You might know very little about Sean Born, a gruff, gravel-voiced MC from Prince George's County, Md., whose forthcoming album, Behind the Scale, is a cinematic journey through the small Queen Anne town in which he grew up. Born tells of his struggle over booming beats from Kev Brown, Dunc, and Oddisee, and others.
Born's impressive mixtape, 909 Jack BTS Pause [...]
Runway Reformation: Check It and Notorious got a pretty dramatic do-over Saturday night from MPD, who lent the gay street gangs space in its Boys and Girls Club to hold a fashion show, reports the Post. It was the debut of TurnItUp, Check It's new apparel brand. Not that the kids have renounced violence, at least the [...]
In preparation for his new album The Indie Life: Hate, Love & Money dropping next Thursday, DMV rapper SmCity has released a new single: "Mr. IDGAF," featuring MC/producer Oddisee and star-in-waiting Phil Ade.
In case you really need to know, "IDGAF" stands for "I don't give a fuck." On the brassy Oddisee-produced track, the three MCs chastise the [...]
Oddisee made the best DMV album of 2011. But I’m tired of reading about him in Arts Desk posts.
On the national side of sounds, the year was mostly about slowing down and turning up the bass (see: James Blake, Drizzy Drake, The Weeknd, Bon Iver, Girls, Frank Ocean). However, some Haterade for all the buzzy [...]
I didn't realize how great a year it's been for music in D.C. until I started compiling this list. While I didn't hear many landmark, career-defining albums in 2011, there were a ton of great songs from both young and veteran artists. Whatever D.C.'s reputation, there's a healthy community of smart, ambitious musicmakers in this [...]
A lot of releases caught my ear this year, including projects from Kokayi, lowercase letters, DTMD, Jon Laine, and others. At the same time, the always-endless stream of mixtapes made it damn near impossible to catch everything.
For the second year in a row, I voted in WKYS's list of the hottest local rappers. (So far, Nos. 3-10 have [...]
This fall, producer Oddisee roamed abroad, touring Europe with Mello Music labelmates The Left and Apollo Brown and performing material from his upcoming solo album, People Hear What They See. On the surface, Oddisee’s recent schedule seems like a walk in the park for the busy Upper Marlboro native, who arranges songs and makes beats for [...]
Released in 1998, Soul Survivor was the grand coronation of producer Pete Rock's already-stellar career, a large-scale album equally celebrated for its imposing instrumentals and heavyweight guest list (the Wu-Tang Clan, Black Thought of The Roots, and Common all had verses on the project). Yet despite the star-studded cast, Pete was the clear centerpiece, as his beats [...]
Put Away Your GPS: This summer, Largo hip-hop MC and producer Oddisee released his excellent 10-song album Rock Creek Park, a largely instrumental homage to the sights and sensations found in the D.C. area. Yesterday, Prefix assembled a Google map accompaniment to the album that fleshes out his local references. After all, it is still possible [...]
"The music industry has imploded," a sarcastic male voice says seconds into Poem-Cees' new album, Everything You've Always Wanted. "The economy sucks, and you want Poem-Cees to release a record now."
Just when that statement was recorded is a mystery. For whatever reason, the D.C. trio of D.P., Black Picasso, and DJ Stylus recorded this full-length [...]
