B. Martin

Last night after Mek and Lowkey shut it down at WIP last night in NYC, B. Martin took the stage to perform a few cuts. Unbeknown to myself, I’m assuming it was a release party of sorts as the Who’s Next Battle of The Best winner just dropped his new project. - 2DopeBoyz

B. Martin dropped his debut mixtape, Music, Love, Enemies, earlier this month after winning Hot 97's Who’s Next competition to perform on stage at Summer Jam 2012. On this tape, there is a track called “Me, Nobody Else” featuring Cory Gunz.

You can listen and download the song below: - Young Money HQ

An Albany hip-hop musician has won a song-writing contest and earned a place on upcoming recordings by the Grammy-winning rapper T-Pain.

Brendan Martin, known as B-Martin, a December graduate of the University at Albany, won the contest after writing a verse and recording a video at the behest of T-Pain, who announced the contest in a YouTube video. T-Pain’s challenge was to write the second verse of his song “Motivation,” a recording of which he included in the video.

“You show me how hot you can make the song,” T-Pain said on the video. “Show me what you can do with a song with T-Pain. If you got the hottest verse, I’ll put you on my mixtape, and then, I’ll even give you a verse on my album.”

Martin, who performs throughout the Capital Region, wrote the verse and then recorded a video at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville. The video was produced and directed by Chris Rochow and Ben Pliss of SeaSaw Studios in Niskayuna. Martin sent it to T-Pain by e-mail.

On Sunday, Martin learned that he had won, said his manager Devin Breen. Since there was also a second winner — a tie, T-Pain said in a subsequent video — Breen is not sure what will happen next. He said he assumes that at some point Martin will join T-Pain’s people, and maybe T-Pain himself, in a studio to work on the song.

“Brendan is one of the most dedicated and hardest-working people I’ve ever come across,” Breen said. “He really believes in his music, and I think this is the beginning of a long and rewarding career.” - Times Union

Thursday September 2nd was a night of excitement and talent as the Wendy's Lounge was filled with University at Albany students ready to listen to a night of musical performers battling it out for a chance to be named the best.

The Clash of the Bands competition was comprised of seven very talented acts: Tarot, Crayolasaurus Rex, Life Among the Trees, Ashes of Shiloh, Kneebenders, individual act Brendan Marin and The LateShift. Each act had to have at least one member from UAlbany. The music ranged from mellow café style to punk and rap.

The performers were judged by a panel of five people: Dan Crowley, this past summer's interim director for marketing; Jessica Dolnick, president of Students for Live Music; Pamela Malatesta, assistant director for the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership; Brandon Patterson, the Student Association Supreme Court Chief Justice; and finally Andrew White, program director of WCDB 90.9 FM.

Jessica Dolnick described the judging system and grand prize. Each judge had a table of five categories in which to score each performance on with each category being worth 20 points, making a grand total of 100 possible points. The performers were judged on crowed appeal, stage presence, hustle and flow of the music, uniqueness and overall performance.

Each performer had five minutes to show the judges what they had in hopes of winning the grand prize. The winner of the Clash of the Bands will be opening for Third Eye Blind at the fall semester concert in the SEFCU arena.

Dolnick also added, "The Clash of the Bands gives the students in bands a chance to feel [like they are] a part of the community." This seems to have been the case, as other students were encouraging the performers on stage to have some fun. One student was even trying to sing along and made up dance moves to some of the songs!

Before the music started, Ashes of Shiloh told the ASP that they came out to, "get their name out there" but also "for the love of music."

In a similar conversation with Crayolasaurus Rex, they said, "How often do you get the chance to open for Third Eye Blind?" They were very excited about the prize but it was a surprise when they said that they put their band together just so they could compete! They said, "At first it was for the prize, but now we're having a lot of fun with it."

As the music played and the crowd cheered, the judges marked their papers to determine the winner. The show started at 7pm and ended roughly at 9pm. Once all the acts had done their very best the judges were left with the difficult task of choosing the winner.

After about fifteen minutes of calculating and deliberating the scores the winner was announced, and it was Brendan Martin.

Brendan Martin is a senior here at UAlbany who likes to play basketball and work on his music. He is very serious about what he does as far as his schoolwork, with an excellent GPA in the Business department, as well as his music.

He has performed in other venues and has opened for Fabolous, Juelz Santana and New Boyz. Martin seemed to be so humbled and ecstatic about being named the winner of the Clash of the Bands. "It feels really great to win the Clash of the Bands with rap," he said after accepting congratulations. He emphasized how serious he was about making his music career successful and how support from all was greatly appreciated. At the end of a brief interview he said that he was headed off to the studio to work on his music.

Congratulations to Brendan Martin on the win. Be sure to check him out on facebook at www.facebook.com/BMartinnn and bid him congratulations and good luck on opening for Third Eye Blind.

There is talk of another show in October - how about a Girls versus Boys competition, "Clash of the Sexes"? We shall see. - Albany Student Press

Brendan Martin, AKA B. Martin, was first exposed to the rap scene in his junior year of high school in Colonie, NY. He was focused mainly on his grades, but couldn’t resist cultivating his newfound love for the lyric and flow that good rap is known for. Pretty soon, he conquered his high school rap scene and brought his following with him to college at SUNY Albany. Using social networking sites like Facebook to update his fans on shows and new music, his rising popularity led him to win the Battle
of the Bands at SUNY Albany.

This opened doors for Martin, giving him the opportunity to perform at many more venues and open for key artists such as J Cole, Fabolous, Steve Aoki and Young Jeezy, to name a few. At the same time, he was maintaining a 4.0 in Albany’s business school and traveling to third world countries like Ecuador on humanitarian missions. With boundless energy and dynamic drive, Brendan managed to hit several high marks in his relatively short career, holding his own in an arena that not many white artists found success.

In late 2011, B. Martin signed with Phase One Network, a label distributed through Sony /RED. Shortly after, he released his highly anticipated mix CD “Ladies & Gentlemen” & “B. Martin: Pre-Mixtape” to rave reviews. Fans can expect to hear much more from this rising star, as B. Martin will release his latest single "Swoosh" from his forthcoming “Music, Love, Enemies” mixtape, in addition to national tour dates. His genuine attitude and undeniable charm only add to his accomplishments, making B. Martin a complete package filled with superstar potential. - Hot 97