various artists - Baltimore Beat Bangers, Vol. 1 (Wisdom Court Ent.)

I was very interested to hear about this project, basically an all-star instrumental mixtape full of beats from some of Baltimore's best rap producers, because it's just kind of unprecedented in this scene. Obviously producers are always passing around CDs of beats looking to work with MCs, but other than a couple instrumental albums I've gotten from Ron Rico and Me'Aze Millioni they don't seem very commonplace, certainly not a compilation full of beats by different producers like Imahj put together for different projects. As the host, Ambush, says on teh intro, “we bringin’ beat tapes back.” There's some unfamiliar names on here as well as some producers you've probably heard of like Banga Bill, Ms. Tris Beats and Heist, as well as some rappers who produce a lot of their own stuff like Skarr Akbar, PenDragon, Sean Toure and Street Scott aka Street Heat. And everyone gave their tracks titles, so it's a little easier to visualize them as becoming songs or already being songs when they have evocative names like "Ice In My Veins" or "Devilish." The “you are now listening to the sounds of Baltimore Beat Bangers” tag all over every track gets a little annoying, but I understand if that’s the way producers gotta protect their tracks from getting jacked and used without getting paid for first. It'll be interesting to see how many of the beats on this CD get turned into songs by rappers in the next year or so. You can download Baltimore Beat Bangers at AllBmoreHipHop.com and the release party is at Club Reality this week.

Ms. Tris - “Get With This” (mp3)
Ms. Tris is such a versatile producer, this one stood out to me as soon as I heard it but I wouldn’t have guessed it was her,has a very contemporary radio-friendly sound but still really detailed and unique.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Banga Bill, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats, PenDragon, Sean Toure, Skarr Akbar, Street Heat

I started working with Urbanite Magazine a little earlier this year, and this week I guest edited the Tuesday arts/culture edition of the daily zine that Urbanite e-mails out now. Some of the stuff I put together for the zine that went out today includes:

- A feature on Mickey Free, the rapper whose new album Last of the Tight Wiggers I posted about on Gov’t Names a while back.

- A Q&A with Brett Yale and Jimmy MacMillan of Friends Records on how to put out music on vinyl and cassette.

- A review of the new solo album by Dustin Wong of Ponytail, Infinite Love.

- A review of Josh Sisk’s new book, Under The Strobe Light - Club Photos: 2005-2009, which features a lot of great pictures of Baltimore artists like Rod Lee, K-Swift, Say Wut, the Get Em Mamis, Blaqstarr, Scottie B., Mullyman, Rye Rye and others.

- And a bunch of links to Baltimore music websites (AllBmoreHipHop, BeatBots, the Ms. Tris Music blog) and listings for cool events happening this week, including Cullen Stalin and Scottie B. at Metro Gallery, Hip Hop In Pink w/ Keys, the Get Em Mamis, Si-Notes and Golden Seal, and Greg Dulli and Craig Wedren at the Ottobar. You can sign up at the Urbanite site to get any of the weekly zines e-mailed to you in the future.

(photo by Lisa Scott)

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Golden Seal, K-Swift, magazines/newspapers, Mickey Free, Ms. Tris Beats, NSW (Say What), Scottie B., Si-Notes, Urbanite

E Major f/ Tia - "Taking Over" (mp3)
It's only been a couple months since The Major Major Mixtape dropped and here's already some newer music from E Major, produced by Ms. Tris Beats.

Labels: E Major, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats, Under Sound Music

Gabbo - Streets Of Jupiter (New Tribe Entertainment)

One of my biggest pet peeves about rap these days is how lazy cats will be about signifying that they're 'weird' or 'creative' without actually saying anything especially strange. Like, they'll talk about spaceships and stars, stuff that anyone who's ever been through 3rd grade or watched television knows about, and act like they're all off the wall and crazy just for talking about anything besides regular hip hop topics like cars, money, etc. (I guess we should blame Lil Wayne? He actually is an odd guy, at least). Having said that, I like this record, but it's a classic case of this syndrome; 99% of Gabbo's subject matter is completely garden variety rap shit, but because he's got a planet on his album cover he tries to sell himself as a weirdo, when he's really just a solid, no-nonsense '90s-style MC. At the very least, though, he named the intro track "Captain Butnard Speaks," which cracked me the fuck up.

Still, I have to admit the goofy cover, and the rapper's name reminding me of a classic Simpsons episode, made me stop and look at this CD when I was flipping through the misc rap bin at the Sound Garden a while back. They keep a lot of local stuff there, so I'll always kinda browse and check out anything unfamiliar or independent-looking to see if it was made in Baltimore, and this one had a couple familiar names in the liner notes on teh back cover, namely Street Legal Studios and Ms. Tris Beats, so I went ahead and copped it. And it's pretty good! Again, he's on some meat and potatoes classic MC shit with just a little bit of eccentricity thrown in, but it works and the beats knock more often than not. Check out Gabbo on MySpace.

Gabbo - "Fly Away" (mp3)
This isn't really my favorite track on the album, and he says some bullshit on it that comes off kinda anti-Semitic to me in the 2nd verse, but it's the single available on iTunes and since this CD always fucks up my computer, it was the only track I could get online to upload.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats, Street Legal

Some news and links:

- The cover story in last week's issue of the Baltimore CIty Paper, The Elements of Style by Bret McCabe, is a big piece about Baltimore hip hop and club music's first generation, particularly Labtekwon, DJ Booman and Scottie B., looking back on the scene in the '80s and '90s, and the CP site also has bonus interviews with MC Chinchilla and graffiti artists Alco and Boodamonk. It's really great, interesting stuff, although, as I was telling Bret when he first showed me the article, I wish there was more emphasis on stories and the music back then, and less, I don't know, criticism of the new generation. Of course there's a lot more rappers in Baltimore now, and a lot more wack opportunists, but to hear them tell it, that's all there is now, when I know for a fact there are a lot of young cats around that are doing it for the love of the art, and aren't all about trying to get on TV and have a major label deal. More of them should give respect to Labtekwon and his generation, absolutely, but I don't feel like anyone gets a better sense of how special that era is just by talking about how much worse the current era is. But hopefully this will open up more of a dialogue and get people wanting to learn more about that history now, I certainly wish I knew more than I do. I've been wanting to do like a month of all '90s Baltimore hip hop on this site for a long time, maybe this'll motivate me to start putting that together and getting music from everyone's vaults from back then.

- I've been meaning to link to this for the longest time, but producer Ms. Tris has a blog and it's pretty great.

- World Star Hip Hop has a video interview with Billo.

- Michael Byrne reviewed K-Swift's Greatest Hits on the City Paper website recently.

- URB Magazine currently has a 'Next 1000' feature on their website about up-and-coming artists, and Greenspan and Midas are on there, along with probably some other Baltimore artists I haven't found on there yet.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Billo, DJ Booman, Greenspan, K-Swift, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, Midas, Ms. Tris Beats, Scottie B.

Ogun - Checkmate (Architects Recording Studio/Real On Purpose Ent.)

This week in the City Paper I reviewed Ogun's new mixtape, although really it's been out for a few weeks already so you should already have it. Last year we named him the best male MC in our Best Of Baltimore issue and I really feel like his work ethic and the quality of his music has been crazy for the past couple years. I wish this was a full-on album with totally new songs and all original beats, but there's a lot of good stuff I've never heard on here before, along with things I've posted on the site previously like "Repetition" with Blaq Starr and Hots and "Go Long" and stuff he's performed live a lot like "It's Alright" and "Bmore Hero." The last song "Remember Me" is dedicated to K-Swift and Mr. Wilson, and the mixtape also features XO, Skarr Akbar, EJ, and production from Ms. Tris Beats and Bernie Dozier. Also, check out Mr. Shadeed's interview with Ogun here.

Ogun f/ Mykeey and Chyna Doll - "Hustle" (mp3)
This track was produced by Kick & Snares and is probably my favorite beat on the album, it just bangs hard. The two guests on here both sing on the hook, but Ogun sounds so different on the first verse that at first I almost thought it was someone else rapping, it's like he's doing some totally new voice, but on the second verse he kinda goes back to his usual flow.

Labels: Architects, Baltimore City Paper, Blaq Starr, EJ, Hots, K-Swift, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mr. Wilson, Ms. Tris Beats, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, XO

Ab Rock - The Mid Midlife Crisis (Rockmics Entertainment)

I don't like to throw around phrases like "long-awaited" when talking about an album, but I really have been waiting on Ab Rock's second album for a good long while, considering I was posting flyers saying it would drop in Fall 2006 on this page way back then. But after all the waiting and a teaser mixtape and a collaborative EP with J.S.O.U.L. the album finally dropped earlier this month. The joint Ab Rock/E Major album release party at Fletcher's a few weeks ago was really one of the best local rap shows I've seen lately, they really did their thing with the live bands and made it feel like an event.

Ab Rock's a real talented dude who brings his own kind of semi-grown folks perspective to his music, which ties together the whole title and theme of this album together. More than half of the tracks feature an R&B singer, usually Marc Evans or Che Ray, so there's a pretty heavy melodic element to the album, but it's not too soft or commercial. Guest MCs include Ogun, Sean Toure, Chuck Maddox and E Major, who produces a track, in addition to other producers like Ms. Tris Beats, G Major and Zukeeny. The tracks that you might've heard already are the single "Who (Do You Think You Are)" and still one of my personal favorites, "With Ease" from Breaking Ground, Vol. 1. Ab Rock performs at Eden's Lounge for Organic Soul Tuesdays next week on April 29th.

Ab Rock - "In Ya Area" (mp3)
This one's produced by Jankin and I like it, really different kinda vibe.

Labels: E Major, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats, Ogun

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

Hey Everybody! The new episode of Deep FLow TV this week is filmaker, Civil Jones All female Baltimore Documentary, 'Even A Man Can Do This'. I'm going to call it 'critically acclaimed' because the true Baltimore hip hop heads who have seen it have given it mad props. I did the filming and editing, Ms. Tris Beats and Reina WIlliams produced the background beats, 3 females took and contributed the pictures, and Civil wrote it. So as you can see, not only is it a documentary about Baltimore female hip hop heads but also all-female produced! Check it out for the next 2 weeks, regular show time in Baltimore CIty Fri/Sat 1am, Sundays 10pm ch. 75 comcast city cable check repeat scheduale on DeepFLowTV.com. in Anne Arundel County, this week Novembers 'Rock Da Mic' episode runs with Digga Saratoga reigning victorious and next week this new episode should start!

-Amotion

Labels: Deep Flow, Ms. Tris Beats

Ab-Rock - Best of Ab-Rock: Rockmics Volume 1 (Rockmics Entertainment)

I think the first time I heard Ab-Rock was either at Style Warz, or on Breaking Ground Vol. 1, and since then I've heard him on a few more projects and seen him perform a couple times. Two months ago I saw him at the Turntable Club and bought this mixtape, which is kind of a preview of his album, The Mid Midlife Crisis, which is due out later this year. It's a fairly short CD and has a lot of snippets of cuts from the album, along with a few freestyles and full-length songs, but it's a good taste of his style, which is kinda laid back and conscious, kinda reminds me of Talib Kweli with a deeper voice. AB-Rock is celebrating his birthday at Gardel's this Friday, check the flyer above.

Ab-Rock - "Best Legit" (mp3)
I like this track, and that line "I make music when I pass gas" is hilarious. He shouts out Ms. Tris Beats at the end so I guess she produced it. It was her birthday this week too!

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, Ms. Tris Beats

good morning!

just wanted to send a quick note out to let you all know that spontaneous and i will be back at latin palace tonight with hip hop karaoke. tonight is also ms. tris' bday, so we will be having a little celebration for that. doors open at 6, and we go til 11. (to be honest, we don't normally get started until after 8, but we are there from 6 on.)

parking is easy on tuesdays. latin palace is a great venue, with good foor and 2 for 1 drink specials.

you can check www.myspace.com/bmorehiphopkaraoke for more details.

thanks!

-Kelly Connelly

Labels: flyer, Ms. Tris Beats

Labels: flyer, Ms. Tris Beats