The Get Em Mamis - TerAwesome (RCRD LBL)

When I posted about G.E.M.'s The Road To TerAwesome mixtape last month, I said that it really raised my expectations for the album it was an appetizer for, but to be honest I really didn't expect to see the album this soon. A lot of times when people do teaser mixtapes for albums, they're just stalling and take forever to drop the real album (I have D.O.G.'s 'prequel' mixtape from 4 years ago for an album that still hasn't dropped). So it was really a pleasant surprise last week when I got word that they went ahead and released TerAwesome as a free download on the RCRD LBL site, which is really a good look that will help it get heard by a lot of people. And I'm really happy to say this album totally lived up to my expectations, these girls have come a long way since that first mixtape as Tha Plague a few years ago, they've really stepped up the lyrics and developed an ear for beats and songs. "Soul Talk" and "The Champ" are my favorites right now but it's all pretty good, the only song I don't really like is "ManiacMusic Pt. 1," which has a really cheesy rock guitar loop. It's got 10 new songs in addition to some familiar singles like "Cold Summer" and "Rock Wit Me," Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman and Mania Music Group contributed beats, Kelly Connelly took the photo for the cover, and Lynee' Michelle is featured on one song. Also, I have to be a grammar nerd and point out the cover's mixtape of saying that TerAwesome is a noun but is a combination of "terrific" and "awesome," which are both adjectives.

The Get Em Mamis - "Alpines Kickin'" (mp3)
As good as these girls are at party tracks, it's really cool to hear them do a kind of no-nonsense hardass cruising song like this where they're just flowing like crazy over a nice slow beat.

Labels: Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Lynee Michelle, Mania Music Group, mixtape/album review, mp3

The Get Em Mamis - The Road To TerAwesome

It's funny, I've been writing about these girls for like 4 years, back from when they had a 3rd member and were called Tha Plague, but I never actually met them until a few weeks ago, outside Sonar at the Paused In Time release party. And they were really just hilarious, I think they were more excited to meet me than vice versa, which is ridiculous. Their set that night was really good and reminded me that I hadn't sat down yet to listen to their latest mixtape, which is a appetizer for their upcoming official album (I have no idea what TerAwesome means). The mixtape has 6 tracks with Darkroom Productions (including "When U See Us" from The Wire's soundtrack and last year's popular single "Cold Summer"), as well as the club-flavored "Your Boyfriend Do" produced by DJ Excel and "Roc With Me" produced by DJ Booman. And if you heard their freestyles from last year's "Cold Summer" campaign some of those are on there. Really this holds together about as well as an album and really raises my expectations for their LP. The City Paper ran a review by Michael Byrne last month, and you can download the mixtape at G.E.M.'s MySpace. Their Twitter is also really entertaining, although I'm still not gonna give into the peer pressure from them to get one myself.

The Get 'Em Mamis - "They Joc'n" (mp3)
This is one of the Darkroom tracks, I dig that string sample or whatever it is.

Labels: Baltimore club, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Wire

A few weeks ago I posted about a couple new Get Em Mamis songs, "Work" (produced by Darkroom Productions) and "Rock Wit Me" (produced by DJ Booman), now there's a video out for both songs, which was directed by Mr. Gray of 7/8 Productions and looks pretty great. Caught this over on 41yo.com.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, G.E.M./Tha Plague, video

Labels: 5 Seasons, Annexx Click, battle, Darkroom Productions, flyer, Shaka Pitts, YoTrakz

The Get 'Em Mamis - "Work" (mp3)
Here's a new G.E.M./Darkroom Productions collaboration that there's apparently a video in the works for. There's another new Get Em Mamis track, "Roc Wit Me" produced by DJ Booman, that's been getting a lot of attention out there lately, too, on 41yo and the Fader blog.

Labels: 41yo, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mp3

The Get Em Mamis - "So Crazy" (mp3)
G.E.M.. and Darkroom Productions just leaked their latest collaboration, and considering how many year-end lists their last one "Cold Summer" have appeared on in the last couple months, it seems like people are really loving their sound right now and are hungry for more, so this tracks should go over well. Sam Sessa at the Baltimore Sun recently ran a new article on Darkroom.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, mp3

The Get Em Mamis are featured in the current issue of Baltimore Magazine, and their Darkroom-produced single "Cold Summer" was listed in both Rolling Stone's 100 songs of the year and Fader Radio's year end best-of show.

Labels: Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, lists, magazines/newspapers

Today in the Baltimore Sun there's a story by Sam Sessa about Amotion and Deep Flow Studios. Sam called me up and quoted me for the article, since I've interviewed Amotion myself a couple times, and there's also quotes from Juan from Darkroom Productions.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, Internet radio, magazines/newspapers

OK, here's another random links post of stuff I've been meaning to put up on here:

- Metromix Baltimore has an interview with Labtekwon about his new album Di Na Ko Degg, which I haven't heard yet but is supposed to be really good. Thanks to Rob for the link.

- I didn't catch this until recently, but the April issue of The Urbanite had a really good Baltimore club article by Stephen Janis, which included interviews with Rod Lee, Shawn Caesar and Scottie B. As many club music features as there have been over the years, this is by far one of the best and most insightful and accurate I've seen.

- DCtoBC.com is now doing a monthly online DMV mixtape series showcasing hip hop from the whole D.C./Maryland/Virginia area. They asked me for some contributions to represent Baltimore a while back but I didn't wanna submit other peoples' music without their knowledge so I'm just throwing it out there for folks to take the initiative themselves. The August edition had a Blaq Starr track and the September edition had XO and Articulate, but in general there's not nearly enough Baltimore stuff on them so hopefully there'll be more to balance out the Washington stuff on future editions.

- Jamal Roberts of Darkroom Productions now has a blog, and he's been writing some good stuff about music and posting Darkroom tracks here and there.

- Brandon Soderberg posted a Ron Rico track on his blog a little while back.

- DJ Adam Gonzo recently sent me this zshare link for a dance music mix he did a couple years ago, which features a few Baltimore club tracks by DJ Technics, Debonair Samir and DJ Frie, among others.

- Here's a Bossman interview on YouTube where he speaks on K-Swift and some other topics.

- A couple I know has an adorable daughter named Lily, and here's a YouTube video of Lily dancing to Rod Lee's "Can I Rock" that cracks me up.

Labels: announcements, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Darkroom Productions, K-Swift, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, Rod Lee, Ron Rico, Scottie B., XO

Greenspan - Got Green? (Federal Reserve Music Group)

This week I reviewed a couple local discs in the City Paper, including this one by Greenspan. I wrote about him in Noise a couple times last year and noted that he has "one of the tightest live shows in the city," and earlier this year I included him in my Gov't Names 20 Most Anticipated of 2008 list of artists that I hadn't heard a full length release from but really wanted to. So I was definitely primed for this album/mixtape, and I was not disappointed at all. I pretty much explain why in the review, so you can read that, or just listen to it on DatPiff.com. This dude can really just flow his ass off, he needs to get his props from people here who care about that sort of things. I could make my usual stock complaint that I wish there was more original beats and fewer freestyles, but it's whatever, this is dope and I'm sure Greenspan's capable of making a real album. The CD features a guest appearance by Paula Campbell, production by DJ Booman, samples of Blaq Starr and Ogun, and drops from Darkroom Production (Greenspan had a dope song on Hamsterdam 2), Ahk from Strictly Hip Hop and Vicious V.

Greenspan - "Playing Dead" (mp3)
I referenced this track in the review, which is a freestyle over "The Turn" a song by M.I.A. that was produced by Blaq Starr. It's funny how things have come full circle lately; three or four years ago, I was so sick of this girl M.I.A. that a bunch of other rock critics worshipped and thought was gonna be this big crossover star on urban radio, and to me her music sounded like bad videogame techno with awkward vocals and terrible lyrics and had none of the appeal of the American genres she was influenced by, including hip hop and Baltimore club. But suddenly, this summer, her song "Paper Planes" is in a big movie trailer, climbing up the charts, and getting remixed by a different mainstream rapper every week or so. And even here in Baltimore, where I thought the only people feelin' her were the same kind of hipsters feelin' her in most other places, suddenly it feels like she's crossed over; you've got Greenspan doing this version of one of her songs (there's also a clip of her song "World Town," which jacks the hook from Blaq Starr's "Hands Up, Thumbs Down," on Got Green?. And before DJ K-Swift passed away, I'd heard her spin the M.I.A. song "Boyz" both at Artscape and on 92Q, right in the middle of a Baltimore club set, and it actually sounded alright to me.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Blaq Starr, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, Greenspan, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Paula Campbell

Labels: Darkroom Productions, flyer, Los, The Wire

It's been a while since I did a post full of short news items and links, but here's some interesting stuff:

- Baltimore Club Classics Vol. 1, the first in a series of vinyl reissues that came about as a result of my Government Names post that Crosstalk was looking for club music vinyl, will be available soon, and I have an interview with Dukeyman on Noise about the record. Soon there'll be more records in the series by Diamond K, DJ Technics, K.W. Griff, DJ Chuck, DJ Class, K-Man and others.

- OkayPlayer.com has a favorable review of E Major's Majority Rules.

- Yet another magazine did a scene profile of Baltimore, this time Blender, which talks about Blaq Starr, among others (link via Midnight Sun). There was also a post on the Rolling Stone blog that went a little more in-depth than the article in the magazine and features audio of the Ogun and G.E.M. singles off of the forthcoming Darkroom Productions album. Michael Byrne also wrote a reaction to the Rolling Stone piece on Noise, and Brandon Soderberg wrote a reaction to the Baltimore zine in XLR8R on his blog, No Trvia.

- The Fader blog had a recent throwback post about DJ Technics' The Main Event EP.

- The Chavy Boys Of London, the new side project by Scottie B., Sean Caesar and King Tutt, was featured in a recent City Paper article by Michael Byrne about side projects by Baltimore musicians.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Darkroom Productions, DJ Technics, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, Noise, Ogun, Scottie B.

I just saw, via Midnight Sun, that Rolling Stone magazine's Best of Rock 2008 issue is out, and the city of Baltimore is featured as the Best Scene. Since it's obviously a rock magazine and a "best of rock" list, there's only a couple local hip hop mentions, for Deep Flow Studios and Amotion, and Darkroom Productions and their work on The Wire, who were both also featured in a previous RS issue in 2006.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, magazines/newspapers, The Wire

G.E.M. aka Get Em Mamis had a premiere party at 5 Seasons on Saturday for the video for their collaboration with Darkroom Productions, "When You See Us," from Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire, and the video is now up on YouTube. Juan Donovan from Darkroom said in an e-mail a couple months ago that the video would be aired on 106 & Park and MTV Jams, but I don't know if/when that's going to happen. G.E.M. have also released their single from the Darkroom Productions album due out in June, it's called "Cold Summer" and it's on their MySpace page. And they've been getting some press lately, with an interview on Baltimore music website Aural States, and in the new issue of The Fader, which you can download as a PDF file. They're featured on page 64 (page 34 in the PDF) and page 146 (page 76 in the PDF).

Labels: 5 Seasons, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, The Wire, video

The new issue of XLR8R on newsstands now, the April issue with Bun B on the cover, has a big supplement about Baltimore music that a bunch of people from around here, including myself, were asked to participate in. It's not technically part of the issue (which means, unfortunately, that it's not part of the downloadable PDF of the issue available on the XLR8R website), but rather a pull-out sponsored by Converse, printed on newspaper like an old-school zine and included in the bag the issue comes with. The magazine's editor, Vivian Host, spent a few days in Baltimore back in January, meeting up folks like Labtekwon, Scottie B., Blaq Starr, Rye Rye, Death Set and others, and photographer Paul O'Valle took pictures, and put some more from the trip up on his own site.

The piece I helped with for the zine, "mixtape madness," is basically just me talking about a bunch of local hip hop and Baltimore club mixtapes. I was approached by XLR8R about this project not as a writer but as an interview subject, which I was apprehensive about just because I like to be a behind the scenes guy and I think it's a little silly for a blogger to be featured like any kind of celebrity, noone needs to see my ugly mug in a magazine. Plus, there was a whole controversy a few months ago about a few Baltimore musicians' images being used without their permission in a different pull-out ad thing in XLR8R, which made me a little wary. But I decided it was an interesting thing to take part in, and as it turned out they didn't use any of the photos they took of me (it was dark outside so maybe the pictures didn't come out well, but either way I'm fine with that). It's just credited to "Government Names," not Al Shipley, but the address for the blog is plugged in there and it's kinda cool to have it be more in the informal, zine-y style they were going for. The mixtapes I spotlighted and talked about were: Skarr Akbar and DNA's The Epidemic, Architects Recording Studio and DJ Radio's ARS Re-Loaded, Ogun's Bmore Hero, Darkroom Productions's Hamsterdam Vol. 2, Say-Wut's Club Chronicles: Level 1, DJ Mic Marvelous's Deja Vu, and Bossman's End Of Discussion. Also, I got a nice new pair of Converse for participating.

On a related tip, last year Tony Ware e-mailed me some questions related to being an mp3 blogger that I answered for a thing he was doing for XLR8R. But I kinda forgot to check if that ever came out, and just realized that the piece, MP3 Blogs: Musical Democratization, has been on the mag's website for 6 months now, and includes a couple quotes from me.

Labels: Architects, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Darkroom Productions, DNA, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, NSW (Say What), Ogun, Scottie B., Skarr Akbar

Blaq Starr, Ogun and Hots - "Repitition" (mp3)
I see Ogun out at shows all the time, but this week I just ended up hearing a lot of new music from him. The Fader blog posted "Money Talk," one of the singles from the Darkroom Productions album dropping in May that posted about recently, and it's a fucking banger. Ogun himself e-mailed me this new track with Blaq Starr and Hots, which is a pretty interesting lineup, I've never heard any of these 3 guys on a song together and I don't think I would've expected it until I heard it. I like it, though, not Baltimore club at all but more in the same vibe as the slower hip hop beats on Blaq Starr's last couple mixtapes like "Swagga Back," and it's nice to hear some different kinds of rappers over his beats instead of the usual Next Level kids. And there's also several new tracks on Ogun's MySpace, including a couple I've seen him perform live lately ("It's Alright" and the "Flashing Lights" freestyle with Rockwell) and a couple that are new to me ("Best Alive" and "Ride" with XO and Rockwell). I believe Ogun has said he's doing to drop another mixtape and a new album this year, and I hope that's true, because his new material is sounding pretty damn good.

Labels: Blaq Starr, Darkroom Productions, Hots, mp3, Ogun, XO

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

On Friday, I wrote a piece for the City Paper's Noise blog about the latest news on Darkroom Productions' Hamsterdam - The Album, which now has a May 27th release date, with national distribution via Koch Records. And, as you can see above, Darkroom is also featured in a big piece about Baltimore music in The Wire in the current issue of Vibe Magazine.

Bigg Patch - "Spine" (mp3)
Juan Donovan mentioned in a recent e-mail announcement that several singles from Hamsterdam - The Album will be out in March, by Ogun and TestMe and G.E.M. One of those singles, however, from Bigg Patch, is already available on last year's Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip (originally under the title "Put That Dick Up In Her Spine"). It was one of my favorites on that mixtape, dope Pimp C sample on the hook, so I think it's a good look for this new project. Between this and that "Diamond Don" joint I posted a while back I'm feeling Bigg Patch's music lately. Darkroom's MySpace page has another one of the album's singles, "Beautiful Bitches In Bad Neighborhoods" by Diablo.

Labels: Bigg Patch, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, mp3, Ogun, The Wire

various artists - Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire (Nonesuch Records)

You already know what it is. I've been hyping up this album, and its companion piece, The Wire: " … and all the pieces matter", and updating you every step of the way from the original announcement to the official tracklist to my in-depth City Paper feature on the album. I posted a lot of these tracks on this blog when they were first released on local mixtapes, including all-time favorites like "Dance My Pain Away" and "Jail Flick" and "That's Da Sound" that I consider some of the best records to come out of Baltimore in recent years. In fact my only real complaint about this album is that it's too short. But the fact that Blake and The Wire's people made this a special release in addition to the regular soundtrack is more than I ever would've asked for or expected (plus, as I've said before, I'm thanked in the liner notes, which is awesome and a big deal to me). It's been out since Tuesday, and if you haven't bought it already, buy it this week. Although, if you only buy one of these 2 CDs, I might say buy the other one, since it has more music, a nicer package, and it has a better chance of charting on Billboard next week (right now at #73 on Amazon's music sales chart and climbing).

Ogun f/ Phathead - "What You Know About Baltimore" (mp3)
This track appeared on Hamsterdam Vol. 2 and I believe is due to appear in one of the episodes in the 5th season of the show, but I've never posted it here before. Great low key track, really honest about the city's situation but also determined to make it better, a theme that's always run through Ogun's lyrics, and I'm really glad they got him involved in the project, since I think of him as kind of the epitome of a hard working underground Baltimore MC.

Labels: Baltimore club, Bossman, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, Dirty Hartz, DJ Technics, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, One Up Entertainment, Rod Lee, The Wire, Tyree Colion

One of my colleagues at the City Paper, Robbie Whelan, wrote an article for the Maryland Daily Record about Darkroom Productions and the deal they just signed to release a nationally distributed album this year, and I am one of the authorities quoted in the article. The Wire soundtracks, which feature 4 songs produced by Darkroom, are out tomorrow, January 8th. I've had promos since last month, but just today I got official retail copies with liner notes and everything, and it was a real thrill to see my name in the thank yous at the end of both booklets. Go buy one or both of them this week! Go to the store, log onto iTunes, whatever! Seriously, don't make me beg!

Labels: Darkroom Productions, magazines/newspapers, The Wire