This week the Baltimore City Paper published its annual Top Ten issue, and I wrote a lot of stuff both that appears in it, both top ten lists and otherwise:

- A feature on Blaqstarr, my third and by far most in-depth interview to date with one of the true geniuses of Baltimore club music.

- My regular BPM column on dance music, with news about Murder Mark (now Mighty Mark) and others.

- The Short List of concerts in Baltimore for the coming week.

- Lots and lots of top ten lists. I voted for the top ten albums of 2013 list, and wrote a blurb about the Elvis Costello & The Roots album, and also voted for the top ten local albums of 2013, and wrote a blurb about the Dungeonesse album. As we did last year, there were also a bunch of genre-specific lists, and once again I contributed a few: top ten hip-hop albums, top ten local hip-hop albums, top ten dance tracks and top ten Baltimore club tracks.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, lists, magazines/newspapers, Mighty Mark

Urbanite Magazine's hip hop issue is out, and I interviewed Rye Rye and Blaqstarr for the cover story. I also wrote a brief overview of the checkered history of Baltimore rap and club music artists that have had national attention and/or major label deals in the past.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, magazines/newspapers, Rye Rye, Urbanite

I started working with Urbanite Magazine a little earlier this year, and this week I guest edited the Tuesday arts/culture edition of the daily zine that Urbanite e-mails out now. Some of the stuff I put together for the zine that went out today includes:

- A feature on Mickey Free, the rapper whose new album Last of the Tight Wiggers I posted about on Gov’t Names a while back.

- A Q&A with Brett Yale and Jimmy MacMillan of Friends Records on how to put out music on vinyl and cassette.

- A review of the new solo album by Dustin Wong of Ponytail, Infinite Love.

- A review of Josh Sisk’s new book, Under The Strobe Light - Club Photos: 2005-2009, which features a lot of great pictures of Baltimore artists like Rod Lee, K-Swift, Say Wut, the Get Em Mamis, Blaqstarr, Scottie B., Mullyman, Rye Rye and others.

- And a bunch of links to Baltimore music websites (AllBmoreHipHop, BeatBots, the Ms. Tris Music blog) and listings for cool events happening this week, including Cullen Stalin and Scottie B. at Metro Gallery, Hip Hop In Pink w/ Keys, the Get Em Mamis, Si-Notes and Golden Seal, and Greg Dulli and Craig Wedren at the Ottobar. You can sign up at the Urbanite site to get any of the weekly zines e-mailed to you in the future.

(photo by Lisa Scott)

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Golden Seal, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Mickey Free, Ms. Tris Beats, NSW (Say What), Scottie B., Si-Notes, Urbanite

Today's Washington Post has a big spread on the city's neighbor to the north, Baltimore, in today's Arts & Living section, including an article by Chris Richards about 92Q and Baltimore club music (you may need to grab a password from bugmenot.com to view it on the Post site). The piece features quotes from K.W. Griff (pictured), Say Wut, Porkchop, Cullen Stalin, and Wye Oak, and also mentions K-Swift, Blaqstarr, Rye Rye, DJ Class, Rod Lee, Mullyman, Booman and the Get Em Mamis (Chris also spoke to me for the article, but I'm not quoted in it, which is a situation I've been on the other end of enough times that I totally understand -- limited space, lack of a perfect quote, etc.).

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Booman, DJ Class, G.E.M./Tha Plague, K-Swift, KW Griff, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Pork Chop, Rod Lee, Rye Rye

Here's Blaqstarr's new video for "Oh My Darlin'," directed by Baltimore's own Hilton Carter.

Labels: Blaq Starr, video

As I did for 2008 and 2007, it's time to look back at what the most frequently used tags were on the site last year. The four numbers represent 2009 posts / 2008 posts / 2007 posts/ total posts on the site:

1. flyer (189/306/361/1199)
2. mp3 (144/120/103/489)
3. Baltimore club (91/114/76/349)
4. mixtape/album review (90/79/80/330)
5. DJ Booman (39/45/38/134)
6. Skarr Akbar (37/26/35/144)
7. Sonar (34/44/39/142)
8. Baltimore City Paper (33/25/35/153)
9. Mullyman (32/26/35/149)
10. 5 Seasons (31/65/102/298)
11. Bossman (29/29/42/168)
12. DJ Class (27/1/0/28)
13. Ogun (26/39/40/146)
14. Shaka Pitts (25/8/0/33)
15. Mania Music Group (24/8/0/32)
16./17./18. (tie) Unruly Records (23/30/11/75) / Club Reality (23/0/0/23)
/ magazines/newspapers (23/41/29/142)
19. Comp (21/17/38/121)
20./21. (tie) 41YO (19/0/0/19) / Blaq Starr (19/28/21/87)
22. Wordsmith (18/6/0/24)
23./24./25. (tie) ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM (17/0/0/17) / Tayland Promotions (17/0/0/17) / Noise (17/18/18/53)

Edit: I managed to forget video (31/18/1/50), which would've been tied for 10th place on the list if I'd tabulated it correctly at the time.

That’s 7 rappers, 3 Baltimore club producers, 3 venues, 3 blogs/websites, 2 labels, and a lot of other categories. Congrats to everyone that made the list, everyone else: grind harder, or actually e-mail me every time you do a show or drop new music.

Labels: Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, DJ Booman, DJ Class, lists, Mania Music Group, Mullyman, Ogun, Shaka Pitts, Skarr Akbar, Unruly Records, Wordsmith

Recently on my other blog, Narrowcast, I counted down my 100 favorite albums of the past decade, and the list included a number of entries by Baltimore artists, hip hop and club music as well as rock:

17. Lake Trout - Alone At Last: Live With DJ Who (Phoenix Media Group, 2000)
23. Wye Oak - If Children (self-released, 2007; reissued by Merge Records, 2008)
29. Blaq Starr - I’m Bangin’ (JB Starr Productions, 2006)
35. Tim Trees - Dalton Vol. 1 (Bdamore Records, 2001)
41. Cex - Being Ridden (Temporary Residence, 2003)
47. Karmella’s Game - The Art Of Distraction (Speedbump Recordings, 2006)
53. The 410 Pharaohs - 410 Funk (Strictly Rhythm/Ill Friction, 2008)
59. J Roddy Walston and the Business - Hail Mega Boys (Morphius Records, 2007)
65. Lungfish - Feral Hymns (Dischord Records, 2005)
71. Bossman - Law & Order (Double Down Entertainment/1Up Productions, 2004)
77. Avec - Lines (Civil Defense League/Doghouse, 2007)
83. Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings (Car Park Records, 2007)
89. Rod Lee - Vol. 2: Operation Not Done Yet (Club Kingz Records, 2002)

By no means do I consider that any kind of definitive list of the best Baltimore albums of the past 10 years, for what it's worth, those are just the personal favorites that I happened to want to include on there.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Booman, Labtekwon, lists, One Up Entertainment, Rod Lee, Tim Trees

Blaq Starr - I'm Bangin' 2 (JB Starr Productions)

I wrote about The Black Sunn the other day, so it seems only right to talk about Blaq Starr now. This is about a year old now, and I'd heard about it and heard some cuts off it last summer when it came out, but I didn't find anywhere to download the whole thing until recently when I saw that it's on allbmorehiphop.com/blaqstarr.html. The first I'm Bangin' mixtape is still probably my favorite Blaq Starr release to date, really a great document of that '05-'06 era when he was really really killing the clubs in Baltimore. Since then his music has spread out more to other places and other scenes, and he's kinda gotten more experimental and a little less focused on Baltimore club, and the DJs here don't seem to spin his new stuff as much, maybe just because he's not pushing the tracks to them as much since his focus is elsewhere, maybe not, I don't know. But that one, more than Supastarr or King Of Roq, was really my shit, so it's good to hear him do a sequel to that, even if it's in more his new style, more in line with the Rye Rye mixtape, and there's still a lot of dope shit on here I haven't heard before.

Blaq Starr - "Dat La La La" (mp3)
This is awesome, really shows how unique Blaq Starr's ear is for combining different textures, nobody else puts together tracks like this.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, mixtape/album review, mp3

The July issue of the venerable rap mag Murder Dog has a big big special feature on Baltimore's hip hop and club scenes, including interviews with Blaq Starr, Rye Rye, Scottie B. and Sean Ceasar of Unruly Records, Rod Lee, DJ Excel, Mullyman, Bossman, Say Wut, Jay Claxton, the Get Em Mamis, King Tutt, 100 Grandman, and DJ Booman. And I just heard that you can actually get a digital copy of the whole issue on the Murder Dog site and read it online, which is great, since I have not had any luck finding anywhere in Baltimore that sells it (if anyone knows a place, let me know and I'll post it).

Labels: 100 Grandman, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, King Tutt, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Rye Rye, Scottie B., Unruly Records

Rye Rye - Blaqout Mixtape (JB Starr Productions)

It's been weird to watch the last couple years, as Rye Rye has become kind of a big deal, because I wish everyone here success and don't want to come off like a hater, but I've been kind of mystified by how fast it's happened. I always thought Blaq Starr had huge potential to blow up somehow, but ever since she appeared on his "Shake It To The Ground" (a song I've never been shy about disliking), she's been getting all this media coverage and signing with and doing a video with M.I.A. and is kind of Baltimore's new ambassador to the whole hipster scene. I don't think anyone really thinks she's a great rapper, although a couple times she's kicked verses that I thought showed some potential, but it'll be interesting to see what her album's like when it drops. Technically, this is a Rye Rye mixtape mixed and produced by Blaq Starr, but really, it's more or less a Blaq Starr record featuring Rye Rye here and there. A lot of his club tracks are on here, and though she of course did the hook for "Hands Up, Thumbs Down," there's a lot of other tracks Rye Rye isn't even on, like "Feel It In The Air" and "Crazy Leg Wit It," and it's only 33 minutes, so it feels kinda padded, like they're saving all her unreleased stuff for the LP. But again, Blaq Starr's a genius so I'm cool with that, lotta great beats on here. Blaqout Mixtape is available for download on ALLBMOREHIPHOP.com.

Rye Rye - "I Run This" (mp3)
Man, this track is killer, I hope DJs pick up on it.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rye Rye

Over on Idolator that Rye Rye's video is now out for "Bang," which was produced by Blaq Starr and features M.I.A. Also, 41yo posted a making of and a remix by DJ Booman. A little more surprisingly, Atlanta rapper Stat Quo also did a remix of "Bang."

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Booman, Rye Rye, video

Here we go, WHOLE LAAAAAT:

11. Diablo - "Jail Flick" (mp3) - August 16, 2005
12. D.O.G. f/ Blaq Starr - "Ryda Gyrl" (mp3) - June 26, 2006
13. Rod Lee - "Dance My Pain Away" (mp3) - June 2, 2005
14. Comp - "Whole Lat" (mp3) - February 13, 2008
15. Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3) - May 19, 2006
16. Ogun f/ Che'Rae - "My Life" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
17. Bossman - "Dat Night" (mp3) - February 4, 2005
18. DK - "A Part Of History" (mp3) - March 21, 2006
19. Heavy Gold - "Charm City" (mp3) - February 16, 2006
20. Labtekwon - "Uhnnn Huhnnn" (mp3) - August 29, 2005

Labels: Blaq Starr, Comp, D.O.G., Diablo, DK, Heavy Gold, Labtekwon, lists, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Rod Lee

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

Wrapping up the first half now, we're really getting into back to back songs I straight up love. Once again, there's a totally unintentional theme with a lot of songs I posted in 2006 originally, which makes sense since that was probably the most exciting year for me personally, in the history of running this site:

51. UnReal f/ Sonny Brown - "Hell 2 Pay" (mp3) - September 9, 2006
52. Cutthroat - "If I Die" (mp3) - October 15, 2006
53. Tyree Colion - "My Projects" (mp3) - November 19th, 2006
54. Blaq Starr - "Stop" (mp3) - August 22, 2005
55. Brown F.I.S.H. - "45" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
56. 410 Pharaohs - "Watch Her Shake It (aka Hammer Dance)" (mp3) - July 29, 2006
57. ShellBe R.A.W. f/ XO - "Damn Shells" (mp3) - August 7, 2006
58. B.I.G. Status - "Line Up" (mp3) - January 10, 2006
59. Bossman - "Oh" (mp3) - June 9, 2005
60. Bigg Patch - "Supa Ugly" (mp3) - July 25, 2006

Labels: B.I.G. Status, Baltimore club, Bigg Patch, Blaq Starr, Brown F.I.S.H., Cutthroat, lists, mp3, Sonny Brown, Tyree Colion, UnReal

As per yesterday's announcement, I'll be doing this every day or thereabouts until I get to the top 10. I'm still listening to tracks and finalizing parts of the list, though, so if anyone has any artists/songs they wanna rep for and make sure I consider (if they're not in there already), feel free to say so in the comments. Or really, let me know if there are any songs I'm re-posting that you missed the first time and are really enjoying now:

81. King Tutt - "Let's Go" (mp3) - March 10, 2009
82. Dappa!!! Dan Midas f/ RapMan Ron G. - "Push Start" (mp3) - December 2, 2008
83. K.W. Griff - "Pork & Swift" (mp3) - January 13th, 2009
84. Tonio: From Da Top - "U Mad?!?" (mp3) - April 5, 2009
85. Blaq Starr - "Hands Up, Thumbs Down" (mp3) - June 29, 2006
86. Verb - "Get Em Verb" (mp3) - January 17, 2006
87. Nature's Problem - "Shake It Shorty" (mp3) - August 3, 2006
88. Dave Da Barber f/ Caddy Da Don, Tim Trees, XO, and Block Hugga - "Eastside Of Baltimore (Remix)" (mp3) - August 6, 2007
89. Wordsmith f/ The Profitt, Reggie Webb, Greenspan, Skarr Akbar, Soulstice, Pro & Reg, Sly Solomon, Steadfast, Tislam the Great & E-Major - "B-More Baritones" (mp3) - February 22, 2009
90. UnReal - "Luv Me" (mp3) - January 17, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, King Tutt, KW Griff, lists, Midas, mp3, Ron G., Tha Profitt, Tim Trees, Tonio, UnReal, Verb, Wordsmith, XO

On this day in 2004, I threw up the first test post on this site. At the time, music was still a pretty tiny piece of the blogosphere and it seemed like you could count all the existing rap blogs on your fingers. So when I finished exams at the end of that semester and had some free time on my hands, I started up this little page with some friends and message board acquaintances whose writing I liked just to have a space to talk about new songs and stuff that interested us. It started out with no real focus, and for the first year or so Government Names was probably known mainly for the weird Canadian kid who had a ridiculous amount of knowledge about Houston hip hop more than anything I did. But I posted about some Baltimore stuff from the very beginning, and as my interest in covering this underexposed scene grew and the other contributors gradually stopped posting, I decided to make that the site's sole focus, and it's been really rewarding and fun. This site got me bank into freelancing as a music critic after being away from it for a few years and gave me a whole new passion for it, and I've met a lot of cool people and heard some great music and hopefully introduced some people to some songs they loved.

Over the past 5 years, I've posted roughly 700 songs, but I've always prided myself on the fact that I try to be selective and find the best tracks to share, or ones that I have something to say about, especially now in the age where the 'best' rap blogs are usually the ones that indiscriminately throw up every new song without writing anything about it or even listening to it first. If someone sends me a single or a leak, I usually only post it if I genuinely like the song, and when I'm writing about a full-length I try to post my favorite song from it (although sometimes even the best song off a CD isn't very good, but hey). So I feel good about a really large percentage of the music I've posted, and wanted to kind of highlight what I think was the best of the best. So to mark the anniversary, I'll be re-posting my top 100 mp3s from the site's first 5 years over the next couple weeks, 10 at a time every day or so, with links to the original posts they appeared in. All due respect to the musicians, I can't thank them enough for making songs that I want to listen to and tell people about on a daily basis. Here's the first installment:

91. Labtekwon - "Soybeans and Tofu Cheese" (mp3) - October 8, 2006
92. James Nasty - "You So Hawt" (mp3) - April 30, 2008
93. Mullyman f/ Backland, Comp and Sonny Brown - "Gangsta Wit Me" (mp3) - August 12, 2005
94. Caleb & Saleem - "We Write Blue" (mp3) - March 12, 2009
95. Mania Music Group - "Gotta Believe It" freestyle (mp3) - April 21, 2009
96. Blaq Starr - "In The Air" (mp3) - March 1, 2007
97. Bossman - "You're Wrong" (mp3) - August 24, 2006
98. Mike Malachi f/ Ron Rico, Agg and Skarr Akbar - "Super Smash Bros. Melee" (mp3) - March 21, 2009
99. Caddy Da Don f/ Tim Trees, Huli Shallone, Los, Skarr Akbar and Bossman - "Whole City Behind Me (Remix)" (mp3) - November 4, 2007
100. Scola f/ Rod Lee - "Turn It Down" (mp3) - August 3, 2006

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, Huli Shallone, Labtekwon, lists, Los, Mania Music Group, Mike Malachi, mp3, Mullyman, Ron Rico, Saleem, Sonny Brown, Tim Trees

DJ Rod Lee presents Club Work Out 2009 (Club Kingz)

The last time I was in Rod Lee's Club Kingz record store, I noticed that he had a new mix CD on sale, which kinda surprised. More than any other Baltimore club DJ, Rod Lee's always seemed to put out CDs more as albums to showcase his production than as just DJ mixes, and some of his albums have nothing but his own tracks. But maybe running the store motivated him to get more into the whole mix CD grind and showcase new tracks other producers are doing. Either way, this is a pretty dope mix, mostly tracks from Say Wut and Scottie B. and King Tutt, with some DJ Class and Blaq Starr and other producers. At the end there's a few bonus cuts not credited to anybody, I'm assuming those are some new Rod Lee songs that are gonna be on an EP or something, if they aren't already, and on the outro Rod calls this 'volume one,' so I'm assuming there'll be more Club Work Out mixes in the future, which is pretty cool.

Say Wut - "Hands Up" (mp3)
Almost half the tracks on this CD are Say Wut tracks, so there's a nice big block of his music on here, and this is probably my favorite one he's done lately.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, King Tutt, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Scottie B.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, flyer, Sonar

41yo.com is a great new Baltimore music website from Brandon Soderberg of No Trivia and the City Paper, I'm sure I'll be linking back there a lot in the future but I'll just say right that if you bookmark Gov't Names you need to bookmark that shit too. The best stuff on there so far includes a big great Mania Music Group article that includes an entertaining video full of footage of Midas and Ron G. and Kane, a piece about the Kanye remix of DJ Class's "I'm The Ish" (also including an mp3 of Class on the remix of "Move" by Mims) and a guide to Baltimore on Twitter, and posts on Blaqstarr and Mz Streamz.

I've been meaning to update my blogroll for a minute, probably gonna do that later this week, so feel free to remind me what sites I need to include. It's really tough because I wanna focus on interesting/relevant/frequently updated sites that focus on local music in general and avoid self-absorbed "what I had for lunch" artists blogs and Twitters, but maybe I can find some kind of balance. Also, you'd think that random Mickey Mouse rap blogs that have nothing to do with what I cover on this site would stop hitting me up for a "link exchange," which is a stupid practice to begin with, but they just keep on doing it.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Mz Streamz, Ron G., video

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, flyer