Highlights

Heggins' words and Stine's singing send chills up my spine each time I hear it. "Baltimore" should be recognized by the city as an outstanding portrayal of what it's like to live here. -- Sam Cessa, The Baltimore Sun

If an MC like Talib is listening, shouldn't you be too? -- SEN Baltimore

An urban anthem with fiercely in-your-face flow, inspired by the mixed blight and majesty of Baltimore's southwest. With a voice and a message reminiscent of Talib Kweli (and maybe, just maybe a bit of Phife from Tribe), Salim eschews the glamorization of stereotyped hood life to open up a new window into the life of West Baltimore. Saleem wants to bridge the gap: we all struggle, we all strive, no matter what our world looks like. -- Any Given Tuesday

Feature Articles

Caleb and Saleem: Outgrown These Walls
By Al Shipley of the Baltimore City Paper

Last year, WTMD-FM's local music program Baltimore Unsigned embarked on an intriguing but risky project: pairing up two disparate musicians who'd never heard of each other for an unlikely collaboration. Twangy rock combo Caleb Stine and the Brakemen and hip-hop band Saleem and the Music Lovers come from different enough backgrounds to make adequately strange bedfellows, but when their respective frontmen got together, the common ground they found was surprisingly fertile. The four songs originally commissioned grew to 10, which were recorded live with an in-studio audience for an album.

The first few songs on Outgrown These Walls betray their origins as an arranged collaboration, Saleem Heggins' lyrics on "We Write Blue" and "Copy Write" both detailing the struggles and rewards of songwriting itself. But the former is also a perfect opener, the raspy grain of the rapper's voice sounding strangely at home over Stine's steady, circular acoustic riff. Heggins' slow flow gradually accelerates to mirror a rush of inspiration, then winds back down when a phone call interrupts the work, and gives way to Stine's deep drawl.

So many rock/rap collaborations lean on either the novelty of culture shock, or the loudest each genre has to offer. But instead of combining chest-thumping rhymes and screaming guitar solos, Heggins and Stine are at their most contemplative throughout, to the point that when Stine plugs in an electric on a couple songs, it's almost jarring. The album's closing song has no right to be as affecting as it is, considering how obvious the subject matter of a song called "Hope" recorded in November 2008 should be, but it's perfectly in keeping with the incredible warmth and sincerity of the entire project.

Collaboration is music to each other's ears for Stine and Heggins
By Sam Cessa of the Baltimore Sun

Last spring, I had an outlandish idea: Take two Baltimore musicians who had never heard of each other, pair them up and force them to write four original songs in six weeks.

The musicians I picked, Caleb Stine and Saleem Heggins, couldn't have come from more different backgrounds. Stine was an Americana singer/songwriter; Heggins an MC who liked vintage hip-hop. They didn't know each another before this little experiment, which I called the Baltimore Music Project. But the results of their forced musical partnership are astounding.

Heggins and Stine didn't just team up - they forged a close friendship. And they didn't just write four original songs - they wrote 10 and recorded an album. The name they picked for their musical partnership was simple and straightforward: Caleb and Saleem. And Saturday, they're going to officially release their album, Outgrown These Walls, at The 8X10.

A good part of Baltimore's music scene consists of tiny pockets of bands and their fans throughout the city. There's not much intermingling between the different groups. The Baltimore Music Project was one way to bring musicians out of their routines and expose them to a scene they'd never experienced.
From the get-go, Heggins and Stine were pumped about the idea. Both had collaborated with other groups in the past, so sharing their music was nothing new. But neither had worked so closely with another musician on the same set of songs.

"With hip-hop, typically the stories you're telling are your stories," Heggins said.

"Opening up to somebody and sharing that writing experience is kind of opening yourself up to another relationship. So I just haven't felt comfortable enough with other people to open myself up to that process until you forced me to," he told me.

I remember watching them hug the first time they met and thinking "what an odd couple." There was the lanky, bearded Stine standing next to the sharp-dressed, unassuming Heggins and talking about the music they loved most. Even in that first meeting, it was clear they had a personal connection.

"The first night was really magical because we didn't know," Heggins said. "We didn't know what we were going to do."

But once they got down to business, they instantly knew the collaboration would bear fruit, Stine said.

"The creative part instantly clicked," Stine said. "As soon as we sat down and started writing, we hit the ground running."

In late July, Stine and Heggins debuted five songs they'd written in front of a live audience at The 8X10. The session was taped and later aired on Baltimore Unsigned, a radio show I host on WTMD-FM (89.7). And let me tell you, the songs this duo came up with were so honest and poignant, some audience members had tears in their eyes. It was brilliant.

Stine and Heggins kept the musical arrangements simple: Stine plays acoustic guitar and sings while Heggins raps. Heggins' verses are strikingly smooth and articulate, and go well with Stine's raw, captivating voice.

I couldn't believe that Heggins and Stine developed such a close musical relationship in such a short time. Some band members can be together for years and not have that spark.

"The whole process felt like running outside on the playground and the world was completely open," Stine said.

"I think being so comfortable together made that happen. Saleem was sort of saying the other night, he was like, 'If you brought me a song, and you were like, this song is going to be about frogs, I would be like, cool, what lily pad are they going to hop to?'"

Each of the songs on Outgrown These Walls has its own mood and personality. "Baltimore" is my favorite. Heggins' words and Stine's singing send chills up my spine each time I hear it. "Baltimore" should be recognized by the city as an outstanding portrayal of what it's like to live here. "The Party Song" is true to its name, and "Copy Write" showcases Heggins' lyrical prowess.

As for bringing those disparate pockets of Baltimore musicians together, I knew that goal had been met a couple of months ago after one of their shows. When Heggins finished performing with Stine and walked down from the stage, Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack of the indie-rock band Wye Oak gave him a big hug. I've also seen Stine shaking hands with the members of Heggins' live hip-hop group, The Music Lovers.

Mission accomplished.

I still can't belive the Baltimore Music Project worked. And it couldn't have worked any better.

"That to me is the pinnacle of collaboration - where something happens that you weren't expecting," Stine said.

Together, Heggins and Stine have far exceeded the original challenge and created something truly compelling. Saturday's show will be one to remember.

if you go
Caleb and Saleem's CD release show for Outgrown These Walls is Saturday at The 8X10. In addition to a Caleb and Saleem set, the show also features performances by Caleb Stine and Saleem and the Music Lovers. Doors open at 8 p.m. The venue is at 8-10 E. Cross St. Tickets are $10 at the box office. Call 410-625-2000 or go to the8x10.com.

For more information about the performers, go to calebstine.com and saleemmusic.com.

Any Given Tuesday: http://www.anygiventuesday.info/

Salim + Wendel Patrick + Legendary Rakim. . . Priceless
Baltimore's Premiere Hip Hop Spot Welcomes Hip Hop Royalty

For Immediate Release
Natashia M. Heggins, Manager
Natashia@salmmusic.com
www.salimmusic.com
www.myspace.com/salimmusic
410-419-2914

Salim + Wendel Patrick + Legendary Rakim. . . Priceless
Baltimore's Premiere Hip Hop Spot Welcomes Hip Hop Royalty

Baltimore, MD, December 10 – Salim and the Music Lovers will open for the legendary Rakim on December 28, 2007 at 9 p.m. In addition, hip hop electronica guru Wendel Patrick (www.wendelpatrick.com ) will join Salim & The Music Lovers that night, creating a fusion that fans, musicians, and lyricists don't want to miss.

A smorgasbord for fans, this show is unique in that it brings together past, present, alternative, and futuristic deliveries of hip hop music and culture.

"Rakim is one of the greatest of all time, so it’s an honor to open for a living legend," says Salim. "If you look up the definition of emcee in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Rakim with a half moon part. This show is the perfect ending for what has been an incredible year musically for the band.”

Sonar continues to bring top-notch hip-hop acts to Baltimore. At $15.00 a ticket, the show is a steal. This is a show that hip-hop lovers of all ages will appreciate and enjoy.

Salim & The Music Lovers, who have opened for Method Man, Slick Rick, and Talib Kweli before, released their 17-track CD, Hip Hop Revisited in April.

DATE: December 28, 2007
WHERE: Club Sonar; 407 East Saratoga Street; Baltimore, Maryland 21201
WEB: www.sonarbaltimore.com
TIME: 9 p.m.
COST: $15

For more information, please contact Salim & The Music Lovers' manager Natashia M. Heggins at 410-419-2914.

The Other Side Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Natashia McMillian-Heggins
Phone: (410) 419-2914
Email: natashia@salimmusic.com
Web site: salimmusic.com, wendelpatrick.com

Hip Hop, Jazz and Electronica Music Meet on THE OTHER SIDE
Salim & The Music Lovers and Producer Wendel Patrick

Already rated in heavy rotation on college radio throughout North America, including the giant WEFUNK in Canada, Salim & The Music Lovers – those who brought us Hip Hop Revisted – are expanding their horizons with a collaboration that will include jazz and electronica music.

This Saturday, November 10, at 8 p.m.. hip-hop fiends, Herbie Hancock aficionados, and music lovers in general can unite at The New Turntable Club for an odyssey with Salim & The Music Lovers and Wendel Patrick.

Producer Wendel Patrick, lauded by industry media such as RE:UP, XLR8R, and URB magazines, and Salim & The Music Lovers will collaborate at the New Turntable Club in Baltimore on 11/10. SĒN Baltimore Magazine has hailed Wendel Patrick as an artist who creates a musical plateau where “jazz fans, techno lovers, and hip hop heads can come together and celebrate."

THE OTHER SIDE is a series that combines hip hop, electronica and cutting edge jazz that will take you on a fantastic voyage sure to please discriminating tastes throughout the Baltimore and D.C. areas.

Salim & The Music Lovers have been compared to The Roots, Common, and A Tribe Called Quest. Blazing a trail that is both scattered with the raw, organic vestiges of early hip-hop culture, the group has reawakened the trend of blending live instrumentation and intelligent lyrics.

Genre crossing pianist Kevin Gift’s alter ego Wendel Patrick has been compared in the national media to artists such as Squarepusher, DJ Shadow and LTJ Bukem.

What: THE OTHER SIDE featuring Salim & The Music Lovers and Wendel Patrick
Where: The New Turntable Club; 2139 Jefferson Street; Baltimore, MD 21205;
When: Saturday, November 10, 2007 @ 8 p.m.
Cost: $10, adv/$13 door

ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE
The Other Side was conceived by Salim and Wendel Patrick to provide music lovers with a visceral music experience. The Other Side presents music the way it was meant to be heard….without additives and preservatives. “We don’t just do music, we are music and there is a symbiotic relationship between artist and fan. That relationship is being neglected by the music industry.(Salim)”

ABOUT SALIM & THE MUSIC LOVERS
Salim & The Music Lovers have been featured at the African American Heritage Festival, ArtScape, Club Sonar and other venues throughout the Baltimore/D.C. areas. Led by Salim, whose objective is to "Bring balance back to hip hop," the group infuses live instruments into their recordings and performances.

ABOUT WENDEL PATRICK
Wendel Patrick is the “righteous alias” of jazz and classical pianist Kevin Gift. His beat-driven debut album “Sound:” has received widespread critical acclaim from both the hip-hop and electronic music communities. In the words of RE:UP Magazine, “Gift is no one trick pony. Keep your eyes and ears on this one”.

Listen to the PodCast - The Urban Renewal Project 10/24

Salim interviewed with DJ Sage and O-Dog of Canada’s Hip Hop finest show, The Urban Renewal Project. Salim talked about everything from the journey of making Hip Hop Revisited to his opinion of the current state of Hip Hop. If you want to hear good music and participate in great conversations, check out this duo/station that continues to support independent music.

Any Given Tuesday Review: Hip Hop Revisited
Any Given Tuesday Music Blog

Salim hails from Baltimore, and if we let him, he can be someone to show the rest of the country that Baltimore isn't just the crime seen on The Wire and that hip hop isn't just pompous flossing. While mainstream hip-hop is bloated with ice and SUVs, there is a subset of rap with great flow, great lyrics, and without the obsessing over shiny things. Don't get a hipster like me wrong, I like mainstream hip-hop as much as the next, but like many die-hard music fans, I need my hip-hop to have some more substance.

Take, for example, "Stresses of the City" from Salim's Hip Hop Revisited. An urban anthem with fiercely in-your-face flow, inspired by the mixed blight and majesty of Baltimore's southwest. With a voice and a message reminiscent of Talib Kweli (and maybe, just maybe a bit of Phife from Tribe), Salim eschews the glamorization of stereotyped hood life to open up a new window into the life of West Baltimore. Instead of a world often painted as without hope, "Stresses" speaks of a dichotomy of a less-than-perfect existence with perfectly normal and admirable ambitions. As the suburban teenager is not just a kid on a cul-de-sac with skateboard under foot but has dreams of becoming an artist or an accountant, the city youth is more than baggy pants and headphones and dreams of the same thing. Salim wants to bridge the gap: we all struggle, we all strive, no matter what our world looks like.

Taking it down-tempo on "Hip-Hop Glory", Hip Hop Revisited shouts out to those who came before as well as contemporaries like Pharoahe Monch and Mos Def, reminiscing on the halcyon days of hip-hop. "Untitled" is Salim's vision of life in Baltimore, capably backed with vocals by Green Tea.

But the album is not just about lyrics. Hip Hop Revisited is full of beats that should make Swizz Beats jealous (not to mention a flow that, in a perfect world, would silence Diddy, too). Producers The Last Skeptik and Sin*seer are just the kind of beatmakers that I picture in Baltimore, a wicked studio in a rowhouse basement cooking up sick beats.

This album features lots of collaborations, with the above producers, as well as Theory (and, to give credit where credit is due, Salim produces some of his own, too). Singers Green Tea and Brianne Hemphill, turntabling by DJ Spontaneous, and appearances from Salim's band The Music Lovers also add to the reverie created by the album. But there's no fanfare in the cavalcade of guests. The cast of this album appear for the sake of the music.

Hip Hop Revisited could also be called Hip Hop Revised. A welcome reprieve from slick beats with no substantive rhyme, Revisited also avoids the unfortunate problem of many political/philosophical rappers who are cursed with mediocre tracks to lay their heavy rhymes on. The album is solid both in sound and substance.

You can purchase the album from Salim at his website.

Hip Hop Revisited Makes First Stop in Baltimore (DOWNLOADABLE PDF)

April 18 – Salim will hold his CD release and listening party on Saturday, April 28 at The New Turntable Club. A live band performance will top off the night’s festivities. Local favorites Green Tea, Head-Roc, and Wendel Patrick will be showcased as well. Tickets are $8.00 in advance/$12.00 at the door.

Hip Hop Revisited “picks up where the Roots’ Things Fall Apart left off,” said author and radio talk show host Ryan Greene. Salim has indeed built a fan base in the Baltimore/D.C. metropolitan area that is diverse and hungry for a more organic, satisfying dose of hip hop.

His group, Salim & The Music Lovers’, performances within the past two years have included opening up for Slick Rick, Method Man, Fertile Ground, and Black Sheep and at prominent urban venues such as the African-American Heritage Festival (AFRAM).

Representatives from all media outlets are invited to review Hip Hop Revisited and attend the April 28 performance as well. If a representative is unable to make it, a request to review the CD is encouraged.

Visit www.myspace.com/salimmusic to hear music samples, view performance photos, and to see upcoming performance dates. Also read an interview from Frostburg University’s online newspaper.

For more information on the April 28 affair or requests for hi-resolution images contact:
Manager, Natashia McMillian-Heggins; 410-419-2914 or natashia@salimmusic.com

WHAT: Salim’s CD Release Party for Hip Hop Revisted
WHEN:Saturday, April 28, 2007
WHERE: The New Turntable Club, 2139 Jefferson Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205
COST: $8 advance/$12 door

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC - The Bottom Line
By Brandon Burton 11.15.06
As of 2006 Hip Hop is in a state of emergency. Originality is no longer expected, trends are copied and resources are exhausted beyond belief. The music, the culture and those who follow it are all victims. Artists no longer hold creative freedom and record labels are constantly mimicking one another to recreate that multi-platinum sound. But, underneath the surface boils a new sound, true to the ways that laid a foundation for all. With materialism and the agenda of large labels, every city is faced with commercialism or underground.

Baltimore, which is one of the next cities on the come up, has just that; artists that follow today's norms and those who ignore all and create their own paths. Salim, a man who is venturing into uncharted territory, is creating a name for himself by mixing hip hop, spoken word and instrumentation together to create a pure organic sound. Salim, who believes that "good music is universal," is attempting to reach out to all those who share his love of music.

"I feel that no matter what type of music you listen to, whether Hip Hop or Rock, if you hear some good music, you're gonna' get into to it," says Salim. Working on his first LP Hip Hop Revisited, which is expected to dropping in January, Salim plans to give something back to listeners. "I want to put my all into it," explains Salim, "as long as I can get through to someone, I've done my job." Salim, though a solo artist, also has a group called Salim and The Music Lovers.

Consisting of a drummer, Topix, a keyboarder, Jason and Sinseer on the bass, this quartet ultimately plays for exactly what the title suggests…the love of music. Performing around Baltimore and opening for artists like Slick Rick and Method Man, this group has created quiet a buzz around the inner harbor area. With only an EP floating around, fans are eager to hear more from this up and coming group.

"People want something they can put in their hands and play," explains Salim., while expressing the importance of moving beyond Myspace and performances. "It's time to move beyond all that."

With future steps to publicizing through college radios and more performances, Salim has hopes of reaching an even broader audience.

"I don't expect to make millions off from this, if I am able to put food in my family's mouth than I've reached success."

Even if future efforts fail to put him in the lime light, Salim plans to continue to play and perform until he is no longer able. But with his first solo LP dropping in January and a remix of the album with The Music Lovers later down the line, Salim is on his grind fulfilling a dream and creating music that stays true to him. For more information you can check Salim out @ www.myspace.com/salimmusic