"I didn't waste any time," she said.
Evicted from her apartment (she said neighbors thought she was a "drug lord"), Beale found a new home for Deep Flow - a narrow storefront on Hanover Street in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood.
Whether as an MC or studio owner, women have a tougher time breaking into the hip-hop world, said Al Shipley, a Baltimore-based music blogger.
"Women are held to a higher standard," Shipley said. "You've got to work twice as hard as a guy to get to the same level of recognition and be taken as seriously."
At first, negative rumors flew about the young white woman trying to establish a foothold in the city's hip-hop scene. But Beale dismissed them.
"Guy, girl, black, white - it doesn't matter what you are, if you show and prove," she said. "I don't talk. I just do it. It doesn't matter what I look like. The proof is in the work."
Beale's work ethic is undeniable. Bell and his co-producer, Jamal Roberts, recorded the Hamsterdam albums at Deep Flow Studios. Music from the albums made it onto the HBO series The Wire and helped launch their careers.
"We're really comfortable there," Bell said. "Everything about it - the atmosphere, the professionalism. ... That's my second home."
Once Beale had a home for Deep Flow Studios, she quickly branched out into other mediums. Deep Flow Radio went online in 2004 a couple months after she moved into the Brooklyn space.
At any given hour, about 600 people log onto Deep Flow Radio, Beale said. Occasionally, that number spikes to more than 1,000, depending on the day and the buzz independent artists get. A majority of the listenership is based in Baltimore, but people tune in from as far away as Tanzania.
About 70 percent of the music on Deep Flow Radio comes from independent artists, Beale said. Listeners grade new music, and if a song rates low for three consecutive weeks, she yanks it from rotation.
Beale uploads new tracks a few times a week. If artists record a tune at Deep Flow Studios, they get free radio play. Otherwise, it costs $10 to air a song. For a fee, local MCs can host their own shows.
The radio station is the only wing of Deep Flow that doesn't consistently turn a profit. Last year, the U.S. Copyright Office levied royalty rates on Internet radio stations, which doubled Deep Flow Radio's operating costs to about $200 a month. But even with the increase, the station is essential to the business, Beale said.
