Two weeks ago, I appeared on Strictly Hip Hop on Morgan State's WEAA 88.9 FM as part of a panel discussion to come up with a list of the 20 greatest MCs of all time. I tend to be a little apprehensive about these supposedly objective rankings of musicians, but the conversation turned out to be really fun and edifying, and the ten MCs we decided on for the #11 through #20 spots came out as a really solid list. So I'm looking forward to this Friday, when we reconvene for the second half of the list and hammer out a top ten. If you're in the Baltimore area, tune in between midnight and 5am, or listen online.

Labels: announcements, Internet radio, Strictly Hip Hop

Tonight I'm going to be a guest on Strictly Hip Hop for the first installment of a 2-part panel discussion about the greatest MCs of all time. If you're in the Baltimore area, tune in to 88.9 FM between midnight and 5am, or listen online.

Labels: announcements, Internet radio, lists, Strictly Hip Hop

various artists - The Best of Deep Flow Radio presents... Fed Up (Deep Flow Studios)

This 16-track CD was based on the simple concept of taking songs that had gotten 4 of 5 star ratings on DeepFlowRadio.com and compiling them on one CD. The little tweak on the concept that Amotion decided on, however, was to cram 60 songs into the hourlong compilation, with several songs on each track, organized by artist, with folks including TestMe, Young Hustlers and Dynamic Compositions. And I can see why that seemed like a good ambitious idea, but personally for me, it's the reason I found Fed Up to be a really unpleasant listening experience. I hate listening to snippets of songs, hearing 30 seconds or a minute of a song and then it cutting off just as I'm getting into it -- if it was a DJ mix and it was all blended together in some graceful way maybe it would work, but here it's just abrupt every time and there's no groove. A lot of times it's just oddly selected portions of freestyles, too, so you just get a few seconds of someone ad-libbing over a radio song, which is not exactly a great showcase for the artists. I feel bad saying this, because I think Amotion really thought this was a good idea and was eager to get feedback when she sent it out, but I think this was a big mistake and it's just not lister-friendly at all. The title is kind of wrapped up into a theme with a lot of the artists talking about what they're fed up about at the beginning of each track, but usually the music has nothing to do with that.

LP f/ Mooda (mp3)
LP is a female rapper who I saw perform at Melodic Mondays last week and I was really impressed by her set. Haven't been able to find a MySpace page or any more info about her online, though. As with the other tracks, this is just excerpts of several different songs, so it doesn't have a title.

Labels: Deep Flow, Internet radio, mixtape/album review, mp3, TestMe

Shaka Pitts is putting together this list of top Baltimore songs, they're currently accepting submissions and I'm gonna be one of the panelists. I don't know if there are any deadlines or anything yet, but I hope there's a good turnout and we get a great list, because I'm gonna be embarrassed if we get sent a bunch of bullshit and have to pretend that's the best Baltimore has to offer. Apparently people can also nominate artists, who will be asked to submit a song, too, so if there's someone you think should be included, feel free to throw their hat in the ring yourself:

BALTIMORES TOP 50 SONGS

Here's your chance to decide Baltimore's top 50 songs!! Send a labeled mp3 to top50@spittsmcman.com

Please
send the song name/artist name/producer name, and the studio or
engineer who recorded/mixed the song. the file should look like this

song name_artist name.mp3

The submissions will be listened to by a panel of 12 people consisting of
media, artist, music professionals and music lovers. 9 of the panelist
will be from the Baltimore metro area and 3 will be from other states.
The top 50 will be uploaded to www.spittsmcman and narrowed down to the
top 10. The top 10 will be aired on a special show of Real Talk With Spitts Mcman.
The artist of the the top 10 songs will get an on air interview with
Spitts McMan and automatic consideration for participation in shows
with national acts @ Ram Head Live. All genres of music is welcome!!
..
Shaka Pitts
aka
SPitts McMan
The Voice Of Baltimore Hip Hop
www.spittsmcman.com

Labels: announcements, Internet radio, lists, Rams Head Live, Shaka Pitts

Labels: Internet radio

Labels: Internet radio, Shaka Pitts

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

Labels: flyer, Internet radio, Shaka Pitts, Turntable Club

The City Paper's 2008 Best Of Baltimore Issue is out today. The categories I selected winners for and wrote blurbs for this year are:

Best Summer Jam: Mullyman's "Party Walk"
Best Local Album: Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From "The Wire"
Best Female MC: Symphony of G.E.M.
Best Male MC: Ogun
Best Hip-Hop DJ: P-Funk
Best Beatmaker: DJ Booman
Best Club DJ: Scottie B
Best Club Music Producer: Say Wut
Best All-Ages Space To See Bands: Charm City Art Space
Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop: 5 Seasons
Best Local Music Blog: Aural States
Best Radio Show for Local Music: The Internet
Best Auto Repair Shop: Central Service And Repair

There were also a number of winners I had nothing to do with that I fully approve of, including Best Upgrade: Wye Oak, Best Song: DJ Excel's "That's What A Pimp Does", Best Excuse To Stay Home: The Baltimore Taper, and Best Band Website: Whatever Doesn't Crash Our Browser. And then there's the reader poll, which gave out awards to a whole different set of winners, including Sonar for Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop, which should make P-Funk happy since he already gave me an earful about the fact that he would've rather had the club win an award than himself. Congrats to all the winners, hopefully each of you got your invites to the party in time and that I'll see you there tomorrow.

Oh, and I have a review of that shitty movie Righteous Kill somewhere in the back of the paper this week, I don't see it on anywhere online, though.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, DJ P-Funk, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Internet radio, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Ogun, Scottie B., Sonar, The Wire

Labels: flyer, Internet radio

Labels: Internet radio, Wordsmith

HELP US CELEBRATE 1 FULL YEAR ON THE AIR
Tuesday :: AUGUST 19th @ 9:00PM -

SPECIAL GUEST BALTIMORE'S OWN NOE!
Fresh off of his classic appearance on B.E.T's Rap City and XXL interview Byrd Gang Member "NOE " will be the featured guest of our anniversary special. Also we will open up the phone lines 646-716-9030 for the grand daddy of all cyphers starting at 10pm. Listen live and chat live from your computer by going to www.thespittersclub.net . We go live at 9pm est. keep in mind that if you are not near a computer at that time you can also listen to the show through your phone by calling 646-716-9030. Thank you for all of your support through out the last year.

-Shaka Pitts-
Spitts Mcman
The Voice of Baltimore Hip Hop

Tuesday :: AUGUST 18th @ 9:00PM - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOE Interview on "Real Talk With Spitts McCMan"
www.thespittersclub.net

Labels: Internet radio, NOE

Labels: Baltimore club, flyer, Internet radio

Labels: 1st Family, flyer, Internet radio

Labels: flyer, Internet radio

Labels: flyer, Internet radio