Rapman Ron, who you may remember as Ron G. from Mania Music Group, released an excellent free album, Me, My Green & Irene, and I wrote about it on the City Paper's Noise blog.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, mixtape/album review, Noise, Ron G.

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

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

Mania Music Group f/ Dappa​!​!​! Dan Midas, Greenspan​,​And Rapman Ron G - "Study My Dreams" (mp3)
After some delays, the Mania Music Group album Welcome To The Audience is finally dropping on June 15th, and the second single that you can download and stream over on their Band Camp page features Greenspan and is really dope, looking forward to hearing the rest of the record.

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

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

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.

Over on my other blog, Narrowcast, I recently posted a list of the 20 best shows I saw in 2009, and the Baltimore hip hop artists on the list included Height, Mickey Free, AK Slaughter, Rapdragons, P.T. Burnem, Kane and Midas and Ron G. of Mania Music Group, Minlus McCracken, Jade Fox, Wordsmith, Soul Cannon, Si-Notes, Shy Lady Heroin, the Get Em Mamis and E Major.

Labels: AK Slaughter, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, Jade Fox, Kane, lists, Mania Music Group, Midas, Minlus McCracken, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Ron G., Soul Cannon, Wordsmith

Kane Mayfield, RapMan Ron G. and Danj - "The Beast" (mp3)
Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Hold Ur Head" (mp3)
These are the singles from Mania Music Group's upcoming album The Long Road...Longevity. These guys know I'm nothing but supportive of them, so I can say this: that's either a parody of bad album titles or one of the worst album titles I've ever heard.

(photo by Al Shipley)

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

Mania Music Group - Demos, Freestyles And Outtakes 2007-2008 (Year One) (Mania Music Group)

I think it speaks volumes about Mania Music Group that they would even have enough music they're willing to label "demos" or "outtakes" to put together a collection like this. Classic rap albums like Illmatic have demos and outtakes, but these days everything is fair game for mixtapes and few people seem to have any sense of quality control to seperate A material from B material. But for as much music as Mania's put out in the last year or two, they've been pretty consistent, partly because each release to date has been fairly short and had some kind of unifying concept or structure. So it makes sense that there'd be a good amount of stuff they mad that didn't fit into any of those compilations or solo EPs, and it's fun to hear it all here in kind of a casual presentation. This record opens with a weird pisstake called "Fish Hair" that's one of the funniest things I've heard in a minute, and retains that laid back vibe for most of the rest of the compilation. Kane, Midas and Ron G. all have solo tracks and some posse cuts together, including "Lunatic Fringe," and a good amount of this is freestyles, kinda in the same spontaneous-sounding format as the Mania Takeover mixtape, maybe even from the same session. If you're not already up on Mania's stuff, check out the Soul Food & Sushi compilation as an intro, then head to ManiaMusicGroup.com to hear this and the other official releases. See also my CIty Paper feature on the label and my live review of the last time I saw Kane and Midas perform a few weeks ago. Headphones and BeaLack will be the featured producers at this month's No Guts No Glory.

Kane Mayfield - "MySpace Song (Demo)" (mp3)
I don't know how old this track is, might've been made a while back before all the social networking lemmings jumped to Facebook (myself included, but not without a fight!). Kane really has a talent for talking shit, if you ask me he should just insult people on record all day. Really he should be making fun of cats on Twitter now, too, but dude broke down and jumped on the bandwagon, so I keep giving him a hard time about it.

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

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

Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Oh Baltimore (Bang On Ya Drums Mix)" (mp3)
RapMan Ron G. - "Baltimore (SP1200Remix)" (mp3)
A few years ago I wrote a blog post about Mullyman's "Oh Baltimore," and how it sampled Nina Simone's "Baltimore," which itself was originally recorded by Randy Newman, and I lamented that no Baltimore artists had yet sampled the Newman version. When 41yo recently did a post about the Mully song, I made a comment kinda reiterating that point, and pointing out that Jade Fox and Ron G. had recently done songs with the Nina Simone sample, but still noone had used the Newman track (ok, I said it was Midas, but I was away from my home computer and blanking on the details there). Anyway, apparently the Mania Music Group folks were paying attention, and decided to do a couple tracks off of the Randy Newman sample: a downtempo one from Ron G. with some typically dense, thoughtful lyrics, and a fun uptempo almost-club one from Midas. Between this and "Lunatic Fringe" these guys are using my thoughts all over the place, I might gotta start demanding a liner note shout out or something, haha.

(photo by Al Shipley)

Labels: 41yo, Mania Music Group, Midas, mp3, Ron G.

As per yesterday's announcement, I'll be doing this every day or thereabouts until I get to the top 10. I'm still listening to tracks and finalizing parts of the list, though, so if anyone has any artists/songs they wanna rep for and make sure I consider (if they're not in there already), feel free to say so in the comments. Or really, let me know if there are any songs I'm re-posting that you missed the first time and are really enjoying now:

81. King Tutt - "Let's Go" (mp3) - March 10, 2009
82. Dappa!!! Dan Midas f/ RapMan Ron G. - "Push Start" (mp3) - December 2, 2008
83. K.W. Griff - "Pork & Swift" (mp3) - January 13th, 2009
84. Tonio: From Da Top - "U Mad?!?" (mp3) - April 5, 2009
85. Blaq Starr - "Hands Up, Thumbs Down" (mp3) - June 29, 2006
86. Verb - "Get Em Verb" (mp3) - January 17, 2006
87. Nature's Problem - "Shake It Shorty" (mp3) - August 3, 2006
88. Dave Da Barber f/ Caddy Da Don, Tim Trees, XO, and Block Hugga - "Eastside Of Baltimore (Remix)" (mp3) - August 6, 2007
89. Wordsmith f/ The Profitt, Reggie Webb, Greenspan, Skarr Akbar, Soulstice, Pro & Reg, Sly Solomon, Steadfast, Tislam the Great & E-Major - "B-More Baritones" (mp3) - February 22, 2009
90. UnReal - "Luv Me" (mp3) - January 17, 2006

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, King Tutt, KW Griff, lists, Midas, mp3, Ron G., Tha Profitt, Tim Trees, Tonio, UnReal, Verb, Wordsmith, XO

41Yo.Com Presents Soul Food & Sushi: A Mania Music Group Mixtape

It's funny, a couple weeks back when I was writing my live review of Mania Music Group's show at the Quarter, I was listening to a playlist on my iTunes of all the music the label's released for free on the internet in the past year (three artist EPs, two group compilations, and a handful of one-off tracks and singles), and I was thinking how all that music distilled into a best-of would be pretty killer. Evidently, Brandon Soderberg of 41yo.com had the same idea but actually acted on it, and compiled his favorite Mania material together, stringing it together with some interview clips and exclusive audio, for this 70-minute downloadable mixtape. If you've been keeping up with the label there won't be much new to you here, but if you've managed to read this site in the past year without hearing their music yet, this is probably the best introduction you could get. The cover art makes use of Rarah's great photo from my City Paper feature last year.

RapMan Ron G., Kane Mayfield and Dappa!!! Dan Midas - "Gotta Believe It" Freestyle (mp3)
Brandon's big article about Mania last month opened with a few paragraphs describing this track in really close detail, and he really summed up why it's so entertaining and how it represents a lot of these 3 MCs' different strengths and unique qualities. Ron G. has some of the most hysterical ad libs I've ever heard.

Labels: 41yo, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ron G.

41yo.com is a great new Baltimore music website from Brandon Soderberg of No Trivia and the City Paper, I'm sure I'll be linking back there a lot in the future but I'll just say right that if you bookmark Gov't Names you need to bookmark that shit too. The best stuff on there so far includes a big great Mania Music Group article that includes an entertaining video full of footage of Midas and Ron G. and Kane, a piece about the Kanye remix of DJ Class's "I'm The Ish" (also including an mp3 of Class on the remix of "Move" by Mims) and a guide to Baltimore on Twitter, and posts on Blaqstarr and Mz Streamz.

I've been meaning to update my blogroll for a minute, probably gonna do that later this week, so feel free to remind me what sites I need to include. It's really tough because I wanna focus on interesting/relevant/frequently updated sites that focus on local music in general and avoid self-absorbed "what I had for lunch" artists blogs and Twitters, but maybe I can find some kind of balance. Also, you'd think that random Mickey Mouse rap blogs that have nothing to do with what I cover on this site would stop hitting me up for a "link exchange," which is a stupid practice to begin with, but they just keep on doing it.

Labels: 41yo, Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, DJ Class, Kane, Mania Music Group, Midas, Mz Streamz, Ron G., video

Ron G - Lunch EP (Mania Music Group)

Back when the Mania Music Group site did their whole "month of Mania" promotion back in October and gave away a bunch of free music, Ron G's was the last of the solo EPs they posted. And I wanted to kinda chill and not post about them all at once, so it took me a while to get around to writing about this one. But they might've saved the best for last, this one is really special, maybe it's just that I'd heard Midas and Kane's music before the label so Ron G's stuff surprises me more, but he's dope. Really young guy and kinda has that young arrogant vibe but really comes outta nowhere with some really thoughtful or funny shit now and then, and I think he got some of Mania's best beats here, real laid back funky tracks with hard drums.

Ron G - "Da Law" (mp3)
You might recognize this as the song I quoted and described a little bit in my City Paper article on the label last year, I had my tape recorder on for the interview when they played the song so I was listening back to the tape like damn, this song is gonna be the shit. You gotta listen hard but that's Kane doing the voices for the police radio stuff in the background, some funny shit.

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