B-more or Bmore, adjective, aka B-more Club

Uptempo (120 – 140 BPM) hip hop / breaks originally from Baltimore, with an 8/4 time signature, using short, repetitive vocal samples – often call-and-response-style raps or chants – over old school drum breaks, staccato snares/ claps and heavy bass.

Origins: Laying the now-ubiquitous drum break from Lyn Collins’ Think over a familiar vocal sample from A Tribe Called Quest and some jazz-style scatting, Scottie B & DJ Equalizer’s I Got The Rhythm is the record usually credited with having established a template exclusive to Baltimore, in 1989.  Shawn Caesar’s Yo Yo Where The Hos At is another, with both tunes inspired by the flourishing hip house movement in Chicago. Scottie B and Shawn Caesar went on to launch a record pool and then the Unruly label in 1994, releasing a slew of B-more records and compilations throughout the late Nineties and the early Noughties.

Key figures: Rod Lee (Club Kingz) is also widely perceived as one of B-more’s original dons, while DJs Patrick, Kenny B, Class, Diamond K, Technics, Frank-Ski, Miss Tony and Spen all had a hand in cultivating B-more in the Nineties, plus Booman, KW Griff and K- Swift (RIP) in the Noughties.  However, the sound only spread beyond the city when a raft of articles appeared in the media in 2005, subsequently blowing up internationally after it was embraced by soon-to-be-A-list artists Diplo (from Philadelphia) and MIA (from London).  Assisted by DJ Low Budget, genius marketeer Diplo’s magpie influence was felt primarily via mixtapes and consequently B-more remixes commissioned for his Hollertronix and Mad Decent labels, while MIA had Scottie B remix her massive hit, Paper Planes.  Many have ridden the wave of B-more’s crossover success, most notably Aaron La Crate & Debonair Samir, via the Club Crack and Gutter Music series (Milkcrate), Tittsworth & Ayres (Hollertronix) and Blaqstarr (Mad Decent).

This feature was originally published in July 2011 by The List magazine.  It has been reproduced with their permission.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged A Tribe Called Quest, Aaron La Crate, B-more, B-more Club, Baltimore, Blaqstarr, Bmore, Booman, Chicago, Club Crack, Club Kingz, Clubbers' Decktionary, Debonair Samir, Diplo, DJ Ayres, DJ Class, DJ Diamond K, Dj Equalizer, DJ Kenny B, DJ Low Budget, Dj Patrick, DJ Spen, DJ Technics, DJ Tittsworth, Frank-Ski, Gutter Music, Hollertronix, K-Swift, KW Griff, Lyn Collins, Mad Decent, MIA, Milkcrate, Miss Tony, Paper Planes, Rod Lee, Scottie B, Shawn Ceasar, Unruly Records. Bookmark the permalink.