Kane Mayfield is leaving Baltimore for a while after his show at the Metro Gallery this weekend, and I premiered a new song from a CD he gave away at the show, "Dream Killers," on Noisey.

Labels: Kane, Noisey

In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I wrote a big feature about Kane Mayfield and his debut album, The Return Of Rap, which just came out. I've known Kane and followed his music for years now and it's great to hear him put out a record worthy of his talent and get a chance to tell his story.

Also wrote The Short List and a new BPM column with news about DJ Technics, TT The Artist, Rod Lee, and more.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, BPM, DJ Technics, Kane, Rod Lee, TT The Artist

I wrote about Kane Mayfield's new three-part song "A3C" on the Baltimore City Paper site.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Kane, magazines/newspapers, Mania Music Group, Noise

This week's Baltimore City Paper has my hip-hop column Rap Sheet, with news about Los and Kane Mayfield, and a list of AllBmoreHipHop.com's top 5 most downloaded mixtapes of 2012. Also wrote The Short List as usual.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Kane, Los

I put a post on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog about Kane Mayfield's Rhymes By Kane: Thievery Corporation Edition.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Kane, Mania Music Group, Noise

This week the Baltimore City Paper publishes its annual Big Music Issue, and my story in it, Knights of the Round Robin, is about the 5th annual All Rap Round Robin that will be taking place on August 19th at Floristree. I attended the show the last two years and am really excited about the additions to this year's lineup, could be their best yet. For the story I spoke to Height, OOH, Jones, Mickey Free, The Plural MC, King Rhythm and members of Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group, Disturbed Individuals and AK Slaughter (and the concert will also feature PT Burnem, Rapdragons and Secret Weapon Dave).

(photo by Frank Hamilton)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper, Brown F.I.S.H., Height, Kane, magazines/newspapers, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Soul Cannon

Kane Mayfield f/ Jahiti - "F.I.S.H. Bowl (live at Mobtown Studios)" (mp3)
My friends at Mobtown Studios have been doing monthly 'microshows' for the past couple years where they have a local artist come into the studio and perform a special set for a small audience, and the studio records the performance and makes it available for free online. The latest one was the Kane Mayfield Microshow, for which the Mania Music Group rapper assembled a live band and did new arrangements of a whole bunch of his songs. The performance culminates in an epic rendition of Brown F.I.S.H.'s "F.I.S.H. Bowl" with Jahiti himself sitting in with the band, which I thought was really cool since last summer when I wrote an article for the City Paper about Baltimore summer jams, that was the song Kane picked to talk about.

Labels: Brown F.I.S.H., Kane, Mania Music Group, Mobtown Studios, mp3

Labels: Al Great, flyer, Greenspan, Gypsy Soul, Kane, Mania Music Group, Ottobar

Labels: Eden's Lounge, flyer, Kane, Mania Music Group, Ron G.

Jade Fox - JFK MIxtape Vol. 1: Eternal Flame

Recently I was going through some old magazines I’d had stuff published in, and found the late 2006 issue of Mic Life Magazine in which I had an article on Jade Fox. That was the first time I met her and heard an advance version of her album, Ashes Of Another Life, which was eventually released in 2007. And it just kinda blew my mind to realize that was 4 years ago, because Jade Fox has stayed pretty active since then, playing a lot of shows and keeping up her presence online and occasionally leaking new tracks, but this new record she just released is her first new full-length project in all that time. It's got mostly original production, but it definitely has a mixtape feel in the sense that it's longer and has a lot of guests, including Kane Mayfield, the Unstoppable Nuklehidz and Chyna Doll. I do miss the cohesive feel of Ashes, which had no guest rappers and pretty much the same production team for the whole album, but hopefully it won't take another 4 years for her to drop another proper album. Jade Fox's release party for the mixtape is this Friday at Sonar.

Jade Fox f/ Naomi - “Vision” (mp3)
This track features a sample of Jeff Buckley’s “Dream Brother” and is produced by Tytanium, who produced another track on the album that samples Bjork, so I’m guessing Tytanium was an angsty teenager in the ‘90s (as was I, which is why I recognize the samples).

Labels: Jade Fox, Kane, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Unstoppable Nuklehidz

Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Jump" (mp3)
Kane Mayfield - "Poor Georgie" (mp3)
In the last few months since Mania Music Group dropped their first official album, Welcome To The Audience, the crew's been back to work on the first round of full-length solo albums from the label's four MCs, and it's looking like in 2011 Kane's coming with his album first, with Midas up next with his album American Graffiti. Kane's lead single is actually one of his solo cuts from Welcome To The Audience that I guess he wants more people to hear or take a second look at, and Midas just recently leaked out his first new song, "Jump," which is real high energy and vaguely familiar, I think he might've performed it last time I saw Mania live.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mp3

Mania Music Group - Welcome To The Audience (Mania Music Group)

I was thinking when I reviewed Mania's show at the Windup Space recently that I haven't really listened to this album much since the release date, when I finished writing my piece on it for Splice Today. So I had to really come back to it a few weeks later and see how it's aging for me. I'd say it's definitely missing some of the elements I loved on Mania's earlier mixtapes and EPs, all the weird genre exercises and more humorous moments may not have necessarily made for their best music, but it contributed to an overall loose, spontaneous feel that this album is missing a little bit. Plus the really good material makes the lesser songs pale in comparison; for instance Midas's "U Might Think" is such a revelation that it makes his more upbeat solo tracks feel kinda lightweight and less interesting. So at this point, I'm kinda more interested to see how these guys do with their solo albums, and wish there were more collabs on this. But this still has some pretty dope songs, easily one of the best Baltimore releases I've heard this year, guest appearances by Eze from Soul Cannon and Greenspan, and you can check it out on Band Camp.

Rapman Ron G - "Rock n Roll" (mp3)
This track is just crazy, Ron tends to come off kinda mellow and in control and do pretty chill midtempo songs, so it's great to hear him just rip into probably the hardest beat that Headphones and BeaLack have ever made, this is the kind of song that might win over some people that haven't really gotten into Mania yet.

Labels: Greenspan, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Milly July, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron G., Soul Cannon

This month on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog, I wrote live reviews of Soul Cannon/The Get Em Mamis/Mania Music Group @ the Windup Space, the Nels Cline Singers @ the Black Cat, Smashing Pumpkins @ Rams Head Live, and Tortoise/Jason Urick @ Sonar.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Noise, Ron G., Soul Cannon

Labels: flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Ron G., Soul Cannon

Correction: show date has been moved to July 3rd.

Labels: flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Ron G., Soul Cannon

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

Mania Music Group - Welcome To The Sound Check EP (Mania Music Group)

Originally, Mania Music Group was set to release their new album, Welcome To The Audience, in March, but they decided to push it back a few weeks, and instead issue this 8-track preview EP, with a few songs from the album along with some bonus remixes. As with most Mania releases, it tries to showcase all the MCs on the label evenly, with Midas and Kane and Ron G. and new signing Milly July each getting a solo cut and most of them appearing together on posse cuts. The "Stevie's Wife" joint I posted a while back is on here, and it's generally more on that tip than soft stuff like the "Love Thang" single. I was already looking forward to the album but this is a nice little primer, should be interesting to hear how the whole thing shapes up. However, I wouldn't blame you for just waiting for the full LP, since the bonus freestyles aren't super essential. Lately a lot of the chatter around Mania has been regarding rumors about Midas, and if you really want to talk about or follow that, Chin-Yer's My Baltimore Diary blog recently had a post including her interview with Midas on the topic, along with footage of his battle with A-Class that fueled a lot of that talk. I'm not really into gossip, though, so I'm just gonna keep talking about the music. You can download this EP at Mania's Band Camp page.

Mania Music Group - "Beamer Benz or Bentley" Freestyle (mp3)
It's kinda cool to hear these guys all on the beat from a current mainstream hit, since they don't do that real often. It's kind of depressing to hear Midas and Kane spitting fake Drake lyrics on their verses, though (you know, that Young Money style where they just say something, then pause, then say a related phrase, instead of stringing it together as a metaphor or simile -- I call them 'grocery bag lines' because of that one part on "BedRock"). Midas's line in that style made me laugh, but still, it's a pretty terrible trend.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron G.

Mania Music Group f/ Kane Mayfield, Rapman Ron. G and Eze Jackson of Soul Cannon - "Love Thang" (mp3)
This is the first single off of Mania's new album, Welcome To The Audience, and you can also stream the song on their Band Camp page. There's a release party for the album at Always Dope on March 16th, and the record will be out officially on March 23rd.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, mp3, Ron G., Soul Cannon

Labels: Always Dope, Brakefast Records, flyer, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Red Maple, Ron G.

Mania Music Group f/ Kane Mayfield, RapMan Ron G., Dappa!!! Dan Midas and Milly July - "Stevie's Wife (Goin' In Part 2)"
Here's a track from Mania Music Group's forthcoming album Welcome To The Audience that serves as an introduction to the label's newest signing, Milly July.

Labels: Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mp3, Ron G.