One of my first posts on this site was an overview of The Club Beat, my online column for the Baltimore City Paper website. And while those pieces represent the majority of my writing about Baltimore club music prior to Tough Breaks, I’ve published a lot of other stuff on the subject for a variety of publications, websites and blogs. So here’s a collection of all that stuff (with the exception of my club music writing on Baltimore music site Government Names, which has tended to be shorter and bloggier; sometime I’ll try to compile some of my longer or more worthwhile writings from that site here).

Splice Today

“Is 2009 The Year Baltimore Club Broke?” August 2009

A thinkpiece about the genre’s mainstream prospects. My answer to the titular question now, a year later, would probably be no, but there’s still a lot of interesting stuff happening that makes me optimistic.

Stylus Magazine

Unruly Club Classics Vol. III review, March 2006

XLR8R

“Mixtape Madness,” April 2008 (full text not available online)

Part of the Baltimore-themed zine supplement, in which I talked about Say Wut’s Club Chronicles: Level 1 and DJ Mic Marvelous’s Deja Vu.

Word.Beats.Life

“Sex In This Club: Gender and Sexuality in Baltimore Club Music,” June 2010 (full text not available online)

An examination of the importance of sex in Baltimore club music, and how women and homosexuals have played roles in the scene.

Narrowcast

In Oct-Dec 2009, I counted down my top 100 favorite albums of the last decade on my personal blog, and wrote a few entries about records that feature Baltimore club music and club/hip hop fusions:

29. Blaq Starr – I’m Bangin’

35. Tim Trees – Dalton Vol. 1

53. The 410 Pharaohs – 410 Funk

89. Rod Lee – Vol. 2: Operation Not Done Yet

Baltimore City Paper

“The Best Of Both Worlds,” July 2006

A Big Music Issue feature in which I look at hip hop/Baltimore club fusions and interviewed Blaqstarr, DJ Booman, Debonair Samir, Dukeyman and DJ Ron Rico.

“No Static At All,” July 2008

Another Big Music Issue feature, this time on internet radio stations, with interviews with Baltimore club artists like DJ Excel, DJ Diamond K, and Dirty Nation Entertainment.

“Khia ‘K-Swift Edgerton’ 1978-20009,” July 2008

My obituary for the Club Queen, one of the saddest and most difficult writing assignments I’ve ever had.

“Class Is In Session,” February 2009

My feature on the resurgence of DJ Class and his hit “I’m The Ish.”

Blaq Starr – King Of Roq review, August 2007

Say Wut – Crank It! review, March 2008

At the end of every year, the City Paper does a list of the top ten local album of the year. Here are some of the blurbs I wrote about club music releases for those lists:

The Year In Local Music 2006: Blaq Starr’s I’m Bangin’

The Year In Local Music 2007: Blaq Starr’s The King of Roq

The Year In Local Music 2008: The 410 Pharoahs’ 410 Funk

And every September, the City Paper publishes its Best of Baltimore issue, and though the blurbs for those picks aren’t usually credited to one particular author, here are a few of the music-related awards I selected and wrote about:

2005 Best Club Music Producer: Blaq Starr

2005 Best Local Summer Jam: Rod Lee’s “Dance My Pain Away”

2006 Best Club DJ: K-Swift

2006 Best Club Music Producer: Debonair Samir

2007 Best Club DJ: K.W. Griff

2007 Best Club Music Producer: King Tutt

2008 Best Summer Jam: Mullyman’s “Party Walk”

2008 Best Beatmaker: DJ Booman

2008 Best Club Music DJ: Scottie B.

2008 Best Club Music Producer: Say Wut

2009 Best Club Music Producer: DJ Class

2009 Best Club Music DJ: DJ Pierre

Now playing: Rod Lee – “My DJ 123″

Baltimore club producer Debonair Samir recently released the lead single from his long awaited Samir’s Revenge album, which he described as “the ultimate party record” when I last interviewed him in 2009. “Fist Pump (Going Down)” features rappers QHolla (who I believe is the same Q who was making noise with some records and shows in the Baltimore hip hop scene a few years ago) and Cherri Lala, and it’s not far from the club/hip hop fusion sound of the B-More Club Crack album he released with Aaron Lacrate last year.

Debonair Samir, QHolla and Cherri LaLa – “Fist Pump (Going Down)”

The fact that Samir’s single is named after the “fist pump” catchphrase from MTV’s Jersey Shore is kind of funny since, as I posted a few weeks ago, DJ Class recently did a song with the Jersey Shore’s own fist pumper “The Situation.” Once again, it’s kind of an example of Baltimore club’s long tradition of drawing from pop culture, but in a weird way it’s kind of appropriate, since Jersey has long been one of the biggest outposts for club music outside of Maryland. Brandon Soderberg wrote a lengthy City Paper article last year detailing Philly and Jersey variants of Baltimore club, and of course New Jersey natives Joe Budden and Just Blaze interpolated Frank Ski’s “Whores In This House” on their 2003 hit “Fire.”

Samir also recently celebrated the news of his first platinum plaque. The headline “Baltimore club goes platinum” is a bit deceptive: Samir produced the song “Road Rage” for British rapper Dizzee Rascal, whose album went platinum in the U.K. The song does have some elements of Baltimore club, though, and a win for Samir is still a win for Baltimore.

Now playing: DJ Debonair Samir – “Samir’s Theme”

watch?v=vv3K8wzBrt8

Here’s some footage of Scottie B.’s set at Whartscape earlier this weekend, shot by (or at least uploaded to YouTube by) a fellow DJ, Cullen Stalin. Looks like a good set, shame I missed the festival.

Now playing: DJ Scottie B. – “Make ‘Em Say”

“K-Swift Day” 2010 is this Sunday, July 25th at Reedbird Park in Cherry Hill!

All of the proceeds from this event will benefit the memorial fund for the late Khia “DJ K-Swift” Edgerton.

Now playing: K.W. Griff – “Pork And Swift”

This week in the Baltimore City Paper I have a feature about the local rapper Mullyman, whose new album Harder Than Baltimore features a significant amount of production from DJ Booman, and in the article we talk a bit about how Booman helped him embrace the Baltimore club sound in his music:

MBAHlievable and DJ Booman both excel at aggressive East Coast hip-hop, but the latter brings something else to the table: his background as a major figure in Baltimore club music.

Before “Party Walk” in 2008, Mullyman was one of the few popular rappers in Baltimore who hadn’t dipped his toe in club music’s uptempo dance beats. “I thought it was so cliché, everyone was jumping on the bandwagon,” he says. “I didn’t wanna be in the same box as those artists. But when I looked at it for what it was worth, and came outside of how I used to think about it, and said, ‘Damn, this is Baltimore.’ It is hip-hop sped up, and it does challenge me as an artist.”

Muldrow since appeared on “Step Aside,” a single by DJ Booman’s group the Doo Dew Kidz, and his label Major League Unlimited is releasing the upcoming album. “With the help of Booman and Jimmy Jones, to do it with proven legends, it’s kinda awful hard to turn down,” Muldrow says. A new remix of “Party Walk” featuring his sister Nik Stylz appears on the album, and Booman sneaks more Baltimore club elements into the new tracks “Get Ya Life” and “Fast or Slow.”

Now playing: Mullyman f/ Jerrod – “Luh You Hear”

On this day in 2008, Khia “K-Swift” Edgerton, the Baltimore club queen, passed away. One of the biggest challenges I’m facing as I write Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music is to tell her part of the story, and of the era of club music which she dominated and in many ways defined, without her being around to give her own perspective. Hopefully I’ll get a lot of help. In the meantime, if you’d like to read about her life and career, you can read the obituary I wrote the week of her death, and the group interview with Club Queen Entertainment that I conducted a couple weeks later, both for the Baltimore City Paper.

(photo by Josh Sisk)

Now playing: Rod Lee – “K-Swift Get Freaky”

Artscape is coming this weekend and Whartscape is next week, and even though My Crew Be Unruly III has been postponed and won’t also be happening this week, there’ll be some other club music and local hip hop happening at both of the big festivals, so I thought I’d do a quick summary (if I miss anything or there’s other rap/club artists performing at/near the fests, please let me know):

Artscape

Friday, July 16 @ Metro Gallery
Scottie B

Sunday, July 17 @ Wachovia Stage
DJ Impulse

Sunday, July 17 @ Charm City Stage
Breaking Reign

Whartscape

Friday, July 23 @ Current Space
Scottie B, The Get Em Mamis, Height, Rapdragons, Plural MC

Friday, July 23 @ H&H Building
Mickey Free

Now playing: Scottie B. – “Rep Ur City”

Today’s Washington Post has a big spread on the city’s neighbor to the north, Baltimore, in today’s Arts & Living section, including an article by Chris Richards about 92Q and Baltimore club music (you may need to grab a password from bugmenot.com to view it on the Post site). The piece features quotes from K.W. Griff (pictured), Say Wut, Porkchop, Cullen Stalin, and Wye Oak, and also mentions K-Swift, Blaqstarr, Rye Rye, DJ Class, Rod Lee, Mullyman, Booman and the Get Em Mamis (Chris also spoke to me for the article, but I’m not quoted in it, which is a situation I’ve been on the other end of enough times that I totally understand — limited space, lack of a perfect quote, etc.).

Now playing: Blaqstarr – “Sets High”

We did it! My book, Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music, reached its $5,000 fundraising goal on Kickstarter.com today. For most of the last 5 weeks it wasn’t even halfway to the goal, but thanks to some very generous 11th hour backers it got to where it needed to be in time. The page will still be open for pledges until about 9pm EST tomorrow (Thursday) night, and every little bit helps make the whole project bigger and better, so please feel free to still donate if you want, there’s no limit on how high it can go past the initial goal. I owe a huge huge thanks to all of my 39 backers, some of whom are family and friends and peers in the music community, some of whom I don’t know but really appreciate their support.

Now comes the really hard part: actually completing and releasing the book. There’s a lot to still be settled on the business end, but my hope is to have it completely finished with the research and writing by the end of 2010, and have the book on sale at some point in 2011, although it’s difficult at this early juncture to be any more specific than that. But I’m looking into some really great opportunities to make this all as big and as great as it can possibly be and give the project a whole life beyond the book. Just as there have been the past few weeks, there will be more print articles and radio appearances and online promotions between now and the book’s release, along with events, the cool rewards some of the Kickstarter backers signed up for and all sorts of other stuff I don’t want to spoil just yet but could be really really awesome. I’m gonna take a breather for a minute and just wipe my brow with relief, but the progress of this whole project will continue to be documented on ToughBreaksBaltimore.com. Thank you!!

Now playing: DJ Lil Matic – “Oh Shit”