Saturday January 7th I was in Baltimore and decided to check out an underground hip hop show some of my friends from various cities were playing at The Hamilton Arts Collective. I arrived just in time for the third set, JE double F, of Atlantic City, to start. Anxious to get home after the last day of a 13 day tour Jeff was still able to deliver the intensity that he's been spreading across the country with his relentless touring promoting his ep Paganomics.
Next to play was local rapper DP the emcee who I was unfamiliar with but had a positive message to convey wrapped in a smooth laid back flow, and somehow was even nicer when he went off the top. My good friend Jack Wilson, originally from Pittsburgh but now residing in Baltimore, played next and was accompanied by a DJ whose stage name I can't remember, but considering he was the only one with a DJ next time some ipod rappers it made his set aesthetically more pleasing and his songs never slack either. Last to play was local rapper Trace Blam. Trace's set suffered slightly from a cold, but when I looked some of his stuff up online after the show I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Plus he approached me because I was carrying a skateboard and said that he skated, which made me even more of a fan.
The first two sets I missed were by Jumbled, who I've seen perform before at Charm City Artspace, and Avant-Garde originally from Delaware who I heard of prior to the show and was pretty bummed out when I missed his set. However during every set that Avant-Garde heard someone he liked on the mic, which seemed to be every set, he demanded a cypher session with them after the show at the end of the night.
