Back in August, I drove up to New York to see the Boiler Room's Baltimore club music webcast. Now, the Baltimore Club Special is online, with footage of the DJ sets from that night is online, and the accompanying feature article I wrote. Check out the sets from Rod Lee, DJ Technics, Scottie B., James Nasty, and Mighty Mark & TT The Artist.

Labels: Boiler Room, Debonair Samir, DJ Technics, James Nasty, Mighty Mark, Rod Lee, Scottie B., TT The Artist

Mz Streamz - It's Alive (Milkcrate Records)

Mz Streamz is a young female MC from Baltimore, I think she's only 19 or 20, but she's been working with Debonair Samir and Aaron Lacrate and getting a lot of publicity lately. You might have heard her on their Club Crack album last year or you might have heard the remix of her single with Skarr Akbar, or you might have seen her in the Baltimore Sun or at last year's Queen of the Mic battle. But she finally released her first mixtape this year, and although I think she's got a decent flow, I'm not totally sold on her, she comes off a little anonymous. And, like Bret McCabe noted in his City Paper review, the pacing and variety of the mixtape is a little over the top, going from hip hop beats to Baltimore club to Go-Go to '80s pop to Miley Cyrus and back, and while she's versatile enough that she can rap over pretty much all of it, you don't get much sense of her, and her personality, whatever it is, gets overwhelmed. I always say I like fast-paced mixtapes that don't let you get bored, but I feel like I finally heard a counterexample that convinces me that it's possible to go too far over the top, because this CD is kind of exhausting to listen to, there's no breathing room between tracks and it just gets annoying after a while, plus you've got Fatman Scoop yelling over it all.

Mz Streamz f/ DJ Class - "Fo'real" (mp3)
This is a cool collab, as usual Class makes dope tracks.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Class, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mz Streamz

It's been about a month since I hit my Kickstarter funding goal for my book, Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music, but I just wanted to post a quick reminder that the official site ToughBreaksBaltimore.com will continue to be a source of updates about the book and about club music in general. In the past few weeks posts have included thoughts on Debonair Samir's new single, a comprehensive overview of my freelance writing about Baltimore club prior to beginning work on Tough Breaks, links to video of Scottie B. at Whartscape and the Washington Post article by Chris Richards about 92Q and Baltimore Club, and other posts about events and media. I'm still kinda slow going with it so far, but eventually I hope the site will be as much a resource for Baltimore club as Gov't Names has been for Baltimore hip hop, and will be posting about new music more frequently soon, so keep checking for new posts.

Labels: 92Q, announcements, Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, Scottie B., Tough Breaks

Mullyman - wiRemix Volume 3: I Go Harder Edition (DJ Booman/Major League Unlimited)

You already know the deal, Mullyman's been dropping music at a crazy rate for the past year or so and these mixtapes are really more of a review or look back at what he's had out than really new music in and of themselves. That's not a bad thing at all, since it's good to have all these tracks collected somewhere, but it also means by the time the mix is out it's all old news to me and I don't get as excited about it. If you're not on his or Booman's mailing list to get the latest tracks, though, this is really worth checking out. Some of the songs on here that I've previously posted include "I'm All About It" featuring Smash and Mully's version of DJ Class's "I'm The Ish,", along with old tracks produced by DJ Booman, Banga Bill and Debonair Samir. It's available for download at allbmorehiphop.com/mullyman.

Mullyman - "Imma Be More" (mp3)
The tracklist to this mixtape says this track was produced by DJ Booman, but I think that's a typo, because when the track was first e-mailed out in March it was supposedly produced by Mbah. Either way, hot track.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore club, Banga Bill, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Class, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Smash

Rod Lee - Vol. 4 - The Pressure (Club Kingz Records/Morphius Urban)

The Pressure is the last of Rod Lee's first four albums that were part of Morphius's reissue program, originally released independently in 2004 (or maybe 2003? not sure) and then pressed up by Morphius last summer. I wrote about the other three already, and I'm still not totally sure which one is my favorite, but they're all good and this is no different. It's got over 30 tracks and is crammed full of club classics, half of which are Rod Lee's own tracks and half of which are by producers like K.W. Griff, DJ Class, Dukeyman, Scottie B. and others.

Debonair Samir - "Lil Egypt" (mp3)
This is one of my all-time favorites that I always forget the name of or who produced it, so I was happy to be reminded when I went back to listen to this mix again. If you were listening to club DJs 5 years ago, you definitely would recognize this track. The sample is The Coasters, who also did the song "Charlie Brown" that was remixed as a Baltimore club staple by Samir, so it's kind of like a companion to that track.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Class, KW Griff, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rod Lee, Scottie B.

Lynee' Michelle - Love, Lynee' Michelle (Arsonist Camp Entertainment)

Last month I linked to my City Paper feature about Baltimore R&B singer Lynee' Michelle, but it occurred to me I hadn't gotten around to dedicating a post to the abum she released in February or posting any music from it. She's signed to a local rap label, Arsonists Camp, and the album has some hip hop flavor from G Major and Nick Soprano, as well as some Baltimore club flavor from DJ Booman and Debonair Samir, but otherwise it's just a solid modern soul album. It's available now on CDBaby.com.

Lynee' Michelle - "Slow It Down" (mp3)
This is the Booman-produced song and it's probably my favorite on the album, has kind of a club feel but also some parts in a slower tempo and is just a catchy track.

Labels: Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, G Major, Lynee Michelle, mixtape/album review, mp3

All though May, it's been Club Month on 41yo, and Brandon's been posting all sorts of audio and artwork from classic Baltimore club records by Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, K.W. Griff, DJ Equalizer, Scottie B., Say Wut, Dukeyman, DJ Excel, Frank Ski, DJ Class, DJ Technics and many others. If you haven't been following it, you really gotta go catch up on it now that the month is coming to a close, a lot of amazing stuff in there.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Class, DJ Equalizer, DJ Excel, DJ Technics, Frank Ski, KW Griff, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Scottie B.

Man, I'm loving that most of the mp3s I've been throwing out for this series of posts have been getting like 30 downloads or more, makes me wonder how many people are actually grabbing every single song they don't already have, which I think would be really awesome. Maybe after it's all over next week people can start leaving comments with what their favorite songs are, which I'd like to see a lot:

31. Diablo - "Round My Hood" (mp3) - March 11, 2006
32. Debonair Samir - "Throw It Up" (mp3) - March 28, 2006
33. Little Clayway - "B-More Hip Hop" (mp3) - April 2, 2006
34. E-Nahledge - "F.W.Y.B." (mp3) - January 23, 2007
35. Paula Campbell f/ Rod Lee and Tim Trees - "How Does It Feel" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
36. Mullyman - "Party Walk" (mp3) - April 26, 2008
37. Raphael Saadiq f/ C.J. Hilton and Stevie Wonder - "Never Give You Up" (mp3) - October 7, 2008
38. N.E.K. - "Face Down (Remix)" (mp3) - June 17, 2005
39. Ogun f/ Jitter B.U.G. and EJ - "Bmore (Remix)" (mp3) - December 24, 2005
40. Born King - "Blue Lights" (mp3) - May 19, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Born King, CJ Hilton, Debonair Samir, Diablo, lists, Little Clayway, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee, Tim Trees

Skarr Akbar - The Mind Of A Maniac (Akbar Enterprize/Mid-Atlantic Mafia/Global Ent./Tommy Boy Entertainment)

It's funny, even though I go back with Skarr and see him out around town performing all the time and catch up here and there, it seems like I can never keep up with all his movements. It seems like for every mixtape of his I get there are a couple others I never hear, and I didn't even realize until I picked this one up last time I saw him at the Black Hole recently that he's now signed with Tommy Boy Entertainment (formerly Tommy Boy Records). They're not as strong in hip hop as they once were and I don't think they have a major label affiliation anymore, but it's still pretty cool for him to be with a national company with that kind of history, it'll be interesting to see if they can do anything to take Skarr to the next level, especially since "Scholarship Chick" is kinda shaping up to be his biggest single to date. This mixtape is pretty good, first half some really good original tracks and the second half mostly remixes of songs by popular artists. There's an official remix of the Mz Streamz single from the Debonair Samir Club Crack album, and Skarr raps in AutoTune on that and also on the track "She Lonely," and I dunno, don't think it's really a good look for him. But then, I think 99% of all people messing with AutoTune the last couple years sound terrible with it, including in Baltimore (with the exception of DJ Class and maaaaybe one or two other people). The Gritty Gang also makes an appearance.

Skarr Akbar - "Money On Ya Head" (mp3)
This song is tough, as long as every Skarr Akbar mixtape has a few songs like this I'll always look forward to them.

Labels: Debonair Samir, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mz Streamz, Skarr Akbar

Swizz Beatz - "I'm Cool" (mp3)
Day26 f/ Jermaine Dupri - "Need That" (mp3)
Here's a couple new signs of Baltimore club's increasing mainstream presence in 2009: a new Swizz Beatz track over Debonair Samir's classic "Samir's Theme," and a Jermaine Dupri-produced Day26 song that's unmistakably influenced by club music. Swizz ain't the greatest rapper so obviously he doesn't add a lot to the track, and "I'm cool like some ice cream with them cherries on the top" is a pretty dumb hook, but hey, it's good to know there's another hitmaker who's got club music on his radar. I asked Samir if he'd been approached about clearance to release the track officially, and he said he hadn't, so it's probably just gonna be a little mixtape track. Samir recorded the original beat in 2002, and it's been remixed countless times by other Baltimore producers (Say Wut's "Horn Theme," Chris J.'s "Chris J.'s Theme," etc.), but just in the past few months it's been used for a Claire Hux track and for a Mr. Vegas track on Samir's own B-More Club Crack album. "Need That" is on the new Day26 album that's out this Tuesday, and J.D. takes full production credit, which I guess is alright since it doesn't sound like a direct bite of any specific Baltimore track, but since he recently jumped on "I'm The Ish" it's pretty obviously he's listening to the stuff and decided to get some of that vibe himself. None of this is as exciting as Kanye on a club track or anything, but it's still pretty interesting.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, mp3

Aaron Lacrate & Debonair Samir present B-More Club Crack (Koch Records/E1 Music/Milkcrate Records)

Aaron Lacrate and his whole "club crack"/"gutter music" thing have never sat well with me, but I've kinda explained all that on this site before, so I'm not gonna get into all that too much again. But this album, which was mostly recorded 3 years ago and features a lot of dope Baltimore rappers like Tru Bill and B. Rich and J Wildz over hip hop and club beats by Debonair Samir, is pretty good, and I was really happy to hear that it was finally coming out nationally when I interviewed Samir a couple months back. The kinda breakout MCs featured on multiple tracks are Verb, who's on the single I posted a few weeks ago, and Mz Streamz, who I saw compete at Queen Of The Mic 2 recently.

Bret McCabe's City Paper review kinda summed up how I feel about the album, which is that it's good but kind of consistent to a fault, because it's just one party-oriented banger after another. It's fun and well-produced, and I especially like D.O.G.'s "Talkin' Ish," but it gets a little monotonous over the course of a CD. Plus I mainly like the older tracks from the original version of the album they made 3 years ago; the newer tracks feel a little too trendy to me with the AutoTune and "A Milli"-type beats, I think they might've tried too hard to sound current. There was an article by Rashod D. Ollison in the Baltimore Sun this week about the renewed interest in club music, centered around DJ Class and the release of B-More Club Crack. It's a good article, but I'm disappointed that it makes the same mistake as a lot of other media by focusing on Lacrate, who's mentioned almost a dozen times, and downplaying Samir, who's mentioned exactly once. This is really Samir's record and his beats, and I've never gotten the impression that Lacrate's contributions were ever really musical rather than on the business side, especially given that some of these songs were made before they even met.

Tim Trees - "F.I.R.E." (mp3)
Some of the songs on this album original appeared on local Baltimore releases by the artists, like Mullyman's "The Real Is Back" was on Industry Invasion in 2007, and Verb and J Hussein's "Post Up" was on the Dirty Hartz mixtape It Is What It Is Vol. 2 in 2006. But this one is practically ancient, and first appeared on the Tim Trees mixtape Too Gangsta For Radio in 2003 or 2004. It's kinda cool to hear it included on here, too, because I think Rod Lee's beats on the first couple Tim Trees albums were really kinda the blueprint for a lot of what Samir does on this album. Trees said in my 2005 City Paper article that this song would be on his 3rd album, but here we are almost four years later and as far as I know that still hasn't dropped, which is a shame, I was really looking forward to it. I guess it could be like B-More Club Crack and just drop outta nowhere eventually, though.

Labels: B. Rich, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Baltimore Sun, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, Dirty Hartz, DJ Class, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Mz Streamz, Tim Trees, Verb

Labels: Baltimore club, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, flyer, KW Griff, Mullyman, Mz Streamz, Tim Trees, Verb

Mr. Vegas f/ Verb - "Oh My Gosh" (mp3)
You may remember all the fanfare back in 2006 about Debonair Samir and Aaron Lacrate signing with Koch Records to release the B-More Club Crack compilation. Well, 3 years later, Koch is now E1 Music and they finally decided to drop the album this year, a couple weeks from now on March 10th. This is one of the two lead singles, and features a new version of the classic "Samir's Theme" beat with Verb and dancehall artist Mr. Vegas. My interview with Samir about the record is here and the press release and tracklist are here. The album also features Mullyman, Tim Trees, B. Rich, Dirty Hartz, Tru Bill and D.O.G.

Labels: B. Rich, D.O.G., Debonair Samir, Dirt Platoon, mp3, Mullyman, Tim Trees, Verb

My new stuff this month on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog: an interview with Debonair Samir on my Club Beat column, and live reviews of Aural States Fest @ Sonar/The Talking Head, The Baltimore String Felons/Spoke Ensemble/Matt Pless @ the Sidebar, Susan Alcorn @ The Carriage House, Tiger Hill/Rejouissance/Manson Family Picnic @ the Charm City Art Space, and Thee Lexington Arrows/The Howlies/The Dustys @ The Sidebar.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, magazines/newspapers, Noise, Sonar

Claire Hux - Jammin On The One Mixtape Mixed By DJ Scottie B. (Unruly Records)

Claire Hux is kind of a new direction for Unruly Records, not quite Baltimore club music but not-not Baltimore club either, a weird hipster rap electro dance group featuring a rapper named DLake and a singer named Symbol. DLake had e-mailed me his solo mixtape last summer, but it was more of a DJ mix with a lot of random dance music on it, and I only review releases that are all Baltimore shit on this site, so I never really covered it here. Symbol fronts a rock band called Hot Magic, who I reviewed a show by a few months ago, and I thought they were pretty cool. I also saw Claire Hux at Artscape later on, but I didn't really know who they were at that point. I don't really know about these dudes, though. I know bitching about 'hipsters' is some obnoxious, played out shit at this point, which is why I usually avoid even talking about the topic. But I pretty much think that mashups and H*llertr*nix-type 'eclectic' DJs have just been this cancer of corny motherfuckers that has kind of infected every level of hip hop and dance music in the past few years. And I mean, the problem with this stuff is just that it's not that good; the lyrics are on some cutesy clever shit, the hooks are cheesy, and all the good beats are jacked from somewhere else, and there's also a lotta dumb skits. I guess I can respect the fact that people are trying to do some kind of fusion of rap and R&B and dance music, but when it doesn't work as any of the above and is just this big awkward frankenstein music, I don't even know what the point is.

Claire Hux - "2 Much Dick On The Dance Floor" (mp3)
This song actually made me laugh, that's just a funny concept for the record, can't go wrong. Plus they took one of my all-time favorite Baltimore club tracks (Debonair Samir's horn theme) and just did the vocals over that.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, mixtape/album review, mp3, Scottie B., Unruly Records

Club Queen K-Swift - Jumpoff Greatest Hits, Vol. 1-5 (Unruly Records/Koch Entertainment)

So this is it: the last DJ mix that K-Swift ever recorded, shortly before her tragic death last summer. As I learned in my interview with Sean Caesar before the CD was released, she planned it as the first of three Greatest Hits albums, this one covering the first 5 volumes of the Jumpoff mix CD that were released in 2004 and 2005. It was supposed to be something she'd just release locally to Downtown Locker Rooms like her previous CDs before Unruly signed a distribution deal with Koch. But since her passing, they decided to make this the first release through the Koch deal, and it's been on Amazon and in stores around the country since the week of Christmas.

'04 and '05 represent one of my favorite eras for Baltimore club music, so it's really great to hear all these tracks collected here together: some of the best songs ever by Blaq Starr ("Tote It") and Rod Lee ("Ridaz") and Debonair Samir ("Eamon Joint") and King Tutt ("Shake My Ass" remix) and Say Wut "(Say Wut THeme Pt. 2") and DJ Class ("Next To You"), among others. Since Swift never got to record her intro and outro shout-outs for the mix, Unruly got M.I.A., the "Paper Planes" girl, to host the CD (I personally can't stand her music and think even her intros on this are annoying as hell, but whatever, if it motivates more people to buy the album then great). Blaq Starr and Rye Rye also do drops, and Squirrel Wyde does a nice little dedication, which might really be the only acknowledgment on the whole CD or package that Swift is no longer with us. At the end of the CD, they say something about future volumes of Greatest Hits, so maybe Unruly is going to have another DJ do mixes of tracks from the later K-Swift CDs.

K.W. Griff - "Pork And Swift" (mp3)
There were a couple new tracks added to the CD from what Swift mixed, and one of them is probably my favorite posthumous K-Swift tribute track, simply because it takes some samples of her and Pork Chop talking on the air on 92Q and just sets it to the beat. It's nothing real fancy, but it brings back a whole lot of memories of listening to them on the radio all those years. Plus it's good to hear her actual voice on this CD if only a little bit.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Debonair Samir, DJ Class, K-Swift, King Tutt, KW Griff, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What), Pork Chop, Rod Lee, Rye Rye, Unruly Records

The Boy Blesst - Lockdown II: In My Skin (Reign Music/DJ 5 Starr)

This is the sequel to the last mixtape I heard from The Boy Blesst, last year's Lockdown Vol. 1, which he sent to me from ATL where he's been staying lately. This has the song "Barry White" that I posted the video for a while back and some other dope new songs, although it's still largely a freestyle mixtape. The mix is really kinda bad on this, just sounds kinda cheap and muddy, but Blesst is a pretty talented, charismatic MC so his words kinda cut through the tracks anyway.

The Boy Blesst f/ Debonair Samir - "Won't Stop Rockin'" (mp3)
Samir made a banger here, nice Run DMC sample hook.

Labels: Debonair Samir, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Boy Blesst

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, flyer, Verb

Kode Street - Kode To The Streets (DJ Shakim/Love Me Or Hate Me Entertainment)

I've heard this Kode Street guy on a couple of Architects Record Studio's mixtapes over the past few years, but I never really heard more until recently when his management got in touch to send me some music, including this mixtape. They were telling me about how they're really working him in other markets and not really worrying about Baltimore, so I was kinda surprised when I got the mixtape and saw all these familiar names from Bmore on it, including guest spots by Comp, ShellBe R.A.W., Ckrisis and XO, and production by Rod Lee and Debonair Samir. The song with Rod Lee is called "Do You" and the guy who e-mailed me tried to say that Rocko jacked the song from them for "Umma Do Me," but that shit don't really sound the same and the chorus is a phrase lots of people say, I think they're kinda delusional about that. It's just a short little 45-minute mix and between all the guests I don't necessarily feel like I have a great sense of who he is an artist still, but he's got a nice flow. "If you think it's like The Wire, ni**as lyin'/ 'cause that shit don't end after no half an hour" would be a hot line if he wasn't wrong about how long an episode of the show is.

Kode Street - "Heaven" (mp3)
This is my favorite track on here, dope beat from Samir and dope to see a beat credited just to Samir with no other co-producer putting their name on it.

Labels: Comp, Debonair Samir, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rod Lee, ShellBe RAW, XO

The other day it was brought to my attention that the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies features an essay called “What Chew Know About Down the Hill?’’: Baltimore Club Music, Subgenre Crossover, and the New Subcultural Capital of Race and Space by Andrew Devereaux, which is available online as a PDF file. The piece uses The Wire and Baltimore politics as a jumping off point to discuss the origins of Baltimore club and its last few years of national exposure, and namechecks DJs and musicians like Scottie B., DJ Booman, DJ Technics, Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, K-Swift, Labtekwon and Blaq Starr. It also refers several times to things I've written, and cites the work of several writers I know (Tom Breihan, Jess Harvell, David Drake, Scott Seward, etc.), and it's interesting, if a little surreal, to see a lot of things I've written or read in the past few years put together in this kind of academic context, discussing issues like race and class and the people who've brought Baltimore club to a wider audience. I've never really wanted to be seen as a Baltimore club authority, I just remember 5 years ago there being virtually no detailed information or critical writing about it online, and wanting to do some small part to provide whatever little info I had to other people, and ending up maybe shaping a lot of discussions and impressions about it. There are a few things I could criticize the essay about (mostly minor factual errors not worth noting), but I'm glad Devereaux wrote it, and I hope it stirs more conversation on these topics, and brings people who know way more than me about the topic out of the woodwork to put in their two cents.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Technics, K-Swift, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, Rod Lee, Scottie B., The Wire