"Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire" is the soundtrack to the popular HBO series The Wire. The songs that appear in The Wire, unlike the music on most TV series, rarely comment on the action; instead, they are employed almost exclusively as source cues, coming out of car radios, boom boxes, and bars. For the fourth season, music supervisor Blake Leyh took this naturalistic approach one step further, engaging several Baltimore rappers, deejays, and producers to create original work for the series. These artists weren't hard to find: a mix-tape called Hamsterdam, named after a drug marketplace from the third season, had become a local hit, and Leyh drew from its lineup. The soundtrack, composed solely of tracks by Baltimore artists, is as rigorously conceived as the series itself, and makes for truly compelling listening. It's essential for fans of the series as well as for anyone interested in hip hop that authentically comes from the streets.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Way Down In The Hole
2. Projects
3. Dance My Pain Away
4. My Life Extra
5. What You Know About Baltimore
6. Jail Flick
7. When You See Us
8. That's Da Sound
9. Ayo
10. The Life, The Hood, The Streetz
11. Assume The Position