Lots of DMV rap yesterday! Kingpen Slim, Ra the MC, Fat Trel, and Black Cobain all released mixtapes/albums. Looking forward to hearing the Black Cobain tape, especially—the one time I saw him perform, at January's Haiti benefit at the 9:30 Club, he slayed. Here's a Slim song:

Also on my radar: A "Go-Go for Fenty" video with Junkyard, Stinky Dink, and Big G, though a Gray sign sneaks in around the 2:15 mark. The Latin American Film Festival announces its lineup, which, Ryan Kearney of TBD notes, includes an omnibus work featuring directing contributions from Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, stars of Y tu mamá también and the less good Rudo y Cursi. The Vinyl District has been running great stuff all week from John Davis, who performs the songs of, um, John Davis this Friday at Story/Stereo.

And since we're on the topic of freedom: Isn't the lede of the New York Times Book Review's cover review of the new Franzen novel a bit much? I'll get back to you once I read the book.

But this point was sorta dead on:

"Sure, 30 years ago DC had Bad Brains and Minor Threat, and today it still has, uh, Ian Svenonius (the Sassiest Boy in America!), but the intervening years have gentrified the hell out of a quarter of the city proper and kept the rest in abject urban poverty, more or less. Not a great recipe for 'cool'!"

Except, last time I checked New York was gentrifying the hell out of its grid. The last time I checked, the most influential band in Brooklyn doesn't reside there. No, that band's early albums were put out by a guy who lives in D.C. and its members grew up around here. That band is called Animal Collective. We really like Animal Collective.

I dig the writer's interest in fighting economic inequality. But if the writer really cared about "abject urban poverty," what the hell is he doing blogging for Gawker? It's not like that job really sticks it to the Man. I might be wrong, but Gawker hasn't exactly turned into Human Rights Watch or hired a renowned sociologist to write engaging narratives about urban poverty.

And New York didn't invent go-go. I'm shocked the writer didn't at least give it a mention! Anyway, all this ranting is just an excuse to post this Junkyard video from 1985. I discovered this video at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum (which I sort of critiqued a while ago).