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

Back in August, I drove up to New York to see the Boiler Room's Baltimore club music webcast. Now, the Baltimore Club Special is online, with footage of the DJ sets from that night is online, and the accompanying feature article I wrote. Check out the sets from Rod Lee, DJ Technics, Scottie B., James Nasty, and Mighty Mark & TT The Artist.

Labels: Boiler Room, Debonair Samir, DJ Technics, James Nasty, Mighty Mark, Rod Lee, Scottie B., TT The Artist

This upcoming Friday, August 15th, Boiler Room is bringing a bunch of folks from Baltimore up to New York for a live broadcast of Baltimore club music from Rod Lee, Scottie B, DJ Technics, Mighty Mark & TT The Artist. I've also been asked to come up to write about the whole thing for Boiler Room, so NYC folks, let me know if you want to come to the event and/or hang out while I'm in town for the weekend.

Labels: Baltimore club, Boiler Room, DJ Technics, Mighty Mark, Rod Lee, Scottie B., TT The Artist

Lots of stuff from me in the Baltimore City Paper this week:

- a BPM column on dance and club music, with news about Deep In The Game, Say Wut, Matic808 and Rod Lee.

- a feature on Baltimore Popfest, which is happening at the Charm City Art Space on Saturday, and

- The Short List, as usual.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, magazines/newspapers, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee

In this week's City Paper, I wrote a feature about rapper Brian Ennals.

I also wrote a new installment of the dance music column BPM, which includes some exclusive Baltimore club news about forthcoming releases from Rod Lee and Unruly Records.

Also, as usual, wrote this week's Short List. 

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, BPM, Brian Ennals, magazines/newspapers, Rod Lee, Unruly Records

Today's Washington Post has a big spread on the city's neighbor to the north, Baltimore, in today's Arts & Living section, including an article by Chris Richards about 92Q and Baltimore club music (you may need to grab a password from bugmenot.com to view it on the Post site). The piece features quotes from K.W. Griff (pictured), Say Wut, Porkchop, Cullen Stalin, and Wye Oak, and also mentions K-Swift, Blaqstarr, Rye Rye, DJ Class, Rod Lee, Mullyman, Booman and the Get Em Mamis (Chris also spoke to me for the article, but I'm not quoted in it, which is a situation I've been on the other end of enough times that I totally understand -- limited space, lack of a perfect quote, etc.).

Labels: 92Q, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Booman, DJ Class, G.E.M./Tha Plague, K-Swift, KW Griff, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Pork Chop, Rod Lee, Rye Rye

DJ Big L - The Paradox Vol #1 (Club Kingz Records)

I've written about a couple previous mixtapes by Supa DJ Big L, this one's the latest being sold at the Club Kingz store and the Sound Garden. Not sure if the name of the CD is kind of a tribute to the Paradox or if the music on it is stuff Big L spins at the Paradox or what. Really good mix that kinda sums up Baltimore club in '09 pretty well, I was listening to it a lot when I wrote my list of top 10 club tracks of the year, so a few songs from here are on that. Good lineup of producers, big names like Rod Lee, DJ Class, Say Wut and K.W. Griff along with some lesser known ones like J Roc and Da Yo Boyz.

DJ B-Eazy - "Beazy Horns"(mp3)
DJ B-Eazy is a really good, kinda underrated producer I think, always good to hear some new music from him.

(photo by Josh Sisk)

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Class, KW Griff, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee

In the last few weeks on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog, I've posted live reviews of John Berndt's Multiphonic Choir @ the Windup Space, Man & Dog and The Feast of Epiphany @ An die Musik, and a year-end Club Beat column listing my top Baltimore club tracks of 2009, by K.W. Griff, DJ Pierre, the Doo Dew Kidz with Mullyman, DJ Excel, Rod Lee, Ultra Naté with King Tutt, and Say Wut, among others.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Class, DJ Excel, DJ Pierre, King Tutt, KW Griff, lists, Mullyman, Noise, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee

Recently on my other blog, Narrowcast, I counted down my 100 favorite albums of the past decade, and the list included a number of entries by Baltimore artists, hip hop and club music as well as rock:

17. Lake Trout - Alone At Last: Live With DJ Who (Phoenix Media Group, 2000)
23. Wye Oak - If Children (self-released, 2007; reissued by Merge Records, 2008)
29. Blaq Starr - I’m Bangin’ (JB Starr Productions, 2006)
35. Tim Trees - Dalton Vol. 1 (Bdamore Records, 2001)
41. Cex - Being Ridden (Temporary Residence, 2003)
47. Karmella’s Game - The Art Of Distraction (Speedbump Recordings, 2006)
53. The 410 Pharaohs - 410 Funk (Strictly Rhythm/Ill Friction, 2008)
59. J Roddy Walston and the Business - Hail Mega Boys (Morphius Records, 2007)
65. Lungfish - Feral Hymns (Dischord Records, 2005)
71. Bossman - Law & Order (Double Down Entertainment/1Up Productions, 2004)
77. Avec - Lines (Civil Defense League/Doghouse, 2007)
83. Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings (Car Park Records, 2007)
89. Rod Lee - Vol. 2: Operation Not Done Yet (Club Kingz Records, 2002)

By no means do I consider that any kind of definitive list of the best Baltimore albums of the past 10 years, for what it's worth, those are just the personal favorites that I happened to want to include on there.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Booman, Labtekwon, lists, One Up Entertainment, Rod Lee, Tim Trees

Wye Oak - "Dance My Pain Away" (mp3)
Mickey Free - "That I Do" (mp3)
Splice Today, a great site that I've been doing some writing for, recently released its second compilation album for free on the site. Baltimore Does Baltimore, Part 1 is, as you can probably tell from the title, a collection curated by Zach Kaufmann of Baltimore musicians covering songs by other Baltimore musicians, mostly people from the indie rock scene. However, there are two tracks on here that worthy of noting here on Gov't Names, and both involve Wye Oak, who are probably my favorite band in Baltimore of the past couple years. On one track, rapper Mickey Free (of Height With Friends and the Baltimore All-Rap Round Robin) remixes Wye Oak's song "That I Do" and adds a verse to it. But the really exciting thing is that Wye Oak themselves worked up a cover of Rod Lee's stone classic "Dance My Pain Away." On the face of it, a mellow rock band covering a Baltimore club song is the kind of thing that might easily make me cringe; rock artists doing tongue-in-cheek of covers of raunchy rap songs have become a really awful annoying cliche in the past 10 years, and it kinda irritates me that Kaufman references one, Ben Folds's "Bitches Ain't Shit," when describing Wye Oak's track. What they do with "Dance My Pain Away" is a million times better than that, and totally respectful of the original song, which has a lot of melody and pathos to begin with, and I think them just being from Baltimore probably gives them the right understanding of it and club music to pull it off. Plus I'm really just excited because there is probably no person in the world who loves both Wye Oak and "Dance My Pain Away" as much as I do. Baltimore Does Baltimore, Part 1 was mastered by my friends at Mobtown Studios, by the way.

Labels: Baltimore club, Mickey Free, Mobtown Studios, mp3, Rod Lee, Splice Today

The July issue of the venerable rap mag Murder Dog has a big big special feature on Baltimore's hip hop and club scenes, including interviews with Blaq Starr, Rye Rye, Scottie B. and Sean Ceasar of Unruly Records, Rod Lee, DJ Excel, Mullyman, Bossman, Say Wut, Jay Claxton, the Get Em Mamis, King Tutt, 100 Grandman, and DJ Booman. And I just heard that you can actually get a digital copy of the whole issue on the Murder Dog site and read it online, which is great, since I have not had any luck finding anywhere in Baltimore that sells it (if anyone knows a place, let me know and I'll post it).

Labels: 100 Grandman, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bossman, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, King Tutt, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Rye Rye, Scottie B., Unruly Records

CLUB QUEEN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS... K-SWIFT DAY!
with special guests BOSSMAN and PRINSE : SUPA DJ BIG L : DJ ROD LEE : MS JAISYNCERE : DJ KALI /// hosted by WIPE ME DOWN
Sat, Jul 25
$10
9 PM
18+
Main Stage

Labels: Baltimore club, Bossman, flyer, K-Swift, Rod Lee, Sonar

Confirmed acts include DJ Class, Chavy Boys (Scottie B, Shawn Caesar, King Tutt), Ultra Nate (live), Rod Lee, Doo Dew Kidz (Booman, KW Griff, Jimmy Jones), Johnny Blaze, Supa DJ Big L, Say Wut, Emynd & Bo Bliz, Cousin Cole, Stereofaith and more to be announced.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Class, flyer, K-Swift, King Tutt, KW Griff, NSW (Say What), Paradox, Rod Lee, Scottie B., Unruly Records

Rod Lee - Vol. 4 - The Pressure (Club Kingz Records/Morphius Urban)

The Pressure is the last of Rod Lee's first four albums that were part of Morphius's reissue program, originally released independently in 2004 (or maybe 2003? not sure) and then pressed up by Morphius last summer. I wrote about the other three already, and I'm still not totally sure which one is my favorite, but they're all good and this is no different. It's got over 30 tracks and is crammed full of club classics, half of which are Rod Lee's own tracks and half of which are by producers like K.W. Griff, DJ Class, Dukeyman, Scottie B. and others.

Debonair Samir - "Lil Egypt" (mp3)
This is one of my all-time favorites that I always forget the name of or who produced it, so I was happy to be reminded when I went back to listen to this mix again. If you were listening to club DJs 5 years ago, you definitely would recognize this track. The sample is The Coasters, who also did the song "Charlie Brown" that was remixed as a Baltimore club staple by Samir, so it's kind of like a companion to that track.

Labels: Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Class, KW Griff, mixtape/album review, mp3, Rod Lee, Scottie B.

DJ Diamond K recently released The K-Swift Story, a DVD documentary about the life of DJ K-Swift and her passing last year, and he sent me a copy a little while back that I finally sat down and watched. It's about an hour long, and obviously it's a real passion project, low budget and a little awkwardly edited at times but with the best of intentions, a lot of what little video footage of Swift there is out there, news reports about her death, and a lot of interviews with friends and peers like Pork Chop, Rod Lee, Buck Jones, DJ Big L and others. If you buy it off of Diamond K's site some of the money goes to the Khia K-Swift Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Labels: Baltimore club, Buck Jones, Diamond K, K-Swift, Pork Chop, Rod Lee

All though May, it's been Club Month on 41yo, and Brandon's been posting all sorts of audio and artwork from classic Baltimore club records by Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, K.W. Griff, DJ Equalizer, Scottie B., Say Wut, Dukeyman, DJ Excel, Frank Ski, DJ Class, DJ Technics and many others. If you haven't been following it, you really gotta go catch up on it now that the month is coming to a close, a lot of amazing stuff in there.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Class, DJ Equalizer, DJ Excel, DJ Technics, Frank Ski, KW Griff, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Scottie B.

Here we go, WHOLE LAAAAAT:

11. Diablo - "Jail Flick" (mp3) - August 16, 2005
12. D.O.G. f/ Blaq Starr - "Ryda Gyrl" (mp3) - June 26, 2006
13. Rod Lee - "Dance My Pain Away" (mp3) - June 2, 2005
14. Comp - "Whole Lat" (mp3) - February 13, 2008
15. Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3) - May 19, 2006
16. Ogun f/ Che'Rae - "My Life" (mp3) - December 22, 2006
17. Bossman - "Dat Night" (mp3) - February 4, 2005
18. DK - "A Part Of History" (mp3) - March 21, 2006
19. Heavy Gold - "Charm City" (mp3) - February 16, 2006
20. Labtekwon - "Uhnnn Huhnnn" (mp3) - August 29, 2005

Labels: Blaq Starr, Comp, D.O.G., Diablo, DK, Heavy Gold, Labtekwon, lists, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Rod Lee

Man, I'm loving that most of the mp3s I've been throwing out for this series of posts have been getting like 30 downloads or more, makes me wonder how many people are actually grabbing every single song they don't already have, which I think would be really awesome. Maybe after it's all over next week people can start leaving comments with what their favorite songs are, which I'd like to see a lot:

31. Diablo - "Round My Hood" (mp3) - March 11, 2006
32. Debonair Samir - "Throw It Up" (mp3) - March 28, 2006
33. Little Clayway - "B-More Hip Hop" (mp3) - April 2, 2006
34. E-Nahledge - "F.W.Y.B." (mp3) - January 23, 2007
35. Paula Campbell f/ Rod Lee and Tim Trees - "How Does It Feel" (mp3) - March 31, 2005
36. Mullyman - "Party Walk" (mp3) - April 26, 2008
37. Raphael Saadiq f/ C.J. Hilton and Stevie Wonder - "Never Give You Up" (mp3) - October 7, 2008
38. N.E.K. - "Face Down (Remix)" (mp3) - June 17, 2005
39. Ogun f/ Jitter B.U.G. and EJ - "Bmore (Remix)" (mp3) - December 24, 2005
40. Born King - "Blue Lights" (mp3) - May 19, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Born King, CJ Hilton, Debonair Samir, Diablo, lists, Little Clayway, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, Paula Campbell, Rod Lee, Tim Trees

Jeff made a suggestion in the comments box for one of these posts the other day that I should do a 5th anniversary show, too. I wish I had the time or energy for it, but these days I really don't. Maybe next year, maybe I'll hang in there for a 10th anniversary, really hard to say what the future of the site holds, although I could easily see myself trucking along for years and years. Anyway, more songs:

61. Mullyman f/ JI-900 - "Realest To Run It" (mp3) - January 21, 2006
62. Tim Trees - "Don't Make" Freestyle (mp3) - May 5, 2005
63. Height f/ Bow'N'Arrow - "Smash Your Eyes" (mp3) - May 28, 2007
64. Los - "10-Minute Million Dollar Massacre Freestyle" (mp3) - June 20, 2007
65. Rod Lee - "Hammerjacks Theme" (mp3) - May 17, 2006
66. Minlus McCracken - "MuFucka" (mp3) - August 21, 2007
67. K-Spin - "Why I'm Hot" (mp3) - September 20, 2007
68. Young Dip - "D.T.T.W.C." (mp3) - October 3, 2007
69. Say Wut - "Futuristic" (mp3) - December 30, 2007
70. PenDragon - "How Does It Feel" (mp3) - December 29, 2008

Labels: Baltimore club, Height, lists, Los, Minlus McCracken, mp3, Mr. Wilson, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), PenDragon, Rod Lee, Skarr Akbar, Tim Trees, Young Dip

DJ Rod Lee presents Club Work Out 2009 (Club Kingz)

The last time I was in Rod Lee's Club Kingz record store, I noticed that he had a new mix CD on sale, which kinda surprised. More than any other Baltimore club DJ, Rod Lee's always seemed to put out CDs more as albums to showcase his production than as just DJ mixes, and some of his albums have nothing but his own tracks. But maybe running the store motivated him to get more into the whole mix CD grind and showcase new tracks other producers are doing. Either way, this is a pretty dope mix, mostly tracks from Say Wut and Scottie B. and King Tutt, with some DJ Class and Blaq Starr and other producers. At the end there's a few bonus cuts not credited to anybody, I'm assuming those are some new Rod Lee songs that are gonna be on an EP or something, if they aren't already, and on the outro Rod calls this 'volume one,' so I'm assuming there'll be more Club Work Out mixes in the future, which is pretty cool.

Say Wut - "Hands Up" (mp3)
Almost half the tracks on this CD are Say Wut tracks, so there's a nice big block of his music on here, and this is probably my favorite one he's done lately.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, King Tutt, mixtape/album review, mp3, NSW (Say What), Rod Lee, Scottie B.