Sean Armstrong and E Major - LOUDER! (Under Sound Music)

This is an EP that came out last month featuring two artists from Under Sound Music paying tribute to J Dilla by rapping over a few of his beats. I know it's kind of sacrilege to not totally worship Dilla these days but he was always just a good producer among many to me, nothing more, nothing less, so I like the way this is kind of a small, straightforward project with guys just grabbing beats they like and flowing over them. You can download it on the Under Sound band camp page.

E Major and Sean Armstrong - "Aquarius" (mp3)
Good choice of a beat here that was originally used on a Common track.

Labels: E Major, mixtape/album review, mp3, Under Sound Music

Labels: E Major, flyer, Ottobar, Soul Cannon

Here's E Major's latest video for "Feature Presentation" featuring Cynthia Hawkes, off The Major Major Mixtape on Under Sound Music.

Labels: E Major, Under Sound Music, video

E Major f/ J Hill and King Mez - "Where You Came From?" (mp3)
Here's the lead single from E Major is… Better Than Yours, a new EP dropping soon. E Major did the beat himself (with cuts by DJ Face) and I'm impressed, I didn't know he could produce like that.

Labels: E Major, mp3, Under Sound Music

E Major f/ Tia - "Taking Over" (mp3)
It's only been a couple months since The Major Major Mixtape dropped and here's already some newer music from E Major, produced by Ms. Tris Beats.

Labels: E Major, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats, Under Sound Music

This week is the Baltimore City Paper's annual 'Sizzlin' Summer' issue, and I wrote a fun piece that's kind of a playlist of local summer jams. I talked to folks like DJ Booman, E Major, Shaka Pitts, PenDragon, Kane Mayfield and members of Kadman, Jumpcuts, Rapdragons, the Art Department, the Cameron Blake Band and the Out Of Your Head Collective, and they picked songs by Wye Oak, LMS, Skarr Akbar, the Annexx Click, Junkers, the Get Em Mamis, Rhinovirus, Billie Holiday, Celebration, Sri Aurobindo and Brown F.I.S.H. We've even got a player on the CP site where you can stream some of the songs.

(illustration by Alex Fine)

Labels: Annexx Click, Baltimore City Paper, Brown F.I.S.H., DJ Booman, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Kane, PenDragon, Rapdragons, Shaka Pitts, Skarr Akbar

Sean Toure' - "My Time" (mp3)
E Major f/ Hezekiah - "Nuthin' Nice (Sean Toure' Remix)" (mp3)
Sean Toure' has a free record called the Remix Project up on his Band Camp page, a little project in advance of his official album Soundchanneler, The Invisibleman dropping this Summer. It's mostly remixes of well known songs by national artists, but he also includes some remixes of Baltimore artists like E Major, and his own solo track "My Time," which is from 2006 and has been floating around for a long time and is really good. I'll be honest, though, I think it's kind of a waste to use all these beats for unsanctioned remixes of mainstream tracks, Baltimore rappers should be lining up to buy these tracks from Sean.

Labels: E Major, mp3, Sean Toure

E Major - The Major Major Mixtape (Under Sound Music)

E Major has really matured into an artist to watch in the last few years, first with the Major General Mixtape, where I feel like he kinda got out of the typical underground rapper box and used some different kinds of beats, and then with the Majority Rules album, which really flowed well as an album and had a good variety of different sounds and topics. And this new mixtape is probably up to par with those, although to be honest I might not be as interested in it because it doesn't really seem to represent any new step forward like those releases did, it's just kinda some new tracks. Also, that "Unheard" song he dropped a few months ago, which at the time was tagged as being from this mixtape, isn't on here, and really I think E spit better on that song than anything that actually made it onto the tape. This been out since last month, but the release party is at this Tuesday's Always Dope, since the original date was postponed because of the blizzard, and you can download the whole thing on Band Camp.

E Major - "The Major Major Intro" (mp3)
In a way this track is aptly titled because it's really more than intro, more like a full on 4-minute song, E Major really kinda tells his story on this one and I think it's better than a lot of the song songs on the tape.

Labels: E Major, mixtape/album review, mp3, Under Sound Music

Labels: Always Dope, Brakefast Records, E Major, flyer, Red Maple, Under Sound Music

Wordsmith - Overdue & Underrated (HipHopDX/2dopeboyz/Coast 2 Coast/Frostwire)

Wordsmith is headlining Always Dope this Tuesday, so I thought I'd post about his mixtape that dropped late last year that I'd posted the single "Braggin' Rights" from a while back. I'm not always crazy about Wordsmith's records, sometimes they just feel kind of dry and clinical and he's generally not good at hooks. But I'm really digging this one, so far the songs I'm liking the most include "You Never Know" and "Half Bar Half Amazing" and "Beast In The Trunk," just really consistently good beats on this project. You can download it at 2dopeboyz.

Wordsmith f/ Kontact, Black Knight, Gripz, Greenspan, E Major and Sean Toure - "Baltimore Nights" (mp3)
One of Wordsmith's previous mixtapes had a Baltimore posse cut I posted that also featured some of the same MCs, but I think this one hangs together and works better as a song. E Major just dropped his new mixtape, Greenspan has one coming this month, and I'm forever waiting on that Sean Toure album that I think could turn out really great.

Labels: E Major, Greenspan, mixtape/album review, mp3, Sean Toure, Wordsmith

Labels: Ab Rock, Club Reality, DJ Booman, E Major, flyer, Sean Toure

Last week in the City Paper, Michael Byrne did a singles round-up of tracks by Rapdragons, Jonny Blaze, E Major and Scottie B.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, E Major, Jonny Blaze, Rapdragons, Scottie B.

E Major f/ Substantial and Dre Beloved - "Play2Win" (mp3)
Here's a track from The Major Major Mixtape, which E Major and Under Sound Music are dropping in a few days. Michael Byrne has a story on E Major in the City Paper this week, and the release party is at Always Dope next Tuesday.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, E Major, mp3, Under Sound Music

Labels: Always Dope, Brakefast Records, E Major, flyer, Red Maple, Wordsmith

Labels: E Major, flyer

Over on my other blog, Narrowcast, I recently posted a list of the 20 best shows I saw in 2009, and the Baltimore hip hop artists on the list included Height, Mickey Free, AK Slaughter, Rapdragons, P.T. Burnem, Kane and Midas and Ron G. of Mania Music Group, Minlus McCracken, Jade Fox, Wordsmith, Soul Cannon, Si-Notes, Shy Lady Heroin, the Get Em Mamis and E Major.

Labels: AK Slaughter, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, Jade Fox, Kane, lists, Mania Music Group, Midas, Minlus McCracken, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Ron G., Soul Cannon, Wordsmith

E Major f/ Kane Mayfield and DJ Blak Majik - "UnHeard" (mp3)
This is what the fuck I'm talking about, E Major reaching out to Mania Music Group for a grimy new single with Kane on the mic, DJ Blak Majik on the cuts, and BeaLack and Headphones on the beat, really kinda surprised me how vicious they both got on this. Listen to E Major's first verse, I love that line "noone's selling records so how the fuck we sellin' out?" Everyone in this town that's jumping on bandwagons and dickriding trends as if it's gonna make them famous needs to hear this shit and sit and think for a minute. Brandon also wrote about this song on No Trivia.

Labels: E Major, Kane, Mania Music Group, mp3, Under Sound Music

Labels: A-Class, E Major, flyer, Greenspan

This is "Make It," E Major's second video from his excellent 2008 album Majority Rules, directed by Aaron Keeny.



And here's the video for "Paper Runnin'" by The Demonstrators (E Major's new group with DJ Impulse), directed by Garrett Guidera.

Labels: E Major, video

Labels: E Major, flyer, Under Sound Music, video