Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio 7 The Overdose Edition: Hosted By Comp (ARS Productions/Surface II Air Street Media)

I was late to posting about Street Radio 6 the other day, so I thought I'd just post about the next installment back to back. This one is the same format, with an artist hosting instead of a DJ, this time Comp, but for whatever reason I'm not feeling this one as much. Plenty of artists I like, just not into most of the songs they used. Street Radio 7 features music from Skarr Akbar, Bossman, 100 Grandman, The Boy Blest, Ogun, Barnes, and many others, and you can download it at allbmorehiphop.com

Tonio From Da Top f/ QG and Bar Cardy - "Twist Ya Fingers Up" (mp3)
A lot of Baltimore cats try to make anthemic crunk records like this, and they are rarely ever this effective, like if I heard this on the radio I'd be blasting this shit.

Labels: 100 Grandman, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Barnes, Bossman, Comp, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, The Boy Blesst, Tonio

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

The Boy Blesst - Show-N-Prove (Reign Music)

Blesst released one of my favorite Baltimore albums of last year, Charmicidle, and the first leak from this new record, "The Difference," was dope, so I was definitely anticipating this. I don't know if it's quite on the same level as the last album, but Blesst is just a really solid rapper, always has a really listenable flow and a good ear for beats, so anything he does is worth checking out. I get a little bored with how much of his music is about success and getting famous, that kind of thing is kinda why I wrote that Might Don't Make It article. I don't think rappers realize that rap stardom isn't actual that interesting a topic for lyrics, even when actual stars like Drake rap about it all the time it's kinda boring, let alone someone who's still underground like Blesst. There's some good songs about real life shit on here too, though, so it's alright. Guests on here include Barnes and C.R. Da Show, and you can download it on AllBmoreHipHop.com.

The Boy Blesst f/ Brian Ennals - "The World Don't Stop" (mp3)
Brian Ennals is kind of a newer rapper I reviewed a CD by a while back, cool to see him linking up with other good artists.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Barnes, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Boy Blesst

Skarr Akbar - The Pursuit Of Happyness (Akbar Enterprize)

Among the dozens of mixtapes that Skarr's dropped over the years, now and again he puts together one that feels a little more like a cohesive album like The Epidemic, instead of a more scattershot street mixtape full of freestyles. And this is one of those, just 12 songs, half of them produced by Skarr along with some beats by local producers like Dukeyman. However, on some tracks he does steal some beats produced by Just Blaze and Hi Tek, and also stole the title of the mixtape from a Will Smith movie, so hopefully the honorable Mr. Beenexposed is already on the case and will bring this terrible criminal to justice. If you've seen Skarr live or heard him on mixtapes in the last few months, you've probably already heard records like "Mr. Popularity" and "Ventilation" and "U Already Kno," but those are dope songs and everything else is about as consistent as that. I was just saying the other day how glad I was that allbmorehiphop.com is finally tagging their mixtapes properly, but then this wasn't tagged at all, which kinda sucks.

Skarr Akbar f/ Barnes - "A Yeah Tho" (mp3)
Never really heard these guys on the same song together besides a couple big posse cut remixes, so it's dope to hear them really put together a good song as a duo, a real standout on this tape.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Barnes, Dukeyman, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar

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

Comp - The Pay Attention Edition (Mr. Pay Attention/Love Me Or Hate Me Ent./Bang-A-Rang Gang/Shape Shifter Ent.)

Comp just dropped his first official album last summer, but he drops mixtapes that might as well be albums all the time, and true to his work ethic he's back barely six months later with a mixtape full of original productions. And more importantly, for the first time this tape has production credits on all the tracks, and you can really see how many of the beats Comp did himself. I always knew he produced some tracks going back to his earliest releases, but I had no idea how proficient he was until this mixtape, where he did all but 2 beats on the mixtape, with one of the others done by Jay Funk. And even though his sound is definitely kinda weird and low budget, I really respect his grind as a producer, not many other rappers in the city who can do both that well. It's definitely lighter material than the album, the kinda more playful, laid back Comp that you tend to get on mixtapes, but it's still pretty good. The "Where They Do That At?" remix (with Pork Chop, Skarr Akbar, Smash, 100 Grandman, Barnes, Los, Bossman, Paula Campbell and Mullyman, among others) is a bonus track at the end, and you can download the whole thing at RapBasement.com.

Comp - "Wut Else" (mp3)
When I wrote about his The Man With The Hand album last year, my one big criticism is that Comp's been the NYC rapper "what else" ad lib and really running it into the ground, and I even counted out 44 times he said it in the course of the whole CD. So I have to say it was pretty hilarious to put in this new mixtape, and the second track not only is called "Wut Else," but features him saying the phrase 42 times just in that one song. I didn't have the energy or patience to count "what else"'s for the whole CD this time, but he says it 19 times on the next song, "Action Figure," so he's really stepping it up. I'm not as annoyed by it anymore, maybe because I'm just numb to it now, but I still think it's lame to take a really played out phrase from another city and make it your 'thing,' Comp is creative enough that he should be able to come up with his own signature ad lib.

Labels: 100 Grandman, Barnes, Bossman, Comp, Jay Funk, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Paula Campbell, Pork Chop, Skarr Akbar, Smash

DJ Quicksilva f/ Pork Chop, Skarr Akbar, Q, Smash, 100 Grandman, Barnes, Tiara Laniece, Los, Comp, Bossman, Paula Campbell, JP and Mullyman - "Where They Do That At? (Bmore Remix)" (mp3)
It's funny, I was just thinking recently about this song, which the station DJ Quicksilva works for, WKYS, has been playing so much, and the D.C. remix I'd been hearing more recently, and wondering if Quicksilva spinning at a Washington station the last few years had kinda made him forget his Baltimore roots -- his Hot Boy Vol. 1 was one of my favorite Unruly mix CDs back in the day, and Tim Trees credits him with being the first DJ to break "Bank Roll." But it turns out I shouldn't have worried about that, because apparently the Baltimore remix has been out for a few weeks, but I somehow didn't hear about it until Brandon on No Trivia mentioned it, and it's got a really impressive lineup. Really, of all the Baltimore posse cuts there've been over the years, this might be the single biggest gathering of prominent MCs on one track that I've ever seen. Shame it happened with such a goofy-ass song that's a bigger hit in D.C., though, and even at 6 minutes there's only enough room for each rapper to do a little 8 bar verse so nobody gets to really stretch their legs or leave a big impression. Anyone have any idea who Tiara Laniece or JP is?

Labels: 100 Grandman, Barnes, Bossman, Comp, Los, mp3, Mullyman, Paula Campbell, Pork Chop, Skarr Akbar, Smash

Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio Vol. 5 (hosted by DJ Radio/blends by DJ 5 Starr)

I reviewed this mixtape recently for the City Paper's Noise blog, probably not the strongest entry in this series but I think better than Vol. 4 from a few months ago. It's got a couple songs I've posted about on here like Bossman's "Off The Record Part 2," Dave Da Barber's "Trapped," and Tonio: From Da Top's "17" featuring Skarr Akbar, Drop and Los, along with tracks by Comp, Ogun, Barnes, Savage Da Beast, Paula Campbell and Al Great, among others. I still don't know what the fuck DJ Radio is thinking when he says shit like "log on, faggot" after plugging a website, which I've heard him do on 2 different mixtapes now, like does he think insulting the listener is gonna get them to do what he says? When I linked the review on here the other day, I got an earful from an anonymous commenter that I like to call The Beacon Of Truth, who was super mad that I liked a Tony Bosco track and didn't mention Barnes, among other things, had an entertaining back and forth there. Anyway, you can download the mixtape over at allbmorehiphop.com/architects and make up your own mind.

Barrs f/ Little Clayway - "The Murderous" (mp3)
Clayway is someone whose music I bump more because of his personality and his stories than straight up rhyming skills, but I gotta say he really kills his verse on this, never heard him sound this mean before. Just saw Clayway recently and got an advance copy of his new double CD, Everybody Rappin', so keep an eye out for that coming soon. I still can't believe there's a rapper named Barrs and a rapper named Barrz on this mixtape. We're running out of fuckin' rapper names.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Baltimore City Paper, Barnes, Bossman, DJ 5 Starr, DJ Radio, Little Clayway, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, Noise, Savage Da Beast, Skarr Akbar, Smash, Tonio

For fans of the infamous "everything but the location" flyer, here we have a flyer without the location or the date. I believe this event takes place on August 29th, but you wouldn't know from this. Maybe you can call the phone numbers listed on there and ask them for more dtails. Or tell them they suck at making flyers.

Labels: Barnes, flyer, Skarr Akbar

Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio Vol. 4 (DJ Radio)

The 5th installment of the Street Radio series (there was a Volume 2.5 in there for some reason) comes about 3 years after the last one, and it seems like the series coming back after such a long dormant period is all part of the big push that Architects has been making behind AllBmoreHipHop.com and all the releases being pushed through there. And it seems like they're going at this all the way since the next volume is already being put together. This has kind of a good mix of familiar and unfamiliar names, has a few songs I've posted here like Bossman's "Break Me Off" remix, Ogun's "Go Long," and Mullyman's "Bmore Go Harder", and tracks by Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, Barnes, EJ, NOE, Heavy Gold, Banga Bill, and a lot of other folks I haven't really heard before or much. It's kind of a hodge podge, as any various artist mixtape will inevitably be, but some good tracks on here, some people I might have to check out based on this. There's two tracks with "swagg" in the title, which I should probably consider a good thing given how many more there could've been. You can download it, and the previous Street Radio mixtapes, on allbmorehiphop.com/architects.html.

Dave Da Barber - "I'm So Baltimore" (mp3)
I remember seeing 1st Fam perform this at the Black Hole a while back and it went over really well.

Labels: 100 Grandman, 1st Family, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Banga Bill, Barnes, Bossman, DJ Radio, EJ, Heavy Gold, Mullyman, NOE, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Street Radio

Barnes - Block Work Featuring Barnes (DJ Jabril)

AllBmoreHipHop.com and DJ Jabril recently released the first volume of the Block Work series, which it looks like they're kind of grooming as a Baltimore answer to Gangsta Grillz, a kind of legacy brand for single-artist mixtapes, which I think is a shrewd idea, will be interesting to see how that pans out with future volumes. The first installment is with Barnes, who released an album on Street Official 3 years ago that I thought was pretty dope, had national distribution and a few songs on 92Q, although I dunno, the guy has never left a huge impression on me. This is good, again kinda generic but some hot songs. I heard great things about the last mixtape he had out but I haven't checked it out yet. I'm not wild about all the drops and DJ shouting, but again that's kind of the vibe they seem to be going for. Cover art's by Skarr Akbar, you can download the whole thing at WWW.ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM/BARNES.

Barnes f/ Bump - "Ay Boy" (mp3)
Man, I like this beat, it sounds fuckin' evil.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Barnes, Block Work, DJ Jabril, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Street Official

This week WWW.ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, a site put together by the folks at Architects Recording Studio, launched and they've got a whole bunch of free downloads of full-length albums and mixtapes by artists including Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Bossman, TestMe, Barnes, Huli Shallone, UnReal, D.O.G., ShellBe R.A.W., EJ, Rye Rye and many others. I think it's great that there's gonna be a site like this from now on, and from Ogun's told me they've got a lot more stuff planned.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, announcements, Architects, Barnes, Bossman, D.O.G., EJ, Huli Shallone, Ogun, Rye Rye, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, UnReal

Really getting down to the wire now, last 2 installments coming on Monday and Tuesday:

21. Blaq Starr - "Get My Gun" (mp3) - June 21, 2005
22. Backland - "Bonus Freestyle Friday Battles" (mp3) - May 5, 2005
23. Tim Trees - "We Don't Love 'Em" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
24. P-Shellz "Fingaz Down (The Hack Anthem)" (mp3) - December 4, 2008
25. DJ Booman f/ Ray Lugar, Lic Shots and Mullyman - "Move Over" (mp3) - February 20, 2008
26. Comp - "Harder" (mp3) - January 15, 2005
27. Bossman - "So Fresh" (mp3) - March 9, 2007
28. J-Roc - "Crown The King" (mp3) - August 24, 2008
29. Barnes f/ Highs-N-Pistol - "Tattoo Tears" (mp3) - June 7, 2006
30. Skarr Akbar - "The Hood Legend" (mp3) - August 31, 2005

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Barnes, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, DJ Booman, lists, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees

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

This month on http://noise.citypaper.com, I posted a couple more last gasps of best of 2007 lists, my top 10 shows of the year (including Kix, Avec, Skarr Akbar, Bossman, Mullyman, Barnes, Huli Shallone, Comp, B.O.M.B., ShellBe R.A.W., Jade Fox, B-Fly and G.E.M. among others) and a big year-end Club Beat column with my top 10 Baltimore club tracks of the year (including K.W. Griff, Blaq Starr, Rod Lee, Say Wut and Scottie B. among others) in addition to the top Baltimore albums of '07 list I posted last month. And my first concert reviews of the new year were of the MacGregor Burns Band/Good Guise/Mason-Dixon @ The Ottobar, Paloma/Flying Eyes/Dog Day Afternoon/Watershed/Icarus Rising @ the 8x10, and Ogun/B.O.M.B./PX/First Family/E Major/A-Class/UnReal/Ab-Rock @ the Turntable Club's benefit for Sonny Brown. Plus, of course, other people all over Noise posting Baltimore music news.

Labels: B.O.M.B., Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Barnes, Blaq Starr, E Major, Huli Shallone, KW Griff, Noise, NSW (Say What), Ogun, PX, Rod Lee, Scottie B., Skarr Akbar, Turntable Club, UnReal

Caddy Da Don - Fixed Fight 2.5: Exclusive Edition (Harup Entertainment)

Caddy Da Don won the "rookie of the year" award at the Blammy Awards a few weeks ago, and I gotta say I voted for him and really agree with that call, because he's kinda risen up and established himself in the Baltimore scene pretty quickly in the past year, in a way that noone else really has since D.O.G. came up a couple years ago. Just the fact that he's been the new name on a whole bunch of posse cuts recently, including the all-star remix of his own single "Whole City Behind Me," has really put him on my radar, and he's got all the guests from that remix on here, along with appearances by Comp and Huli Shallone. I even saw a Caddy Da Don wraparound promo van when I was driving down St. Paul the other day, and I haven't seen any local hip hop label with one of those since Da Bloc Inc. a few years ago, so he's definitely got a team behind him that's working hard to promote him. As far as his voice and his subject matter, sometimes he reminds me a little too much of Rick Ross, but he shows some real promise on a few tracks on here, especially "Brother's Keeper."

Caddy Da Don f/ Goose and Huli Shallone - "Black Girl" (mp3)
Since Baltimore is a big heroin town, Caddy flips Jeezy's "White Girl" to be about that instead of coke, along with Huli and Goose, who used to guest on tracks by Huli's old group, Nature's Problem.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Comp, Huli Shallone, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees

D.O.G. - The Feeling - Bring It Back (Clinton Sparks/Invisible Set Entertainment)

It's been over a year since D.O.G. signed with Universal Records, and for a while there was that depressing lull that tends to happen after cats sign with a major, where you don't really hear anything out of their camp for a while and you wonder if anything's really gonna happen. But slowly he's been making noise again with a new official website and this new mixtape in the last few months. And his MySpace page says he's got a new project dropping December 21st called G-Pack Music, I think that's a group with his brother, Jon Boe, so he's definitely still grinding. There's a lot of dope guest appearances on this tape, including UnReal, J-Funk, Nik Stylz, Roxi from G.E.M. and ShellBe R.A.W. Plus there's a couple old bonus cuts, the "Ryda Gyrl" remix with Yung Joc and Blaq Starr, and Skarr Akbar's "I'm So Fly" remix with Bossman and Barnes and Heavy Gold.

D.O.G. f/ Huli Shallone and Los - "Get Money" (mp3)
This is really one of the dopest Baltimore posse cuts I've heard all year that wasn't a remix of someone's solo song, 3 dudes who are each individually well known in the city but represent their own seperate movements, dope beat and hook sampled from "Throw Some D's." They all sound good on this beat but Los's verse really kills it. Supposedly Los just dropped a new mixtape of his own over Thanksgiving, I still need to get a copy of that somehow.

Labels: Barnes, Blaq Starr, Bossman, D.O.G., G.E.M./Tha Plague, Heavy Gold, Huli Shallone, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar, UnReal

Today is World AIDS Day, and I wanted to post something here to observe the occasion, because HIV and AIDS are a huge issue in the community that I write for and about on this blog. You may or may not be aware of just how prevalent it is in Baltimore and Maryland, but here are some statistics that can tell you just how much of a crisis it is out here:

On June 30, 2005; Maryland had a total of 29,818 people living with HIV and AIDS (Cases reported through June 30, 2006).

While Maryland ranks 19th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in total population, in 2005 Maryland was 9th in cumulative number of AIDS cases (29,116 through 2005) and 3rd in AIDS incidence rate (28.5 cases per 100,000 population during 2005).

Baltimore-Towson had the second highest incident AIDS case report rate of any major metropolitan area, 40.4 cases per 100,000 population during 2005.

Until she started grad school a few months ago, my fiancee was working in an HIV research lab at Johns Hopkins, so I learned a lot from her about the history of the virus and how it works in the last couple years, and it makes me feel good that important work is being done to better understand HIV and AIDS right in one of the cities most effected by it. But there's not gonna be some miracle cure tomorrow or the day after that, or possibly ever, and right now the problem is that people aren't talking about the threat of AIDS like they did in the 90's, so a lot of people just aren't aware of the threat, or are taking stupid risks when they should know better.

I'm not gonna lecture you about it, you know how to be safe and if you want to learn more you can educate yourself. But this is the day to address it. And first and foremost this is a music blog, and a lot of Baltimore hip hop arists have addressed HIV and other STD's in their songs, so I just wanted to spotlight a few of those:

The Unstoppable Nuklehidz - "Pass It On" (mp3)

Barnes - "H.I.V." (mp3)

Ray Lugar - "Sex Games" (mp3)

Bossman - "What Y'all Smokin'" (mp3)

Comp - "Penis And Pussy" (mp3)

These songs aren't all politically correct or polite about the subject, but to me that's a good thing. Baltimore has a lot of serious issues, and it makes me happy that MC's around here often write about this issues whether or not they're categorically the kind of "conscious" artists that you expect to rap about these things. I hope you appreciate this food for thought. Be safe, and get tested.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Comp, mp3, Ray Lugar

Heavy Gold - Tha Testa (Forever Musik/Stay Gettin' Entertainment)

In the past couple months, I've posted an announcement of Heavy Gold's signing to Epic Records and written a City Paper feature about the dude. But I still hadn't gotten around to posting a little something about his current solo mixtape, Tha Testa, which is available as a free download on DatPiff. It's a cool low key mixtape from right before he got signed, lotta freestyles, a few original beats from Forever Musik and from Stay Gettin', and Kuntre from SGE hosts the disc (by the way, Stay Gettin' is still working with Cam'ron, and produced 2 tracks on the Public Enemy #1 mixtape he released last week, "Why They" and "Callette," which are tracks 2 and 13 on the first disc). There's also guest appearances from Tony Bosco (another MC signed with Stay Gettin') and the "I'm So Fly" remix with Skarr and Bossman and D.O.G. and Barnes and all them. Heavy Gold also did an interview with hiphopgame.com recently, and he's performing at the big Bossman show at Fletcher's this week.

Heavy Gold - "Who Dat" (mp3)
This is Gold's single, might be the first song that Epic puts some official promotion behind, it's catchy and has a good concept, I think Stay Gettin' did the beat.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, D.O.G., Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Stay Gettin'

The City Paper's biggest issue of the year, Best Of Baltimore 2007, is out this week, and I wrote more than twice as many blurbs than either previous year that I contributed to the issue (that was one rough deadline week, believe me). The blurbs I wrote and awards I had a hand in deciding are as follows:

Best Band Web Site: Karmella's Game
Best Singer/Songwriter: Lizz King
Best Male MC: Skarr Akbar
Best Female MC: Jade Fox
Best Hip-Hop DJ: DJ Vicious V
Best Club DJ: KW Griff
Best Club Music Producer: King Tutt
Best Beatmaker: One Up Entertainment
Best Summer Jam: "Chicken Box" by Silohette (which I posted recently)
Best Posse Cut: "I'm So Fly" Remix by Skarr Akbar featuring Bossman, D.O.G., Barnes, A-maz-on, Heavy Gold, and SK (another one I've posted)
Best Doomed Major Label Contract: A-maz-on
Best Music Radio Show: 92Q's Rap Attack
Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop: The (New Turntable Club)
Best New Club: Lo-Fi Social Club
Best Karaoke: Hip-Hop Karaoke at Latin Palace

I haven't had a chance to read through the rest of the issue yet, but obviously, you should pick up a copy for yourself or at least browse all over the site for all the interesting and right on and totally wrong awards I had nothing to do with. The party is on Thursday night and I've tried to contact every winner whose category I wrote to make sure they get their invitations, but there are still a couple of people that we never got an address to mail them to. If any of them still need ad invite, e-mail me ASAP and I'll let you know who to call. Congrats to everyone who won, hopefully I'll see you there.

(cover image by Kevin Sherry)

Labels: 92Q, Annexx Click, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Barnes, Bossman, D.O.G., Jade Fox, KW Griff, magazines/newspapers, One Up Entertainment, Skarr Akbar, Turntable Club