OneWay Nooch's Rookie Season
OneWay Nooch isn't the only rapper in his family—his dad is OneWay Boobe of the Oy Boyz crew. So the quality of the teenager's debut mixtape, Rookie Season isn't surprising, given that pops certainly knows how to break off some professional-sounding product. And the tape's overall shrewdness—from its RGIII-themed cover to its [...]

Ex-X Factor
There are only about 75 seconds of the song "Million Miles Away" in this new clip from RatheMC, and while it's labeled as an official video, it's hard to see it as anything but an easygoing placeholder while she gears up for whatever is next. Check the full version from her Grace Jones Experiment mixtape here. Besides being a soulful, [...]

Farma Wesley

Here's what we know about Farma Wesley: He's from Woodbridge but claims Liberian heritage; he's got a righteous high-top fade; he says he's got a mixtape called Farmageddon coming in May; and his Golden Era-influenced rhyme style bends toward extended metaphor and personal revelation. "White girl upset when I don't text her/She talk too [...]

Review: Louie V Mob’s New World Order
Master P was once rich and famous enough to sign Snoop Dogg at the height of his Death Row commercial success, install a gold elevator in his estate, and perform at the VMAs. His brand was No Limit, an aggressively New Orleans-based and DIY label that transformed his family [...]

RA Factor
It was surprising to see rapper RAtheMC as a contestant on the second season of Fox's X-Factor. Not that the Largo, Md., rapper didn't deserve it—it's just that her appearance seemed to come out of nowhere. And while she was eliminated in October, she doesn't seem too bummed about it. On her new single, [...]

Every week, Arts Desk's hip-hop writers drop news, music, culture—and generally put you on game.
Pimp Romney

At Halloween parties across the land this weekend, the people who once dressed up as Sarah Palin or a teary-eyed Glenn Beck will come up with costumes that spin off the one-liner of the season: Mitt Romney’s "binders full of [...]

At this point last year, I knew very little about Reesa Renee. While the upstart Landover, Md., singer generated modest buzz in the D.C. scene, she remained mostly under the radar. Since then, Renee has won first place at Apollo Amateur Night and performed live on Fox5 Morning News.
Still, there were surprising moments at her [...]

Leading this week's Washington City Paper is sage advice from Ally Schweitzer and Michael J. West on how to not screw up the Howard Theatre, the newly restored historic venue that reopens this month. Also in the feature well, I have an essay in which I untangle the contradictions of supporting arts scenes simply because [...]

Next Tuesday, DMV standout RAtheMC will drop her new mixtape, The Grace Jones Experiment, through her own International Tastemakers website. Released today, "OJ Simpson" is the mixtape's glossy first single, with blaring production and honest lyricism that's clever, if perhaps somewhat slanderous. ("I'm killin' bammas like I'm OJ," she rhymes over triumphant drums.)
Elsewhere, RA seems ready for [...]

Javier Starks isn't a look-at-me rapper. He's nothing if not respectful, even referring to his male peers as "sir." And while Starks is energetic, he often keeps to himself in public, quietly reciting his own rhymes or studying the performances onstage.
Perhaps that humble demeanor made it easier to secure guest spots for his Faces of [...]