Labels: 5 Seasons, battle, flyer, M.O.L., Shaka Pitts, YoTrakz

Labels: 5 Seasons, battle, C Love, flyer, M.O.L.

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

At the beginning of the past two years, I've posted lists of my most anticipated Baltimore hip hop releases for the coming year. Inevitably, those lists were full of the best known local MCs, some of them signed to major labels, and inevitably most of those albums (in the case of last year's list, 9 out of 10) never dropped. So while I'm looking forward to independent national releases by Darkroom Productions and 410 Pharoahs in the next few months, and I'd be hyped as hell about a D.O.G. album on Universal or a Los album on Bad Boy or a Heavy Gold album on Epic being released this year, I ain't holding my breath. Instead, this list is my 20 most anticipated Baltimore MCs who I've never heard a solo project by. I might've heard them as a member of a group, or doing guest appearances, or seen them live or heard a single, or songs on their MySpace page. Some of them might already be pretty well known within the scene, or even have a solo album that I just didn't know about. But these are the people I want to hear more from in 2008, whether or not they have anything scheduled to drop:

1. Verb
2. Symantyx
3. Sonny Brown
4. Diablo
5. Sean-Toure'
6. EJ
7. Greenspan
8. Shakean Da Analyst
9. Tonio
10. XO
11. Ammo
12. Gata Shiest
13. E-Nahledge
14. Young R.O.D.
15. ONLY
16. Tony Manson
17. Street Heat
18. Dave "Da Barber"
19. Reina Williams
20. Maniak Dre

Labels: Diablo, Dirty Hartz, E-Nahledge, Kartel, lists, M.O.L., Sonny Brown, XO

Labels: B.O.M.B., flyer, M.O.L., Tha Profitt

Labels: 5 Seasons, B.O.M.B., DJ Booman, flyer, Jade Fox, Kartel, M.O.L., Ray Lugar, Team Fifty, Tha Profitt, Tim Trees

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Kartel, M.O.L., Midas, South Paw

Labels: 5 Seasons, DJ Booman, flyer, M.O.L., South Paw, Team Fifty

I've been covering some great stuff on the City Paper's Noise page @ http://noise.citypaper.com lately. I spent a day at Artscape (with Keyshia Cole and Lupe Fiasco) and Whartscape (with Human Host, Yukon, and Blood Baby), and wrote about my experiences as a panelist at the Making The Right Moves entertainment conference @ the Baltimore Convention Center (Midas also covered the event for the Elements Party site, including a picture of my looking real shitty with a stain on my shirt). I put together a playlist of Baltimore hip hop tracks available on iTunes, featuring a whole lot of good songs and different artists, I really reccomend buying that or using it to find some stuff you might like. I also went to Ogun/Skarr Akbar/Comp/M.O.L. @ Sonar, the Hip Hop Cover Show @ Sonar with UnReal, Wade Waters, Leviathan and more, Labtekwon's group The Tao of Slick w/ The Mean @ Eden's Lounge, Lexie Mountain Boys @ the Golden West Cafe, Ted Leo @ the Recher Theatre, and Goo Goo Dolls/Lifehouse @ Pier Six Pavillion. Probably the best show I've seen lately, though, was Rasputina and My Brightest Diamond @ The Ottobar, which I checked out when an old family friend, Robbie, came up to Baltimore for it, and I hung out with him and went along and it turned out to be two really good live acts I'd never seen before.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Comp, Labtekwon, M.O.L., Midas, Noise, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Sonar, UnReal

Labels: B.O.M.B., Bigg Patch, Diablo, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, M.O.L., Mullyman, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Unruly Records

Labels: 5 Seasons, Deep Flow, flyer, Kartel, M.O.L., ShellBe RAW, South Paw

Hip Hop 101/Old School Mondays
"Best Weekly Event" - Baltimore City Paper
July 16th, 2007 - Five Seasons
830 Guilford Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201 - ladies $5, guys $10

THEY CANT SHUT US DOWN.. FUCK WRONG WITCHA?

TOMORROW NIGHT!

WELCOME TO HIPHOP 101 BASH!

DUTCH BLACK
PEN DRAGON featuring TEAM ARSON
LIL RICKY
JAY REID
CANADIAN SUPERSTAR JAY EVANS
WILL STARR
M.O.L.

YUP THATS RIGHT AT THE 5 SEASONS

Hosted by Sonny Brown
Shaka Pitts
Squirral Wyde

It's going down tomorrow night at the 5 seasons 830 north guilford

$5 for the females
$10 for the males

$1 sonny brown shots
food, good music, and networking all nite long!

-Sonny Brown

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, Hip Hop 101, M.O.L., Sonny Brown

What I've been up to on the City Paper website's music blog/column thing, Noise @ http://noise.citypaper.com, in the past month or so: on the Baltimore club side, I profiled Say-Wut in the Club Beat column. On the hip hop side, I reviewed M.O.L./Comp/Kartel/Greenspan @ 5 Seasons and Mic Life Wednesday @ The Brass Monkey Saloon and Tufflon Dona/Tyreika Renee/1st Family/Comp/Ty Gudda/Sport Mills @ The Polish Home Club. And on the rock music side, I reviewed New Age Hillbilly/The New Flesh/New Thrill Parade/Wildildlife @ The Sidebar and The Deep End/Evolve @ ESPN Zone and Gary B. And The Notions/Payola Reserve/Deleted Scenes/Bellflur @ The Mobtown Theatre.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Comp, M.O.L., Noise, NSW (Say What)

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, Kartel, M.O.L.

Labels: 5 Seasons, DJ Booman, flyer, M.O.L., Ray Lugar, Team Fifty

Supa Producer Mus' and Me'Aze Millioni - Baltimore's Most Wanted: Hunt For The Best Emcee (Uniquity Productions/Jam Eazey Entertainment)

A few months ago, Musse' Mus' sent me a mixtape that I wrote about here. But already by then, his new project with Me'Aze Millioni, formerly a.k.a. Bosslady, was on the way and I'd been looking forward to that too. The first copy of it that I got was messed up, so I didn't finally get to hear it until I got another copy from Me'Aze this week, but it's nice to finally hear it. It's got some artists I heard for the first time on Mus's last mixtape (B.I.G. Status, Fort Knoxx, Mossburg), some artists I was already familiar with (Labtekwon, UnReal, M.O.L., Ms. Stress, Sonny Brown) and a few that I've never really heard before (Billy Lyve, Kardair, Lil Trife), so it's kind of a nice mix on there. Mus' just produced a handful of the tracks but there's some other good original beats on here too.

Sonny Brown - "Gingabread Man Freestyle" (mp3)
I was kinda hyped to hear this mixtape partly because Me'Aze told me that Sonny Brown shouts me out by name on it, and sure enough, he does in an ad lib during the first chorus of this track (and also on the "Sonny Brown Speaks" track that follows it on the CD). That's never happened to me before so I'm kinda geeked out about it. Thanks for that, Sonny!

Labels: B.I.G. Status, Bosslady, Labtekwon, M.O.L., mixtape/album review, mp3, Ms. Stress, Musse' Mus', Sonny Brown, UnReal

Hip Hop 101/Old School Mondays
"Best Weekly Event" - Baltimore City Paper
February 4th, 2006 - Five Seasons
830 Guilford Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201 - ladies $5, guys $10

ONCE AGAIN IT'S ON..

Crime Family
Comp
Teop
Ruff Fam
K.G.
Tufflon Donna
M.O.L.
and more special guest and surprises..

$5 for the females
$10 for the fellas

Dj Jabril on the ones and twos
Shaka Pitts (www.spittersclub.com) hosting the event

drink specials
$1 shots.. (ask for a sonny brown)
Food
lets get it in and have some fun tomorrow night..
it may be cold outside but inside it will be HOT!!!!!

-Sonny Brown

Labels: 5 Seasons, Comp, flyer, Hip Hop 101, M.O.L., Sonny Brown, Teop

Darkroom Productions presents... Hamsterdam Vol. 2 - Stash To Da Strip (Darkroom Inc.)

Darkroom Productions has been talking this up practically since the first Hamsterdam dropped and it always seemed right around the corner, all the way from before the 4th season of The Wire with their music in it ran its course til afterwards, but a couple weeks ago it finally dropped. And honestly, as press savvy as they are (with features in XLR8R and the Baltimore Sun just recently), I was always a little skeptical that they'd top the first one and live up to all the hype. And when they said it was a double CD, at first I thought they meant including the Harm City Exposed DVD that was going to be packaged with the mixtape, but the DVD got pushed back (it's now available on their MySpace page and hits the streets next week), and it turns out that there are two whole CD's of music, with over 30 original beats. And I gotta say, they really stepped up the beats and expanded their production pallette with some new sounds, good shit. A lot of the artists from the original Hamsterdam (Mullyman, Diablo, Tyree Colion, Bigg Patch, M.O.L., Ogun)came back for this one, along with a number of Bmore artists that weren't on the last one (NOE, Shakean Da Analyst, D.O.G., Barnes, Golden Seal, XO) and a few out of town cats (Maino, Sqad Up). Several tracks from the mixtape are streaming on the Darkroom and Diablo MySpace pages, and it's being sold on the Darkroom page.

NOE - "The Baltimore Way" (mp3)
Nice use of a sample of Christopher Walken from The King Of New York to set this track off. You might remember that NOE is the Baltimore cat that Jim Jones signed to the Diplomats that I posted about a year ago. The song I posted, "City Boyz," even ended up on an official Diplomats release (although, unfortunately, it was A Dipset Xmas). This is probably my favorite track that I've heard him on so far, but then, I still haven't heard his mixtape that dropped last year. Still sounds a little like Jay-Z but has his own flow and his own style to set him apart.

Labels: Barnes, Bigg Patch, D.O.G., Darkroom Productions, Diablo, Golden Seal, M.O.L., mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, NOE, Ogun, The Wire, Tyree Colion, XO

OK, the results of the poll are in! But lemme say something first.

All year, I've been trying to keep track of the bounty of Baltimore hip hop releases that the scene is churning out every week, or really every day, and anticipating the chance to try to sum up 2006 with a big list and filter all the output down to the very best. And for most of the year, I've debated whether I'm fit to make that decision myself or if I should let the public make the call. So I decided to roll the dice on democracy and let people vote, with full knowledge that it was an experiment, and I'd be lying if I said the way it went down wasn't a disappointment.

In terms of turnout, I was pretty pleased that I got over 70 votes. But only about a dozen of those were good, thoughtful ballots comprised of more than one or two albums. The overwhelming majority of e-mails I got were from voting blocs operating on the behalf of a handful of artists, who not coincidentally make up the top 5 of the list. I'm not about to change the rules or throw out votes or anything, because I think the best policy is to take people's votes at face value and count them all equally, but that's some bullshit. Waves of votes for one artist would come in all at once, presumably after the artist or a friend sent out e-mails asking them to do so, which as I said at the outset, is OK and not against the rules per se. But it was just so blatant. One guy referred to the album he was voting for as a song and hilariously thought the poll was for "the best lyrics ever spoken." And I noticed people on their MySpace bulletins, not artists themselves but people trying to help certain artists, openly encouraging their friends to vote for an album whether they've heard it or not, which really damages the legitimacy of the poll results. I always knew there was a possibility that this poll would more ably demonstrate who's got the hardest working street team than whose album was listened to and enjoyed the most. I just really hoped there were enough fans that would come out of the woodwork and make their voices heard that it would drown out the bullshit. But, it's clear that this scene still has a dearth of fans relative to the number of active artists that are out here making worthwhile music, and that's a shame.

So what I'm saying is, fuck this poll. It doesn't mean anything. And I don't mean that as any disrespect to any of the artists who won. It does irk me a little that the top album is the one I haven't heard, but I met The Homicide Rapper a while back, and he seems like a good dude (he gave me a different CD from the one that most people were voting for, but the disc was fucked up and most of it won't play in my computer), so I'm not hating on him or anyone else. But to me this all looks like a hollow victory. You could chop off the top 5 and start the list with Mully and it would more accurately reflect what people who listened to a lot of different albums liked the most (and I say that as someone who particularly liked the PX and Cutthroat albums). I'm pretty much only posting this list at all because I already put so much time in it and got so many people to participate. But because so many people felt like juking the stats, and there are just too many good releases that didn't place in this poll (Little Clayway, DK, Ray Lugar, Annexx Click, Yung Huslas, Labtekwon, Hots, Gritty Gang, Alevan, B. Rich, Ray Victory, Finacy, and so on and so on) that I can't put my full support behind the results. So I'll be posting my real year-end wrap up, which will be extremely subjective and partisan and decided by me alone, later this week. Deal with it.

Some quick notes: everything in the top 25 received at least 3 votes. Some artists putting out multiple releases ended up splitting the vote; for instance, if all of the votes for Skarr Akbar mixtapes had been for the same release, he would've ended up at #4, instead of at #10, #11, and #31.

1. The Homicide Rapper - Sweet Dreamz
2. Billo “The Hood Rockstar” - Daily Grind Vol. 2 “We Got Another One”
3. Mike Malachi - Malachi’s Way
4. Cutthroat - Words Can’t Explain It Chapter 2.5
5. PX (Parts Unknown) - Hood Therapy
6. Mullyman - Still H.I.M.
7. Dirty Hartz - It Is What It Is Vol. 2
8. M.O.L. - Money On Da Low
9. UnReal - Dat Boyz A Problem
10. Skarr Akbar - The Bidding War Stars Now!
11. Skarr Akbar - The Cerebellum: General Part Four
12. PenDragon - Revenge Of The Harm City King
13. Tyree Colion - Tyree Colion presents Hustle Hard Blvd
14. Barnes - The Last Shall Be First
15. ShellBe RAW - Do You Like It Raw?
16. B.O.M.B. - King Of Da Streets Vol. 1
17. Comp - Independence Day: Bang-A-Rang Mixtape Vol. 3
18. Bossman - BulletProof B
19. Huli Shallone - Huli Shallone
20. Midas - Pay-Per-View
21. DNA - True Crime: Harm City, Volume 5
22. Backland - Back In Business
23. Bigg Patch - Goldenboy Volume 2
24. C Love/DNA - Respect, Vol. 1
25. Profound and Ogun - Oil And Water 2

Labels: Billo, Cutthroat, Dirty Hartz, lists, M.O.L., Mike Malachi, Mullyman, PX, Skarr Akbar, The Homicide Rapper, UnReal

Labels: 5 Seasons, flyer, M.O.L., Team Fifty, UnReal