Kane Mayfield

Kane Mayfield is an artist who has been on SD a couple of times. I’ve liked what I seen. He approached me about a series called Follow My Flow that he has been doing on his tumblr and I definitely wanted to jump in on it. For the next 10 weeks, Kane is going to be providing a song and breaking it down so people can truly appreciate the lyricism and understand all the lines. This is for people who love music and really like verses with meaning to ‘em. Without further ado, hit the jump, click play on the stream player and read about the bars you’re hearing. - Sermon’s Domain

Kane Mayfield, the 28-year-old Mania Music Group rapper and Round Robin first-timer, says it's the structure that excites him most.

"Anyone I describe it to, their eyes light up," Mayfield says. "I think if you give us one song at a time, and all [we] have to do is blow that song out of the water, it takes some pressure off, to be honest. It's like a 100-yard dash, not 400 yards with the hurdles."
- Balimore Sun News Paper

While at SXSW (I know) you end meeting folks from all over the country you otherwise would not meet. I met Kane Mayfield there and – in the midst of calling me a “psychopath” and Shake “crazy” (he meant that in the best way possible) – he randomly dragged me to the side after a showcase and spat a few bars. What do you know, the shit was dope, and here we are today. - 2dopeboyz.com

Off his upcoming album, Follow My Flow, which is looking at an August release. I’m really digging the muddy 90’s sound of this one right here. - 2dopeboyz.com

ania Music Group’s dynamic personalities make it easy to forget in-house producers Dwayne “Headphones” Lawson and Brandon “BeaLack” Lackey, but the brilliance of Mania’s debut album, Welcome to the Audience, hinges on the production duo’s sprawling approach to beatmaking. Dominated by aggressive drums and intricate guitar work (it’s nearly impossible to tell where sampling ends and live instrumentation begins), Headphones and Bealack do post-Neptunes snap on “Love Thang,” seething bitter boom-bap on “U Might Think,” and choked, jazzy weirdness on “Reagonomics.” Most importantly, though, there’s a mind-meld here between the producers and rappers, as Midas, Kane, Ron G, and Milly confidently stretch their styles to fit Headphones and BeaLack’s widening vision of hip-hop. - City Paper

No band is an island. And the same goes for rappers, venues, beats, genres, and all the rest of it. There always remains that connection between the macro and the micro, the guy twiddling knobs in some west Baltimore art space and the left-field leans of this or that band popping up on the cover of Spin. Or that tiny, smoky space itself, connected along the continuum to your local Live Nation amphitheater; or the rapper on the corner and the rapper on TV. Even in the biggest, most committee-generated pop song, you’ll find some filament or genetic line reaching down to the cultural proving grounds here at ground level.

This idea runs through the four stories of 2011’s Big Music Issue. Brandon Soderberg reports on the re-emergence of house music in Baltimore and its not-too-distant mirror in mainstream pop. Al Shipley writes about the “Knights of the Round Robin,” an offbeat cadre of underground Baltimore rappers gaining steam and branching out into the city’s larger hip-hop community. Michael Byrne discusses the symbiosis between underground DIY spaces and venue-as-business aboveground spaces. Finally, Baltimore production ace Tom Delay lends a hand to Ben Claassen’s comic detailing of how an idea becomes a beat becomes a fully formed rap track and, hopefully, a hit. Enjoy.
- City Paper

Big Music Issue 2011 - City Paper

The Rap Rocks concert series stopped in Baltimore Friday, June 10, 2011. The concert took place at Joe Squared, which is located right on the corners of W. North Avenue and Howard Street. The city of Baltimore loves its live music, and the crowd turned out in full force to see Kane Mayfield, The White House Band, and A Cool Stick. The venue holds 125 and they were at maximum capacity for most of the night.

The first performance of the night was by Kane Mayfield, an artist with strong ties to Baltimore and an even stronger fan base. Kane performed his set with DJ Harvey Dent, backed by a live band – Patrick Harris on trombone, Julian Rosenberg on guitar, and Lester Wallace on drums. Kane Mayfield’s lyrics, flow, and energy kept the crowd hyped throughout the set which had a hip hop/soul flavor reminiscent of The Legendary Roots Crew (yeah I said it!). Midway through his performance, Kane brought Mania Music Group label mate Rapman Ron G, and Soul Cannon front man Eze Jackson to the stage. These two emcees ripped it! The crowd, already worked into a frenzy by Kane, literally howled for more. - examiner.com

1. Casual Curious, Andrew Weathers Ensemble & Us And Only Us @ the Hexagon, July 28
2. Superchunk @ 9:30 Club, September 17
3. Bossman, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, TestMe & Smash @ the Black Hole Rock Club, March 17
4. Israel Darling, Kadman & The Foreign Press @ Velvet Lounge, June 8
5. The Posies @ Brendan Benson @ 9:30 Club, November 17
6. Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group & The Get Em Mamis @ the Windup Space, July 3
7. Rap Round Robin with Mickey Free, PT Burnem, Rapdragons, Height With Friends & AK Slaughter @ Floristree, August 7
8. Medications & Deleted Scenes @ Sidebar, May 24
9. Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ 9:30 Club, April 8
10. The Nels Cline Singers @ Black Cat, July 8
11. BiMA Fest with Among Wolves, Avec, Hammer No More The Fingers, Gary B & The Notions, The Moaners, Thrushes, Sal Bando & Beard @ Windup Space and Hexagon, August 27
12. Say Anything @ Sonar, November 12
13. Parts & Labor and Soft Power @ Black Cat, May 13
14. Novo Instrumental Music Festival with Yeveto & Nathan Bell @ Windup Space, March 4
15. The Gaslight Anthem @ Rams Head Live, September 28
16. The Pilgrim, Arbouretum & Caltrop @ Metro Gallery, October 8
17. The High Zero Festival @ Theatre Project, September 25
18. We Used To Be Family, Lands & Peoples and Yukon @ Metro Gallery, June 16
19. J Roddy Walston & The Business and Tommy Tucker & The Supernaturals @ The Ottobar, July 31
20. Tears For Fears @ Rams Head Live, August 24
21. The Streets of Baltimore: Songs of Our City @ Creative Alliance, November 20
22. Story/Stereo with Devin Ocampo @ The Writer's Center, November 5
23. Out Of Your Head Collective @ Windup Space, January 19th
24. Man & Dog and The Feast of Epiphany @ An die Musik, January 4
25. The B-52s @ Rams Head Live, May 22
- narrowcast

In 2008, three MCs and two producers launched the Baltimore hip-hop label Mania Music Group. And true to the Internet savvy era of independent hip hop in which it was born, Mania has been giving away a boatload of music online, over four hours’ worth, in the past two years to get its name out there: label samplers, mixtapes, singles, solo EPs by each rapper and an outtakes collection. Having established them as a unique force in the local rap scene, Mania Music Group is finally asking their fan base to plunk down 10 dollars for Welcome To The Audience, their first official album, out on June 15th.

Mania’s in-house production team, Brandon “BeaLack” Lackey and Dwayne “Headphonemusik” Lawson, have masterminded a label sound that’s distinctive but all over the map, combining drum machines, samples and live instruments in ways that are never quite modern nor retro, neither slick nor raw. And it’s an aesthetic that suits the label’s roster of rappers, all of whom contain their own contradictions. Dappa!!! Dan Midas made his name on the local battle rap circuit, before fashioning a more colorful, eclectic sound and image. Kane Mayfield is a New York transplant with the soul of a political revolutionary and the personality of a standup comic. Rapman Ron G is the group’s youngest rapper but has an assured, soft-spoken demeanor.
And then there’s Milly July, a female MC whose addition to the Mania fold was only announced a few months ago, with a handful of tracks with the rest of the group preceding Audience’s release. She gets the very first verse of the album, on the intro posse cut, and hits the ground running with a confident flow. But without the benefit of a lot of previous material to familiarize herself with, Milly July still blends into the background of the album. It doesn’t help that she saves her best solo cut, “Ihide,” for near the end of the album, riding a funky breakbeat with introspective first person rhymes.

Each of the other three rappers is outstanding with at least one of their solo tracks. Rapman Ron G nearly steals the album on “Rock n Roll,” with a roaring delivery, a dynamic hook, and a beat so hard that the snare drum alone could set off a mosh pit. On the title track, Kane Mayfield humorously lays out the explanation of the term “Welcome To The Audience,” as a command for any wack rappers to get off the stage and leave hip hop to the professionals. And “U Might Think” is a bleak, harrowing look at the darker side of Midas’ psyche that he’s only occasionally shown in his music: “My fam think I’m anti-social/‘Cause I don’t even speak to the ones I was close to/My mom’s pissed ‘cause she can’t do shit for me/The way I’m goin’ I ain’t gonna live past 40.”
Unfortunately, with each member of the Mania getting three solo showcases apiece, that only leaves a handful of posse cuts on which to display a group dynamic, and the chemistry between these very different MCs sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. “Love Thang,” the lead single released on Valentine’s Day, is bland by Mania standards, and kind of a waste of one of the album’s few guest spots, by Eze Jackson of the hip hop band Soul Cannon. Fortunately, Jackson gets another chance to shine a couple of tracks later on Mayfield’s political “Reagannomics.” And the other non-Mania guest, Baltimore rapper Greenspan, is a perfect fit on the catchy, thoughtful second single “Study My Dreams.”

After some hits and misses, Welcome To The Audience pulls it all together toward the end with “The Story,” a six-minute posse cut. Arguably the album’s centerpiece, the song tells a loose story about how each of Mania’s MCs was an outcast in other crews and labels, and each found their voice once the group came together. Though they’ve toned down some of the more diverse and experimental production styles and high concept songs that separated them from the pack on earlier releases, Welcome is a strong testament to the unusual and unexpected charms of Mania Music Group’s approach to hip hop. - www.splicetoday.com

The Windup Space doesn’t book hip-hop shows very often, but it’s proven that when it does, it gets it right. Saturday night’s bill was in many ways the perfect trio of acts to represent Baltimore rap at the venue: left-field and approachable enough for the Station North crowd, but still hip-hop to the core. Live rap band Soul Cannon has roots at the space–guitarist Matt Frazao co-curates the weekly Out of Your Head improv night–and it brought along the deliriously fun girl group the Get Em Mamis and the iconoclastic MCs of Mania Music Group to complete the bill.

Mania Music Group’s original three-man roster has been performing together as a group for about two years now, but shortly before the release of its new album, Welcome To The Audience, it brought female rapper Milly July into the fold. And though she fits well into the label’s established musical sensibility, Saturday’s set showed signs that it hasn’t quite worked her into the polished stage show yet.

She began the night with two solo cuts, with RapMan Ron G. playing hypeman, and the songs were solid, but some microphone feedback appeared to shake her confidence. And since much of the other material performed that night was recorded before her joining the group, she didn’t show up much for the rest of the set, except to come out and wave goodbye after the guys’ closing posse cut “Blown Out.”

The second rapper Mania featured was Dappa!! Dan Midas, the label’s most seasoned performer, and he showed his pedigree by pulling the crowd closer to the stage and turning heads with his new look–a mohawk and sleeveless denim jacket–before mocking his own Mr. T-like appearance. Ron G’s solo performance was more straightforward and no-frills, but still compelling, while Kane Mayfield’s goofball persona was on full display as he worked the crowd. Mania jumped all over its deep back catalog for the setlist, but the emphasis was on the just released new album, including guest turns by Greenspan and Soul Cannon’s Eze Jackson, respectively, on the singles “Study My Dreams” and “Love Thang.” - City Paper

http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=18831 - Baltimore City Paper

http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=17875 - Baltimore City Paper

http://citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=13838 - Baltimore City Paper

http://www.bthesite.com/archives/2008/11/mania-music-group-provides-theme-music-for-the-misfits/#more-2669
- B Paper

http://www.examiner.com/x-1201-Baltimore-Band-Examiner~y2008m11d21-Mania-Music-Group-artist-profile-Kane-Mayfield - Baltimore Examiner

http://www.theliberatorsofhiphop.com/2008/11/kane-mayfield-blade-runner-ep-review.html - www.theliberatorsofhiphop.com

Mania Music Group has been running its "Month of Mania" campaign all October now, putting up free mixtapes and EPs on its official website, and now the month is almost over and each of the label's three MCs' solo EPs are now up. The first one that went up a couple weeks ago was by Kane, who is a ridiculously sharp and funny dude and one of the most interesting people I've met in the Baltimore rap scene over the years, considering that a lot of rappers tend to be surprisingly devoid of personality or a sense of humor. My City Paper piece about Mania kind of touched on the fact that his music in the past has been really serious and political, and that they've been trying to get him to put more of himself into the music. But after the goofy label sampler tracks like "Party In Ya Face," this EP is kind of him going back to more serious, message-driven music, though the production goes in a whole different direction with all these thick Blade Runner-inspired Vangelis synths and loud-ass drums, which makes it a lot bolder and more textured than anything he's done before. There's some more levity on the last couple songs, "Dealer" and "Your Fired" with Midas, but for the most part it's a really dark, ominous record, and I like how Mania's produced just committed to that sound and vibe. Go to the Mania site or Kane's MySpace to download all 6 songs. - Al Shipley

http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2010/01/20-best-shows-i-saw-in-2009.html - Al Shipley

http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19455 - Al Shipley