Charli Baltimore - Cold As Ice (1999)

Tiffany Lane was born 16 August 1974, and is better known by her stage name Charli Baltimore, taken from Geena Davis's character in the film 'The Long Kiss Goodnight'. She began her musical career when she met the Notorious B.I.G. in the winter of 1995, and they became involved in a romantic relationship. Several months into their relationship, she left him a voicemail of a rap verse that she had written and he began encouraging her to pursue a career in rap music. Following the death of B.I.G., Baltimore continued her career in the industry, signing to Untertainment Records, which was part of the Epic/Sony roster, and also booking several modeling jobs. She created a number of hip-hop and R&B songs including 'Money', with Gamble and Huff, and 'Stand Up', both of which were released as singles in 1998, with 'Stand Up' rising to the top ten of the Billboard Magazine Hot Rap Singles Chart. Despite her moderate success on the charts, her first studio album 'Cold As Ice' was shelved, and she left the label. In 2001 she signed to Irv Gotti's Murder Inc. Records, and her first appearance as a Murder Inc. signee was on Ja Rule's 'Down Ass Bitch', which peaked in the top 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single came from Ja Rule's third studio album, 'Pain Is Love', which sold over three million copies in North America, and the following year she appeared on the Murder Inc. compilation album, 'Irv Gotti Presents: The Inc.', making appearances on the songs 'We Still Don't Give A Fuck', 'No One Does It Better', and the album's lead single, 'Down 4 U'. 

'Down 4 U' was another success for Baltimore, peaking in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she also appeared on 'The Last Temptation', as well as the Christina Milian track 'Spending Time', and Ashanti's 'Rain on Me'. In 2003, her single 'Diary' earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rap Solo Performance, which was intended as the title track to her album 'The Diary (You Think You Know)', and which was scheduled to be released in late 2002. The record suffered multiple postponements throughout 2002 and 2003, and in all, five promo cuts were released from the album as buzz singles, in a hopeful effort to generate strong awareness of its existence. Among them were 'Hey Charli', 'No One Does It Better', 'Philly's Finest', 'Charli, Charli' & the album's title track 'Diary', and amazingly this song garnered a Grammy nomination despite not impacting in any form on Billboard charts. Following the lack of success of most of these singles, her second album was also shelved, and Baltimore has yet to release a long-player on any label. In the first of two posts, here is that shelved debut album, 'Cold As Ice'. 

Track listing

01 Intro  
02 Angel's Dust  
03 Stand Up  
04 Keep It Real 
05 Pull The Alarm  
06 Everybody Wanna Know 
07 Welcome To The Tunnel (Interlude)  
08 Motherfuckers Don't Want It  
09 Pimp Da 1 U Love  
10 Feel It  
11 Money  
12 Thorough Sisters  
13 Infamous  
14 They 
15 Say Your Prayers (Interlude)  
16 Have It All 
17 NBC  
18 Making Love  
19 Wake Up Bitch (Interlude)  
20 30 Miles From Baltimore  
21 Anyway You Want It 
22 Outro