At first glance, the agenda for EZ Street's "South African Safari" looks like it's all tourism, all the time: visits to the winelands, treks to see Africa's "Big Five" game in the wild, and so on. But the WKYS-FM mainstay says the early December sojourn—which will include DMV soulster Raheem DeVaughn and John Monds of [...]
My editor suggested in a post yesterday on the Wammies awards ceremony that I might want to add my two cents regarding this year's nominees, and he’s right. The slate of nominees for the 25th anniversary Wammies contains a familiar ratio of impressive choices, mind-boggling omissions, and troubling mistakes (2008-formed Baltimore band Mama's Black Sheep as “New [...]
While you were drinking egg nog and fighting with your family, WKYS spent the last few days of the year slowly announcing its "DMV's Hottest Rappers of 2010" list. Despite what seemingly everyone who sees it seems to think, it is a pretty solid top 10. Check the breakdown:
1. Wale 2. Phil Ade 3. [...]
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; [...]
Oh, hey, a lot of R&B and hip-hop artistes did their Summer Spirit Festival on Saturday at Merriweather Post Pavilion. If you added Cypress Hill and some shitty reggae-rockers, you could've called it Smokin' Grooves 2010! But what do I know? I wasn't there. People from WKYS-FM were indeed there, however. (They had enough corporate [...]
Last year, the all-female Be’la Dona won the WKYS Go-Go Award for best up-and-coming group. Arts Desk recently got in touch with bandleader Cherie Mitchell, who also sings with Chuck Brown, and we discussed, via e-mail, the group’s history and its upcoming plans, as well as the legacy of the all-women go-go group Pleasure and [...]
A minor Wale-related scandal hit the web this week, surrounding a 93.9 ad campaign. On the radio commercial, someone claiming to be Wale's cousin makes a sound-alike parody of Wale's seemingly aborted lead single "Chillin," and tries to push it to the station. He is swiftly rejected in favor of Birdman and Alicia Keys [...]
