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 underground tracks from some of the DMV’s hottest rappers!”

Whitefolkz, Cal Cutta, Landova Dappa, and many other DMV all-stars appear.

Check it out here.

Lupe Fiasco has just been added to the line-up of D.C.’s Hip-Hop Theater Festival, as part of the Voices Remix event on July 7.  Phife from A Tribe Called Quest will be in town, too, to participate in the J. Dilla tribute/fundraiser on July 8. Note to event organizers: keep them away from each other.

The festival runs July 6-11. Check out the complete schedule of events after the jump.

Read More “Lupe Fiasco Joins Hip-Hop Theater Festival” »

Mp3 blogs are teetering on the edge of irrelevance. Thanks to Twitter an artist can cut out that middleman completely and deliver new songs directly to fans and followers. From the studio to the tweets in just minutes. The DC hip hop community in particular has been taking great advantage of this approach. Here are some recent zshare jams, as tweeted by a few of the area’s most promising emcees. (You can’t keep this middleman out the game, dammit!) Read More “Digging For Tweets” »

The long awaited Back To The Feature mixtape from DC RAPS GREAT HOPE dropped on Friday. Primarily produced by ex-Little Brother beatsmith 9th Wonder, the tape is Wale’s bid for true hip hop legitimacy while simultaneously pushing a shameless and gross radio single. After the jump are my song-by-song first listen knee jerks on the tape. Download it here if you need a soundtrack to this blog post. Read More “Blogging and Bleeding with Wale’s Back To The Feature” »

Yeaaaahh. Last night DC’s own emcee laureate Tabi Bonney hit the studio with the King Of Crunk himself, Lil Jon. Jon’s spastic party sound doesn’t exactly seem like the best fit for Bonney’s slicker approach, but surely the duo came up with something dope. At the very least it produced the hilarious picture above (alongside “Dat Baby Don’t Look Like Me” architect Shawty Putt and an unidentified fourth party) .

Tabi also live tweeted the experience: Read More “Tabi Bonney x Lil Jon” »

Yesterday marked the twentieth anniversary of rapper Fat Rodney’s tragic murder. Frequently heralded as one of most memorable emcees to ever rock the Go-Gos, Rodney’s life was taken from him at just 21 years old in 1989. Over at my site, Cocaineblunts.com, I spoke with Rare Essence’s Andre “Whiteboy” Johnson about Rodney and his legacy:

“When he walked into the room he lit the room up. There are a couple of other guys who had done it before, but I don’t think anybody [did] it to the extent that Rodney had done it. So as he walked through the door, everybody was yelling his chant. “What you gonna do, Fat Rodney?!” We lost a huge talent. And we lost a good friend because Rodney sat around with us for hours, just joking and talking and everything. DC lost a huge talent. Rodney was a great guy, personally. And he was a real good rapper, very observant. The fact that he’s rapping and he spots some girl in the crowd with a red shirt on, he’ll incorporate her into the rap. Spot the guy with the blue jacket on, he brings him into it. All of that is what made Rodney the legend that he is.”

Click here for the full interview.

Benji, Gorda Brega, Toney Night, XO & Syxx – “Uptown’s Finest 2”
Carty Yeah, Southeast Slim, Whitefolkz, Kingpin Slim, Mo Chips – “Hottest In The Hood (DMV Remix)“

Two brand new posse cut primers on the ever burgeoning DC rap scene.

First up is “Uptown’s Finest 2,” the self-explanatory title track from the forthcoming EP of the same name. Secondly, a whole slew of local faves hop on Red Cafe’s “Hottest In The Hood” for some unofficial remix action.

Is it at all possible to shoot a DC rap video without Ben’s Chili Bowl? Just today not one, but two videos dropped featuring the venerable U St. eatery. First Southeast Slim’s (above) lo-fi “Shake Your Plaits” clip finds dance crew Da Originalz doing the song’s titular dance in front of the restaurant. Then GREAT RAP HOPE Wale (who also rhymes on “Shake Your Plaits” but does not appear in the video) grabbed some of his own Ben’s footage to back his nearly unlistenable Lady Gaga collaboration “Chillin’” (after the jump).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good half smoke as much as the next man and Ben’s bears significance as one of the few lasting landmarks from pre-gentrification uptown, but surely there are other options. Can Florida Ave. Grill get some love? Or uh… I dunno, Yum’s Carry Out? Read More “Chili Cheese Cliche” »

Much hyped Interscope signee and self proclaimed DC RAP AMBASSADOR Wale will be rocking the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night, backed, as usual, by inimitable go-goers UCB. We’re just going to pretend that his atrocious Lady Gaga collaboration never happened.

Equally talented but less blogged about about locals Tabi Bonney and X.O. (of Diamond District) are opening. Get your Nats fitted ready and hit the jump for some videos.
Read More “Wednesday: Wale & Friends @ 9:30″ »

Atlanta based emcee Gucci Mane is not on Facebook or Twitter. His Myspace is a label curated holder space mostly advertising an eighteen month old album that, by all rational accounts, was a flop. And yet, strictly though word of mouth, he’s become the most popular rapper in the South and probably the country. Or at least in those corners of the country where rap music still holds cultural cachet. Last Friday night (5/8) was his debut performance in one such corner, Washington D.C., as part of the week-long celebration of Wire star/Backyard Band frontman Big G’s birthday party. (Forgive the delayed quasi review, this writer has seemingly lost an entire week of his life in Gucci Land. Pause.) Read More “Stage Name: Gucci, Code Name: Chilly” »