Boston hip-hop has come a long, long way since I showed up here to cover the scene 10 years ago. In that time, countless artists have seen international acclaim, and banked a good buck on tours from here to places like Japan and Germany. Cats like Slaine, Reks, and Termanology are renowned as some of the genre's premier lyricists – on either side of commercial divide – and top producers like Pete Rock and Premier regularly collaborate with artists from New England.

Congrats to Moe Pope for once again landing on the Boston Music Awards nominee slate. Fuck knows that him and his producer Rain deserve it, having smashed a shitload of shows last year in the lead-up to their soon-to-be-released Let The Right Ones In.

“Annie Mulz” is one of their live staples – the duo's trusty vocal sidekick Christopher Talken has knocked my eardrums silly plenty of times with the hook – and the video is long-awaited.

Before I moved to Boston seven years ago, I knew more about the local rap scene than most outsiders, but my knowledge was still limited to cats who were making big splashes on the greater subterranean scene. No doubt that among that exalted group of exports were the Porn Theatre Ushers, an MC-producer duo that brought something entirely new and even different.

Us Boston music writers need to find a new angle from which to cover Moe Pope, since that whole "most tragically slept-on act in the Hub" shit no longer applies. What we have here is an example of hustle plus skills paying off, as Moe and his crew have finally hit the forefront of the local music scene in the past few months.