Empresarios officially started to get slick with February's Sabor Tropical and a subsequent double dose of remixes, and the Latin-oriented, multi-ethnic D.C. band sounds even more polished on its new EP, Bestia, which goes on sale Sept. 27 via Fort Knox. (The title track was leaked today, and two other songs are also online.) The [...]
Apparently these thirst DC events are "like TED but with music and booze." That's another way of saying that they're happy hours where people get up and talk. And everybody has to pay $15 to get in! That's a tough sell, whether you're a TED person or not. In situations like this, an organization's About [...]
Oh, it's God, that's what it is. You might be tempted to argue that in the video for "A Letter From the Chief Musician," Ryan Lucas is too sly about revealing his religiousness, but that would be unfair. The D.C. rapper is merely easygoing about workin' it in; your favorite MC probably does the same [...]
At first glance, the agenda for EZ Street's "South African Safari" looks like it's all tourism, all the time: visits to the winelands, treks to see Africa's "Big Five" game in the wild, and so on. But the WKYS-FM mainstay says the early December sojourn—which will include DMV soulster Raheem DeVaughn and John Monds of [...]
D.C. legend Black Indian told us this summer that his Judah-produced comeback I Tried to Tell You would sound grown-up but not totally old-ass, and he was right. The 14-track mixtape is a cohesive, professional statement from a dude who decided emphatically not to let his legacy wither. He generally sticks to three themes: 1) [...]
We had to chuckle yesterday when we heard Micah Vellian's remix of "Equestrian" by D.C. pop-rockers U.S. Royalty. Vellian (one-third of Volta Bureau) didn't try to scale back the unreformed haughtiness of the original; instead he candies the song's hooks with a dance-pop beat. We asked him about his artistic choices. His reply:
U.S. Royalty commissioned [...]
It's still quite possible that Wale is full of shit. And Rick Ross is almost certainly full of shit. But together they might've made the Sleeper Hit of the Summer, at least around the DMV way. A completely unscientific sampling of the WPGC and WKYS playlists* reveals the slinky "That Way" to be inescapable, and [...]
Phil Adé's new track "Monte Carlo Dreams," with its blatant U.S. Royalty samples, probably exists because the Maryland rapper and the D.C. rock band already had a thing goin' on. (Click that link and watch that video, it's kinda nice.) The original "Monte Carlo" was a "coke-kissed Fleetwood Mac-style jam" (yeah, I just quoted myself), [...]
He was one of the few 1990s D.C. rappers to get national exposure and a major-label deal, but Black Indian has been relatively quiet in recent years. That trend will reverse itself in September, when he releases I Tried To Tell You, a new mixtape produced by Judah, best known for working with Wale and [...]
The short version of this piece is: Go see the Slickee Boys and The Factory reunite this weekend. If D.C.'s musical history matters to you, they'll put some things in perspective.
The long version is this: The first and only show I saw at the old 9:30 Club was the second-to-last one ever held there (I [...]
