From the Top Tonio: From Da Top has one of the best and strangest names in Baltimore hip-hop, and is also an alumnus of the same label, Da Bloc Inc., that helped launch the careers of Los and Skarr Akbar. But Tonio’s greatest asset is his own music, which has a hard-edged East Coast...
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Poor guy In which the white, privileged phenomenon known as “playing poor” reaches its establishment apogee. Broke-Ass Stuart is in town right now filming a television show for IFC, apparently to do with the “broke and beautiful” concept explored on “broke-ass stuart’s goddamn website” via such items as “Are Rock “Gods” Really That Bone-able?”...
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Midas Mania Music Group’s Midas (now going by the name DDM) has a hip-hop and club fusion record called American Graffiti coming out soon on Unruly Records. The project was first mentioned in City Paper a few weeks ago in a profile of Unruly borders-breaker Schwarz (he has a beat on the album) and,...
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Time to get bent When City Paper spoke to local rapper Born King last summer about his unique approach to hip-hop and prolific off-the-radar output, the offbeat MC spoke about slowing down from his pace of two albums a year and focusing on mentoring younger collaborators like his brother, producer Singodsuperior. And while he’s...
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On Sunday night the latest experimental music endeavor with firm Baltimore roots makes it local debut. Co-organized and -founded by local composer and musician David Smooke, the League of the Unsound Sound is a loose ensemble dedicated not only to exploring new composed music and improvisation, but to advocating for both of those camps...
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Say Wut at work Though it does feature his signature horns and a nod to his early days as NSW (Nigga Say Wut) in that ominous synth-choir sound, “Alien Nation” is a new kind of club track for Say Wut. It’s anchored by a spare flicker of strings and brassy video game noises, but...
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Totall beacharific Ken Seeno's Invisible Surfer On an Invisible Wave might, at first, look like another contribution to that chillwave/glo-fi/whatever movement that’s still kicking around (beach-themed, cassette-released) but Seeno’s sound–patient, sophisticated, and pointedly clean–is more like a Fripp and Eno’s Evening Star on a budget. “Everything Is Changing All the Time,” pairs humble horns...
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Wonderful From DJ Equalizer’s “Kill Barney” to Johnny Blaze’s “Spongebob Squarepants Remix” to DJ Excel’s “That’s What A Pimp Does,” club music’s always been really good at grabbing hold of some goofball phenomenon and making into a hilarious, hypnotic dance track. So now, there’s a Charlie Sheen club song. It was only a matter...
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Rome Cee Rome Cee quietly emerged as one of Baltimore hip-hop’s most promising talents in 2010 with two “FreEP”s and one collaborative record with Justin Ambush, all self-released via his Band Camp page. But E Major’s label Under Sound Music has proven once again that it’s got its ears to the ground by taking...
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Blaqstarr Over the past few weeks, Blaqstarr has been haphazardly tossing out new songs onto his YouTube account. First, there was “Ride,” a club remix of “Rider Girl” from January’s Divine EP. “Rider Girl” is, of course, a slightly less club music-friendly version of “Ryda Girl,” so it’s kind of a strange loop of...
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"Off My Mind" Erstwhile For the People Entertainment rapper Billo has been steadily dropping videos for the past few months, at least four off of last August’s mixtape Falling Off Into 1st, and the latest is for “Off My Mind.” The song, featuring a melodic hook from WillStar and a light, elegant beat that’s...
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Louder! For hip-hop nerds, the month of February is unofficially known as J. Dilla Month: The late, great, insanely influential producer was born in February, died in February, and released his existential beat-tape masterpiece Donuts on February 7th, his 32nd (and last) birthday. Sean Armstrong (also known as DJ Face, and part of the...
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Coming Soon OOH, a member of the long-running local hip-hop band Brown F.I.S.H., has been trickling out great solo tracks like “Pink Money” for a year or two now. And now it looks like he’s finally going to be collecting them on a proper solo release, an upcoming EP called The Big 7. That...
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Indie-rock fans of a certain generation might recognize the name Amy Domingues. Yes, the longtime Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia cellist was one half of the dreamy chamber pop duo Garland of Hours and the bombastic trio Telegraph Melts with Bob Massey, an erstwhile City Paper contributor, but she’s also been the go-to cellist for regional...
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