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Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Saturday, July 19, 2025
The August 19th release date of my book Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music is just a month away now, and Stereogum has published a 4 thousand word excerpt that includes the previously untold story of how Tierre Brownlee gave Unruly Records its name. Thanks also to Resident Advisor and Steal This Music Taste for their recent posts about the book. Preorder it here!
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Today is the 3rd annual Baltimore Club Music Day and I'm very happy to announce that my first book Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music will be out on August 19 via Repeater Books! The book is up for preorder pretty much anywhere books are sold, but don't hesitate to reach out (my email is shipley.al@gmail.com) if you have an independent bookstore or media outlet or podcast or really anywhere I can sell this book or get the word out about it, I am very excited to finally share this thing with the world! I interviewed 50 people over a span of 18 years for this book and I'm really proud of it.
Sunday, June 30, 2024
I wrote a Baltimore Banner piece about D.King, one of the best kept secrets in Baltimore hip hop, finally prepping his debut album 20 years after he was signed by Jay-Z as a teenager.
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Lawrence Burney and I reminisced about 't
Monday, August 08, 2022
I wrote a piece for The Baltimore Banner that's kind of an overview of Baltimore rap since 2000, with a great song representing every year of the 21st century.
Last month the Banner also published my profile of Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
I recently wrote my first article for Bandcamp, and it's a look back at the life and work of Dwayne "Headphones" Lawson, a hip hop producer from Baltimore who passed away in November. I spoke to a lot of people who knew him and worked with him, including DDm, Kane Mayfield, Eze Jackson, Greenspan, and his Mania Music Group co-producer Brandon Lackey, and highlighted some of his best tracks. This was a real labor of love to show appreciation for a guy I had a lot of admiration for.
Friday, July 20, 2018
This weekend marks 10 years since Khia "DJ K-Swift" Edgerton's tragic death. The Baltimore Sun ran a lovely piece about her by Brittany Britto and Wesley Case, and Wesley quoted me a little bit in the article.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
My first article for Pigeons & Planes is an extensive piece about Tate Kobang, and his recent show at Soundstage, where I helped get Tim Trees onstage with Tate for the first time, a moment that I'd been wanting to see for the last year. Tate's new mixtape Since We're Here is out now.
Labels: magazines/newspapers, Tate Kobang, Tim Trees
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
I wrote the obituary of Reggie Reg, a Baltimore DJ and radio legend who passed away recently, for this week's Baltimore City Paper. Rest in peace.
Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, magazines/newspapers, Reggie Reg
Thursday, December 24, 2015
This week I put up my favorite albums of 2015, but I also contributed to the Baltimore City Paper's annual Top Ten Issue. I wrote about Future's DS2 in the Top Ten (nonlocal) Albums list, and in the Top Ten Baltimore Singles list, I wrote about songs by TT The Artist and Future Islands.
Labels: Baltimore City Paper, TT The Artist
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Labels: Baltimore club, magazines/newspapers
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
I wrote about Baltimore producer D.K. The Punisher, who recently worked on Jill Scott's hit "Fool's Gold," in this week's City Paper. He'll be hosting Llamadon's Pizza Portal at the Metro Gallery this Friday.
Labels: Baltimore City Paper, D.K. The Punisher
Sunday, September 06, 2015
Kane Mayfield is leaving Baltimore for a while after his show at the Metro Gallery this weekend, and I premiered a new song from a CD he gave away at the show, "Dream Killers," on Noisey.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Labels: magazines/newspapers
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
The Channel 10 Podcast, which is hosted by a couple of Baltimore rap dudes I go way back with, Articulate and Singodsuperior, asked me to come on as a guest, and Episode 20 went up this week. We talked for about an hour about in a wide ranging discussion about Baltimore, music, life, all that stuff. It was a lot of fun, thanks to go those guys for inviting me to participate.
Labels: Articulate, Channel 10, Podcasts, Singodsuperior
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Baltimore rapper Tate Kobang recently signed to 300 Entertainment off the strength of "Bank Rolls," his hit that features the beat from a circa 2000 Baltimore classic by Tim Trees. I spoke to both Tate and Tim Trees for The Fader.
Labels: Fader, magazines/newspapers, Tate Kobang, Tim Trees
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I wrote The Short List, and the final Rap Sheet column, with news about Dirt Platoon, Wordsmith, and more.
Labels: Baltimore City Paper, magazines/newspapers, Rap Sheet, Wordsmith
Thursday, March 12, 2015
In this week's Baltimore City Paper, I wrote a big feature about Kane Mayfield and his debut album, The Return Of Rap, which just came out. I've known Kane and followed his music for years now and it's great to hear him put out a record worthy of his talent and get a chance to tell his story.
Also wrote The Short List and a new BPM column with news about DJ Technics, TT The Artist, Rod Lee, and more.
Labels: Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore club, BPM, DJ Technics, Kane, Rod Lee, TT The Artist
Monday, March 02, 2015
Labels: Speed On The Beat
Baltimore Music Blogs and Sites
- Al's other blog: Narrowcast
- ALLBMOREHIPHOP.COM
- Aural States
- Baltimore Taper
- Beatbots
- C Love
- Elements Party
- Jaye Hunnie
- Midas
- Midnight Sun
- Mobtown Studios
- Ms. Tris Music
- The Mysterious Messy
- Noise
- No Trivia
Baltimore Artists and Labels
- Bossman
- Comp
- Darkroom Productions
- Gritty Gang
- Jam Eazey Entertainment
- K-Swift the Club Queen
- Mullyman
- Tha Plague
- Rare Ent.
- Real On Purpose
- Unruly Records
Links
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- Music Monthly
- Gel And Weave
- Tom Breihan
- Jim Breihan
- Matt Sonzala
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