The Silver Spring Penguin

Reggae rapper Ricky Wicked brings Jamaica to Silver Spring. If only he could take Silver Spring to Jamaica. Online, the public library cranks up the streaming audio.

On its website, the group Ricky Wicked (above) declares that it’s taking over the music industry, “with better music better flow and better qulity, zeeen.”

Whatever. The five bandmates–Mister O, Boby Culcha, Billy Blanco, Jaha Jer and Ricky Wicked–cite Bob Marley and Bene Man as their greatest influences, but the song “Ghetto” rides the Sean Paul wave. Listen to Ricky Wicked’s “Ghetto.”

Online, the Montgomery County public library offers free streaming audio from three massive collections.

The Smithsonian Global Sound collection has 35,000 tracks of global folk music, spoken word and sounds. The African American Song collection has 50,000 tracks of jazz, blues and gospel. And there’s a classical music collection holding who knows how many tracks.

With at least 85,000 tracks and the ability to create your own playlists, you’ll never have to go without music. However, you will need a library card to access the collections.

Image courtesy of SoundClick.