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.

As I did for 2008 and 2007, it's time to look back at what the most frequently used tags were on the site last year. The four numbers represent 2009 posts / 2008 posts / 2007 posts/ total posts on the site:

1. flyer (189/306/361/1199)
2. mp3 (144/120/103/489)
3. Baltimore club (91/114/76/349)
4. mixtape/album review (90/79/80/330)
5. DJ Booman (39/45/38/134)
6. Skarr Akbar (37/26/35/144)
7. Sonar (34/44/39/142)
8. Baltimore City Paper (33/25/35/153)
9. Mullyman (32/26/35/149)
10. 5 Seasons (31/65/102/298)
11. Bossman (29/29/42/168)
12. DJ Class (27/1/0/28)
13. Ogun (26/39/40/146)
14. Shaka Pitts (25/8/0/33)
15. Mania Music Group (24/8/0/32)
16./17./18. (tie) Unruly Records (23/30/11/75) / Club Reality (23/0/0/23)
/ magazines/newspapers (23/41/29/142)
19. Comp (21/17/38/121)
20./21. (tie) 41YO (19/0/0/19) / Blaq Starr (19/28/21/87)
22. Wordsmith (18/6/0/24)
23./24./25. (tie) ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM (17/0/0/17) / Tayland Promotions (17/0/0/17) / Noise (17/18/18/53)

Edit: I managed to forget video (31/18/1/50), which would've been tied for 10th place on the list if I'd tabulated it correctly at the time.

That’s 7 rappers, 3 Baltimore club producers, 3 venues, 3 blogs/websites, 2 labels, and a lot of other categories. Congrats to everyone that made the list, everyone else: grind harder, or actually e-mail me every time you do a show or drop new music.

Labels: Blaq Starr, Bossman, Comp, DJ Booman, DJ Class, lists, Mania Music Group, Mullyman, Ogun, Shaka Pitts, Skarr Akbar, Unruly Records, Wordsmith