Once upon a time, rapping in D.C. wasn't so cool. In the 1990s, long before artists like Wale and Tabi Bonney put D.C. hip-hop on a national stage, local MCs couldn't spit a rhyme without being deemed a New York wanna-be.
Instead, aspiring rappers not named Asheru, Head-Roc, or Black Indian spit their rhymes alongside prominent go-go bands [...]

Last night, Occupy D.C. organizers announced that Dead Prez and D.C.'s own Head-Roc will play a free concert today from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in McPherson Square. While the performance is part of an anti-Walmart rally, don't be surprised if the musicians let fly some of their feelings about Occupy D.C. In an op-ed at the Huffington [...]

For this week's issue, I reported a lengthy oral history of the annual concert series at Fort Reno in Tenleytown. But we couldn't fit in everything! Keep checking Arts Desk for more.
Though not always monochromatic, the crowds at Fort Reno skew white. The bands—with a few exceptions—have usually been white, too. In a city that [...]

Good morning, D.C.!
For a few moments yesterday, the Twitters lit up some with debate over the growth, priorities, and coverage of the city's hip-hop scene. The impetus? 1) Andrew Noz's City Paper Music in Review piece on D.C.'s wealth of very good rappers and paucity of great ones; 2) rapper Head-Roc's rebuttal on Arts Desk; [...]

An occasional feature in which esteemed D.C. rapper Head-Roc shares what’s on his mind.
OK, so I'm looking at the front cover of this past week’s Washington City Paper “2010 Music in Review” edition. Wait, or is it “2010 in Music Review?” I honestly don’t know. It’s a little confusing to me. Still, I get that [...]

Sonic Circuits is still going on, and FreeFest is this Saturday. We'll have more on both today on Arts Desk. As for other music this weekend, we recommend:
The Best of Friday:

Every now and then, an artist comes along who scares the shit out of you. Arrington de Dionyso (formerly of Old Time Relijun) is [...]

An occasional feature in which esteemed D.C. rapper Head-Roc shares what’s on his mind.
[A conversation I had yesterday about the cancellation of yesterday's Cornel West Theory show at Bohemian Caverns. All me talking.]
“Really? The show is cancelled? Why?”
“They were shut down? Since Saturday?”
[My “Mouth”]
Well, why the fuck didn’t the venue tell The Cornel West Theory that [...]

An occasional feature in which esteemed D.C. rapper Head-Roc shares what’s on his mind.
A few months back in the early evening, I was passing the Patty Boom Boom Room on U Street NW when I heard a tap on the glass facing the street. I looked up and there was my man Jati Lindsay, arguably D.C.’s [...]

Head-Roc used it conspicuously last week. Tabi Bonney promises that he'll ask Lady Gaga why she is doing it so hard. YU and Oddisee titled a track with it. It is "lunchin' " or "lunching," and it is old in the DMV.  But it is eminently useful and still quite awesome, in the way that [...]

Correction Appended
For a moment, on the first night he worked the door at the Velvet Lounge, Andrew Bucket thought he was staring death in the face. Her name was Allison Wolfe.
"I was excited to meet her, let alone work the show at all," he says of the Partyline singer, who helped found the riot-grrrl movement [...]