CJ - The Package Mixtape (DJ Driis/SalaamRemi.com)

CJ is the Baltimore-based R&B singer that I wrote a City Paper feature about a few weeks ago, and this is the mixtape I mentioned in the article that's hosted by Idris Elba from The Wire, and features production by Salaam Remi, Don Cannon, Bink and CJ himself. It's a really solid, short 30-minute preview of what he's capable of, and really has me looking forward to his album on J Records later this year. You can download The Package Mixtape here.

CJ - "We Can Get It In" (mp3)
This is the track produced by Don Cannon, who's really one of my favorite mainstream producers these days, really good song.

Labels: CJ Hilton, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Wire

The Get Em Mamis - The Road To TerAwesome

It's funny, I've been writing about these girls for like 4 years, back from when they had a 3rd member and were called Tha Plague, but I never actually met them until a few weeks ago, outside Sonar at the Paused In Time release party. And they were really just hilarious, I think they were more excited to meet me than vice versa, which is ridiculous. Their set that night was really good and reminded me that I hadn't sat down yet to listen to their latest mixtape, which is a appetizer for their upcoming official album (I have no idea what TerAwesome means). The mixtape has 6 tracks with Darkroom Productions (including "When U See Us" from The Wire's soundtrack and last year's popular single "Cold Summer"), as well as the club-flavored "Your Boyfriend Do" produced by DJ Excel and "Roc With Me" produced by DJ Booman. And if you heard their freestyles from last year's "Cold Summer" campaign some of those are on there. Really this holds together about as well as an album and really raises my expectations for their LP. The City Paper ran a review by Michael Byrne last month, and you can download the mixtape at G.E.M.'s MySpace. Their Twitter is also really entertaining, although I'm still not gonna give into the peer pressure from them to get one myself.

The Get 'Em Mamis - "They Joc'n" (mp3)
This is one of the Darkroom tracks, I dig that string sample or whatever it is.

Labels: Baltimore club, Darkroom Productions, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, The Wire

Y'know, it's funny. I've been running this site for over 4 years now, and hearing more and more Baltimore rap every year that I do it, and yet every year I feel less and less qualified to let my opinion be the end-all-be-all that some people treat it as. There's simply too much music, too much variety coming out of this scene for any one person to really fairly judge, but if I'm gonna be the only person that attempts to hear all or most of it, I might as well throw in my two cents, even as I encourage any and all other critics and bloggers to cover this stuff from a different perspective. So I make no claims to objective truth with this list; this is totally my taste, my opinion. I tried to do a poll a couple years ago, but that didn't really pan out and I'm kind of soured on the idea now, but if anyone wants to post their top 10, top 5, whatever in the comments, or e-mail them to me, I'd love to post those if I get enough of a response.

The last two years I did top 50 lists, but this year I decided to scale down to 20, even though I heard more stuff, just because I really wanted to emphasize the cream of the crop, and also because a lot of cats put out boring garbage this year. That's not to insult everyone that isn't on this list, because there were definitely some good releases that didn't quite make the cut, and also some great singles and tracks that didn't really fit into the list anywhere, but I felt the need to be more selective this time. Government Names will return to daily posting sometime in January, probably not for another week or two.



1. 410 Pharaohs - 410 Funk (Strictly Rhythm/Ill Friction)
This list is not really about club music, but the Labtekwon/DJ Booman/Jimmy Jones club/rap masterpiece really deserves to be at the top of this list, as well as the City Paper top 10, anyway, because it is a historic moment for Baltimore hip hop in general.
410 Pharaohs - “Big Girls” (mp3)



2. Brown F.I.S.H. - Bootleg III: F.I.S.H. & Friends... The Mixtape
This isn't really an album or a mixtape, just an odds & sods collection of remixes and collaborations that the F.I.S.H. recorded in the past few years, but it's so full of great music that it's the equal of any album, in my opinion.
Brown F.I.S.H. f/ Jeneba Suma & Jahli of Golden Seal - “Cheatin' (It Ain't Cheatin' Unless U Caught)” (mp3)



3. various artists - Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire (Nonesuch Records)
There's a couple club tracks on this, and a couple non-hip hop tracks, but this is still more than half local hip hop, and considering how much mileage Baltimore rappers have gotten from associating themselves with The Wire over the past few years, I thought it was pretty amazing that an official soundtrack of the show came out with songs by Ogun, Bossman, Mullyman, Tyree Colion and others. It was really one of the highlights of my year that I got thanked in the liner notes for this album, and had even a small role in it coming together.
The Get ‘em Mamis feat. L. Cash - “When You See Us” (mp3)



4. The Pornstars - Dirty Work (Pornstar Productions/Bird City Entertainment)
A couple MC/producers that are nicer on the tracks than on the mic, but got enough personality and humor that you aren’t sitting around wishing they just sold the beats to someone else. These dudes could be, like, Baltimore’s answer to the Beatnuts. I can bump this album all fucking day, front to back.
The Pornstars f/ Ckrisis & Mell - “Bird City” (mp3)



5. Bear - All We Got Is Us 2008 edition (For The People Entertainment)
For The People Entertainment has really been a unique and fertile label in the past couple years, and in my opinion this is their most complete and enjoyable release to date, although this year's Cutthroat album comes in a close 2nd.
Bear - “Live Through Time” (mp3)



6. E Major - Majority Rules (Under Sound Music)
Another one that I helped get into the City Paper top 10, so I won't say much more about than I already said there, but I feel like he really did everything right with this project, from the great release party show to the videos to making the whole thing available for free online, he really was smart about how he worked this project and got his buzz up.
E Major - “Don’t Worry” (mp3)



7. PenDragon - I Got Hits 4 Cheap: Draggy Baby Edition (Team Arson)
It's funny, Drag is one of these guys that gets on my nerves for calling himself the "king" of the city and this and that, but he also gets my respect for totally watching everyone's moves and sizing up the competition (he's always sending me links to other people's videos and music before know about them). And really between his production skills, and the heart and intelligence and humor that come across in his music, he has as much of a chance at making a run at the title as anyone these days, in my opinion. Not that I think there is a title, or that there should be.
PenDragon - “How Does It Feel” (mp3)



8. Ab Rock - The Mid Midlife Crisis (Rockmics Entertainment)
Maybe it's just because they did the release party together, and guested on each other's albums, but I really mentally group this along with the E Major record, and they're both really good examples of mature 'conscious' rap albums that are actually fun and laid back.
Ab Rock - “The Incredible” (mp3)



9. Tha Profitt - Concept Art (Profitt Productions)
Bmore's #1 white boy really went in on this one, coming up with creative concepts for every song and showing improvement as an MC.
Tha Profitt - “Fast & Furious” (mp3)



10. 80'z Boys - The 80'z Made Me
Most of the time when rappers boast about being born in the ‘80s, I feel almost like they’re making excuses for their music being inferior to the generations before them. But these guys pretty much just make dope music that doesn’t feel too tied to any particular age or era. I got this early in the year and I’m pretty sure it was released before 2008, but it’s still by far one of the best things I heard in Baltimore this year.
80’z Boys - “The 80'z Made Me” (mp3)



11. Skarr Akbar - The Epidemic (DNA/Akbar Enterprize/U-Turn Ent./Round Table Music Group)
Another year, another ton of new music from Skarr, but even as he was churning out radio singles and collaborations, he put out a 'street album' that ranked up there as one of his most consistent efforts to date.
Skarr Akbar - “If I Should Die” (mp3)



12. Profound - Carpe Diem (Real On Purpose Entertainment)
After years of dwelling in Ogun's shadow, Profound came out swinging this year and established himself as one of Baltimore's punchline masters.
Profound - “What You Gonna Do!?” (mp3)



13. Greenspan - Got Green? (Federal Reserve Music Group)
I knew this guy was a serious talent from the first couple times I saw him live, and I was not disappointed by his debut full-length release.
Greenspan - “Mt. Rockmore” (mp3)



14. D.O.G. - G Pack Music (7 Entertainment/Invisible Set Entertainment)
On the same tip as the 410 Pharaohs record, a really inspired union of rapping and Baltimore club, stretched out to album length. If he put this out right after "Ryda Gyrl" it could've been huge.
D.O.G. - “Louder” (mp3)



15. Soul Cannon - Kaboom (Soul Cannon/Morphius Records)
Soul Cannon might be kinda slept on in the hip hop scene, just because they're a band and mainly play rock clubs, but they really made one of the best conscious rap albums in the city this year.
Soul Cannon - “Get Serious” (mp3)



16. various artists - The Mania Music Group Sampler (Mania Music Group)
Mania Music Group put out a pretty ridiculous amount of free music this year, including solo EPs by each of its 3 solo artsts, and while they were all pretty good, this first sampler mixtape still really stands out to me as the best demonstration of the label's range and diversity of sounds.
Ron G. - “What Ya See” (mp3)



17. Wordsmith - The Revolution Begins With a Takeover Vol.1 (DJ Furious Styles/HipHopDX.com)
Wordsmith is another guy that's been so prolific this year that it's been really hard for me to keep up with his output so far, but this mixtape was the first time I really started to get a handle on how talented he is.
Wordsmith f/ Kontact - “Hard To Forget” (mp3)



18. B.O.M.B. - Testers EP (Money In Da Bank Entertainment)
B.O.M.B. had one of the best ideas this year: make a release as long as possible (9 songs) while still being able to call it an EP, so that he could sell basically an album-length release at half price. And really, there's something to be said for making a short release where every song counts, instead of just filling the CD to its maximum running time just because you can.
B.O.M.B. - “Over Here” (mp3)



19. EJ - The Westside Hustle (Carnigie Records/DJ Radio)
I'd been waiting to hear a mixtape from EJ since I first heard him like 3 years ago, and while I thought it could've been better overall, this still had some jams on it.
EJ - “Bitch Niggaz Pt. 1” (mp3)



20. Caddy Da Don - Fixed Fight 2.5: Exclusive Edition (Harup Entertainment)
Caddy definitely gets props for being one of the most notable newcomers of the past year or two.
Caddy Da Don - “What’s Funny” (mp3)

Labels: Ab Rock, B.O.M.B., Baltimore club, Bear, Brown F.I.S.H., D.O.G., DJ Booman, E Major, Labtekwon, lists, Mania Music Group, mp3, PenDragon, Skarr Akbar, The Wire

The City Paper's 2008 Best Of Baltimore Issue is out today. The categories I selected winners for and wrote blurbs for this year are:

Best Summer Jam: Mullyman's "Party Walk"
Best Local Album: Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From "The Wire"
Best Female MC: Symphony of G.E.M.
Best Male MC: Ogun
Best Hip-Hop DJ: P-Funk
Best Beatmaker: DJ Booman
Best Club DJ: Scottie B
Best Club Music Producer: Say Wut
Best All-Ages Space To See Bands: Charm City Art Space
Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop: 5 Seasons
Best Local Music Blog: Aural States
Best Radio Show for Local Music: The Internet
Best Auto Repair Shop: Central Service And Repair

There were also a number of winners I had nothing to do with that I fully approve of, including Best Upgrade: Wye Oak, Best Song: DJ Excel's "That's What A Pimp Does", Best Excuse To Stay Home: The Baltimore Taper, and Best Band Website: Whatever Doesn't Crash Our Browser. And then there's the reader poll, which gave out awards to a whole different set of winners, including Sonar for Best Place To Hear Hip-Hop, which should make P-Funk happy since he already gave me an earful about the fact that he would've rather had the club win an award than himself. Congrats to all the winners, hopefully each of you got your invites to the party in time and that I'll see you there tomorrow.

Oh, and I have a review of that shitty movie Righteous Kill somewhere in the back of the paper this week, I don't see it on anywhere online, though.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, DJ Booman, DJ Excel, DJ P-Funk, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Internet radio, magazines/newspapers, Mullyman, NSW (Say What), Ogun, Scottie B., Sonar, The Wire

Labels: 92Q, DNA, Dru Hill, flyer, Paula Campbell, The Wire, Tim Trees

Labels: Darkroom Productions, flyer, Los, The Wire

Mullyman - "Party Walk" (mp3)
I heard this on 92Q (I guess Mully ain't "banned from the radio" anymore?) last night, and had to hit up his MySpace today and download it, and apparently he's got a whole new mixtape called The Return either out now or dropping soon. This is Mully spitting over a straight up Baltimore club track (I believe he says at the beginning that it's a DJ Booman production), with chopped up drums from Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss," and he even sings a little of the theme song from The Wire ("Way Down In The Hole" by Tom Waits) at one point, really sick song.

Labels: Baltimore club, DJ Booman, mp3, Mullyman, The Wire

I just saw, via Midnight Sun, that Rolling Stone magazine's Best of Rock 2008 issue is out, and the city of Baltimore is featured as the Best Scene. Since it's obviously a rock magazine and a "best of rock" list, there's only a couple local hip hop mentions, for Deep Flow Studios and Amotion, and Darkroom Productions and their work on The Wire, who were both also featured in a previous RS issue in 2006.

Labels: Baltimore Sun, Darkroom Productions, Deep Flow, magazines/newspapers, The Wire

G.E.M. aka Get Em Mamis had a premiere party at 5 Seasons on Saturday for the video for their collaboration with Darkroom Productions, "When You See Us," from Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire, and the video is now up on YouTube. Juan Donovan from Darkroom said in an e-mail a couple months ago that the video would be aired on 106 & Park and MTV Jams, but I don't know if/when that's going to happen. G.E.M. have also released their single from the Darkroom Productions album due out in June, it's called "Cold Summer" and it's on their MySpace page. And they've been getting some press lately, with an interview on Baltimore music website Aural States, and in the new issue of The Fader, which you can download as a PDF file. They're featured on page 64 (page 34 in the PDF) and page 146 (page 76 in the PDF).

Labels: 5 Seasons, Darkroom Productions, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, The Wire, video

Labels: 5 Seasons, DJ Booman, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, The Wire

Briefly, my latest stuff up on http://noise.citypaper.com: a new Baltimore club music column with with DJ Pierre, a wrap-up of my experiences judging at the Show Me What You Got battle @ Fletcher's (congrats to the winner, A-Class), and reviews of the Best Buy in-store event for Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire with Mullyman, Ogun, Verb and G.E.M., last month's 15 Minutes of Fame open mic @ the Turntable Club with B.O.M.B., South Paw Entertainment, Rip The Ruler and others, Jonathan Richman @ the 8x10 and Perverse Osmosis, Shit The Bed and Scoundrel @ the Sidebar.

Labels: B.O.M.B., Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, battle, Dirty Hartz, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mullyman, Noise, Ogun, South Paw, The Wire, Turntable Club

Earlier this week I posted a flyer for this The Wire soundtrack in-store event at Best Buy on Friday. But I've since gotten another flyer, and confirmation that there will be live performances from the artists on the CD, not just a signing or meet-and-greet. I'm surprised to see Tyree Colion's name on the flyer, since last I'd heard he was locked up, but maybe he's out now. I hope it's true and he's there to perform tomorrow.

There's also a new feature on the HBO website about The Wire music supervisor Blake Leyh. There's a sidebar to the article in which Leyh talks about songs that he wanted to use in the show that never made it on an episode, including Young Leek's "Jiggle It," Mullyman's "Oh Baltimore," and Leyh's own "151 Canal," which I recently posted on my other blog, Narrowcast.

Nine out of the ten episodes of the 5th season of The Wire have either aired on HBO or been available OnDemand, and the series finale goes OnDemand next week. I've written several Narrowcast posts about the last few episodes. The songs by Baltimore artists that have been heard in this season so far include "What You Know About Baltimore" by Ogun and Phathead in Episode 54, "I'm Good There" by Mullyman in Episode 56, "The Ooh Ahh Song" by G.E.M. and "Ayo" by Bossman in Episode 57, and "So Fresh" by Bossman in Episode 59.

Labels: Bossman, Diablo, Dirty Hartz, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mullyman, Ogun, The Wire, Tyree Colion, Young Leek

After the January lull I've had a crapload of stuff up on http://noise.citypaper.com this month, including the Club Beat with DJ Excel and a news item about the Darkroom Productions album due out in May, as well as lots of live coverage. On the hip hop side, there were reviews of Deep Flow Entertainment's Rock Da Mic @ Club Taste, and Heavy Gold/Billo/Yuk/Dirt Platoon @ Suite, and silent auction of The Wire merchandise @ the Baltimore Museum of Industry featuring music by Diablo, Rod Lee and the Backyard Band, and Ogun/Bossman/Comp/B.O.M.B./Verb @ 5 Seasons for the Hip Hop 101 (R.I.P.) welcome home party for Skinny Suge (although it looks like he's back in trouble already). And on the rock side, I saw Avec/Karmella's Game/Remote Islands/A Sunny Day In Glasgow @ the Lo-Fi Social Club, and Gunwife Gone/MacGregor Burns Band/Old Souls @ Frazier's, and Thrushes @ Rock-n-Romp at 2640, and Biff Tannen Overdrive/At Shiloh/Abracadaver/Define Me A Serial Killer @ the Local Highrise. In addition to myself and the CP editors, the page now also features contributions from Raven Baker from Beatbots, so it's good to have another person to help hold things down and keep interesting stuff on Noise.

Labels: 5 Seasons, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, Billo, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, DJ Excel, Heavy Gold, Hip Hop 101, Noise, Rod Lee, The Wire

Labels: Diablo, Dirty Hartz, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mullyman, Ogun, The Wire

On Friday, I wrote a piece for the City Paper's Noise blog about the latest news on Darkroom Productions' Hamsterdam - The Album, which now has a May 27th release date, with national distribution via Koch Records. And, as you can see above, Darkroom is also featured in a big piece about Baltimore music in The Wire in the current issue of Vibe Magazine.

Bigg Patch - "Spine" (mp3)
Juan Donovan mentioned in a recent e-mail announcement that several singles from Hamsterdam - The Album will be out in March, by Ogun and TestMe and G.E.M. One of those singles, however, from Bigg Patch, is already available on last year's Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip (originally under the title "Put That Dick Up In Her Spine"). It was one of my favorites on that mixtape, dope Pimp C sample on the hook, so I think it's a good look for this new project. Between this and that "Diamond Don" joint I posted a while back I'm feeling Bigg Patch's music lately. Darkroom's MySpace page has another one of the album's singles, "Beautiful Bitches In Bad Neighborhoods" by Diablo.

Labels: Bigg Patch, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, G.E.M./Tha Plague, magazines/newspapers, mp3, Ogun, The Wire

'The Wire' Cast Comes Together

To commemorate the finale of the series, cast members Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), Corey Parker Robinson (Detective Leander Sydnor), Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow)* will be at the HBO Shop to sign the new deluxe soundtrack celebrating five years of music from The Wire.

When: Jan 31st, 2008 at 11:30am
Where: HBO Shop at 42nd and 6th Ave (NYC)

*Cast members subject to change.

Labels: flyer, The Wire

So the 2 official soundtracks for The Wire have been out for a couple weeks now, and there's some good news and some bad news. The good is that the CDs have largely been getting positive, including my friend Tom Breihan's Pitchfork review, which favored Beyond Hamsterdam, and he featured Diablo's "Jail Flick" on a recent podcast. The bad news, or at least not great news, is that, as the Baltimore Sun's Sam Sessa recently reported on the Midnight Sun blog, according to SoundScan, only 2,000 copies of The Wire: And All the Pieces Matter and 400 copies of Beyond Hamsterdam have been sold in their first 2 weeks on shelves. Granted, CD sales in general are down, compilations are generally the hardest kind of hip hop album to sell, and The Wire is not really a hit show, even by premium cable standards. But I think I expected at least a little better than this (and a CD has to sell at least 3 thousand in a slow week to crack the Billboard 200). Hopefully, though, the good word of mouth will spread and as the 5th season of the show progresses, more people will pick up these great discs and check out the music.

Labels: magazines/newspapers, The Wire

Labels: Baltimore club, Diablo, flyer, Rod Lee, The Wire

The other day it was brought to my attention that the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies features an essay called “What Chew Know About Down the Hill?’’: Baltimore Club Music, Subgenre Crossover, and the New Subcultural Capital of Race and Space by Andrew Devereaux, which is available online as a PDF file. The piece uses The Wire and Baltimore politics as a jumping off point to discuss the origins of Baltimore club and its last few years of national exposure, and namechecks DJs and musicians like Scottie B., DJ Booman, DJ Technics, Rod Lee, Debonair Samir, K-Swift, Labtekwon and Blaq Starr. It also refers several times to things I've written, and cites the work of several writers I know (Tom Breihan, Jess Harvell, David Drake, Scott Seward, etc.), and it's interesting, if a little surreal, to see a lot of things I've written or read in the past few years put together in this kind of academic context, discussing issues like race and class and the people who've brought Baltimore club to a wider audience. I've never really wanted to be seen as a Baltimore club authority, I just remember 5 years ago there being virtually no detailed information or critical writing about it online, and wanting to do some small part to provide whatever little info I had to other people, and ending up maybe shaping a lot of discussions and impressions about it. There are a few things I could criticize the essay about (mostly minor factual errors not worth noting), but I'm glad Devereaux wrote it, and I hope it stirs more conversation on these topics, and brings people who know way more than me about the topic out of the woodwork to put in their two cents.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Debonair Samir, DJ Booman, DJ Technics, K-Swift, Labtekwon, magazines/newspapers, Rod Lee, Scottie B., The Wire

various artists - Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire (Nonesuch Records)

You already know what it is. I've been hyping up this album, and its companion piece, The Wire: " … and all the pieces matter", and updating you every step of the way from the original announcement to the official tracklist to my in-depth City Paper feature on the album. I posted a lot of these tracks on this blog when they were first released on local mixtapes, including all-time favorites like "Dance My Pain Away" and "Jail Flick" and "That's Da Sound" that I consider some of the best records to come out of Baltimore in recent years. In fact my only real complaint about this album is that it's too short. But the fact that Blake and The Wire's people made this a special release in addition to the regular soundtrack is more than I ever would've asked for or expected (plus, as I've said before, I'm thanked in the liner notes, which is awesome and a big deal to me). It's been out since Tuesday, and if you haven't bought it already, buy it this week. Although, if you only buy one of these 2 CDs, I might say buy the other one, since it has more music, a nicer package, and it has a better chance of charting on Billboard next week (right now at #73 on Amazon's music sales chart and climbing).

Ogun f/ Phathead - "What You Know About Baltimore" (mp3)
This track appeared on Hamsterdam Vol. 2 and I believe is due to appear in one of the episodes in the 5th season of the show, but I've never posted it here before. Great low key track, really honest about the city's situation but also determined to make it better, a theme that's always run through Ogun's lyrics, and I'm really glad they got him involved in the project, since I think of him as kind of the epitome of a hard working underground Baltimore MC.

Labels: Baltimore club, Bossman, Darkroom Productions, Diablo, Dirty Hartz, DJ Technics, G.E.M./Tha Plague, mixtape/album review, mp3, Mullyman, Ogun, One Up Entertainment, Rod Lee, The Wire, Tyree Colion