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Sam Levin
It was the Friday before Thanksgiving, and I was torn.
In a convergence that used to be a common occurrence in Baltimore, folks had big shows up and down the strip of theaters, bars, and venues that make up the underground’s home bases in the neighborhood of Station North.
Despite swearing it off years ago, I found myself show hopping, managing to catch Mas Sexy and Skrybabe at the “November to Dismember” at The Depot before winding up at The Mercury Theater.
After all… Height was back, Hemlock Ernst was back, and that was an event worth attending.
When asked by someone what kind of music I like, I tend to respond by reducing it to “punk rock and hip hop”, being as they were the genres that really caught my imagination and fired me up when I was a skateboarding youth.
I still haunt the bins at The Sound Garden, looking for cassettes and CDs of the hip hop I dig on the most (sample-based, “Golden Age”) while keeping an ear on what’s happening currently, knowing that the album drops are now instant and digital. My interest tends to the released and recorded, usually leading to “rap nerd” conversations when the opportunity arises, but hip-hop shows are few and far between in my show-going habits.
So when Height and his Wounds Crew hit the underground and got us all to “freshen up” in ’99, my underground show-going and my hip hop listening habits collided in a great way. Height and I chopped it up here if you want to hear us converse for about an hour, podcast-style, and get deeper into it.
But enough history.
Josh Sisk
The show began with a DJ set by Icky Reels, setting the tone for the evening, engaging the crowd with beats in the tradition of what we are here for: the music for “the heads”. The heads were nodding.
Josh Sisk
Eze Jackson was the hand-picked local MC opener, getting everyone going with tracks old and new, with occasional reminiscences on the deep history between the acts setting the stage as he rocked the crowd.
Sam Levin
The saga of Height that I have been enthusiastically following for twenty-five years unlocked the newest chamber next, Wave Generators, building on what has come before with NOSAJ (from New Kingdom) in the mix to make something new. It was great to hear what he has been up to since relocating to NYC, live and direct.
Josh Sisk
After a chance encounter over a Da Bush Babees cassette many years back, Sam Herring and I have known we can always talk underground hip-hop when we get together. Hemlock Ernst returned to Baltimore with a special set, showcasing the work with Height on production for “The Fall Collection” and his collaboration with Icky Reels on “Studying Absence”. Did I mention Sam’s brother was in the mix? In any case, the brothers Herring brought it so hard they blew a fuse.
Sam Levin
To return to this sort of experience, to get such a full and filling dose of underground hip hop at an intimate well-attended show, reminds me to keep my ears open and to keep digging in those bins. Sure, everyone listens to rap music now, the music and culture having gone global, but that does not mean there aren’t still those pushing the art form forward in an innovative way in 2024.
