Jon Caramanica's "Baltimore Rap vs. The Wire" in NY Times

I love The Wire so much I'm almost afraid to write about it, for fear I'll fuck it up: it's so good -- and so tragic -- it feels sacred, like Tonantzin and dancing. Jon Caramanica, braver than I, and the first person I ever heard refer to the show in reverent hushed tones, has been working on this for months, and it paid off.

He writes, In the final scene of the final episode of this season, one of the show’s young characters drives down a quiet street, Mullyman’s song “The Life, the Hood, the Streetz” blasting from the window of his stolen car. From Mullyman’s “Still H.I.M.” mixtape, it was one of the bigger Baltimore rap records of the past year, but in this new context portends a whole new life and meaning for the song and its author.

“In Baltimore your hood is your whole world,” Mullyman said. “ ‘The Wire’ inspired me, let me know we had a voice I didn’t know we had. It showed me I might be sitting on oil.”