Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio Vol. 4 (DJ Radio)

The 5th installment of the Street Radio series (there was a Volume 2.5 in there for some reason) comes about 3 years after the last one, and it seems like the series coming back after such a long dormant period is all part of the big push that Architects has been making behind AllBmoreHipHop.com and all the releases being pushed through there. And it seems like they're going at this all the way since the next volume is already being put together. This has kind of a good mix of familiar and unfamiliar names, has a few songs I've posted here like Bossman's "Break Me Off" remix, Ogun's "Go Long," and Mullyman's "Bmore Go Harder", and tracks by Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, Barnes, EJ, NOE, Heavy Gold, Banga Bill, and a lot of other folks I haven't really heard before or much. It's kind of a hodge podge, as any various artist mixtape will inevitably be, but some good tracks on here, some people I might have to check out based on this. There's two tracks with "swagg" in the title, which I should probably consider a good thing given how many more there could've been. You can download it, and the previous Street Radio mixtapes, on allbmorehiphop.com/architects.html.

Dave Da Barber - "I'm So Baltimore" (mp3)
I remember seeing 1st Fam perform this at the Black Hole a while back and it went over really well.

Labels: 100 Grandman, 1st Family, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Banga Bill, Barnes, Bossman, DJ Radio, EJ, Heavy Gold, Mullyman, NOE, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Street Radio

Heavy Gold - If Not Me Then Who? (Foreva Musik/Mid-Atlantic Mafia)

I wrote a City Paper feature on Heavy Gold about a year and a half back, when he was briefly signed with Epic Records. Since then he's been still grinding independently and doing shows, though, and this is the first mixtape I've heard from him in a minute. I'm kinda hot and cold on this one, some tracks he's just flowing like crazy and sounds really hungry, sometimes I just feel like it's on autopilot and I keep tuning out. Still, good guy, good to hear him still doing his thing. Some of his older songs like "Drug Dealer" and "Murder And The Dope" are on here, along with a lot of new material. The cover art's by Skarr Akbar.

Heavy Gold f/ C4, Kota and Mr. Green - "It's OK" (mp3)
This posse cut with I guess some dudes from Heavy's crew is really my favorite track on the mixtape, great beat and great vibe even if everybody's verse isn't totally on point.

Labels: Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar

Here we go, WHOLE LAAAAAT:

11. Diablo - "Jail Flick" (mp3) - August 16, 2005
12. D.O.G. f/ Blaq Starr - "Ryda Gyrl" (mp3) - June 26, 2006
13. Rod Lee - "Dance My Pain Away" (mp3) - June 2, 2005
14. Comp - "Whole Lat" (mp3) - February 13, 2008
15. Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3) - May 19, 2006
16. Ogun f/ Che'Rae - "My Life" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
17. Bossman - "Dat Night" (mp3) - February 4, 2005
18. DK - "A Part Of History" (mp3) - March 21, 2006
19. Heavy Gold - "Charm City" (mp3) - February 16, 2006
20. Labtekwon - "Uhnnn Huhnnn" (mp3) - August 29, 2005

Labels: Blaq Starr, Comp, D.O.G., Diablo, DK, Heavy Gold, Labtekwon, lists, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Rod Lee

Labels: B.O.M.B., Black Hole Rock Club, Brown F.I.S.H., Comp, flyer, Heavy Gold, Hots, Huli Shallone, Ogun, Savage Da Beast, Skarr Akbar, Tha Profitt

Brown F.I.S.H. - Bootleg III: F.I.S.H. & Friends... The Mixtape

Brown F.I.S.H. is a pretty important group in Baltimore hip hop that I feel like I've never really given enough coverage to on here, partly because a lot of their activity predates this site (I remember seeing them open for Black Sheep way back in '02). Plus, they're really deep into a whole different side of the scene (roots reggae and slam poetry and live R&B bands) that I'm not as into, although I totally respect what they do. In 2006, they did a special invite-only show called "F.I.S.H. & Friends" that was basically an unplugged performance with no sound system and a lot of special guests. I remember getting the invite but I wasn't able to go for some reason or another, and kept hearing how great it was afterwards. Now, there's a DVD full of footage of the event, which looks like it was a lot of fun, and this album/mixtape/compilation-type CD, which basically compiles a lot of remixes and collaborations the group recorded from 2004 to 2007, along with some performances from that show. There's just a lot of jams on this, including all-star remixes of "45" and Golden Seal's "Sistahs Pimpin'," and guest appearances by D.O.G., Symantyx, Greenspan, Heavy Gold, B-Fly, C Love, EJ, and Skarr Akbar.

Brown F.I.S.H. f/ Symantyx and Greenspan - "Cry Baby" (mp3)
Symantyx and Greenspan are two of the new Baltimore MCs who I've been the most impressed with in the past year or two, so I feel like Brown F.I.S.H. are really watching the scene and taking notes when they put both of them on a song like this. OOH has a line on here about how Brown F.I.S.H. was pissed when they didn't get a trading card back when City Paper did them, and I didn't really decide who got one or who didn't at the time, but I have to admit, that was definitely an oversight, Brown F.I.S.H. should've gotten one.

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., C Love, D.O.G., EJ, Golden Seal, Greenspan, Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Symantyx

This week in the City Paper, I wrote a feature about Gearie "The Grench" Bowman of Sleepin Giant Media, a Baltimore music video director who's been making some really impressive videos over the past year. I've posted some of his work on Gov't Names in the past, including Heavy Gold's "Drug Dealer," 100 Grandman's "Take It 2 The Top," and Bossman's tribute to K-Swift, "I Wonder." You can see them all on Sleepin Giant's YouTube channel, along with other videos for Tim Trees, DG2 and WildOutCamp, and above is the video for D.O.G.'s "Emergency" that literally landed in my inbox just this morning. I feel that this guy's work really speaks for itself, his videos just look great, especially for the budgets and types of artists he's working with. I get a lot of inquiries from people that make videos and DVDs who want press, and I usually brush them off because that's not really my area of expertise, I'm really only interested in music usually, but these Sleepin Giant videos are so good that I sought them out to write about them, so I hope people see how much they need to step their game up visually to compete around here.

Also in this week's paper, I review Changeling, which had its moments but was pretty much a wash.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Bossman, D.O.G., Heavy Gold, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Sleepin Giant Media, Tim Trees, video

EJ - The Westside Hustle (Carnigie Records/DJ Radio)

EJ is a guy that I've always been impressed by, from the first time I saw him perform at an Ogun event a few years ago to when he won Super Style Warz, which is why I put him high on my most anticipated of 2008 list of Bmore MCs I hadn't heard solo projects from but wanted to. So I was happy when EJ called me up earlier this summer hyping up his new mixtape, and he was really giving me the hard sell and acting like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and he should be on the cover of the City Paper and this and that. And it ain't really like that, but it's still pretty good, one of the better mixtapes I've heard this year, so I gave it a review in the paper this past week. It also features guest appearances by Skarr Akbar, Heavy Gold, XO, and others.

EJ - "Same Ole Thing" (mp3)
This is a song that I quoted and talked about a bit in the review, and it's still one of my favorites, really shows another side of EJ.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, DJ Radio, EJ, Heavy Gold, magazines/newspapers, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, XO

In the past month I've finally started occasionally taking photos to accompany some of my posts on the City Paper's Noise blog at http://noise.citypaper.com (with asterisks next to posts that include pictures by me). My latest posts included: The Club Beat with Dirty Nation Entertainment, Teop with Mullyman (pictured above), Comp, Skarr Akbar, Little Clayway, Huli Shallone, Heavy Gold, Al Great, SL Danga and 1st Family @ Sonar*, 2 Time Quitters, Raspberry Campaign and Engine @ the Ottobar*, Pearl Jam and Ted Leo @ the Verizon Center, and "Weird Al" Yankovic @ Pier Six Pavilion. I also spent last weekend doing a lot of festival coverage: night 1 of Whartscape with Matmos, Nautical Almanac, Ultimate Reality, Mark Hosler of Negativland, Leprechaun Catering, Blue Leader, Ben Heresey and Missoula Oblongata @ the Charles Theatre and Artscape with Dru Hill, Mario, Joan Jett, Mike Doughty, the Oranges Band, Blaq Starr, and what would end being the last time I'd get to see DJ K-Swift (R.I.P.) spin.

(photo by Al Shipley)

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Comp, Dru Hill, Heavy Gold, Huli Shallone, K-Swift, Little Clayway, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, Noise, Ottobar, Skarr Akbar, Sonar, Teop

Tha Profitt - B-More's #1 White Boy (Profitt Productions)

Last year, this kid Tha Profitt sent me three of his mixtapes, and I wrote about the one that was the most recent at the time, Baltimore Entrepeneur, and a few months later saw him at the BMore Vibe mixtape release party, where he put on a crazy energetic live performance. I came across this CD at I guess another show a while back, but hadn't really taken the time to listen to it or think about writing about it, until I heard from Tha Profitt last week, and he told me that he just dropped a double CD from his group project, and a new solo mixtape that he's sending me soon. So I was like shit, this guy's work ethic is impressive, I gotta go write about this last CD before the new ones reach me. And actually, almost half the songs on here also appeared on Baltimore Entrepeneur, including the guest appearances by Skarr Akbar, Ogun, Ray Lugar and Heavy Gold, I guess because this CD was a little freebie that he was giving out at shows and leaving at clubs, which is how I got it. But there's 30 tracks, so there's still a lot of new music on here, including a collab with Comp, and most of the repeat songs are dope enough that I can understand him wanting to use them again. Check out Tha Profitt's MySpace page, which lists a bunch of upcoming live dates at Sonar and the Black Hole Rock Club.

Tha Profitt f/ Skarr Akbar - "Give 'Em Somethin'" (mp3)
I know Skarr hosted his new mixtape and they've got some more material together that I'm looking forward to, because this song is ill. Congrats to Skarr on all the radio play he's been getting by the way, support from 92Q for him is long overdue.

Labels: Comp, Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Ray Lugar, Skarr Akbar, Tha Profitt

N.E.K. - N.E.K. All Day Part 1 (One Up Entertainment/N.E.K.)

Only a few months after Bossman and Dollars released the End Of Discussion / The Overdose double mixtape, the North East Kings are back with their first group mixtape together under the N.E.K. name since Charm City's King way back in 2004. I like the whole Orange & Black Tour thing they've been doing with their live shows lately, the whole crew along with other respected local MCs coming together. This has some of the more recent Bossman tracks that have been out the last few months like "Flush 'Em" and "Far Too Long (Jena 6)", along with a lot of collabs and tracks by Dollars and Tony Manson, and guest appearances by TestMe, Kay-Star and ex-N.E.K. member Heavy Gold. Bossman has a new song on his MySpace page with Scola called "Ghetto" where they're both biting that T-Pain style with the Autotuning, but it's kinda catchy. Bossman's also been in the news lately over an incident over St. Patrick's Day weekend in Fells Point in which he's claiming police brutality, which was covered recently in the Baltimore Sun. N.E.K. All Day Part 1 is available now at The Sound Garden.

Dollars - "Mouths 2 Feed" (mp3)
This song as deep as hell, you really gotta listen to this one. He could always flow, but this is the first song I've ever heard from him where he really gets personal and heartfelt like Bossman did on his first album. I might like this and his other new solo cuts, "No Surrender" and "Grind 'Til We Shine," more than anything on The Overdose.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Bossman, Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, One Up Entertainment

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

It's been a while since the last time I did a DVD post, but I've gotten some lately, so let's talk about 'em a little bit:



Even A Man Can Do This is a documentary about the women in the Baltimore hip hop scene, artists or otherwise, directed by Civil Jones. It's been in development for a while now, I talked about the film a bit in my article on the same topic, Ladies First, in the City Paper last year, but now it's done and I got a copy a few weeks ago. Actually, there's a scene at the very end where Civil Jones shows the article and shouts me out and gives a plug to Government Names, so I appreciate that. The film is just one hour long but covers a lot of ground, and features appearances by G.E.M., C Love, Ms. Stress, ShellBe R.A.W., B-Fly, Ms. Tris Beats, Jade Fox, and Golden Seal, among others. One of the most impressive things about it is in addition to the female director, pretty much everyone behind the scenes on the project is a woman: Amotion from Deep Flow did most of the camera work, and the score was all by female producers Ms. Tris Beats and Reina WIlliams. My favorite part of the movie is the footage of Symantyx's set at the 5 Seasons show, I was really impressed by her that night and that performance is the main reason I check for her music now.



Baltimore Real Talk Volume 3 is the third (duh) DVD from County from Little King Entertainment, and I know he went through a lot to get this one finished. I think he was supposed to have it done almost a year ago and then he got arrested while filming outdoors and there was a whole situation with him getting equipment confiscated and losing footage and having to work on it some more. But he finally got it done, and obviously he had no shortage of footage because this thing is 3 hours long. In my opinion, that might be a little too long, because even though I know and listen to a lot of these artists and am interested in the subject matter, some of the individual segments could've been edited down to be much shorter and more to the point. He still got some great stuff in here, including appearances by Los (who spits a great freestyle), Heavy Gold, NOE, Comp, Barnes, D.O.G., B.O.M.B., M.O.L.
Bigg Patch, and Mullyman.

Paused In Time is a documentary about Baltimore hip hop that I got contacted to do an interview for a while back. At the time they said it was gonna be a DVD, but since then I guess they decided to release it on their YouTube site in 8 or 9-minute 'webisodes,' and I guess the whole thing will be out on DVD at some point later. So far 4 webisodes have been posted, and my interview hasn't been in any of them yet, but that's alright since I don't really feel like I said anything interesting, maybe they should hit me back and try to get me to say something more substantial or opinionated than what I gave them before. Anyway, here's what's up so far:

webisode 1 featuring Beat Box:



webisode 2 featuring Comp:



webisode 3 featuring Komplex:



webisode 4 featuring Bossman and Ty Gudda:

Labels: B-Fly, B.O.M.B., Barnes, Bigg Patch, Bossman, C Love, Comp, D.O.G., Deep Flow, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Golden Seal, Heavy Gold, Jade Fox, M.O.L., Ms. Stress, Ms. Tris Beats, Mullyman, NOE, ShellBe RAW

This week, the results of the 2007 Idolator Pop Critics Poll were published, and as a regular contributor to Idolator, I voted in the poll (see my ballot here) and put together an 80-minute mix CD for the accompanying 2007 In The Mix package. I wasn't sure what to write about for my mix, and had a few different ideas, but I'm glad I went with Baltimore music, since I'm sure anything else would've had a lot in common with some of the mixes the 30-something other writers made. My tracklist and essay about the mix are here, but I'm gonna go ahead and post mp3's of the whole thing here (since I've already posted most of these songs, or other songs by the same artists, on my blogs in the past year anyway):

1. The New Flesh, "Squeeze"(mp3) (from Vessel, Heartbreakbeat)
2. Avec, "In Character"(mp3) (from Lines, Civil Defense League/Doghouse)
3. Wye Oak, "Obituary"(mp3) (from If Children, Morphius)
4. Thrushes, "Ghost Train"(mp3) (from Sun Comes Undone, Birdnote)
5. Mario, "Skippin'"(mp3) (from Go, J)
6. Ckrisis, "Down For Whatever"(mp3) (from Muscle Up Vol. 2, Bird City Entertainment)
7. Bossman, "So Fresh"(mp3) (from End of Discussion, One Up)
8. Ogun ft. Che'Ray, Comp, Backland, Little Clayway, Skarr Akbar &
Bossman, "Just Us"(mp3) (from Bmore Hero, Real On Purpose)
9. Young Dip, "D.T.T.W.C."(mp3) (from You See Me?, IMP)
10. Jade Fox ft. Eva Castillo, "Got 'Em Like"(mp3) (from Ashes of Another Life, self-released)
11. Ace ft. Billo, "Slow Ya Speed"(mp3) (from The Product, For the People Entertainment)
12. Silouette, "Chicken Box"(mp3) (from The Best of B-Ill: Chapter 1, Banga Bill Enterprises)
13. Tyree Colion, "Projects"(mp3) (from Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip, Darkroom Inc.)
14. Heavy Gold, "Charm City"(mp3) (from Tha Testa, Stay Gettin' Entertainment)
15. Height ft. Bow N' Arrow, "Smash Your Eyes"(mp3) (from Winterize the Game, Grand Man)
16. DJ Blaqstarr, "Crazy Leg Wit It"(mp3) (from The King of Roq, JB Starr Productions)
17. Rod Lee, "Enjoy Yourself"(mp3) (from The Producer, Unruly)
18. KW Griff, "Taking Over"(mp3) (from K-Swift the Club Queen Jumpoff Vol. 11, Doo Dew Kidz)
19. Say Wut, "Futuristic"(mp3) (from Beats Extraordinaire EP, Unruly)
20. Dan Deacon, "Jimmy Joe Roche"(mp3) (from Spiderman of the Rings, Carpark)
21. Cex, "Oregon Ridge"(mp3) (from Sketchi, Temporary Residence)

I kind of grouped the mix into genre sections, from indie rock (tracks 1-4) to R&B (track 5) to hip hop (tracks 6-15) to Baltimore club (tracks 16-19) to IDM or whatever it should be called (tracks 20-21). Track 3 is by a band who was called Monarch when I made the mix, but in the month since then they've changed their name to Wye Oak and signed to Merge Records, which is reissuing their great album in April. My full list of top Baltimore albums of 2007 is over at Noise.

Labels: Backland, Baltimore club, Billo, Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, For The People Entertainment, Heavy Gold, Jade Fox, KW Griff, mp3, Ogun, Rod Lee, Skarr Akbar, Tyree Colion

D.O.G. - The Feeling - Bring It Back (Clinton Sparks/Invisible Set Entertainment)

It's been over a year since D.O.G. signed with Universal Records, and for a while there was that depressing lull that tends to happen after cats sign with a major, where you don't really hear anything out of their camp for a while and you wonder if anything's really gonna happen. But slowly he's been making noise again with a new official website and this new mixtape in the last few months. And his MySpace page says he's got a new project dropping December 21st called G-Pack Music, I think that's a group with his brother, Jon Boe, so he's definitely still grinding. There's a lot of dope guest appearances on this tape, including UnReal, J-Funk, Nik Stylz, Roxi from G.E.M. and ShellBe R.A.W. Plus there's a couple old bonus cuts, the "Ryda Gyrl" remix with Yung Joc and Blaq Starr, and Skarr Akbar's "I'm So Fly" remix with Bossman and Barnes and Heavy Gold.

D.O.G. f/ Huli Shallone and Los - "Get Money" (mp3)
This is really one of the dopest Baltimore posse cuts I've heard all year that wasn't a remix of someone's solo song, 3 dudes who are each individually well known in the city but represent their own seperate movements, dope beat and hook sampled from "Throw Some D's." They all sound good on this beat but Los's verse really kills it. Supposedly Los just dropped a new mixtape of his own over Thanksgiving, I still need to get a copy of that somehow.

Labels: Barnes, Blaq Starr, Bossman, D.O.G., G.E.M./Tha Plague, Heavy Gold, Huli Shallone, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar, UnReal

This month on http://noise.citypaper.com, I interviewed DJ Mic Marvelous for my Baltimore club column. And earlier this month, I reviewed a whole mess of local hip hop shows: Tonio, Shadina, TestMe, Skarr Akbar and Jade Fox @ the Latin Palace, the first night of the "Show Me What You Got" MC competition @ Sonar (whose winner, Only, is opening for Redman at Sonar tomorrow), the Elements Party Street Level Podcast release party @ Turntable Club w/ E Major, Soulstice, Bishop, Ogun, Unstoppable Nuklehidz, Jade Fox (again), A6 and Sonny Redds, the Orange & Black Tour @ Fletcher's w/ Bossman, Skarr Akbar (again), Heavy Gold, TestMe (again), Caddy Da Don, Pikesvillain, Mind, ESQ Locution, Unstoppable Nuklehidz (again) and Jade Fox (again and again) @ the Local Highrise, and the Bmore Vibe magazine/mixtape release party @ 5 Seasons with Rogue, Amotion, UnReal, Tha Profitt, B.O.M.B., Ms. Stress, and others.

Labels: 5 Seasons, B.O.M.B., Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Bossman, Heavy Gold, Jade Fox, Ms. Stress, Noise, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Sonar, Turntable Club, UnReal

Heavy Gold - Tha Testa (Forever Musik/Stay Gettin' Entertainment)

In the past couple months, I've posted an announcement of Heavy Gold's signing to Epic Records and written a City Paper feature about the dude. But I still hadn't gotten around to posting a little something about his current solo mixtape, Tha Testa, which is available as a free download on DatPiff. It's a cool low key mixtape from right before he got signed, lotta freestyles, a few original beats from Forever Musik and from Stay Gettin', and Kuntre from SGE hosts the disc (by the way, Stay Gettin' is still working with Cam'ron, and produced 2 tracks on the Public Enemy #1 mixtape he released last week, "Why They" and "Callette," which are tracks 2 and 13 on the first disc). There's also guest appearances from Tony Bosco (another MC signed with Stay Gettin') and the "I'm So Fly" remix with Skarr and Bossman and D.O.G. and Barnes and all them. Heavy Gold also did an interview with hiphopgame.com recently, and he's performing at the big Bossman show at Fletcher's this week.

Heavy Gold - "Who Dat" (mp3)
This is Gold's single, might be the first song that Epic puts some official promotion behind, it's catchy and has a good concept, I think Stay Gettin' did the beat.

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, D.O.G., Heavy Gold, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar, Stay Gettin'

Labels: Bossman, flyer, Heavy Gold, Hots, Ogun, Skarr Akbar

Architects Recording Studio presents ARS Re-Loaded (DJ Radio/A.R.S. Entertainment)

It's been over a year since the last installment of the old ARS mixtape series with DJ Radio, Street Radio, but it looks like they're rebooting with a whole new series to go along with their new building that Architects moved into earlier this year. Ogun's now on their team on the behind the scenes side, as well as being an artist on their roster, which is a good look, and he's got a new song here along with that "I Get Money" remix. There really haven't been a lot of various artist mixtapes in Baltimore rap this year, and it's good to get a really high quality one here, mostly new music by D.O.G., Mr. Wilson, A-Ma-Zon (a kinda dope song with Sean Kingston), Dollars, Nik Stylz, Unreal, and Profound, who's got a new mixtape dropping soon.

Caddy Da Don f/ Tim Trees, Huli Shallone, Los, Skarr Akbar and Bossman - "Whole City Behind Me (Remix)" (mp3)
2007 is pretty much the year of the all-star posse cut here in Baltimore hip hop, and I love it, I hope it continues through 2008 and beyond. There's really no reason everyone in the scene that matters shouldn't be on a track with each other. Caddy Da Don's been on a few of these already, so it's only right that he's got one of his own, now, a remix of his single "Whole City Behind Me." I dig that it runs through all 6 verses in only 3 minutes, too, no messing around or dragging it out. Caddy Da Don has another track on this mixtape, where he actually does a song to the "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" beat that B-Banks played at the Beatman Battle II a few weeks ago, which is kinda hilarious to me, but he makes it work.

Labels: Architects, Bossman, D.O.G., Heavy Gold, Huli Shallone, Los, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees, UnReal, XO

About a month ago, when it was announced that Baltimore rapper Heavy Gold had been signed to Epic records, I put up a big Gov't Names post with the news and a bunch of mp3's and YouTube links. This week, I've got a big feature on Heavy Gold in the City Paper, I think it came out well, he came of as a real humble dude. He's performing at a Team Fifty event this Friday, and I'll probably post about his mixtape Tha Testa on GN sometime soon.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Heavy Gold, magazines/newspapers

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, Heavy Gold, Ray Lugar, Team Fifty