I wrote the local music reviews in this week's Baltimore City Paper: new albums and mixtapes by Sean Toure', Sinista, and B. Rich.

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, mixtape/album review, Sean Toure, Sinista

Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio 6: Hosted By Ogun (ARS Productions/Surface II Air Street Media)

Last year when ARS brought back the Street Radio series with Vol. 5, DJ Radio, who had done every previous installment, was still on board. But starting with this one earlier this year, they've switched up to a no DJ format with an artist hosting, with ARS's own Ogun as the first host. With my review of the last one I complained about the song selection, but this time around I feel like they really picked some joints, including some of my favorite songs I've posted here in the last year like OOH from Brown F.I.S.H.'s "Let The Light," Nummy's "One Night In Baltimore" with Smash, 100 Grandman, B. Rich and Comp and Ogun and DJ Excel's "Ever Since I Saw You." There's also music by Skarr Akbar, Tay-Eaz, EJ, Barnes, Tha Profitt, Savage Da Beast, and many others. Download Street Radio 6 at allbmorehiphop.com

Blue - "Elevator Man" (mp3)
This song's really catchy, unless they jacked the beat or the hook from something I don't recognize (it's one of the only tracks on the mixtape without a producer credit), I feel like this has single potential. I don't really know anything about Blue besides that he's in the Gritty Gang, but I definitely wanna hear more from him.

Labels: 100 Grandman, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, B. Rich, Barnes, Comp, DJ Excel, EJ, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Smash

DJ Jabril featuring Smash - Melt Da Pyrex (Surface II Air Street Media/Street Congress Entertainment)

Despite the way the cover art kind of plays up his presence, this really isn't a Smash mixtape like you might think -- it's really more of a DJ Jabril various artists mixtape along the lines of his Stash Box series, with Smash doing intros and drops and appearing on just a few songs (like 5 out of almost 30). And that's fine by me, since Smash is the kind of artist I only feel like hearing in small doses, a quick freestyle or a guest verse, and a lot of the other stuff on here is pretty good, other than way too many beats from wack fucking Drake songs. It has the Bossman/Mullyman joint, and songs by Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Barnes, Tonio: From Da Top, Only, and a whole lot of other cats, good mix of artists. Incidentally, I've downloaded dozens of mixtapes from allbmorehiphop.com now and this is the first one that's actually all properly tagged (song titles, artist name, album title) when I load it into my iTunes, so congratulations to them on finally getting that together, hopefully they keep it up.

Nummy f/ B. Rich, 100 Grandman, Smash and Comp - "One Night In Baltimore" (mp3)
No idea who Nummy is and LOL @ his name, but it was definitely clever of him to sample a line from "Whoa Now" and get B. Rich himself and a lot of other notable Baltimore MCs together to make it a posse cut, this is kind of a jam.

Labels: 100 Grandman, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, B. Rich, Barnes, Bossman, Comp, DJ Jabril, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Only, Skarr Akbar, Smash, Tonio

B. Rich - Traffic Art

8 years after “Whoa Now” briefly put him and Baltimore on MTV and the Billboard charts, B. Rich is still grinding independently, still making albums. And after a few years when I think he was spending more time in Atlanta, he’s back to focusing on his hometown. His latest album, Traffic Art, still kinda sounds more like Atlanta than Baltimore, or at least not much like his early stuff. I mean, most of these beats sound like they could’ve been on a Jeezy album, which on one hand means the production values are pretty high, but I’m also not sure it’s a sound that really fits B. Rich’s vocal style. That Born Rich album a few years ago was a much better attempt at fusing his style with something a little more serious and a little more underground. You can download Traffic Art at AllBmoreHipHop.com.

B. Rich - “Brotha In Blood” (mp3)
I like that pretty much this whole song is based around "dug" (the Baltimore pronunciation of "dog").

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, B. Rich, mixtape/album review, mp3

Labels: B. Rich, flyer

And the hits just keep coming! Or really, songs that for the most part were hits in my mind only, or for a relatively small group of people. I surprised myself, though, when I looked at the whole 100 and realized that almost half the songs were things that had been played on 92Q at some point or another. Mostly club songs, but still, it's nice to think that many songs I've genuinely liked have impacted the station's airwaves, as much flak as people give the station about local artist airplay:

41. The Arabz - "Alright" (mp3) - January 15, 2006
42. C.R. - "Know You Better" (mp3) - June 16, 2006
43. K.W. Griff - "Tony Track" (mp3) - July 6, 2006
44. Golden Seal f/ Ooh of Brown F.I.S.H. - "Sistahs Pimpin'" (mp3) - July 13, 2006
45. Labtekwon - "Dr. Strangelove" (mp3) - July 20, 2006
46. Huli Shallone - "This My Hood" (mp3) - March 15, 2005
47. Davon f/ Tim Trees - "Be Ya Friend" (mp3) - July 27, 2005
48. B. Rich - "Whoa Now (Bmore Version)" (mp3) - July 25, 2006
49. Dirt Platoon - "Movin'" (mp3) - August 7, 2006
50. Mania Music Group - "Lunatic Fringe" (mp3) - November 13, 2008

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore club, Brown F.I.S.H., Dirt Platoon, Golden Seal, Huli Shallone, KW Griff, Labtekwon, lists, Mania Music Group, mp3, Tim Trees

Aaron Lacrate & Debonair Samir present B-More Club Crack (Koch Records/E1 Music/Milkcrate Records)

Aaron Lacrate and his whole "club crack"/"gutter music" thing have never sat well with me, but I've kinda explained all that on this site before, so I'm not gonna get into all that too much again. But this album, which was mostly recorded 3 years ago and features a lot of dope Baltimore rappers like Tru Bill and B. Rich and J Wildz over hip hop and club beats by Debonair Samir, is pretty good, and I was really happy to hear that it was finally coming out nationally when I interviewed Samir a couple months back. The kinda breakout MCs featured on multiple tracks are Verb, who's on the single I posted a few weeks ago, and Mz Streamz, who I saw compete at Queen Of The Mic 2 recently.

Bret McCabe's City Paper review kinda summed up how I feel about the album, which is that it's good but kind of consistent to a fault, because it's just one party-oriented banger after another. It's fun and well-produced, and I especially like D.O.G.'s "Talkin' Ish," but it gets a little monotonous over the course of a CD. Plus I mainly like the older tracks from the original version of the album they made 3 years ago; the newer tracks feel a little too trendy to me with the AutoTune and "A Milli"-type beats, I think they might've tried too hard to sound current. There was an article by Rashod D. Ollison in the Baltimore Sun this week about the renewed interest in club music, centered around DJ Class and the release of B-More Club Crack. It's a good article, but I'm disappointed that it makes the same mistake as a lot of other media by focusing on Lacrate, who's mentioned almost a dozen times, and downplaying Samir, who's mentioned exactly once. This is really Samir's record and his beats, and I've never gotten the impression that Lacrate's contributions were ever really musical rather than on the business side, especially given that some of these songs were made before they even met.

Tim Trees - "F.I.R.E." (mp3)
Some of the songs on this album original appeared on local Baltimore releases by the artists, like Mullyman's "The Real Is Back" was on Industry Invasion in 2007, and Verb and J Hussein's "Post Up" was on the Dirty Hartz mixtape It Is What It Is Vol. 2 in 2006. But this one is practically ancient, and first appeared on the Tim Trees mixtape Too Gangsta For Radio in 2003 or 2004. It's kinda cool to hear it included on here, too, because I think Rod Lee's beats on the first couple Tim Trees albums were really kinda the blueprint for a lot of what Samir does on this album. Trees said in my 2005 City Paper article that this song would be on his 3rd album, but here we are almost four years later and as far as I know that still hasn't dropped, which is a shame, I was really looking forward to it. I guess it could be like B-More Club Crack and just drop outta nowhere eventually, though.

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Baltimore Sun, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, Dirty Hartz, DJ Class, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Mz Streamz, Tim Trees, Verb

Mr. Vegas f/ Verb - "Oh My Gosh" (mp3)
You may remember all the fanfare back in 2006 about Debonair Samir and Aaron Lacrate signing with Koch Records to release the B-More Club Crack compilation. Well, 3 years later, Koch is now E1 Music and they finally decided to drop the album this year, a couple weeks from now on March 10th. This is one of the two lead singles, and features a new version of the classic "Samir's Theme" beat with Verb and dancehall artist Mr. Vegas. My interview with Samir about the record is here and the press release and tracklist are here. The album also features Mullyman, Tim Trees, B. Rich, Dirty Hartz, Tru Bill and D.O.G.

Labels: B. Rich, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, Dirt Platoon, mp3, Mullyman, Tim Trees, Verb

Here's B. Rich's new video, "Letter To Vick," which, I dunno...I guess I understand the idea of him doing a song telling Michael Vick to keep his head up, but seriously, fuck Michael Vick.

Labels: B. Rich, video

B. Rich gave me a heads up recently that he's got 2 new videos up on YouTube, for tracks from a new album he's dropping in August:

"Mama Should've Told Me" f/ Shy Saltor



"Best Kept Secret"

Labels: B. Rich, video

Ray Victory - By Any Means (Nite Life Entertainment)

I wrote about Ray Vic's previous mixtape Ready 2 Go a year or two back and recently got sent his new one, along with a copy of his new single "Everything Ain't Always Good" (which, I should add, is pretty good and I don't understand why it isn't on the mixtape). I like Ray, he's got a unique voice and occasionally has a hot line, but this mixtape gets kinda boring for me for the same reason the last one did, which is that every other song is over an industry beat or a "remix" of some mainstream R&B track by T-Pain or Beyonce or R. Kelly or something. Dude needs to find some talented producers and make some records for real, the original songs on here are by far the highlights, especially the two-part "Momma's Protector." This mixtape features an intro by C Love and guest appearances by Comp, B. Rich (who used to be in a group with Ray), and Caddy Da Don, and is available on Ray Victory's MySpace page.

Ray Victory f/ Shadina - "Hey Girl" (mp3)
Shadina is an R&B singer I saw perform at a show at the Latin Palace that I covered on Noise last year, I love how this song just samples a straight soul loop without really adding drums or anything, just letting it play for a kinda mellow vibe. Shadina has another collaboration with Ray Victory called "My Baby" on her MySpace page.

Labels: B. Rich, C Love, Comp, mixtape/album review, mp3

B. Rich presents Hurry Up And Weight: The Wire Soundtrack (The Wire Music Group)

You might remember a few months ago when I posted a B. Rich song called "Block Hussla" that was supposedly from a new album of his called Hurry Up And Weight. Well, when I was puttin together an iTunes playlist of Baltimore hip hop for a recent Noise post, I realized that the album was released, at least on iTunes, in July, and put the song "Somebody Snitched" on the mix. Like the "presents" part of the title implies, it's not so much a new B. Rich album as it is a compilation to introduce new artists. B. Rich appears on about half the tracks, and on the rest of the songs it's mostly a rapper from Baltimore named Profitness and a singer from Atlanta named Challedon Saltor.

It's a pretty good CD, although it's not a proper B. Rich solo album like Born Rich or 80 Dimes and isn't quite as good as those. But I have the same problem with this that I had with the B-Ill mixtape, which is that they're using The Wire's name and logo in a pretty misleading way, since there's no music from the show on this CD or any other official affiliation with HBO or the series. I actually waited until after the announcement of the official The Wire soundtrack albums to post about this CD, just because I want people to be clear that that's not what this B. Rich record is. Even though his label is called the Wire Music Group, clearly he's trying to draw some association to the show, which is kinda shady to me. Don't be fooled, cop the real thing on January 8th, 2008!

B. Rich, Profitness and Bazemore - "Nuttin To Lose" (mp3)
This cat Profitness from Baltimore who's on a lot of the tracks on here has potential, I like his verses.

Labels: B. Rich, mixtape/album review, mp3

Briefly: a reminder to go check out http://noise.citypaper.com, where in the past month I've written about Baltimore club music (the latest Club Beat column featuring an interview with Scottie B.), Baltimore rap music (a post about videos on YouTube by Diablo, Mullyman, PenDragon, Comp, Labtekwon, B. Rich, and Bossman), and Baltimore rock music (live reviews of Private Eleanor, Vinny Vegas/Deleted Scenes/Savory James, and
Karmella's Game/Avec/Endless Mike and the Beagle Club/Velociraptor). Trying to keep it locally focused but with a lot of variety.

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Bossman, Comp, Diablo, Labtekwon, Mullyman, Noise, Scottie B.

B. Rich - "Block Hussla" (mp3)
I heard B. Rich say in an interview on 92Q last year that he was going to be dropping his next CD a lot quicker than last year's Born Rich, and I guess he wasn't kidding, because his new single was e-mailed to me recently, apparently from an upcoming album called Hurry Up & Weight. He's got a few other new tracks on his MySpace page, and "Somebody Snitched" has a pretty clever sample. I don't know why he's suddenly rapping about dealing crack, though, seems like a stretch for him, and I say that as someone who liked the more serious tone of stuff off his last album like "We All Doin' Time." Still, the drums on this track are tight.

Labels: B. Rich, mp3

B. Rich has been featuring a lot of new, previously unreleased material on his MySpace page lately, even though it's only been a few months since he dropped the Born Rich album. I don't know if it's stuff from another upcomng album, or just outtakes or mixtape stuff, but I downloaded a few songs off there that aren't up on the page anymore, so here's a few:

B. Rich f/ Anthony Hamilton - "Drive Away" (mp3)
When XXL streamed this on their website a while back, a lot of people commented that it sounds like "Whoa Now," which it kinda does.

B. Rich - "What Happen 2 Da Music" (mp3)
This is probably my favorite of these cuts.

B. Rich - "Jailhouse" (mp3)
Weird choice for a beat, rapping over the same Dido song that Em used for "Stan," but it kinda works.

Labels: B. Rich, mp3

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

Bigg Patch - Goldenboy Volume 2 (Diamond Life Records/Unruly Records)

I'd been hearing mixtape stuff from Bigg Patch over the past year, including song with Cappadonna that I posted a few months ago, although I haven't heard the first Goldenboy album. But this is the newer one that's currently available at Downtown Locker Room, some real good production on here from Dukeyman and Debonair Samir. Patch is going for that laid back don type image, sometimes the lyrics get a little repetitive and I don't like that every other chorus is from someone else's song, but still, there's some good jams on here.

Bigg Patch - "Don't You Know" (mp3)
Jess Harvell wrote a review of the album in the City Paper a few months back. He singled this out as one of the hottest beats and it's one of my favorites too.

Bigg Patch f/ B Rich - "Road To Riches" (mp3)
Good track with B. Rich back on a serious tip.

Labels: B. Rich, Bigg Patch, Debonair Samir, mixtape/album review, mp3, Unruly Records

B. Rich - Born Rich (Sure Shot Recordings)

My review of this is in the City Paper this week. I know a lot of cats around here kinda look down on B. Rich for not representing Bmore with some real grimy hip hop or for being a one hit wonder, but dude is more lyrical than he gets credit for, especially on this album. I give him respect for coming back to the independent grind. More info on BRichMusic.com.

B. Rich - "We All Doin' Time" (mp3)
This is the current single, if you haven't heard it already, and it's a good example of how some of his new stuff has a real serious message. On one of my old posts about this album, the dude B E L I E V E left a funny ass comment saying it "sounds like a horrible hybrid of the lil scrappy beat and the bow wow/ciara beat," but I think it sounds alright, makes me listen more to the lyrics.

B. Rich - "Birthday" (mp3)
This is one of the 4 songs produced by L.E.S. on the album, one of my favorites. It's really short and one of the more fun songs on the album, "Today my birthday, felt strange when I wake up/tired of stale bread, no cheese on my Steak-umm/called my Muslim homey, Assalam Alaikum”.

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, mixtape/album review, mp3

Labtekwon - "King Very Vicious" (mp3)
It seems kind of ironic to me that Lab, a guy who's been rapping Baltimore longer than almost anybody and has been somewhat critical of Bmore's current careerist hip hop movement and is on a more arty/conscious tip, beat everyone else to getting 2 videos in rotation on BET Uncut, first "Uhnnn Huhnnn" and more recently "King Very Vicious," both off last year's Ghetto Dai Lai Llama album. It's a catchy song, though, and still kind of in his spacy weird style, the usual Uncut strippers and camcorders look with a quick shot of Mondawmin Mall.

B. Rich - "We All Doin' Time"
Born Rich is dropping on January 31st now, and this song has started get some radio play and I'm really feeling it. The beat sounds like a lot of Southern beats right now, but lyrically it's really serious and political, definitely a promising change from the stuff on his first album. You can hear it on his website.

Huli Shallone - "For My Shorty"
This has been getting heavy rotation on 92Q for a couple months now, I've gotten some requests for a copy but I haven't found one, anyone have it? This is like Huli's 2nd big radio hit that hasn't been on his last album, I wonder if he's got a new album or at least a mixtape coming. It's an alright song, not that different from some of the R&B flavored tracks on It's My Turn. It's one of the first rap songs with a sped up vocal sample that I've ever heard that really reminds me of Prince's weird 'Camille' voice on songs like "If I Was Your Girlfriend," that's kinda cool.

Young Leek - "Check"
This is definitely more of a serious hip hop song than "Shake It And Jiggle It," although still on kind of a trendy Southern tip with the Nextel Chirp sounds and all that, but I'm feelin' it. If he can turn out more jams like this he might be able to do something respectable with Def Jam.

Labels: B. Rich, Huli Shallone, Labtekwon, mp3, Young Leek

Most Anticipated Baltimore Albums/Mixtapes of 2006 (in alphabetical order)

Amadaye - Ghetto Soul
Bornking - Bornified King
Bosslady presents B-More State Of Grind
Bossman - Law & Order (Virgin version)
B. Rich - Born Rich
Comp - My Thoughts
Darkroom Productions - Hamsterdam 2: The Re-Up
Diablo - Shop Closed
DJ 5Starr - 5Starr's Way Vol. 2
D.O.G. - Champagne Dreams
Henny Black - Black Diamonds
John Boe - Before The Storm, Vol. 3
Little Clayway - Still Moving Independently
Skarr Akbar - Da Beautiful Mind
Sonny Brown - The Ginger Bread Man
Street Legal Entertainment - Fla Fla - Sparrow The Movement
Tim Trees - Wayne Jones: The Business
Unreal - Real Talk, Volume 2

Obviously there's gonna be a lot more people dropping new CDs this year, I just listed the ones I know the titles of (I was gonna list the Diablo album but I forgot the title). If anyone has solid release dates or wants me to list anything I left out, lemme know. I'm about to go on vacation, so no new posts for about a week.

1/8/06 EDIT: added some more that people posted in the comments section. Keep 'em coming, I'll add them when I get a chance.

1/15/06 EDIT: added a few more.

Labels: B. Rich, Bosslady, Bossman, Comp, D.O.G., Darkroom Productions, Diablo, lists, Little Clayway, Skarr Akbar, Sonny Brown, Tim Trees, UnReal