a few tracks with.

Also in this series:
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 1: The "Think" Break
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 2: Blaq Starr
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 4: DJ Ron Rico
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 5: DJ Booman
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 6: Nigga Say What a.k.a. Say Wut
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 7: Rod Lee
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 8: Debonair Samir

Labels: B-Fly, B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, Bigg Patch, magazines/newspapers, mp3, The Best Of Both Worlds, Tim Trees

This Wednesday, C Love is starting a new monthly event and releasing a mixtape with DNA, and Skarr Akbar is going to be dropping a couple new mixtapes at the show himself, so this is looking like a real must-see event in my book.

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., C Love, DNA, flyer, Ogun, Real2Real, Skarr Akbar, Sonar

African American Heritage Festival
Dates: June 16-18, 2006
Location: Oriole Park at Camden Yards

C Love posted about some acts to catch, and here's a list of Baltimore hip hop artists that will be performing:

AbRock (who got the spot as the Organic Soul Contest winner)
6:40-7pm, June 16th
Main Stage

DK
3-3:15pm, June 17th
B Stage

Baltimore Ladies of Hip Hop featuring Golden Seal, BFly, Symantyx and Ms. Stress, Hosted by C Love
4-4:45pm, June 18th
B Stage

Labels: B-Fly, C Love, flyer, Golden Seal, Ms. Stress

Labels: B-Fly, flyer, M.O.L., Ms. Stress, Ogun, Real2Real

Labels: 5 Seasons, B-Fly, Dirty Hartz, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Ms. Stress, Ogun, Ray Lugar, Real2Real, Team Fifty

An All female Rap Revue
Going down Saturday March 4th at the Belvedere Lounge 1 East Chase Street, Baltimore MD 21202 doors open at 9:00 show case starts at 10:00. Performances by B-Fly of Brown F.I.S.H., Shellbe Raw, Kitty and Philly's own The Dox. Hosted by O.O.H of Brown F.I.S.H and DJ P-Funk will be spinning.
So come and see some of the hottest MC's in the Tri State area, Hang out with B-Fly's Cutie Pies in the hot tub, Get a massage and There will be a sneak preview of the documentary "Evan A Man can Do This" a film about females in the Hip Hop industry.

Be sure to check out the Rap Attack 2morrow nite as the Ladies from the all female Hip Hop Revue " Even A Man Can Do This" take over the Air Waves.
Sunday 2/25/06
The Rap Attack starting at 7:00pm
92.3 on the fm dial

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., flyer, ShellBe RAW