In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I wrote The Short List, and a new installment of my Rap Sheet column, with news about Test, Jay Wyse, Wombatt55, Kenton Dunson, and more.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Jay Wyse, Kenton Dunson, magazines/newspapers, Rap Sheet, TestMe, Wombatt55

This Friday, Baltimore rapper TestMe is signing with Future's Freebandz Entertainment at Club Dubai, and I wrote a post about it on the City Paper's Noise blog.

Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Noise, TestMe

TestMe - In A Lane By Myself (Power Hitter Records)

I kinda laughed when I saw the title of this mixtape because I've been complaining for years about how TestMe copped his whole style and voice from Lil Wayne. But I have to admit, he's been doing that raspy chuckling punchline Weezy knockoff style for so long that it's kind of organically drifted off into its own thing at this point, all the more distinct because Wayne himself drifted off in a different direction. So yeah, TestMe kinda is in his own lane now, and really in terms of the Baltimore scene he always has been, really one of the only rappers in the city who's really young and marketable but still pretty lyrical and accepted by a lot of the older cats. This is probably the best mixtape I've heard from him to date, solid production and songs, it features guest appearances by Bossman and Smash, and you can download it at allbmorehiphop.com/testme.

TestMe - "High" (mp3)
The credits on the back cover just say that the original beats are produced by Lace & Kid D, Speilberg and Menice Explicit, without specifying who did which tracks. But man, whoever did this beat deserves props, it's awesome.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Bossman, mixtape/album review, mp3, Smash, TestMe

Bossman - Block Work: The Tester featuring Bossman (DJ Jabril)

Obviously, the big news with Bossman lately has been the song and the concert he did with Mullyman, but he's been moving forward with his own solo career too. He just launched a new official website, Bossman410.com, and is prepping his official album with MySpace Records, The Re-Up, for release in May. And the latest in his never ending stream of underground mixtapes is the third installment in AllBmoreHipHop.com and DJ Jabril's Block Work series (the first two being Barnes and the Gritty Gang). There's a few familiar tracks on here, including the joint with Reks and Statik Selektah I posted a while back, the "Break Me Off" remix with Gucci Mane, Raheem DeVaughn, Jim Jones and NOE, and the "Where They Do That At" remix (just Boss's verse and Paula Campbell's part appear here), and it's got that goofy "All Over You" single he's pushing right now (or as I call it, the "Imma need pampers" song). But for the most part it's an hour of new music, mostly freestyles over current radio hits but also some new songs, with beats by 1Up Ent. and other producers, featuring D.O. from NEK and 100 Grandman and TestMe.

Bossman f/ 100 Grandman - "I'm Da Man Where I'm From" (mp3)
This song is pretty dope, and kinda plays off both of their names ending in "-man." Really this probably shoulda been the song he did with Mullyman if you ask me.

Labels: 100 Grandman, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Block Work, Bossman, DJ Jabril, mixtape/album review, mp3, NOE, One Up Entertainment, Paula Campbell, TestMe

My stuff on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog this month included a review of ScholarMan's new album, Free Spirit Of A Troubled Soul, and live reviews of Reina Williams @ Peace & A Cup Of Joe, Balti Mare and the Baltimore String Felons @ the Sidebar, and Bossman and Mullyman @ the Black Hole Rock Club with DJ Booman, DJ 5Starr, 100 Grandman, TestMe, Smash, Pork Chop, Skarr Akbar and others.

Labels: 100 Grandman, Baltimore City Paper, Bossman, DJ 5 Starr, DJ Booman, Mullyman, Noise, Pork Chop, ScholarMan, Skarr Akbar, Smash, TestMe

Labels: 100 Grandman, Black Hole Rock Club, Bossman, flyer, Mullyman, One Up Entertainment, Smash, TestMe

Tha Profitt / Kezey - Nosebleed Section / Dumbass The Seed (Profitt Productions)

In addition to his frequent solo mixtapes, Tha Profitt seems to be doing more and more collaborative ventures these days, including releases that showcase his whole label roster and split releases that feature a solo record by him and another by someone else. Last year there was a double CD with Scryptz, and this one is on the same tip, although it's just on one CD, with Profitt on the first 20 tracks and Kezey on the last 13 tracks. Nosebleed Section is one of the better Profitt releases I've heard, partly because he's not recycling a bunch of songs from his other CDs like he usually does. Also, he's really starting to kind of carve out more of an identity, because the dude really grinds hard and works at this music thing, and he kinda talks about the toll that takes on him on this album, and lets you in on his life a little more, which I think makes the songs more interesting and relatable. He's still got a weird voice and is probably kind of an acquired taste, but the kid can definitely flow. I wasn't really feeling the Kezey half, though, that guy just can't ride a beat to save his life, should be just doing poetry or something. Profitt's side of the CD features guest verses and drops from local artists including Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Bossman, Stackz, Mullyman and Alicia Peace, as well as appearances by Lil Fame from M.O.P. and Termanology and Tech N9ne. You can download this at allbmorehiphop.com/thaprofitt and allbmorehiphop.com/kezey, and this weekend Tha Profitt is performing at the Black Hole on Friday and at The Quarter on Saturday.

Tha Profitt f/ Sylence, Heavy Gold and Tony Bosco - "On My Way" (mp3)
This is the best of a handful of posse cuts on the CD, and I had to post it since Tony Bosco gets so much hate in the comments section here and his verse on this is pretty dope.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Bossman, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Tha Profitt

Smash aka T-Mac - I Am King (DJ Reddz)

Smash is probably Baltimore hip hop's biggest overnight success story of the past couple years, at least in the sense that I'd never even heard of the guy before 2008, and then kinda out of nowhere he had multiple songs on 92Q and the D.C. stations and was being treated like kind of a big deal. I haven't been especially kind to the guy's music in the past -- I called out his big breakthrough hit, "Too Much For Me," for beatjacking Lil Jon, and referred to his AutoTuned vocals on the more recent single, "Getting Money," as "pixelated vomit." But I don't really have anything against the guy, at the very least he has a distinctive voice, which I always think is a big big plus for a rapper, but I feel like anything local that gets radio play should be held to a higher standard, to put the scene's best foot forward, and when someone kinda comes outta nowhere with just okay music getting that kind of exposure, I scratch my head and maybe resent the whole thing a little bit. And I have to say, I kinda get him as an artist and like his music now that I've heard a full length project from him, even if I hate the title (seriously, can we declare a moratorium on the "king" shit in this town?), some good songs on here, including a couple collabs with TestMe. You can download it at allbmorehiphop.com/smash.php

Smash aka T-Mac - "My Pain" (mp3)
I like this, dude really goes in on this one.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, mixtape/album review, mp3, Smash, TestMe

Tha Profitt f/ Skarr Akbar and TestMe - "You Think U Hard" (mp3)
Here's some dope new Profitt from his next CD coming soon, with some good guests on the track. Had to use the half-n-half pic, haha.

Labels: mp3, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Tha Profitt

100 Grandman - Gangsta Grillz: Welcome To Baltimore (DJ Drama)

When Architects Recording Studio first put the word out that ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM had the new 100 Grandman mixtape (which is already the #1 most downloaded release on the site the past week), I knew I had to check it out, and when they said that it was with DJ Drama, the first Gangsta Grillz with a Baltimore artist, I really knew I had to check it out, and I admit it was partly because I didn't really believe it at first. I mean, 100 Grandman's been doing pretty well for himself lately, with the great video for "Take It 2 The Top" last year, and some local radio rotation for "Wet Wet" (which, by the way, I absolutely hate now because it's the song that starts streaming every time I open ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, and that shit gets annoying fast). But I didn't think he was doing well enough to do something with DJ Drama, plus I couldn't find anything online about this being an installment in the Gangsta Grillz series, and on the cover they misspell the name of Drama's company, The Aphilliates (which has two L's, cause they're from Philly). But I went and listened to it, and as it turns out it's apparently legit, since Drama is all over the tape shouting out the names of tons of Baltimore rappers and DJs, and throwing in "R.I.P. K-Swift" (which he also said last year on a Lil Wayne tape). So I dunno how they hooked that up, but that's a good look. I feel like there's some unspoken cheeseball '80s theme on here because there are samples of Michael Sembello's "Maniac" AND the Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died In Your Arms." There are guest appearances by Bossman, NOE, Smash, TestMe, and even a verse from Freeway.

100 Grandman f/ Tay Guns - "The Face Of Baltimore" (mp3)
This cat's name is spelled as Tay Guns on the tracklist, but I thought I've seen his name as Tay Gunz before, not sure which is right. Anyway he totally murders his verse, probably my favorite verse on the whole mixtape, so many lines I had to rewind: "I got my cake up/ I left my own shadow behind, he like 'wait up'!/ I lift my face up to see my city, homie/ I'm Home Alone 2/ a bunch of pigeons on me/ I'm so effin' fly/ I disrespect the sky/ I'm so fresh to death I get dressed and die."

Labels: 100 Grandman, ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, Architects, Bossman, mixtape/album review, mp3, NOE, Smash, TestMe

Legacy D. Don - Teflon Don Vol. 1: Learn My Name

Legacy D. Don sent me this mixtape a few months ago, never really heard of him before and I still don't really feel like I know anything about him after listening to it a couple times. It's not bad, he's got some hot lines here and there, but he's mostly just rapping generic punchlines over Lil Wayne and Kanye instrumentals and you don't get any sense that he writes original songs or what he'd write songs about if he did from this. I guess I learned his name, if nothing else, though. TestMe guests on a few tracks, and Smash also guests on one.

Legacy D. Don - "Warning Shot" (mp3)
This song is cold as hell, props if it's an original track, I don't recognize the beat anywhere.

Labels: mixtape/album review, mp3, Smash, TestMe

This week WWW.ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, a site put together by the folks at Architects Recording Studio, launched and they've got a whole bunch of free downloads of full-length albums and mixtapes by artists including Ogun, Skarr Akbar, Bossman, TestMe, Barnes, Huli Shallone, UnReal, D.O.G., ShellBe R.A.W., EJ, Rye Rye and many others. I think it's great that there's gonna be a site like this from now on, and from Ogun's told me they've got a lot more stuff planned.

Labels: ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM, announcements, Architects, Barnes, Bossman, D.O.G., EJ, Huli Shallone, Ogun, Rye Rye, ShellBe RAW, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, UnReal

various artists - The Best of Deep Flow Radio presents... Fed Up (Deep Flow Studios)

This 16-track CD was based on the simple concept of taking songs that had gotten 4 of 5 star ratings on DeepFlowRadio.com and compiling them on one CD. The little tweak on the concept that Amotion decided on, however, was to cram 60 songs into the hourlong compilation, with several songs on each track, organized by artist, with folks including TestMe, Young Hustlers and Dynamic Compositions. And I can see why that seemed like a good ambitious idea, but personally for me, it's the reason I found Fed Up to be a really unpleasant listening experience. I hate listening to snippets of songs, hearing 30 seconds or a minute of a song and then it cutting off just as I'm getting into it -- if it was a DJ mix and it was all blended together in some graceful way maybe it would work, but here it's just abrupt every time and there's no groove. A lot of times it's just oddly selected portions of freestyles, too, so you just get a few seconds of someone ad-libbing over a radio song, which is not exactly a great showcase for the artists. I feel bad saying this, because I think Amotion really thought this was a good idea and was eager to get feedback when she sent it out, but I think this was a big mistake and it's just not lister-friendly at all. The title is kind of wrapped up into a theme with a lot of the artists talking about what they're fed up about at the beginning of each track, but usually the music has nothing to do with that.

LP f/ Mooda (mp3)
LP is a female rapper who I saw perform at Melodic Mondays last week and I was really impressed by her set. Haven't been able to find a MySpace page or any more info about her online, though. As with the other tracks, this is just excerpts of several different songs, so it doesn't have a title.

Labels: Deep Flow, Internet radio, mixtape/album review, mp3, TestMe

various artists - Shittin' On The Competition (Profitt Productions)

Tha Profitt is a kid that really grinds hard in this scene, puts out music constantly, has artists signed to his label and collaborates with a lot more other artists, and runs a studio. He's doing a big show on Wednesday for his birthday and the bill's looking good, should be a fun show, so I thought I'd dig up one of the CDs he's sent me that I hadn't posted about yet. This is a compilation he put together, I love the title and the cover art, some funny shit, and there's some good music on here. The lineup has some pretty well known people (Skarr Akbar, Ogun, TestMe, Hots) and some people I'm less familiar with that sound pretty good (Young Mann & Chuck, Young Mell, Chill Mike, Bloc), a lot of times various artists compilations can just go on forever but this is a nice concise hour of music with a lot of variety.

Bossman, Reap, P, Evol & Profitt - "Currency Of Da Kings" (mp3)
This is a pretty nice posse cut, real fast frantic beat. It's just a bonus track on this CD because it originally appeared on Tha Profitt's Concept Art, which is probably my favorite project from him to date.

Labels: Bossman, Hots, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Tha Profitt

Labels: Black Hole Rock Club, Bossman, Comp, flyer, Huli Shallone, Mullyman, Smash, TestMe, Verb

Kojo - I Did It In A Day 2 (Deep Flow Studios/Pressure Tank Productions/Dyzastar Ent.)

Kojo is a rapper from Annapolis that I've heard a couple projects from but wasn't really sure if I'd write about them here since this is really a Baltimore site and I'm not trying to cover the whole Annapolis territory. But I know he's tight with Deep Flow Studios and they're important in Baltimore and he works with some Bmore artists, so it's all good I guess. Kojo is kind of known for doing an entire mixtape in one day, did his first in 2005, and then did this sequel a year or so back. I was just thinking that he was kinda early on that trend because Saigon and Statik Selektah are about to release a CD they recorded in one day, and I also heard that Gucci Mane is gonna record a new mixtape the day he gets out of prison, so it seems like the thing to do now, and I gotta give him props for being early with that. I believe he's doing a 3rd in this series soon. There's a lot of guests on here, almost every song, and aside from TestMe and Amotion, I dont really recognize most of the names, I guess it's mostly Annapolis people. Some good production, but I really hate some of the R&B vocals on here. Deep Flow shot a DVD of the whole process of the day they made this that's packaged with the CD.

Kojo f/ TestMe - "Get It 4 U" (mp3)
I saw Kojo and TestMe perform this song together at Club Taste once, these guys go way back and it's cool that they still collaborate a lot, since TestMe is all over the radio now. It's funny, I always give TestMe a hard time for sounding too much like Lil Wayne, and there's footage of him rapping with Kojo on the DVD from back in like 2003 and 2004, and he did rap completely differently now, it's a shame he can't just sound like himself like he did back then. This song is dope, though.

Labels: Deep Flow, mixtape/album review, mp3, TestMe

Tha Profitt - Concept Art (Profitt Productions)

Concept Art is an apt title for this album, because Tha Profitt understands better than most MCs that one of the keys to making dope rap music is to have strong concepts and themes for songs, a topic to stick to for three verses and a clever title to tie it all together. He can spit a song strand of unrelated punchlines if he wants to, and sometimes he does, but for the most part Tha Profitt has actual themes and ideas, and I can look at the tracklist of a CD like this, and see song titles like "Dollar Meal Anthem" and "One Take Heartbreak" and "Piece Of Shit Whip" and kinda see where he's going with it and want to hear those tracks. And this kid has a crazy work ethic, I still have a couple other CDs by him here that I haven't written about yet. I can see why he'd get the kind of respect that Skarr Akbar would wanna host this CD and co-sign him, or why he's get guest appearances by Bossman, Huli Shallone, B.O.M.B., Ogun, McCracken, TestMe and Hots, among others. Most of the beats are from outside producers like DJ Durti, Adam Shaikh and Drez, I think Profitt self-produced more of his previous mixtapes.

Tha Profitt f/ Huli Shallone - "Neva That" (mp3)
I like this song, it's just about doing your own thing and having your own sound.

Labels: B.O.M.B., Bossman, Hots, Minlus McCracken, mixtape/album review, mp3, Ogun, Skarr Akbar, TestMe, Tha Profitt