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It's art boiling over with ideas-a kind of insular maximalism that can't be pinned down and contains multitudes, never quite serving the 'political' tag in a conventional way and always on its own terms. And it's part of a national musical zeitgeist toward fractured pop music for a fucked-up U.S.A.: Kanye West's recent 'The Life Of Pablo,' a still possibly unfinished, hedonistic gospel album about race, luxury, and rage Kendrick Lamar's breezy, blunted, oft-apocalyptic 'untitled unmastered.' the fragile, weedhead scowl of Rihanna's 'ANTI' and Beyonce's 'Formation,' an anthem with lots of moving parts, spoken word tangents, and meme-able/political hooks.

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And their work's broken-ness ties to broken Baltimore and a broken policing system and broken windows targeting of POCs and a broken Donald Trump-touting country and Freddie Gray's broken spine. The sound of so much of this music, especially Ali, Greydolf, and JPEGMAFIA's, is 'broken.' Their tracks sound as if they were smashed into pieces and hastily sewn back together-it's stunning, resilient work often about resilience. Even if many of these artists were working before Ali's ascent, all of them make a lot more sense now that he's around. District, Bounge, Buffa7o, Butch Dawson, Chiffon, DJ Amsies, DJ Ducky Dynamo, DJ Genie, DJ Juwan, DJ Trillnatured, DK The Punisher, Drew Scott, Dylijens, Eclectic, Elon, Eu1ogy, Hi$to, Isabejja, Jacob Marley, James Nasty, Joy Postell, JuegoTheNinety, Jumbled, Kemet Dank, Malik Ferraud, Neru (formerly Neru Isis), Normaling, Rip Knoxx, Shawn Smallwood, Tek.Lun, Terrell, TRNSGNDR/VHS, TT The Artist, and Vicunyah, to name a whole bunch and still get nowhere near being comprehensive. It is a massive, loosely tied collection of performers, producers, and DJs ostensibly crafting club music and hip-hop but fusing it with, well, whatever you got: Al Rogers Jr., Anna Notte, Bemi Osa, Beya Likhari, BlackSage, Black Zheep, Bond St. Now, there's a new generation of Baltimore musicians-Greydolf and JPEGMAFIA are just two particularly notable names-taking Abdu Ali's avant-club lead.

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And it's happening amid a series of changes in the city fueled by the Baltimore Uprising and with that, a revaluation of every facet of Baltimore, including its music scene.ДЄ few years ago, club music, prompted by artists such as Abdu Ali, DJ AngelBaby, James Nasty, Schwarz, and others, took a left turn and further opened itself up to underground dance DJs and performers, the Station North art kid contingent, and the internet all at once.

For one, this DIY scene is not so blindingly white and it is radically, actively queer-friendly. But this genre-blurring show at the Copycat, the epicenter of DIY culture in the city for decades, and many others like it aren't retracing the lines of DIY indie rock and noise shows exactly, though plenty of that scrappy attitude is here. Events such as Greydolf's C4 happening pop off somewhere in the city at least once a week and collectively funnel into more aboveground events such as Abdu Ali and company's bimonthly party Kahlon, making up what is Baltimore's most high-profile DIY music moment since Wham City's hey-day.

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