Baltimore club is a sub genre of breakbeat and electronic club music. It's a mixture of hip hop & choppy staccato house music. It gets its name from its birthplace, Baltimore. The genre was created by members of 2 Live Crew (specifically, Luther Campbell, Frank Ski, Miss Tony, Scottie B & DJ Spen.)
Early Development[]
The genre got its start in Baltimore, Maryland, with artists like Scottie B, Shawn Caesar, and DJ Equalizer. They drew heavily on British breakbeat hardcore records. Some of the tracks even got released on said records. Songs like "Don't Hold Back" and "Too Much Energy" are classics on the Baltimore and British club scene.
Spread Within The US[]
Around the early 90's, Baltimore club got popular with New Jersey ravers like DJ Tameil, who popularized Jersey club. It spread to Boston radios, who played it with varying levels of success. From there it spread to Virginia, becoming VA 757 Club, and to Alabama, when DJ Taj coined Bamabounce. The genre is also gaining fans in New York.
Structure[]
Baltimore club follows an 8/4 beat structure, with tempos around 130 BPM. It mashes together looped vocal cuts similar to genres like trap, bounce, ghetto house & ghettotech. Essentially, it's a sample based breakbeat. Some songs use samples from the theme song of Sanford and Son, Spongebob Squarepants, even Elmo's World. The breakbeats are heavy and there is a call-and-response stanza similar to the go-go music of Washington D.C. The song sounds heavily rushed, as if they had made the track backstage 5 minutes before showtime.
Artists[]
- AMU Henry Smalls
- Bestfriend
- Cue Reckless
- Djay 360
- DJ Lucky
- DJ RdottyBoom
- DJ Sega
- DJ Tuco
- Donn3yDon
- DoubleJJ
- Rod Lee
- Scottie B