"The Club Queen" K-Swift - The Jumpoff Vol. 7: The Summer School Edition (Unruly Records)

I've got at least 4 or 5 other K-Swift club CD's, but this is her first one since getting all over MTV repping Baltimore club music in a big way, and the first that I've picked up in a while, maybe not since Club Queen Vol. 6: The Return, and the only other Jumpoff CD I've got is the very first one in the series. And though she's got different mix series with specific purposes, like the line for the kids with all the swears edited out, or in the opposite direction, the aggressive Strictly For Tha Streets mixes, to tell the truth I have no idea what the difference, if any, is between the Club Queen series and the Jumpoff series. They both just seem like collections of whatever's hot in the clubs at the moment. In any event, she's back with another hot mix from Unruly, and although the CD store on K-Swift's site is temporarily closed right now, the mix is available at DTLR and the Sound Garden.

I'm not sure yet whether I think this is as good as Supa DJ Big L's new CD, but it's got some good joints on it like the new Cooli Hi, both versions of "Slyde,", lot of the new Rod Lee stuff. I particularly like Tigga's "What Again," which is like a crazy megamix of a bunch of different Bmore club tracks with Lil Jon shouting samples, all blended up together.

Rod Lee - "Music Rock It" (mp3)
Rod Lee putting a little bug in your ear about that old feeling you used to get from rockin' music back when you could party in peace. Sort of on the same sentimental tip as "Dance My Pain Away" but more mellow, I like it a lot more than some of his more aggressive new tracks like "When You Gonna Let Me" and "Da Block."

DJ Chris J. - "Aww Track" (mp3)
Probably the best track I've ever heard from DJ Chris J., I've also seen it referred to as "HH Theme" for some reason, but it sounds like it's just a loop of some of those stuttering sounds from the "Stay Fly" chorus.

Labels: Baltimore club, Cooli Hi, K-Swift, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rod Lee

This week in the Baltimore City Paper, I have a piece about the Baltimore Believe Tour. I think it came out as one of my best articles to date, partly because it's not strictly about music and gets into a little of the social and political issues of the Believe campaign. The tour is in its fourth year, and I first checked out a couple shows last summer. When I wrote a Gov't Names post about it last year, I came off kind of flippant and cynical, and one of the commenters rightfully took me to task for my disrespect of the work people put into it. Talking to Richard Burton, you really do get a sense of his vision about all this, and I hope that he gets to keep doing this tour in the future, whether or not O'Malley is still the mayor. It's a really fun, unique event, and one of the best ways to see Baltimore hip hop live. I also got to talk to D.O.G. about the fact that he'd kind of dissed it as "the Baltimore Police Tour" on his freestyle over "Welcome To Jamrock" last year, but had a change of heart and is performing on the tour this year, so that's interesting. Here's the specifics on this weekend's stop on the Believe Tour:

Mayor Martin O'Malley, Baltimore Housing, and 92Q Jams present
Big Phat Believe Festnic
Believing in our Families
$5 Donation ($5 general admission and $10 VIP seating)
Donation goes to helping needy families in Baltimore city
for vendor info, contact Richard Burton at 443 984 3156

July 29th-30th
Frederick Douglass High School
Outdoor Arena
12 Noon - 8PM Rain Or Shine

Hosted by 92Q Saturday
Hosted by Heaven 600AM 95.9FM Sunday

Carnival Rides
Games
Food
Moon Bounce
Crab Raffle
Baltimore's Idol Talent Search

Featuring:
The Stylistics
Harold Melvin's Bluenotes, featuring Sharon Paige

Also...
DJ K-Swift & Squirrel Wyde
Choir Boys
Cooli Hi
C.R.
D.O.G.
Eriq J'Mar
Morgan State Universy Choir
and Shadina

For ticket information, call: 443 984 3156

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., K-Swift, magazines/newspapers

The Best Of Both Worlds, part 2: Blaq Starr
A more detailed examination of the music discussed in my Baltimore City Paper article about the crossover between Baltimore club music and hip hop.

Blaq Starr is a Baltimore club producer/DJ that I've written about several times before, most recently about his mixtape I'm Banging. And he's been bringing his sound to Baltimore hip hop for a while now too with a whole bunch of hits. He's got a new song with Cooli Hi, who he previously produced "Beat It Up" for, called "Take Down (Unruly's Harm Squad Mix)" (produced by Rod Lee with Blaq Starr on the hook), which is featured on the City Paper's Big Music Thing. According to Blaq Starr's MySpace page, he's throwing a party today, July 22nd, at Patterson Park Rec. 2601 E. Baltimore Street, so check that out.

D.O.G. f/ Yung Joc - “Ryda Gyrl” Remix (mp3)
I've already posted Blaq Starr's original club track and D.O.G.'s first remix, and here's the latest version featuring the ATL guy with the motorcycle dance. I'm still kinda skeptical about this being a good look for D.O.G., since Yung Joc isn't really the kind of guy who gets respect no matter how spins he gets, so not really the best national artist to be aligned with. But still, he sounds better on the record than I expected him to.

Blaq Starr - “Jiggle It” Instrumental (mp3)
The instrumental track to Young Leek's big single. Remember the original version, from before Leek got signed and he shouted out Blaq Starr on the intro instead of Stay Gettin'/Def Jam?

Blaq Starr - “Slyde” (mp3)
Here's a short snippet of one of the club tracks that was played in that MTV You Hear It First segment. I love that synth melody.

Tay-Eazy f/ Blaq Starr - “Slyde” Remix (mp3)
And here's the hip hop remix, which has the same hook over a completely different beat, by one of the other teenage MC's with questionable talent that Next Level has started pushing since Young Leek blew up. Blaq Starr raps a verse himself, and I like that he shouts out the Low Key God with the line "I stay hi like Stevie."

Also in this series:
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 1: The "Think" Break
The Best Of Both Worlds, part 3: Dukeyman
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: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., magazines/newspapers, mp3, Next Level Records, The Best Of Both Worlds, Young Leek

This week, the annual Big Music Issue of the Baltimore City Paper hits the streets, and I'm really excited about this one, because I have a couple pieces in there, and because pretty much the entire issue is dedicated to Baltimore's hip hop scene. This was Jess Harvell's first BMI since becoming CP's music editor last summer, and I really have to give him props for putting together a hot issue and focusing on hip hop so much in a paper whose readership doesn't necessarily want to read that much about hip hop. Hopefully the City Paper will get enough positive feedback from this issue to balance out the inevitable hatemail. This is one that you should really just pick up a copy of and read from cover to cover, but I'll give you a breakdown of some of the great stuff in this issue:

* The Best Of Both Worlds is my baby, my big article about the history of fusion between Baltimore club music and hip hop. I did a lot of interviews and research for this and I think it came out pretty good, although honestly I'm too close to it to be objective yet. I focused primarily on club producers who also make hip hop, including Booman, Debonair Samir, Blaq Starr, Dukeyman, Rod Lee (who I didn't get a chance to interview), DJ Ron Rico, and Say What (who I did interview, but unfortunately the stuff about him got left on the cutting room floor, so apologies to him). Harvell deserves a lot of credit for greenlighting and editing the piece, and adding his two cents to a lot of the article and helping it take shape, a lot of the turns of phrase and perspectives in there are his. Over the next couple weeks on Gov't Names I'll have posts about each of the producers spotlighted in the article to really share some music and show people what I'm talking about if they're not familiar.

* Baltimore Hip-Hop Trading Cards is an interesting bonus thing that seemed to pop up at the last minute and turned out really nice, with myself, Harvell, and Jason Torres contributing vital stats about some of local hip hop's biggest names to accompany illustrated portraits by Alex Fine of folks like Mullyman, Labtekwon, Huli Shallone, Bossman, Tha Plague, B. Rich, Ms. Stress, Ogun, ShellBe RAW, Tim Trees, Skarr Akbar, and D.O.G. It's definitely a cool little primer for scene outsiders.

* The Come Up by Jason Torres is a thinkpiece about local hip hop that features quotes from a roundtable discussion with DJ K-Swift, Ogun and Wink from Real On Purpose Records, C Love, Mike Mcintosh from Architects Studio, Victor Starr from 92Q, Shawn Caesar from Unruly Records, Ahk from 88.9, Golden Seal, Brown F.I.S.H. and Sekani Williams. It's a really good piece and there's some serious food for thought in there.

* Spitting Game by J. Bowers is a profile of local human beatbox Shodekeh, who I saw perform a few months ago and was really talented and entertaining.

* Stream Of Consciousness by Harvell is about Timmy Grins and TheBreakdownTV.

* Turning The Tables by Jaye Hunnie is about DJ Spontaneous

* And finally, the Big Music Thing is a downloadable mixtape of local music, featuring mp3's by Dirty Hartz, Mullyman, Barnes, Cooli Hi, Rod Lee, and my friends Private Eleanor.

(photo by Frank Hamilton)

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Barnes, Cooli Hi, Dirty Hartz, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, Rod Lee, The Best Of Both Worlds

92Q, Believe, Mayor Martin O'Malley and Amerigroup Present
"The Big Phat Believe Tour 2006"

Friday, July 7th 6pm-10pm
at Carver Middle School
Hosted by Marc Clarke and the Big Phat Morning Show

Starring:
D.O.G.
C.R.
Cooli High
and other hot B-more artists!
K-Swift and Squirrel Wyde from "Off the Hook Radio" will be broadcasting live and Swift will be spinnin' the hottest club music between acts

Labels: 92Q, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., flyer, K-Swift

92Q, Believe, Mayor Martin O'Malley and Amerigroup Present
"The Big Phat Believe Tour 2006"

Friday, June 23rd 6pm-10pm
at Dunbar High School
1400 Orleans St.
Hosted by Marc Clarke and the Big Phat Morning Show

Starring:
Cherish performing the hit single "Do it, To it
D.O.G.
C.R.
Cooli High
and other hot B-more artists!
K-Swift and Squirrel Wyde from "Off the Hook Radio" will be broadcasting live and Swift will be spinnin' the hottest club music between acts

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore club, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., flyer, K-Swift

92Q, Believe, Mayor Martin O'Malley and Amerigroup
Present
"The Big Phat Believe Tour 2006"

Friday, June 9th 6pm-10pm at Calverton Middle School,
1100 Whittmore Ave.
Hosted by Marc Clarke and the Big Phat Morning Show
Starring;
D.O.G.
C.R.
Cooli High
and other hot B-more artists!

K-Swift and Squirrel Wyde from "Off the Hook Radio" will be broadcasting live and Swift will be spinnin' the hottest club music between acts!
"The Big Phat Believe Tour 2006"
is sponsored by
Eastern Motors...Believing in Our Schools. Call 888-831-6000. Eastern Motors, The Baltimore City Police Department, The Department of Transportation, The Department of Housing, BCPSS, and your Q-munity Station...92Q!
Info brought to you buy 92Q

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore club, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., K-Swift

The Baltimore Believe Tour
featuring Young Leek, D.O.G., Cooli Hi, and C.R.
Friday, May 19th
@ Booker T. Washington Middle School

Labels: 92Q, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., flyer, Young Leek

Hip Hop 101
Every Monday at 5 Seasons
830 Guilford Ave.

This monday, Feb. 27th:

Born King
Bosco
XO
Team 50
Dirty Hartz
Cooli Hi

Labels: 5 Seasons, Cooli Hi, Dirty Hartz, flyer, Hip Hop 101, Sonny Brown, Team Fifty, XO

DNA - True Crime: Harm City, Volume 5 (Hosted by Skinny Suge)

This is a real big move. DNA's been doing mixtapes with Comp and putting occasional Baltimore artists on his mixes for years, but this is his first big Bmore all-star mix. I can't say I like every track on here but there's just so many must-hear songs on it that you have to cop it, songs by Dirty Hartz and Cooli Hi and D.O.G. and Scola that you've been hearing on 92Q, plus tracks by Bossman and Skarr Akbar and UnReal and Q and Comp. And yes, the Mullyman/Bossman beef records are on here, and no, I won't post the mp3's. I respect DNA and I'm gonna help him sell some CD's by making you go buy it at Downtown Locker Room or his site to hear those tracks. I will note that the Mullyman track is not exactly the same one that was getting played on the radio in October, it's the same vocals from the original diss with a new beat instead of the Black Rob instrumental. Anyway, check my review of the mixtape in the City Paper this week, and direct all press inquiries to C Love.

Barnes f/ Joe Budden - "Top Of The Game" (mp3)
Nik Barnes from Street Official Records with that Jersey dude, nice low key track that's been getting played on 92Q lately. Budden also did a track with Dirty Hartz on their last mixtape.

D.O.G. - "Big Business" (mp3)
"They told me you play a beat when you talk people will listen...guess I'm a rapper now." Another low key track, over a Simply Red sample, D.O.G. namechecking damn near every MC in Baltimore throughout the song. That's something I like about D.O.G., that he seems like a real humble student of the game who's watching everyone else and showing respect, like at the Ottobar show when he was one of the only rappers who I saw in the crowd watching everyone else after his set. This and his single with Jim Jones, "I Get Dough" are both on the mixtape and on his MySpace page, which also has the completed "Hello" video. I'm looking forward to the album, last release date I heard for Champagne Dreams was the 2nd week of March.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Comp, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., Dirty Hartz, DNA, Dru Hill, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman

Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio 2 (Hosted by DJ Kay Slay & DJ Radio)

If you check liner notes you know that a whole lot of Baltimore artists record at Architects, and Mike McIntosh has been taking the connections he made with his studio to put together these mixtapes. A few months ago when I met Jason Torres he was telling me about the first Street Radio mix right before his City Paper article about Architects came out. A lot of the tracks are previously released tracks from other albums and mixtapes, some radio singles like "Jump Da Club Off" by Barnes of Street Official and "Hello" by D.O.G. But it's still a good selection, music from Mullyman, Ogun, Tim Trees. And since it's a Streetsweepers mix, they stick a Papoose track on there for no particular reason. It is cool to hear Kay Slay shout out a bunch of people from Baltimore, though. Also, I gotta give the Street Radio mixes credit for real thorough liner notes that credit the producers of each individual tracks and give contact info for the artists, I wish more mixtapes did that. I'm not sure where you can buy these, I think Downtown Locker Room might carry them.

Cooli Hi - "Beat It Up" (mp3)
Cooli Hi is tight with Dru Hill and Little Clayway, his voice reminds me a lot of that Ray Cash song on this. I heard this song on 92Q a while back and it kinda blew me away because Blaq Starr finally did what I always wanted someone to do, take that fast kick drum rhythm from Baltimore club music but put it under a slow Southern type hip hop beat. It's got a real cool dark sound too, not all upbeat like a lot of hip hop songs with elements of club music in them.

Bossman f/ Lil Mo - "Off The Record (Remix)" (mp3)
Pretty much the same song as the original, with Mo floating some vocals over that give the track a nice vibe without really intruding on it. Ever since Bossman said "Off The Record" is gonna be on his Virgin album I've been hoping he'd change the 2nd verse. It's one of my favorite songs by him, but all the industry shit he talks about in that verse is really dated, stuff people were talking about in '04 but are gonna barely remember by the time his album drops. He does change the wording of a couple lines to update them here, though, "I'm sick til I hurl with this Best of Both Worlds" becomes "I'm glad they put an end to this Best of Both Worlds," and "ain't no albums been hot since 50 Cent dropped" becomes "ain't no albums been hot since 50 first dropped," which is kinda funny, like Bossman is real careful to not let people think he liked The Massacre. I still think he should change the verse more, personally, like, he doesn't need to acknowledge the ancient non-beef with Jadakiss on his major label album. 1Up switches up the track a little too, dropping out the beat here and there for certain lines, it sounds hot.

Q - "Take A Walk With Me"
You can listen to this track on Q's MySpace page, produced by Clinton Sparks and his verses on this are the same rhymes he did a cappella at the Ottobar show that he really won over a lot of people with. You can watch that performance at The Music Sampler.

(photo by Jefferson Jackson Steele)

Labels: Architects, Baltimore City Paper, Barnes, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Cooli Hi, D.O.G., Mullyman, Ogun, Tim Trees