Q: Tell us how you found the local Baltimore artists for season 4. You didn't hang out on a corner, did you? [anonymous]A: During 2005, several people working on the show became aware of "The Hamsterdam Mixtape," a now-classic, hugely-popular compilation of local Baltimore hip-hop artists, produced by Darkroom Productions, and obviously named after the drug market "Hamsterdam" featured in Season 3. David Simon was given a copy and was really impressed by the music as well as being tickled by the homage. He passed "The Hamsterdam Mixtape" along to me, and I got in touch with Juan Donovan and Jamal Roberts, the two producers from Baltimore who comprise Darkroom. We began an interesting back-and-forth that went on for several months, and we ended up using about seven Darkroom tracks in the show - songs produced by them but performed by various other artists: Tyree Colion, Mullyman, Diablo, and The Plague, among others. I had a prior relationship with DJ Technics, whose music we had used in Season 3, and one of his tracks ended up in the show this season. I also spent time in Baltimore record shops, reading the Baltimore City Paper, and talking to people who live in Baltimore and know a lot more than me about the local music scene. Through these sorts of avenues I ended up contacting Rod Lee directly and using his great song "Dance My Pain Away." I also worked with Aaron Lacrate, a Baltimore Club producer most known for his "Bmore Gutter Music" CD, and we ended up using the fantastic track "That's Da Sound" by locals Dirty Hartz, which was produced by Aaron.
Ironically, in the end, we only used one actual track from "The Hamsterdam Mixtape," the song "Jail Flick" by Diablo, because it is is one of the only songs that doesn't contain samples. All of the other tracks were newly produced by Darkroom and will be included on "Hamsterdam Vol. 2" which is scheduled to hit the street before the end of November.
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