Last year Government Names was nominated for the Mobbies, the Baltimore Sun's local blog awards. I didn't win then, but I'm nominated again this year, which I feel a little weird about since I've actually done some freelance work for the Sun in the last few months, but I checked and apparently it's OK that I'm in the running. So vote for me between now and November 12th, if you want.

Labels: announcements, Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers

A few days ago I interviewed Trey Songz for my first Baltimore Sun article, which is in today's paper to promote his concert at Pier Six Pavilion tonight. I also wrote a sidebar article about Trey's collaborations, including hits by Twista and Drake, and his remix of DJ Class's Baltimore club hit "I'm The Ish."

Labels: Baltimore club, Baltimore Sun, DJ Class, magazines/newspapers

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

On Thursday night, Baltimore Sun writer Sam Sessa held a little party for his nightlife blog Midnight Sun, and handed out his 'Best of the Best of the Best' awards, and I was one of the recipients. I don't know how to feel about an award that addresses me as 'baby,' but otherwise it was really nice, I'll have to put it next to my other recent award. Full rundown of winners here and a recap of the event here.

Labels: announcements, Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers

The Get Em Mamis - "So Crazy" (mp3)
G.E.M.. and Darkroom Productions just leaked their latest collaboration, and considering how many year-end lists their last one "Cold Summer" have appeared on in the last couple months, it seems like people are really loving their sound right now and are hungry for more, so this tracks should go over well. Sam Sessa at the Baltimore Sun recently ran a new article on Darkroom.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, mp3

Today in the Baltimore Sun there's a story by Sam Sessa about Amotion and Deep Flow Studios. Sam called me up and quoted me for the article, since I've interviewed Amotion myself a couple times, and there's also quotes from Juan from Darkroom Productions.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, Internet radio, magazines/newspapers

Ogun was featured in the Sun's free daily B this week. I'm looking forward to that new mixtape Checkmate. Thanks for PenDragon for the link.

(photo by Jefferson Jackson Steele)

Labels: Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers, Ogun

DJ Diamond K and DJ Tameil - "The Ones We Lost (K-Swift Dedication)" (mp3)
New Jersey's DJ Tameil on the beat and DJ Diamond K on the mic shouting out K-Swift, as well as Baltimore club's other late legend, Miss Tony. I'm really loving this and Skarr Akbar's tribute track, K-Swift's life was music and we should remember her through music, too.

More K-Swift coverage in the Sun on Wednesday, here and here.

Labels: Baltimore club, Baltimore Sun, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, mp3

A brief update about yesterday's sad news about the death of DJ K-Swift:

- The Baltimore Sun's Sam Sessa wrote an obituary that ran in today's paper, and he quotes me in there a couple times. It's become clear in the past day or so that she died of neck injuries from an accident in her home swimming pool. Sam is also looking for anyone who was there to come forward to shed some light on the circumstances surrounding her death. Likewise, anyone that knew her and would like to speak to me for the City Paper's coverage of this story, feel free to contact me.

- I wrote a review of Artscape on the City Paper's Noise blog, including K-Swift's set on Saturday night. I'm not sure if she played any clubs later that night or on Sunday before she passed away, otherwise I guess that was the last DJ set she ever played. Either way I'm happy I got to see her spin one last time, and the above photo (with Buck Jones) is one that I snapped during the set.

- I also wanted to try and help straighten some things out about the confusion regarding K-Swift's age, which I may have contributed to myself. In most of her official bios, her birthdate is listed as 10/19/80, which would make her 27, so I put "1980-2008" in my post yesterday, which I think a lot of people assumed made her 28. But Sam Sessa got her true birthdate, 10/19/78, directly from K-Swift's mother, so she was 29.

- Some more ran obituaries and articles about her death, including some from national publications and media outlets that I was actually kind of surprised to see observe the passing of a DJ from Baltimore: Vibe, XXLmag.com, Aural States, WJZ, Idolator, and I'm sure a whole lot of other blogs and papers I haven't seen yet.

Labels: announcements, Baltimore club, Baltimore Sun, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Noise

I just saw, via Midnight Sun, that Rolling Stone magazine's Best of Rock 2008 issue is out, and the city of Baltimore is featured as the Best Scene. Since it's obviously a rock magazine and a "best of rock" list, there's only a couple local hip hop mentions, for Deep Flow Studios and Amotion, and Darkroom Productions and their work on The Wire, who were both also featured in a previous RS issue in 2006.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, magazines/newspapers, The Wire

N.E.K. - N.E.K. All Day Part 1 (One Up Entertainment/N.E.K.)

Only a few months after Bossman and Dollars released the End Of Discussion / The Overdose double mixtape, the North East Kings are back with their first group mixtape together under the N.E.K. name since Charm City's King way back in 2004. I like the whole Orange & Black Tour thing they've been doing with their live shows lately, the whole crew along with other respected local MCs coming together. This has some of the more recent Bossman tracks that have been out the last few months like "Flush 'Em" and "Far Too Long (Jena 6)", along with a lot of collabs and tracks by Dollars and Tony Manson, and guest appearances by TestMe, Kay-Star and ex-N.E.K. member Heavy Gold. Bossman has a new song on his MySpace page with Scola called "Ghetto" where they're both biting that T-Pain style with the Autotuning, but it's kinda catchy. Bossman's also been in the news lately over an incident over St. Patrick's Day weekend in Fells Point in which he's claiming police brutality, which was covered recently in the Baltimore Sun. N.E.K. All Day Part 1 is available now at The Sound Garden.

Dollars - "Mouths 2 Feed" (mp3)
This song as deep as hell, you really gotta listen to this one. He could always flow, but this is the first song I've ever heard from him where he really gets personal and heartfelt like Bossman did on his first album. I might like this and his other new solo cuts, "No Surrender" and "Grind 'Til We Shine," more than anything on The Overdose.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Bossman, Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, One Up Entertainment

This week has been a very eventful one for Darkroom Productions. Hamsterdam Vol. 2 topped both my list of Baltimore albums of 2007 on Noise and Sam Sessa's list on Midnight Sun. And a couple days ago, Juan Donovan sent out an announcement that they'd signed a deal with Koch Records for a nationally distributed album in 2008. Here's an excerpt of that e-mail:

I would also like to announce that my company Darkroom Productions and our label Darkroom Enterprises has just signed a joint venture with the #1 urban label in music right now, Koch Entertainment. For the past 2 years, our company has made strides as producers doing songs for Grammy winners such as R Kelly and Chamillionaire, also securing major deals with HBO, MTV, and 20th Century Fox, while still creating a worldwide buzz with our projects "Hamsterdam - The Best of Baltimore" and "Hamsterdam 2 - Stash to the Strip". And all of the hard work has paid off as we have been meeting with major labels since November of '06 for a home for our label Darkroom Enterprises.

But in the quest of securing the best deal possible, it has taken us over a year, and we now couldn't be happier. Our first project will be an album with the feel and importance of Hamsterdam. Showcasing some of Bmore's hottest talent to the world. We still aren't sure about the title yet (tentatively its "Hamsterdam - The Album"), but we have already secured our street date which is April 1st . (and yes, this is a REAL street date, your boyz are definitely coming out) So in the meantime, stay tuned for some of the hottest new songs and videos from some of Bmore's finest as new singles will begin dropping in January. We are looking to release at least 5 to 6 singles for the album. This project is going to be a serious problem, trust me.

And be sure to pick up next month's VIBE magazine. Darkroom will be featured in it. I believe Keysha Cole is on this month's cover but unfortunately I don't know who will be gracing next month's cover yet, but be on the lookout for it.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, magazines/newspapers, The Wire

You may remember this letter I posted from "The New Republic" last month about 92Q's business practices regarding local artists. Well, The Baltimore Sun is researching this issue for a story, and would like to speak to the authors of the letter, as well as anyone with relevent firsthand experience with the station, and I'm sure they'd like to speak to the station employees who are being accused as well. You can e-mail the Sun reporter at Nick.Madigan@baltsun.com if you'd like to speak on or off the record about this matter.

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers

In today's Baltimore Sun, there's an article by Sam Sessa about aspiring rappers in Baltimore, featuring interviews with Stevie Stay Hi the Low Key God, Amotion, Darkroom Productions, Maniak Dre, Sonny Brown, and DJ P-Funk. I'm impressed, it's a pretty thorough and informative article, especially if someone didn't know anything about this scene and wanted to know how to get involved and who to talk to.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, magazines/newspapers, Sonny Brown, Team Fifty

There's an article in the Baltimore Sun today about the news I posted yesterday that Darkroom Productions would be making music for MTV shows. Here's the interesting part, though:

"[MTV music supervisor David] Weitzman discovered Darkroom through a blog post about The Wire."

I don't even know for sure that that blog would be Gov't Names, but it seems likely enough that I'm sorely tempted to take credit for that. Either way, awesome news, congrats to Darkroom (although "Rob & Big" seems like a pretty stupid show).

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, magazines/newspapers, The Wire

Hamsterdam 2 doesn't hit stores until next Tuesday, the 16th, but in the meantime Darkroom Productions is selling it on their MySpace page and have continued to rack up press lately. Last week they had a feature in the Baltimore Sun, and the Fader magazine blog ran a new interview with Juan Donovan this week, and both pages feature samples of the mixtape to download. Darkroom are also featured in the current issue of XLR8R magazine.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, magazines/newspapers

Here's yet another article about The Wire's use of music by Bmore hip hop artists, from yesterday's edition of The Baltimore Sun. This one includes an interview with Mullyman, who says he was contacted by 3 major labels after his music was used on the show, and is negotiating a deal now. The article also says that The Wire tried to license music from Bossman, too, but had trouble doing so through Virgin Records (it also kind of hilariously refers to Bossman as being from West Bmore). If you missed it, here are some of my recent posts on this subject:

A rough guide to the connections between HBO's The Wire and Baltimore hip hop
as heard on The Wire, part 1
as heard on The Wire, part 2
as heard on The Wire, part 3
as heard on The Wire, part 4
as heard on The Wire, part 5

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Bossman, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, The Wire

On Friday in the Baltimore Sun, there was an article about these guys Conscious Heads, who own a barber shop and decided to start a rap group with real positive, conscious lyrics (if you need a Sun login to read the article, you can get a password here). From some of the things they say in the article, they'd probably be mad at a lot of the kind of hip hop I write about on this site, but no disrespect to what they're doing. You can download a couple short 45-second clips of 2 of their songs on the Sun site.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, magazines/newspapers

This Sunday, Oct. 16th
Bossman, Huli Shallone, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, D.O.G., Paula Campbell, Q, and Dirty Hearts
@ the Ottobar

Some recent Bossman articles in The Baltimore Sun and The Flywire. The Flywire one has a lot of details on the Virgin deal and what's gonna be on the album.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Bossman, D.O.G., Dirty Hartz, flyer, Huli Shallone, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, Paula Campbell, Skarr Akbar

Yesterday in the Baltimore Sun there was an article about iPods that featured the playlists of a bunch of local people, including K-Swift (the online version doesn't have the pictures from the article). Her playlist has the Paula Campbell and Lil Mo songs that I wrote about last week on it.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Paula Campbell