For fans of homegrown hip-hop, it's an embarrassing reality that Baltimore has still not made it onto the hip-hop map. Tupac may have gone to school here and B Rich and company may have received some national attention, but Charm City remains curiously quiet even as rappers from Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Detroit have become enormous stars. Baltimore MC Forbidden hopes to change that with his debut album, Tha Only Child. Forbidden depicts Baltimore as a nihilistic ghetto wasteland; on the song "On tha Homefront," he raps, "In Baltimore, it's real savage and strife/ The value of ice is higher than the value of life." Forbidden's style is intriguingly low-key and menacing, and producer T.H. supplies him with suitably dark, simplistic beats. The lyrics are often unfortunately misogynist, but Forbidden shines with his bleak but insightful descriptions of poverty: "I can't afford new games, I'm still playing Genesis/ Can't see a doctor cause I don't have benefits," he raps on "Bottom of tha Barrel." Forbidden sounds as gangsta as any New York rapper, but little about Tha Only Child sounds specifically native to Baltimore; the album's sound is reminiscent of mid-'90s New York gunslingers like Mobb Deep and Black Moon. Tha Only Child may not be particularly original, but Forbidden has enough depth and charisma to make an impression. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.