I wrote a post on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog about The Gritty Gang's new song "Pacquiaoed."

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Gritty Gang, Noise

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, Comp, flyer, Gritty Gang, Savage Da Beast, Shaka Pitts

Labels: A-Class, Brakefast Records, flyer, Gritty Gang, Minlus McCracken, Sonar, Tayland Promotions

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, flyer, Gritty Gang, Shaka Pitts

Si-Notes - Cash On Delivery (Gritty Gang/ARS Productions)

The past couple years I've been paying attention to Si-Notes as one of the newer female MCs in Baltimore to watch, good guest spots on NOE and Gritty Gang mixtapes and performances at Sonar and the Black Hole. But this is my first time finally hearing a full length solo project from her, and while as usual I'm tempted to complain about all the freestyles and relative lack of original production, but there's a good beat selection and she's definitely got some flows and some charisma. Architects and Ogun executive produced this and Skarr Akbar did the artwork. The song "Going Down" with Chyna Doll, Cash and Shy Lady Heroin that I posted a few months ago is on here, and there are also guest appearances by Caddy Da Don, Mykeey and others. You can download it on allbmorehiphop.com.

Si-Notes - "Throw Dat Money Up" (mp3)
This is cool, pretty anthemic track.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Gritty Gang, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Shy Lady Heroin, Si-Notes

Gritty Gang - Block Work featuring Gritty Gang (DJ Jabril)

Allbmorehiphop.com and DJ Jabril released the first mixtape in the Block Work series, with Barnes, a few months ago, and now the second volume is the third release from the supergroup Gritty Gang, who previously released mixtapes in 2006 and 2009. Ogun, as usual, is kind of the ringleader, and his DJ Excel-produced single "Ever Since I Saw You" is on here, but in general the focus is on expanding the Gritty Gang family, with some artists that were involved from the very beginning (Skarr Akbar, Rockwell, XO), some that first appeared on last year's mixtape (Sonny Reddz, Kuan, Talal, Barz), and some more that are new to the fold with this release (Blue, Maintain, Rico Hopes and others). I can't say I love every track on here, and some of the newer artists I don't really have a feel for yet or have much of an opinion on, but I like where they're going with this, kinda building two franchises at once with this tape. You can download it at allbmorehiphop.com/grittygang.

Q Gutta & Si-Notes - "Never" (mp3)
Big thanks to DJ Jabril for shouting out my name and plugging Gov't Names at the beginning of this track, which conveniently also happens to be one of my favorite songs on the mixtape.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Block Work, DJ Excel, DJ Jabril, Gritty Gang, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Si-Notes, Skarr Akbar, XO