Tough Breaks

Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music is the definitive history of how a city danced its pain away.

In Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music, music journalist Al Shipley draws from 18 years’ worth of interviews with dozens of DJs, producers, vocalists, party hosts, promoters, and the founders of the clubs, labels and record stores that shaped the genre. With the untold stories behind labels like Unruly Records and clubs like The Paradox, Shipley digs deep into big personalities, obscure samples, profanely catchy chants, and friendship and feuds that drove a competitive scene to keep the 130BPM beats going for decades. Baltimore icons who died tragically young like Miss Tony and DJ K-Swift are remembered through the eyes of friends and collaborators, and producers like DJ Booman, DJ Class, and Diamond K reveal the inspirations behind some of their classic tracks."Tough Breaks finally gives the Baltimore club scene the kind of deep-dive chronicle that’s been long overdue."
– Oliver Wang

"Al Shipley's Tough Breaks is a much-overdue account of one of dance music's most underappreciated and dynamic scenes. With forensic attention, Tough Breaks takes you onto the dancefloors where Baltimore Club music exploded & later spread across the world. It's history with a deliriously bangin' beat."
– Charles Aaron

"Not just a history of an urban breakbeat genre... Tough Breaks is comprehensive journalism about local heroes, local businesses (from retail to radio to nightlife), local neighborhoods, even local dialects."
– Chuck EddyAl Shipley has covered the Baltimore music scene for over 20 years for publications including Baltimore City Paper, the Baltimore Banner, Baltimore Fishbowl and Urbanite, and the acclaimed MP3 blog Government Names, winning awards from the Baltimore Crown Awards and the Baltimore Sun. He’s written about a wide variety of music and culture for Spin, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vulture, Vice, and Complex.