Bmore Original isn’t just a name to represent club and hip-hop producer DJ Excel’s hometown of Baltimore, it’s the contract he’s made between himself and his artists: Be more original.

Whether it’s the political Club of Excel’s Obama-themed “That’s What a Pimp Does”, a song that burned through the blogs and was named 2008 “song of the year” by the Baltimore City Paper, or his recent mega-mix club history lesson “Bmore A.D.D”, Excel zigs when the rest of Baltimore Club zags.

All the while, Excel occupies a steady place in Baltimore’s underground hip-hop scene, producing forward-thinking boom-bap beats right along side the spastic, high-BPM club music. Bmore Original has no interest in borders between “underground” and “pop”, “street” and “club” as long as it’s good music.

This isn’t a surprise though, as Excel’s been pushing boundaries since his 1995 release “This DJ/Kaptain Jack” on the legendary Unruly Records and moved into the “Web 2.0” world with Bmore Original Records in 2004.

The first digital distribution center for Baltimore music, Bmore Original Records sent club around the world through downloading and brought it back again through streams of Bmore Original Radio, which hosted shows from hometown favorites and DJs as far away as France. All the while, Bmore Original clothing, with the highly-visible logo—moved through the city and beyond; hints of the viral marketing that would make“That’s What a Pimp Does”, Baltimore’s club anthem in 2008.

Bmore Original’s “forest through the trees” approach extends to long-time friend making his way back into music, Emmy, at-home on raunchy club jams and electro-ballads all the same, and The Lyricists, the label’s flagship rappers, who hail from outside Bmore entirely—they’re from Port Huron, MI.

After a fruitful distribution of last year’s L3, The Lyricists (Illtone, Rym-B, and DJ Haus Diesel) moved their collaboration beyond straight business, sculpting the Transmittin’ Live EP with all the beats handled by Excel himself. The result is something as terse and immediate as club, but undeniably underground as well. Truly a result of the label’s mantra: Be More Original.