Charli Baltimore - Cold As Ice

I've been meaning to do a post on this album for the last few days but I've been feeling quite under the weather. Well, it's Monday and, despite being sick, I'm still working this afternoon so I might as well start on my post.

Charli Baltimore, whose real name is Tiffany Lane, is/was a female rapper signed to Untertainment/Epic around 1999 who took her name from the main character of The Long Kiss Goodnight. Like Lil' Kim, she was a protege of the Notorious B.I.G. and the label she was signed to was run by Lance "Un" Rivera, an associate of Biggie. He was also a supposed member of a rap supergroup called The Commission which, if it to be believed, would have consisted of Lance, Puff Daddy (as he was known at the time), Lil' Cease, Charli, Jay-Z and Biggie. When Biggie died in 1997 that killed plans for the group, although there are numerous tracks mentioning the Commission on the assorted member's individual releases. Regardless though, based on her star affiliations, she had a great calling card to get a contract and make some money. And as such, she hopped on the opportunity and recorded her debut, Cold As Ice.

At the time of recording, the credits for the album looked as good as gold. For starters, there were cameos from Ghostface, Cam'ron, Eightball, Mobb Deep, Big Pun, Wyclef and Noreaga, but there was also production from RZA, Teddy Riley and DJ Premier. On top of all of that, it was a decent album, sounding definitely of it's era. So, you'd be hard pressed to wonder why the album never saw a proper release. Unfortunately, so am I as I haven't found much reasoning as to why it didn't. Some possible reasons may involve sample clearance as a song with Lil' Cease was recorded called "Ice" which sampled "Ice Ice Baby" heavily. Another two tracks initially listed on the album, "Money" and "Anyway You Want It", the latter featuring Billy Lawrence, were dropped. Those tracks haven't shown up anywhere as far as I know, so who knows the real reasons behind their removal, but a version of the album was completed without those songs but featuring a bonus remix of "Horse & Carriage" with Big Pun, Wyclef, Cam'ron and Silkk The Shocker. That's where the story ended officially, but as such things are, that's not quite the end.

In the late 90's and early 00's Sony had a bad habit of giving out SHITLOADS of promo copies of whatever their current focus was, which led to some ridiculously early leaks, delays and non-releases. To be specific, most of the advance copies used to come in a small paper sleeve and usually had the album's tracklist. Most of the ones I've seen, even if they were likely to be complete bombs, saw official release, but Charli is apparently the exception to the rule. Why you wouldn't release this but you would put out miserable albums by King Britt's Sylk 130, Vitro and people on Mariah Carey's Crave label is ridiculous. Even if Charli's album hadn't been good it would still have moved some copies for it's who's-who of guest stars and producers, as opposed to any of the albums I listed above.

So, because of Sony's overenthusiastic promotions department we are lucky enough to check out Charli Baltimore's "Cold As Ice". For the record, Charli has since tried to release a few more albums, had a brief contract with Murder Inc. records and threw some disses at G-Unit and 50 Cent on mixtapes with The Game, but alas, none of this has led to her getting any of her music released apart from a few stray guest or compilation appearances and some singles. Since rappers generally have a shorter career than most artists and Charli's real hype disappeared about 10 years ago, I don't think she has much of a chance of blowing up, but you never know.

Charli Baltimore - Cold As Ice

01 Intro Skit
02 Angel's Dust
03 Stand Up (feat. Ghostface Killah)
04 Keep It Real (feat. Cam'ron)
05 Pull The Alarm (feat. Billy Lawrence)
06 Everybody Wanna Know
07 Welcome To The Tunnel (Interlude)
08 Motherfuckas Don't Want It (feat. Tony Dutch & Ace Spade)
09 Pimp Da 1 U Luv (feat. Eightball & Rodney Ellis)
10 Feel It
11 Thorough Sisters (feat. Lady Of Rage, Gangsta Boo, Queen Pen, Da Brat & Scarlet)
12 Infamous (feat. Mobb Deep & Mike Delorian)
13 They
14 Say Your Prayers (Interlude)
15 Have It All (feat. Jeni Fujita & Miss Jones)
16 NBC (feat. Cam'ron & Noreaga)
17 Making Love (feat. Brotha)
18 Wake Up Bitch (Interlude)
19 30 Miles From Baltimore (feat. Brotha)
20 Outro
21 Horse & Carriage (Remix feat. Cam'ron, Big Pun, Wyclef Jean & Silkk The Shocker)


PS - I just want to make it clear I'm not saying the "miserable" artists I listed above didn't make good music or deserve a release, instead I feel from the economical viewpoint of a label if the artists didn't have much of a chance of commercial success why were they signed in the first place? King Britt's aforementioned album, for instance, isn't really that bad, but all it takes is one listen and you know it's not going to be blowing up anywhere, at least not in the US.