Along with their Dungeon Family siblings Outkast, Goodie Mob represented a high point for socially aware, soulful and street savvy 90s rap. At least until a “ghetto laser tag” related mishap caused member Cee-Lo to exit the group and pursue a lucrative career in recording buzzworthy car commercial music and hanging out with Carlos Santana.

Almost ten years later, the Atlanta quartet is back together and the reunion tour hits Langdon venue The Scene this Saturday. Plus, if the grown man Southern rap quotient wasn’t high enough already, Houston legend and DC’s favorite rapper Scarface is also on the bill as a “very special guest.” Get up, get out and get tickets.

Wale’s Attention Deficit is in stores today. For those not paying attention to rap buzz or this blog the DC/MD MC has emerged in recent years as the great hope of the area’s rap community. And, by my count, his debut marks the first major label release from a local rapper in nearly a decade.

I considered penning a post about how DC should unify and support Wale’s effort. I wouldn’t be the only person on the internet to do so. Even more than usual, the local rap bloggers and twitterers have been abuzz with well meaning but mostly empty words like support and movement.

But I decided against such a gesture. Instead let us step back and ask ourselves what a major label album release means in 2009. Not just to Wale or the greater DC area but to the world at large: nothing. As Dwayne Johnson once eloquently told Clef, it doesn’t matter.

Albums are completely irrelevant, especially in hip hop. Neither of this years most popular (relative) newcomers – Gucci Mane & Drake – have released albums. They make mixtapes and, occasionally, hit singles. Wale managed to do the former but then lost the track when he put all his eggs into Attention Deficit and the accompanying non-hits. For all his talents, Wale has never seemed like a natural hitmaker and his attempts to be one stand as the some of the album’s weakest moments.

And yes, his signing has done wonders for the DMV hip hop movement, but indirectly so. The attention (npi) he’s been getting over the past few years was a spark. He created a tangible end goal for the DC rapper and many kids either picked up a mic or got serious about their craft in the wake of his buzz. But that doesn’t mean that the success of the scene should (or can) hinge on his.

Best case and very unlikely scenario: Wale becomes a huge star and a dozen more DC rappers sign deals in the wake of this. All this does is narrows the goals for the scene. The talent (very few of whom I would describe as potential hitmakers themselves) are distracted as they scramble to create hits and build buzz in much the same way Wale has been. Maybe two or three of them actually succeed and manage to release their own albums. Maybe an even smaller fraction of them are able to turn that attention into a long term national career. The rest come back to DC and get back to doing what they’ve been doing or just disappear completely.

Cities don’t get put on, not in the long term. Consider all too brief success of recently hot rap regions: Houston and the Bay Area. Sure, their respective major label ambassadors have expanded national awareness. Many more Americans now know the names Chamillionaire and E-40, but these days just as few are interested in their work or that of their peers. These guys were legitimate stars in their cities prior to blowing up. Now the best of them they are back to being just that, the worst of them are virtual unknowns (where’s Mike Jones at?)

And, to put things in greater perspective, the label only shipped 30k copies of Attention Deficit, a pretty sure sign that this is not an album that is going to leave a permanent Nike Boot shaped footprint in the collective consciousness of the music world. Sure, it could slowly grow into something larger, but that seems unlikely given the industry’s tendency to end a press cycle as soon as first week sales come in. That’s unfortunate situation for Wale, but it is reality.

By all means buy the Wale album if you are interested in Wale or enjoy his music. But don’t do so simply because you think his success will put the DMV on. Because it will not. A single release cannot sustain a scene. Support must be continuous. If you truly want to see DMV hip hop succeed you must continue to attend concerts, spread positive word about underground artists and support their projects. (And not blindly, mind you. put your money behind the music that you feel is worthy. Indiscretion and blind “support” does as much damage to a scene as indifference. Talentless hacks getting money on the strength of their zip code only makes it harder for the cream to rise.) Today is not the day to support the DMV, everyday is.

UCB’s “Pat Your Weave” (formerly “Sweatin’ Out Weaves”) is one of the more ambitious studio/go-go integrations of recent years, the energy of the go-go folded neatly into a three minute single. Polished, certainly, but not stripped of its charater. Superficially it feels like one of many post-”Crazy In Love” Beyonce records (which, of course, feel like go-go records, word to Rich Harrison and the biters that followed) but it has better drums and slowly builds into something distinct as the heavy synth stabs come into play. Wale’s involvement is close to negligible on a musical level, but his few bars are the reason UCB is getting burn on otherwise homogeneous rap blogs.

Other recent Wale sightings in the rap blogosphere: an awkward freestyle at the BET, a remix of Kanye’s “Grammy Family,” a Chrisette Michelle cameo, a radio rip of an unreleased Travis Barker, and a new push on his pre-buzz video “Uptown Roamers.” If getting your artist on aggregation blogs still qualifies as doing something right, then it is safe to say that his team is doing something right. Attention Deficit drops tomorrow. None of the aforementioned songs appear on it.

This week has seen two blindingly colorful DMV rap videos drop. Commonwealth colorways aside, seeing the city so artfully shot in a Vimeo frame is always a good look. Above is the J-Scrilla laced posse cut “No Love,” from his Culture of Honor compilation. Raps provided by K Beta, X.O., Oddisee, Ra The Mc, Judah, T.E.F.L.O.N. & Wordsmith. After the jump is the Tabi Bonney directed clip for Phil Ade’s “Hollywood” off Phil’s Starting On JV mixtape.

After a very promising (and very free) test release of the clean version several months ago, Diamond District’s In Da Ruff is officially available in stores today, with cuss words restored and bonus tracks. Though it isn’t getting the national acclaim that Wale is, the trio of emcees XO, yU and rapper/producer Oddisee have cut what is certainly the most complete D.C. rap album of the year. And it might just be the best in many years.

In The Ruff was also released on nice double vinyl, a huge look for a contemporary rap album. Whether that vinyl can actually be purchased within the city limits is yet to be seen—not one of the remaining boutique-y record stores in this city actively stocks new hip hop vinyl. (Shame on you, Smash, Som, Red Onion & Crooked Beat. Oh yes, we’re naming names.)

Another Random Joint – Kev Brown from Humble Monarch on Vimeo.

Word to Rakim, Adams Morgan weekend nightlife is a bit like a walk through hell, having your dome frozen and your eyeballs swelled. Double-Polo’d fratboys do battle over jumbo slices, too far gone girls puke in alleys and drunk dudes holler sloppily at your girlfriend with both hands. But hey, some people dig that scene.

Either way, the mellow boom bap of DC’s own rapper/producer favorite Kev Brown (De La Soul, Low Budget) seems like an unlikely soundtrack for this madness. Yet this short clip from Kev’s Random Joints LP was shot squarely in the heart of that chaos and some how manages make sense. The crowds look absolutely jolly in this video and even the for-no-reason firemen that sometimes clog traffic in front of Tom Toms are happy to see Kev. Adams Morgan should consider hiring directors HumbleMonarch to produce a fluff piece to promote the neighborhood.

Yesterday the Washington Post ran a large feature on DC hip hop.* Chris Richards’ piece offers a cursory “why hasn’t DC rap blown up?” history and intro as well as short profiles of Wale, XO, Kingpen Slim, Tabi Bonney, Phil Ade and producers Best Kept Secret. It’s a well meaning and pretty efficient overview, but it’s also predictably been causing some debate within the DC hip hop community as well as some concern about the orientation of Wale’s hat amongst WaPo readers.

And perhaps some concern is warranted (err… within the hip hop community, not about Wale’s hat). The easiest way to critique an article like this is to point out artist omissions. I understand the need for space in a newspaper column so I’ll mostly try to avoid such trivial complaints here.** But there are some larger holes in the story that deserve to be addressed.

Mainly Richards’ piece oversimplifies the scene(s), painting a picture that every rapper pre-Wale was either rocking the go-go or desperately chasing a major deal. The narrative that go-go music has permanently squashed rap aspirations for the past two decades is a tidy one, but not entirely accurate. For one, it almost completely writes artists of the U st./Freestyle Union/Kaffa House open mic lineage and aesthetic out of the story. Sure, this scene was closely tied to the transient population at Howard and other colleges and as such owed more to Tribe Called Quest or the burgeoning Rawkus movement than they did go-go heroes like Fat Rodney or street favorites like Section 8 Mob. But it actually was a pretty prominent and distinctly hip hop scene that was jumping off in DC during the 90s.

More than that, acts like Unspoken Heard, Storm The Unpredictable and Priest Da Nomad were gaining a minor rep throughout the Northeast. These guys weren’t signing major deals (or necessarily even gunning for them) but still held a certain amount of clout outside of the city. Their records were available up and down 95 at legendary Manhattan vinyl outlets like Fat Beats and major web distributors like Sandbox Automatic in an era where it wasn’t uncommon for indie rap 12″s to move 5-10k with ease. Before blogs, this sort of underground buzz was less measurable but 12″/college radio burn was not all that different from the sort of attention Wale is getting right now. None of these acts became national mainstream stars (it’s unlikely that Wale will either), but many serious hip hop heads were at least aware of their existence. I mean I was buying Unspoken 12″s as a teen in New Jersey so they must have been doing something right.

But I suspect that the local success of that community can partially account for its relative failure nationally. These indie, dare I say “backpack,” rappers were so self sufficient that they could afford to remain somewhat insulated, separate from the go-go rappers and the Scarface-inspired street dudes. Other cities with similar demographics – Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta – have found success nationally because the streets were forced to merge with the campuses organically. The scenes were so small that the d-boys mingled with the conscious rappers until you couldn’t tell the difference anymore. And that’s usually when things get interesting.*** But in DC there was less of a need for that sort of explicit unity or overlap because both the the go-gos and the uptown open mics were doing so well independently of one another.

The success of DC’s current wave of rappers is probably tied to the blurring of these lines. In recent years both communities have been so ingrained within in DC culture that the current wave of rappers have no choice but to adopt hand me down reverence for both. Take XO for example, who came up rhyming at the decidedly post-Union Tru Skool open mics but is also practically a descendant of go-go royalty, his parents being managers for the genre’s unheralded progenitors the Young Senators. Hopefully these types of blends can catch on nationally. If not it’s already resulted in plenty of great music.

* In the interest of full disclosure: I, too, have written about hip hop for the Post.
** But really no mention of Section 8 Mob or Questionmark Asylum at all?! Along with Nonchalant, those are literally the only DC rappers that casual national rap fans could name drop prior to Wale.
*** Ask Kanye West.

It’s been a minute, but I’m back with another round up of recent local rapps. (I’ve also officially christened the column, partially in tribute to the great Mr. Magic.)

Likeblood f/ Bobby Valentino – “Money Over Here“
As of late it seems like there are too many rappers and not enough rap groups. Mbea, Young E & Dre Strong, collectively Likeblood, are wise to pool their resources and create a strong hip hop trio. For their most recent single the trio has linked with A-Town crooner Bobby Valentino (whose name I cannot mentioned without a nod to Mista) to cut “Money Over Here,” which notably sounds like popular hip hop. It could comfortably be programmed into a PGC playlist without sounding like an obvious local concession.

Bear Witnez! – Bear Season Mixtape
Bear Wit lives up to his name by rapping like a bear does. He’s hungry and growling. Also he spits lots of metaphors about hibernation and such. Dude sounds best on post-MOP/Freeway style bombastic soul production and the tape does start to lose some steam when he steps out of that comfort zone. Still I’m really looking forward to some sort of cage match battle between him and Big Bear. Standout cut: “DC United” f/ Wale & Kingpen Slim

Wale f/ Colin Munroe – “Bittersweet“
Wait. How the hell did they clear the “Bittersweet Symphony” sample? “Bittersweet Symphony” barely cleared the “Bittersweet Symphony” sample. Anyway, for those not keeping score, DJ Toomp originally passed this beat to Atlanta’s Born Wit It for last years underground favorite “Stack My Paper Up.” Obviously Born Wit It didn’t have the Jimmy Iovine stacks necessary to get the song a proper release, so Wale got their table scraps. What made the Born Wit It record so compelling was how disconnected it was. They took this totally emotional beat and rhymed about gettin money to it. And in turn they made stacking paper seem like a grand, emotive event. Wale takes the more predictable approach by making a record about how bittersweet life is. Then he raps about cortisone or something. The dude Colin Munroe looks a little like the guy from The Verve.

Don Juan – Twit Tape Mixtape
Another new tape from recent Jive signee Don Juan, intended as a more “lyrical” counterpart to his previous Lookie Looky tape, the Twit Tape sees him mostly kicking a string of short form freestyles over popular beats. Beyond that the concept of the tape is vague at best. Is it a mixtape you are supposed to twitter about? Or a mixtape about twitter? I don’t even know. But like most twitterers, Don Juan keeps his raps brief and to the point. Enjoyable and forgettable. Standout cut: “Crispy” f/Fever, Tyme & Skware.

More recent DC Rapps: Kingpen Slim & Whitefolkz – “Big Bills,” T-2 & Kingpen Slim – “These N***az,” J-Scrilla – Culture Of Honor, X.O. – “Do It,” Jazz In The Diamond District Soundtrack.

As part of their Latin American Film Festival, AFI Theatre in Silver Spring is screening the documentary Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music. The film takes a look at the continuing international fascination with music from Brazil.

“For decades Brazilian music has captivated audiences worldwide. What makes Brazilian music such a powerful force? Why does bossa nova still lure DJs and producers 50 years after it was created? Why does the Tropicália movement resonate so deeply with the alternative-rock crowd?”

Hopefully they will answer answer some harder questions about Brazilian music as well, like “why does Devandra ‘Sandra’ Bernhard think he’s Caetano Veloso?” and “was the anus-marble from the cover of Todos Os Olhos ever fully retrieved?”

The film features Veloso, David Byrne, Creed Taylor, Os Mutantes, Bebel Gilberto, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Thievery Corporation, M.I.A. and more. We already missed the centerpiece screening this past Saturday, but they’ve thankfully added two more: 7:45 on Wed. and 7 on Thurs. Director Béco Dranoff will be appearing at the second showing.

A minor Wale-related scandal hit the web this week, surrounding a 93.9 ad campaign. On the radio commercial, someone claiming to be Wale’s cousin makes a sound-alike parody of Wale’s seemingly aborted lead single “Chillin,” and tries to push it to the station. He is swiftly rejected in favor of Birdman and Alicia Keys records.

Wale fans didn’t take to kindly to this, blowing up message boards and station managers inboxes about their unwillingness to support local music.

Sure, the ad probably wouldn’t sting so hard if the station did make an effort to throw a little more in the way of local music into regular rotation. But the Wale fanboys and girls might be waving their DMV flag a little too hard in this case. It’s pretty clear from the audio that the butt of the joke was the guy who was trying to get on by creating a fake Wale record and not Wale himself. And even if they were, in fact, clowning “Chillin,” it was deserved. That record is atrocious, as shameless as any pop rap that WKYS would be playing in its place. Aesthetically, it has very little to do with Washington, D.C.

Predictably, Wale has taken to twitter. Not to complain about the perceived diss, but to complain about how he didn’t complain about the perceived diss: