PenDragon - HomeRun King (Team Arson)

I talk to PenDragon pretty often and always check for his music, but between having a baby and everything else that's been going on, I've been really slow to catch up on this mixtape he released on his site over the summer. I mean, the mixtape has a baseball theme and here I am posting about it after baseball season, and after Drag dropped another mixtape, 24, in the past couple weeks, so I gotta claim a late pass. Anyway, it's got his remix of DJ Class's "I'm The Ish" that I posted a few months ago, and the song "Beat It Up" that he shot a dope video for, along with a lot of new stuff of varying quality, with guests including Real 2 Real, Tha Profitt, and Jae Poet. I'm not sure why but this isn't really hitting me like I Got Hits 4 Cheap did, a few good tracks but there's some stuff that just has weak beats or awkward hooks or something detracting from it. Plus, I keep warning Drag to stop throwing around the word "king," both because of how played out that word is in this city, and because it keeps bringing to mind the phrase "drag king," which isn't really a great mental association for him to have.

One thing you may notice is that the Government Names logo appears on the back cover of this mixtape. And while I realize that artists acknowledging blogs on mixtape artwork is pretty commonplace these days, and I have always been pretty supportive of Drag, my logo showing up on his project, right by the logo of his actual label, puts me in an awkward position, as a critic that would like to write about his music, but wouldn't review this in, say, the City Paper because that logo could give them impression that there's some official affiliation or business relationship there, which would be a conflict of interest. Plus, say I don't like someone's mixtape enough to want to write about it, why wouldn't I want my logo on it, y'know? It's lose/lose for me. Drag actually put my logo on a previous mixtape last year and I let it slide, but after he did it again and another rapper followed suit more recently, I had to let him know that's a bad idea. So just for future reference, please don't do that, I wouldn't want my brand stamped on anything I'm not involved with personally on some level.

PenDragon - "Rain" (mp3)
Drag recently shot a video for this track, which is co-produced by J. Dauma and samples "Raining In Baltimore" by Counting Crows. And I won't lie, I fuck with that song, August And Everything After is a jam.

Labels: DJ Class, mixtape/album review, mp3, PenDragon, Real2Real, Tha Profitt

Big Moon - Hear Me Clearly (HeadNod Entertainment/Worldwide Recordings)

Big Moon is an MC that I first heard a couple years ago on a mixtape by Real2Real, and the members of that group make several appearances on this mixtape. I don't know if it's partly because his name reminds me of Black Moon, but this mixtape gives me kind of that grimy mid-90s NYC vibe, even when the beats are more modern he kind of has this no-nonsense persona that you don't hear a lot of rappers with anymore. PenDragon did the cover art and appears on a drop on here.

Big Moon - "Whole Different Animal" (mp3)
I like this sample, sounds like maybe Al Green? Second verse is some funny shit: "What the fuck is the world comin' to?/ the old heads are tryin' to teach the white heads what hip hop is/ and then you got the White Rapper Show/ I ain't a racist, but goddamn, how many Eminems do you want?"

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, PenDragon, Real2Real

Labels: E Major, flyer, Real2Real, Sonar, Sonny Brown

Real2Real - Playground Legends (Street Official Records/Headnod Entertainment)

Real2Real (not to be confused with the dance music dude Reel 2 Real who did "I Like To Move It") is a rap group from Baltimore that's been around for about 10 years. They released their first full-length last year, and this mixtape dropped a few months ago. The three main members of the group are Wylie McCreory, LefTy, and Sheist T, but there's also appearances by J Stone, Big Moon and Typheni. Street Official is also the label that brought you recent releases from Barnes and Tha Annexx Click, so they've got a good track record, and Banga Bill produces a couple tracks on here. The first half is real heavy on freestyles but towards the end of the CD there's more original songs. Their song "Bmore City" recently appeared on the C Love/DNA mixtape.

Real2Real - "The Oath" (mp3)
Probably my favorite track with the whole group on it, crazy hi-hat triplets on one of the illest beats I've heard lately, produced by Velly.

Wylie McCreory - "Rap Or Hustle" (mp3)
Wylie McCreory seems like the most prominent member of the group throughout the mixtape, and this is his one solo track that isn't a freestyle, produced by Phat Head.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, Real2Real, Street Official

This Wednesday, C Love is starting a new monthly event and releasing a mixtape with DNA, and Skarr Akbar is going to be dropping a couple new mixtapes at the show himself, so this is looking like a real must-see event in my book.

Labels: B-Fly, Brown F.I.S.H., C Love, DNA, flyer, Ogun, Real2Real, Skarr Akbar, Sonar

Labels: B-Fly, flyer, M.O.L., Ms. Stress, Ogun, Real2Real

Labels: 5 Seasons, B-Fly, Dirty Hartz, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Ms. Stress, Ogun, Ray Lugar, Real2Real, Team Fifty

Real2Real
opening for Young Jeezy
@ Hammerjacks
Tonight, April 28th

Labels: flyer, Real2Real

Labels: Bossman, C Love, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Ogun, Real2Real