I posted Billo's new video "Off My Mind" and wrote a bit about it on the City Paper's Noise blog.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Billo, Noise

Labels: Bear, Billo, flyer, For The People Entertainment

Here’s “Just Saying,” Billo’s latest video off the upcoming Falling Off Into 1st mixtape.

Labels: Billo, video

Here's "One Time (Hustlers Plight)," the latest video from Billo's new mixtape Falling Off Into 1st.

Labels: Billo, video

Here's "The Beginning" from Billo's upcoming mixtape Falling Off Into 1st.

Labels: Billo, For The People Entertainment, video

Ron Rico f/ Skarr Akbar, Mike Malachi and Billo - "If You Sleep, You Better Wake Up" (mp3)
Ron Rico has put out records of his own before, both of Baltimore club music and of low key instrumental hip hop, but now he's getting ready to release his first compilation album featuring a variety of MCs, This Is What I Live For and this here's the first leak, really dope shit.

Labels: Billo, Mike Malachi, mp3, Ron Rico, Skarr Akbar

Mike Malachi - Malachi's Way II: Malachi's Revenge (Music In Me Production Inc.)

I leaked a great track with Skarr Akbar a few months ago, but Mike Malachi's new album is now officially here, and it's really his most accomplished work to date. That probably doesn't mean anything to you if you didn't hear his previous records, which were all pretty solid and featured crazy laid back soul beats by Baltimore club producer Ron Rico, but this is definitely a step forward from someone who was good to begin with. I don't know if his voice is recorded better on this one or if he's just getting more at home in the booth, but the sound on this one and the voice and flow all came together a lot more than on the previous records. Still a little mellow for my tastes, but that ain't always a problem depending on your mood. Check out Mike Malachi on MySpace.

Mike Malachi f/ Billo - "Deadly Alliance" (mp3)
I remember when I first met Mike about 3 years ago and it came up in conversation that he's cousins with Billo and I was like damn, y'all should be doing some songs together, so it's cool to finally hear them both on a track. One of Billo's labelmates from For The People Entertainment, Yuk, actually makes a guest spot on another track on this album.

Labels: Billo, Mike Malachi, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron Rico, Skarr Akbar

Labels: 5 Seasons, battle, Billo, DJ Booman, flyer, Shaka Pitts

Some news and links:

- The cover story in last week's issue of the Baltimore CIty Paper, The Elements of Style by Bret McCabe, is a big piece about Baltimore hip hop and club music's first generation, particularly Labtekwon, DJ Booman and Scottie B., looking back on the scene in the '80s and '90s, and the CP site also has bonus interviews with MC Chinchilla and graffiti artists Alco and Boodamonk. It's really great, interesting stuff, although, as I was telling Bret when he first showed me the article, I wish there was more emphasis on stories and the music back then, and less, I don't know, criticism of the new generation. Of course there's a lot more rappers in Baltimore now, and a lot more wack opportunists, but to hear them tell it, that's all there is now, when I know for a fact there are a lot of young cats around that are doing it for the love of the art, and aren't all about trying to get on TV and have a major label deal. More of them should give respect to Labtekwon and his generation, absolutely, but I don't feel like anyone gets a better sense of how special that era is just by talking about how much worse the current era is. But hopefully this will open up more of a dialogue and get people wanting to learn more about that history now, I certainly wish I knew more than I do. I've been wanting to do like a month of all '90s Baltimore hip hop on this site for a long time, maybe this'll motivate me to start putting that together and getting music from everyone's vaults from back then.

- I've been meaning to link to this for the longest time, but producer Ms. Tris has a blog and it's pretty great.

- World Star Hip Hop has a video interview with Billo.

- Michael Byrne reviewed K-Swift's Greatest Hits on the City Paper website recently.

- URB Magazine currently has a 'Next 1000' feature on their website about up-and-coming artists, and Greenspan and Midas are on there, along with probably some other Baltimore artists I haven't found on there yet.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Billo, DJ Booman, Greenspan, K-Swift, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, Midas, Ms. Tris Beats, Scottie B.

Labels: 1st Family, Billo, flyer, For The People Entertainment, Suite

Labels: Bear, Billo, flyer, For The People Entertainment

After the January lull I've had a crapload of stuff up on http://noise.citypaper.com this month, including the Club Beat with DJ Excel and a news item about the Darkroom Productions album due out in May, as well as lots of live coverage. On the hip hop side, there were reviews of Deep Flow Entertainment's Rock Da Mic @ Club Taste, and Heavy Gold/Billo/Yuk/Dirt Platoon @ Suite, and silent auction of The Wire merchandise @ the Baltimore Museum of Industry featuring music by Diablo, Rod Lee and the Backyard Band, and Ogun/Bossman/Comp/B.O.M.B./Verb @ 5 Seasons for the Hip Hop 101 (R.I.P.) welcome home party for Skinny Suge (although it looks like he's back in trouble already). And on the rock side, I saw Avec/Karmella's Game/Remote Islands/A Sunny Day In Glasgow @ the Lo-Fi Social Club, and Gunwife Gone/MacGregor Burns Band/Old Souls @ Frazier's, and Thrushes @ Rock-n-Romp at 2640, and Biff Tannen Overdrive/At Shiloh/Abracadaver/Define Me A Serial Killer @ the Local Highrise. In addition to myself and the CP editors, the page now also features contributions from Raven Baker from Beatbots, so it's good to have another person to help hold things down and keep interesting stuff on Noise.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Billo, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, DJ Excel, Heavy Gold, Hip Hop 101, Noise, Rod Lee, The Wire

Labels: Billo, flyer, For The People Entertainment

Yuk & C.U.T. - 3 Da Hardwae: Squadre Radio (For The People Entertainment)

Last month, I wrote a feature in the City Paper about For The People Entertainment, and posted a bunch of tracks from the label's roster. Two of the artists out of the crew that I hadn't heard that much when I did the article were Yuk & C.U.T., who are a duo and kind of a group within a group, since Squadre Committee is comprised of all the For The People MC's. And after I did the interview with everybody I heard from Yuk later and he hooked me up with some of the material he's working on for an upcoming solo project that sounds good, and this mixtape. Most of the tracks on here feature Yuk and/or C.U.T. (not to be confused with Cutthroat, another FTP artist), but almost everyone else from the label makes an appearance, Billo and Bear and Ace and Lil Shank. And it might be my favorite FTP release I've heard to date, or close to it, mostly because it does display the most of their sounds and abilities. C.U.T. is performing this Thursday, January 31st and also March 1st at Suite's Indie Night, down in the Belvedere Hotel. On this mixtape Yuk & C.U.T. shout out an album they have coming soon called Dedicated.

Yuk & C.U.T. - "Whut They Talkin' Bout" (mp3)
The two of them only rap on about 6 tracks on this mixtape together, and this is my favorite of those.

Labels: Bear, Billo, For The People Entertainment, mixtape/album review, mp3

This week, the results of the 2007 Idolator Pop Critics Poll were published, and as a regular contributor to Idolator, I voted in the poll (see my ballot here) and put together an 80-minute mix CD for the accompanying 2007 In The Mix package. I wasn't sure what to write about for my mix, and had a few different ideas, but I'm glad I went with Baltimore music, since I'm sure anything else would've had a lot in common with some of the mixes the 30-something other writers made. My tracklist and essay about the mix are here, but I'm gonna go ahead and post mp3's of the whole thing here (since I've already posted most of these songs, or other songs by the same artists, on my blogs in the past year anyway):

1. The New Flesh, "Squeeze"(mp3) (from Vessel, Heartbreakbeat)
2. Avec, "In Character"(mp3) (from Lines, Civil Defense League/Doghouse)
3. Wye Oak, "Obituary"(mp3) (from If Children, Morphius)
4. Thrushes, "Ghost Train"(mp3) (from Sun Comes Undone, Birdnote)
5. Mario, "Skippin'"(mp3) (from Go, J)
6. Ckrisis, "Down For Whatever"(mp3) (from Muscle Up Vol. 2, Bird City Entertainment)
7. Bossman, "So Fresh"(mp3) (from End of Discussion, One Up)
8. Ogun ft. Che'Ray, Comp, Backland, Little Clayway, Skarr Akbar &
Bossman, "Just Us"(mp3) (from Bmore Hero, Real On Purpose)
9. Young Dip, "D.T.T.W.C."(mp3) (from You See Me?, IMP)
10. Jade Fox ft. Eva Castillo, "Got 'Em Like"(mp3) (from Ashes of Another Life, self-released)
11. Ace ft. Billo, "Slow Ya Speed"(mp3) (from The Product, For the People Entertainment)
12. Silouette, "Chicken Box"(mp3) (from The Best of B-Ill: Chapter 1, Banga Bill Enterprises)
13. Tyree Colion, "Projects"(mp3) (from Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip, Darkroom Inc.)
14. Heavy Gold, "Charm City"(mp3) (from Tha Testa, Stay Gettin' Entertainment)
15. Height ft. Bow N' Arrow, "Smash Your Eyes"(mp3) (from Winterize the Game, Grand Man)
16. DJ Blaqstarr, "Crazy Leg Wit It"(mp3) (from The King of Roq, JB Starr Productions)
17. Rod Lee, "Enjoy Yourself"(mp3) (from The Producer, Unruly)
18. KW Griff, "Taking Over"(mp3) (from K-Swift the Club Queen Jumpoff Vol. 11, Doo Dew Kidz)
19. Say Wut, "Futuristic"(mp3) (from Beats Extraordinaire EP, Unruly)
20. Dan Deacon, "Jimmy Joe Roche"(mp3) (from Spiderman of the Rings, Carpark)
21. Cex, "Oregon Ridge"(mp3) (from Sketchi, Temporary Residence)

I kind of grouped the mix into genre sections, from indie rock (tracks 1-4) to R&B (track 5) to hip hop (tracks 6-15) to Baltimore club (tracks 16-19) to IDM or whatever it should be called (tracks 20-21). Track 3 is by a band who was called Monarch when I made the mix, but in the month since then they've changed their name to Wye Oak and signed to Merge Records, which is reissuing their great album in April. My full list of top Baltimore albums of 2007 is over at Noise.

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Billo, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, For The People Entertainment, Heavy Gold, Jade Fox, KW Griff, mp3, Ogun, Rod Lee, Skarr Akbar, Tyree Colion

I've written about the Baltimore label For The People Entertainment on Gov't Names many times before, and this week in the City Paper I wrote a feature about the whole crew and all the artists on the label. They're a really cool, interesting bunch of dudes who are doing something completely different from anyone else in the city. Every MC talks about hitting it big and putting money back into their community, but these cats are actually running after school programs and teaching yoga to kids and trying to keep them out of gangs right now, and putting money from music back into these things (and yes, if you're wondering, the headline "Yoga Flame" is an homage to Tynan Delong). I got a release for Yuk & Cut recently that I should post about soon, but I've got 5-6 hours of music from the label's whole roster on my computer that I've been listening to the past couple weeks while working on the article and everything, and they got some jams, so here's some of my favorites:

Squadre Committee - "Seen So Many Come, Seen So Many Go" (mp3)

Bear - "Hip Hop" (mp3)

Lil Shank - "Who Dat Iz" (mp3)

Ace - "Juice" (mp3)

Cutthroat - "All New All Fresh" (mp3)

Billo - "Livin' Ur Life" (mp3)

(photo by Rarah)

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Bear, Billo, Cutthroat, For The People Entertainment, magazines/newspapers, mp3

It's been a couple months since the last time I did a YouTube post, but a lot of people in Baltimore have dropped new videos lately, so it's well overdue.

On the club tip, here's Blaq Starr and Rye Rye's "Shake It To The Ground," which I still think is the worst song on the Supastarr EP, but there's a little bit of a track I like better, "Crazy Leg Wit It," at the end of the video:



E Major really did it big with the first video from his upcoming album, for the songs "Nuthin' Nice" featuring Hezekiah and "You Know That," I'm impressed by the production values on this one:



New shit from Billo called "Same Page," I think this song is real hot:



Here's the first single from Wade Waters member SoulStice's new album, "Be Perfect," with the song "Not Perfect" at the end:

Labels: Baltimore club, Billo, Blaq Starr, E Major, For The People Entertainment

Labels: Bear, Billo, Cutthroat, flyer, For The People Entertainment

Ace - The Product (For The People Entertainment)

Ace is a member of Squadre Committee and the For The People Entertainment crew, and I just wrote about one of his mixtapes here last month. But more recently Ace sent me this album, which I like a lot more, and included in my list of 2007's First Local Hip-Hop Highlights on the Noise blog. It's all original beats and some pretty strong production, definitely one of the best releases I've heard from the label so far. I met Ace briefly at the Fresh Fest last week, and also reviewed FTP's show at Sonar a few weeks ago, and they've got another show at the Turntable Club this Friday, as you can see the flyer is above.

Ace - "Murda Shit" (mp3)
This is probably my favorite track on here, along with the song with Billo.

Labels: Billo, flyer, For The People Entertainment, mixtape/album review, mp3, Turntable Club

Bear - All We Got Is Us (For The People Entertainment)

Bear is yet another MC from For The People Entertainment, whose artists Billo and Cutthroat I've written about in the past (and both of whom make guest appearances on this album). Apparently this was originally released last year, but because Bear plays or played college ball and had a busy schedule, the CD didn't really get promoted at the time, so FTP is re-releasing it in '07 before Bear drops his 2nd album. I think Ace from FTP has a new release coming out, too. This album is dedicated to a rapper named Young Jit who died in 2004, and a few Young Jit freestyles are featured throughout the CD. No production credits, but it definitely feels consistent with the sound on the other releases I've heard from the label, with these nice low key, synth-driven beats. The track "Hip Hop," which is one of my favorites, can be heard on the FTP MySpace page.

Bear - "Rainy Nights" (mp3)
This is one of my favorite tracks, good vibe on here.

Labels: Bear, Billo, Cutthroat, For The People Entertainment, mixtape/album review, mp3