Thanks to the hard work of both hip-hop pioneers and young upstarts throughout D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, the DMV is now officially on the map. It’s also in the dictionary. The Urban Dictionary—but still.
Most regions with thriving hip-hop scenes have catchy nicknames, but before the whole DMV acronym caught on in the mid-aughts, the greater [...]

We at Arts Desk have mentioned before that the DMV's own Wale is maybe probably kind of dating Beyonce's little sister Solange. Now, the gossip site Mediatakeout.com, (say what you want about 'em, but they very often get these things right) is reporting that Solange and Wale are house-hunting in Brooklyn. Or at least that [...]

Kevin "Kato" Hammond is in the process of selling his Take Me Out to the Go-Go Website.
Since 1997, Hammond has shared his encyclopedic knowledge of go-go via TMOTTGOGO.com, which at various times has included a monthly online magazine, a blog, an active message board, and a weekly online radio show that allowed Kato to share [...]

“Chuck Brown's Long Dance,” last Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine cover story about the godfather of D.C. go-go music, was an illustration of the importance of editing. Brown’s audience? “30- to 40-something African Americans.” Later we learn that his audience “is made up of mostly 30- and 40-something African Americans.” Brown’s prison stint? “Back then, Lorton [...]

Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night tour hits the Verizon Center tonight, and if you're attending, you're almost guaranteed to hear all of your favorite Maxwell hits: "Fortunate" and "Til We Become the Sun" from the old albums; "Bad Habits" and "Pretty Wings" from his comeback disc.  In fact, you may even get an extended version of  "Pretty [...]

You probably know that Ghostface’s new album, Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City dropped today. You probably also know that, as rap albums go, it's pretty sexually explicit. But just how seedy is it?
It’s so filthy that many of Ghostface’s lines are indistinguishable from the dialogue spoken by some of today’s finest porn stars. [...]

Yesterday I received a preview copy of The Tao of Wu, a “spiritual memoir” in which Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA offers up pearls of wisdom. Actually, since we’re talking about an icon of ‘90s hip-hop here, I should probably say he is dropping gem or blessing us with jewelz or some such thing.
The press materials [...]

Nu' The Mayor is a pretty proactive rapper. Instead of just claiming to run D.C., he decided to take the title of "mayor." When media outlets don't cover him, he interviews himself.  And rather than merely rhyming about his financial fitness, Nu' has pronounced himself a "dollartician" and named his latest album Now or Never: [...]

50 Cent has been forcing interviewers to listen to him yammer on about Robert Greene's book, The 48 Laws of Power, for years. Now, he has taken his obsession with Greene's guide to crushing foes and annihilating people one step further.
50 has written a book with Greene called The 50th Law, and he's just announced [...]

Looks like Dave Nuttycombe wasn't the only DJ inspired by the cover of last week's City Paper.
DJ Torkaveli claims to produce "the most controversial mixtape series in the Washington D.C. area," so it makes sense that he'd take inspiration from the now infamous issue.
The work features the Marion Barry voicemail clips interspersed with "some new [...]