b.l.e.s.s.t

The Boy Blesst: Charmicidle

The Boy Blesst: Charmicidle
Label: Reign Music Inc.
Format: Album
Media: CD
Release Date: 2009
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
More info on local act
The Boy Blesst
The Boy Blesst performs at Sista's Place July 23.
By Al Shipley | Posted 7/1/2009
Like a growing number of Baltimore rappers, the Boy Blesst has spent much of the last few years in Atlanta, trying to jumpstart his career in the rap industry's southern epicenter rather than merely building a buzz at home. As a consequence, though, shockingly consistent mixtapes such as 2006's Lockdown and last year's Lockdown II: In My Skin never really got the attention they wwdeserved around here. So his new album, Charmicidle, arrives both as an announcement of his return to Baltimore and a bid for some overdue hometown love.

Between the songs, Charmicidle features many of the clichés that plague seemingly every other local underground hip-hop release, particularly clips of dialogue from The Wire, recitations of the city's murder statistics, and awkwardly scripted "interview" skits. But when it gets past the filler and lets the music do the talking, Charmicidle is damn near flawless. The beats are provided by a large cast of producers, including Baltimore rap mainstays Banga Bill and Street Heat, and Imahj steals the show with three of the album's best tracks, particularly the symphony of bells, bass, and tire screeches on "Who Got It."

Blesst's default tone is gruff and streetwise, but his lyrics are simply too sophisticated and writerly to allow him to hide behind an "I'm not a rapper" artifice, densely packing internal rhymes and alliteration into not just verses, but choruses. Even a by-the-numbers capitalist fantasy like "When I Get Rich" has a refreshing level of warmth derived from Blesst going into greater detail than the usual vague promises to give back to the hood. For all his hopeful nods toward a rags-to-riches destiny, one can't help but keep in mind how inhospitable hip-hop's current climate is to clever East Coast MCs making unpretentiously autobiographical music. But if Blesst never beats the odds to stake a claim on stardom, make no mistake, it's as much our loss as it is his.

E-mail Al Shipley - Al Shipley

The Top 20 Baltimore Hip Hop Releases of 2009

I posted about 80-something albums and mixtapes on Gov’t Names in 2009, more than any year before, but I have to admit that between staying home with my son for the last 3 months of the year and generally being busy and overwhelmed for the rest of the year, I really feel like my attention was scattered and I don’t know how much I really appreciated everything I heard. And there are a ton of notable releases I either haven’t gotten around to hearing yet, or have heard but haven’t posted about, and while probably spend the first couple months of 2010 catching up on those. Still, I’m pretty confident that barely anyone’s heard as much as I did this year, so I’ll keep pulling together my favorites for a big year-end list for whatever my opinion’s worth. I’ll make the same offer I did last year even though nobody took me up on it then, though, that if people e-mail me their own top 5 or top 10 or whatever, hopefully I can get enough to make that a whole other post (I’m probably never going to attempt a reader poll again, though, that was a mess). I feel like, with more of the stuff I write about here readily available for free download than ever, on DatPiff or AllBmoreHipHop or whatever, there’s really no excuse for anyone who reads this site to not hear a lot of it and form their own opinions, and I’d love to hear them.

1. The Get Em Mamis - TerAwesome (RCRD LBL)


2. The Boy Blesst - Charmicidle (Reign Music Inc.)

I’ve been into Blesst’s mixtapes for a couple years, but he was always just one of many mixtape rappers I liked out of many. But this year he set himself apart by making a real album, where pretty much every track has a good beat and a strong hook, every verse has some dope rhymes and says some real shit, which is somethig that so few of his peers have managed to do. This album is so laser-focused it’s crazy.

- www.governmentnames.blogspot.com

When I first heard The Boy Blesst, I was riding with the producer Joe $tax who was responsible for some of the tracks on Blesst's first official album entitled Charmicidle. Everyone likes to make comparisons to Tupac, but I really feel like Blesst channels the late legend in his music. I was so impressed when I heard the album because it contained the lyricism, strong hooks, empassioned delivery, and creative music that is found in a classic. Sure, people overuse the "C" word too much nowadays, but Blesst earned it in my opinion. That's why you're going to see a lot from him on the E&C blog. This is the first video from Charmicidle called "Nothin to Sumthin". Enjoy! - edutainmentandmusic.blogspot.com

http://www.forthedmvonly.com/2010/03/boy-blesst-dmv-story.html - DMV Story