In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I profiled DJ Pierre for the latest BPM column, and also wrote The Short List.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, BPM, DJ Pierre, magazines/newspapers

I wrote a few things in this week's Baltimore City Paper:

- An interview with Prodigy of Mobb Deep, who are performing at Baltimore Soundstage on Sunday and releasing their new album next week (funnily enough, last time Mobb Deep put out an album in 2006, I interview Havoc for The Hook-Up Magazine).

- A BPM dance music column with news about Say Wut, DJ Pierre, and the Club Mnemonic event this week at The Crown.

- The Short List, with a bunch of other good shows happening in Baltimore over the next week.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, BPM, DJ Pierre, NSW (Say What), The Crown

In this week's Baltimore City Paper, my BPM dance music column featured news about DJ Pierre, DJ AngelBaby, Buck Jones and more, and I also wrote The Short List as usual.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, BPM, Buck Jones, DJ AngelBaby, DJ Pierre

In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I have a BPM dance music column with news about DJ Angelbaby, DJ Pierre and Schwarz, as well as the Short List concert listing.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, BPM, DJ Pierre

The Baltimore City Paper’s annual Best Of Baltimore issue hit the streets today, and as usual I helped pick some of the best-ofs for the Arts and Entertainment section and wrote a few blurbs that appear in the issue:

Best Male MC: Los
Best Female MC: Si-Notes
Best Hip-Hop DJ: DJ Jabril
Best Live Band: Soul Cannon
Best Summer Jam: CJ Hilton - “We Can Get It In”
Best Solo Artist: Reina Williams
Best Radio Show For Local Music: Strictly Hip Hop

Some of the other music winners I'm happy about included Mobtown Studios, Labtekwon, Mania Music Group's producers, Supa DJ Big L, Murder Mark, and DJ Pierre, and in the readers poll, the Best Hip-Hop Act winners included the Get 'Em Mamis, A Cool Stick (who?), Rapdragons and Height With Friends, and some other hip hop winners and runner-ups include Shodekeh and 92Q.

(Si-Notes photo by Rarah)

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore City Paper, CJ Hilton, DJ Jabril, DJ Pierre, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Labtekwon, Los, magazines/newspapers, Mobtown Studios, Shodekeh, Si-Notes, Soul Cannon, Strictly Hip Hop

DJ Pierre - "Watch How I Do It" (mp3)
DJ Pierre is dropping his first EP this summer, as well as a new mix CD, and this is my favorite of the new tracks I've heard.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, mp3

In the last few weeks on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog, I've posted live reviews of John Berndt's Multiphonic Choir @ the Windup Space, Man & Dog and The Feast of Epiphany @ An die Musik, and a year-end Club Beat column listing my top Baltimore club tracks of 2009, by K.W. Griff, DJ Pierre, the Doo Dew Kidz with Mullyman, DJ Excel, Rod Lee, Ultra Naté with King Tutt, and Say Wut, among others.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Class, DJ Excel, DJ Pierre, King Tutt, KW Griff, lists, Mullyman, Noise, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee

The City Paper's big annual Best of Baltimore issue is out today. These are the winners that I wrote the blurbs for:

Best Club Music Producer: DJ Class
Best Club Music DJ: DJ Pierre
Best Hip-Hop DJ: DJ Jay Claxton
Best Beat Maker: Banga Bill
Best Male MC: Mullyman
Best Female MC: Ms. Stress
Best Solo Artist: The Bow-Legged Gorilla
Best Song: P-Shellz "Fingaz Down (The Hack Anthem)"
Best Summer Jam: Comp "Whole Lat"
Best Label: Mania Music Group
Best Music Promoter: Tay Tay of Tay-land Promotions
Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop: Sonar

Also allbmorehiphop and a lot of other worthy people got awards. The BOB party is tonight, and I didn't have any luck getting mailing addresses for some of the people above to send invitations, so maybe if any of those people e-mail me ASAP I can help them out or give them my extra ticket.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Banga Bill, Bow-Legged Gorilla, Comp, DJ Class, DJ Pierre, Mania Music Group, Ms. Stress, Mullyman, P-Shellz, Sonar, Tayland Promotions

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer, Paradox

Labels: Baltimore club, Buck Jones, Club One, DJ Pierre, flyer

Labels: Baltimore club, Buck Jones, Club One, DJ Pierre, flyer

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer, Paradox

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer, Pork Chop

Labels: Baltimore club, Buck Jones, DJ Pierre, flyer

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer

The Club Queen K-Swift - Jumpoff Vol. 14: The Queens Edition (Unruly Records)

About a week before K-Swift passed away, I posted about one of her last mixes, Jumpoff Vol. 13, and noted that the next one was already out and I needed to catch up on that. So after her death, one of the many things that went through my head was, man, I need to get that last mix that came out in April, complete my collection. Because I always copped pretty much everything I ever saw by her, well over a dozen CDs, and getting the latest K-Swift mix was always the best way to keep up on what was new in Baltimore club (well, second best, after listening to her radio show). There are still a lot of people dropping club CDs, and I'll keep picking up those, but I'll really miss knowing there's a new K-Swift release coming around the corner every 3 months or so. And it really felt like she was looking to the future with this last one.

The only really well known producers on here are younger guys, Say Wut and Blaq Starr, and everyone else is really young and up and coming: DJ Pierre, DJ B-Eazy, Lil Jay, guys like that. I've interviewed a lot of those producers over the years, and all of them always talked about how much of an impact K-Swift had on their careers, how her putting one of their tracks on a CD or on the radio made a huge impact on their lives. The Club Queen online store appears to be still up since her death, so I guess someone is still running that site and processing orders, although I don't know that for certain. But this CD is still readily available in the Club Kingz music store and at the Sound Garden and probably at some DTLR locations, too, all those places have a ton of her CDs still on shelves right now, so you might want to stock up on your K-Swift collection while you still can.

J-Roc - "Crown The King" (mp3)
Last year, I got kind of excited about the fact that DJ Tigga sampled the beat from a song by Comp, because that to me was an extremely rare example of a Baltimore club track that sampled a local hip hop artist's track, as opposed to a national mainstream rapper. And the same thing is going on here with this track, which sampled "So Fresh" by Bossman, a single he put out last year that I posted on this site a couple times. I always loved that beat and what J-Roc does with it here is pretty cool. I showed this track to the original song's producer, Nieze from One Up, the other day, and he seemed to get a kick out of it.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Pierre, K-Swift, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What), One Up Entertainment

The Club Queen K-Swift - Jumpoff Vol. 13 (Unruly Records)

After volumes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 all dropped back to back within a few months of each other, you should already know the deal, K-Swift is relentless with this series and probably sells them by the boatload. And as usual, I'm behind one, because 14 is already available on her online store. This one's got the latest hits from Say Wut, K.W. Griff, Rod Lee, DJ Pierre, the list goes on.

DJ B-Eazy - "Clap Your Handz 2008" (mp3)
I profiled DJ B-Eazy in a recent Club Beat and I really think he's a smart, down to earth dude, good to see him getting some shine on big mixes like K-Swift's these days. This might be my favorite track of his, great Stevie Wonder sample.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, K-Swift, KW Griff, Noise, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Unruly Records

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Pierre, flyer

DJ Pierre - Vol. 4: The Chosen One (Bounce Alot Productions)

DJ Pierre is a producer I interviewed for a Club Beat column a while back who's only 17 years old and still in high school, really part of this new school of Baltimore club producers that are kids from the city who kinda build more on Blaq Starr-type tracks than classic club and bring their own slant to it, and has been breaking into the scene with K.W. Griff and K-Swift playing his beats on the radio. I got a bunch of mixes from him, this is just the latest or one of the latest, featuring 8 of Pierre's own tracks alongside music by established producers like Say Wut, Blaq Starr, DJ Tigga, K.W. Griff, Mike Mumbles, and fellow up-and-comers like DJ B-Eazy, DJ R.Dot Smif, DJ J.Roc and DJ Mugshott. And his MySpace page has a bunch of special mixes he made for the MySpace player. DJ Pierre spins at the the Remix Tour every Friday at Contrast Hall.

DJ Pierre & DJ Lil Matic - "Tear It Up" (mp3)
I've written before about the countless DMX samples in Baltimore club, and one of my favorites has always been the hook from Yung Wun's "Tear It Up," which was turned into dope club tracks by both Rod Lee and DJ Chris J. But this one takes the sample onto some whole other shit that I can't even really describe, it's awesome.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Pierre, KW Griff, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What)