The resurgent Baltimore club legend dusts off some old favorites for Jeffree’s.
Back in 2007, Blaqstarr’s Supastarr EP was one of the first releases on the then-fledging Mad Decent label. Collaborations with Diplo and M.I.A. followed, as did the spaced-out Divine EP and an eponymous, genre-hopping mixtape, both of which dropped in 2011. A full-length album was promised, but never materialized.
Until late last year — when Blaqstarr re-emerged with a few one-off mixes and tracks — we weren’t sure if we’d hear anything new from the artist behind classics like ‘Shake It To The Ground’ and ‘Tote It’. Thankfully, with The Blaq-Files EP, Blaqstarr has come full circle: released by Mad Decent’s Jeffree’s imprint, the four-track offering looks back on the mid-2000s club hits that rocked parties in Baltimore (and beyond) and made Blaqstarr an underground favorite.
With The Blaq-Files EP, Blaqstarr wanted to commemorate his old music before moving on to something else; as he tells FACT in a forthcoming interview, these tracks are “still new to the whole world.” From the anthemic ‘Hands Up Thumbs Down’ to the synth-laced ‘Slide To The Left’, the newly mixed and mastered tracks have never sounded better. Download all four below, along with bonus cut ‘Gangsta’.