Noise: Author Archive

Even since before Baltimore rapper StarrZ signed with Universal, he’d been hyping up Live Forever, Die Dope, his upcoming follow-up to last year’s Best Mixtape Ever, and its lead single, “Dope Trilla.” This month, the anthemic Feddy 2 Times-produced track was finally unveiled, in the form of an awesome video that only serves to...
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In case you hadn’t heard, legendary MC Rakim is coming to Baltimore next Sunday, the 19th, for a show at Paparazzi (formerly Sonar). In advance of the show, we emailed the microphone fiend some questions, and he was only too happy to chime in on his legacy, his favorite artists, and his memories of...
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This week Maryland rapper/producer Speed On The Beat released “Kings (Edited Into The Echelon),” the first official single from his second album, due out in August. The track features frequent collaborator True God, and displays the “no-fi” approach to hip-hop that Speed is known for, although he also calls the song one of his...
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The inaugural Baltimore Popfest at the Charm City Art Space, which I wrote about in this week’s City Paper, features many performers from far flung locations, but only a couple local combos. One of them, Wildhoney, has only been playing shows for a year, but has quickly made an impression around town with loud...
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With local underground venue The Bell Foundry canceling some upcoming shows (an unfortunate if familiar situation), bands booked to play the space have been scrambling for other options. Among them are Friend Collector and Curse, who were to kick off a brief East coast tour tonight at The Bell Foundry. After being told the...
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Information has been sparse so far, but the news has been going around town that Steven “Low Key God” Loney, a ubiquitous figure on the Baltimore hip-hop scene for the past two decades, passed away on Sunday, March 17th. Though not a recording artist himself, Loney seemed to show up anywhere grimey underground hip-hop...
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Last summer, the CW network attempted to jump into the post-American Idol gold rush of singing competitions with “The Next,” which went from city to city looking for hometown heroes. I recapped the episode in which the show’s celebrity mentors came to Baltimore, and pop singer Jordan Baird won the night and went on...
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After Baltimore rap star “Smash” Taylor sadly, unexpectedly passed away last Friday, and I fast-tracked a brief obituary that ran in this week’s City Paper, I found myself wondering how to best sum up his musical legacy for those who may not have known his music when he was alive. Should the focus be...
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Severn, Maryland-based rapper Brian Ennals has been slow to trickle out music from his upcoming Candy Cigarettes project since the great “Newport Music” single dropped last year, although the track finally got a video recently. So this week, Ennals unleashed the second single ‘When You Wake Up,” a spleen-venting breakup song, just in time...
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A Super Bowl victory is the kind of thing that brings attention to the whole city, even the parts of it that have nothing to with football. So this week, the XXL used the Ravens’ big win as an opportunity to post “10 Baltimore rappers that you need to know.” There are some no-brainers...
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Ron Rico has long been one of the producers in the city bridging the worlds of hip-hop and Baltimore club music, although his soulful midtempo tracks for MCs like Mike Malachi often bore little similarity to his raucous club tracks. Over the years Rico has dropped verses here and there, but didn’t seem to...
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Every year, rappers with an NFL franchise in their city get pumped up about making anthems for the home team, especially since Pittsburgh’s Wiz Khalifa topped the charts with “Black And Yellow” just as the Steelers were headed to the Super Bowl last year. Baltimore rappers are no exception, and there have been a...
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Some Baltimoreans may feel a strange, perhaps unpleasant sense of déjà vu when laying eyes on DJ AngelBaby’s Get Pumped Vol. 1. A mix CD of Baltimore club music by a popular female on-air personality from 92Q, distributed by the local retail chain Downtown Locker Room, can’t help but bring to mind the dozens...
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It was only last spring that Baltimore rockers Gary B & The Notions released their latest album, the excellent How Do We Explode, but they decided to close out 2012 with a little more new music on the Cheri EP. The title track is a worthy addition to the canon of Gary Barrett songs...
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J. Roddy Walston & The Business have long felt like one of Baltimore rock’s best prospects for mainstream success; after all, they are one of the only local bands to have found their way onto 98 Rock playlists, and sound damn good there. Still, it was a little surprising last week to get word...
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The search for a modern Christmas song worthy of addition to the canon (besides, of course, that deathless Mariah Carey track) is, perhaps, a fool’s errand. But every 4th quarter, acts big and small continue to toss holiday-themed songs and albums out into the world, and whether they perfectly capture the spirit of the...
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The recent announcement of Unfold Ordinary Mind, a new quintet led by Ben Goldberg and featuring Nels Cline and Ellery Eskelin, was pretty exciting in and of itself. But even more so, at least in Baltimore, was the news that Creative Differences would be bringing the group here for a performance at the Windup...
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On December 1st, World AIDS Day, the Metro Gallery held a fundraiser for Moveable Feast, the Baltimore-based organization that has been providing food and other services to people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening conditions since 1990. As a celebration of an incredibly noble and worthwhile cause, it was an edifying way to spend a...
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Baltimore club veteran DJ Class has made a lot of famous friends since dropping the breakout single “I’m The Ish” in 2008, but perhaps none has been a more persistent booster for his career than Miami party rapper Pitbull. Pit jumped on the official remix of “I’m The Ish” with Lil Jon, and had...
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Trawling the internet for new releases by Baltimore area musicians, we look for good records to champion, and try to ignore or forget the bad. But sometimes we find something so horrendously awful that it begs to be shared, such as Hungry D’s Getting’ High In The Drive-Thru, a stale and deeply unfunny parody...
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