After a very promising (and very free) test release of the clean version several months ago, Diamond District’s In Da Ruff is officially available in stores today, with cuss words restored and bonus tracks. Though it isn’t getting the national acclaim that Wale is, the trio of emcees XO, yU and rapper/producer Oddisee have cut what is certainly the most complete D.C. rap album of the year. And it might just be the best in many years.

In The Ruff was also released on nice double vinyl, a huge look for a contemporary rap album. Whether that vinyl can actually be purchased within the city limits is yet to be seen—not one of the remaining boutique-y record stores in this city actively stocks new hip hop vinyl. (Shame on you, Smash, Som, Red Onion & Crooked Beat. Oh yes, we’re naming names.)

Yesterday the Washington Post ran a large feature on DC hip hop.* Chris Richards’ piece offers a cursory “why hasn’t DC rap blown up?” history and intro as well as short profiles of Wale, XO, Kingpen Slim, Tabi Bonney, Phil Ade and producers Best Kept Secret. It’s a well meaning and pretty efficient overview, but it’s also predictably been causing some debate within the DC hip hop community as well as some concern about the orientation of Wale’s hat amongst WaPo readers.

And perhaps some concern is warranted (err… within the hip hop community, not about Wale’s hat). The easiest way to critique an article like this is to point out artist omissions. I understand the need for space in a newspaper column so I’ll mostly try to avoid such trivial complaints here.** But there are some larger holes in the story that deserve to be addressed.

Mainly Richards’ piece oversimplifies the scene(s), painting a picture that every rapper pre-Wale was either rocking the go-go or desperately chasing a major deal. The narrative that go-go music has permanently squashed rap aspirations for the past two decades is a tidy one, but not entirely accurate. For one, it almost completely writes artists of the U st./Freestyle Union/Kaffa House open mic lineage and aesthetic out of the story. Sure, this scene was closely tied to the transient population at Howard and other colleges and as such owed more to Tribe Called Quest or the burgeoning Rawkus movement than they did go-go heroes like Fat Rodney or street favorites like Section 8 Mob. But it actually was a pretty prominent and distinctly hip hop scene that was jumping off in DC during the 90s.

More than that, acts like Unspoken Heard, Storm The Unpredictable and Priest Da Nomad were gaining a minor rep throughout the Northeast. These guys weren’t signing major deals (or necessarily even gunning for them) but still held a certain amount of clout outside of the city. Their records were available up and down 95 at legendary Manhattan vinyl outlets like Fat Beats and major web distributors like Sandbox Automatic in an era where it wasn’t uncommon for indie rap 12″s to move 5-10k with ease. Before blogs, this sort of underground buzz was less measurable but 12″/college radio burn was not all that different from the sort of attention Wale is getting right now. None of these acts became national mainstream stars (it’s unlikely that Wale will either), but many serious hip hop heads were at least aware of their existence. I mean I was buying Unspoken 12″s as a teen in New Jersey so they must have been doing something right.

But I suspect that the local success of that community can partially account for its relative failure nationally. These indie, dare I say “backpack,” rappers were so self sufficient that they could afford to remain somewhat insulated, separate from the go-go rappers and the Scarface-inspired street dudes. Other cities with similar demographics – Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta – have found success nationally because the streets were forced to merge with the campuses organically. The scenes were so small that the d-boys mingled with the conscious rappers until you couldn’t tell the difference anymore. And that’s usually when things get interesting.*** But in DC there was less of a need for that sort of explicit unity or overlap because both the the go-gos and the uptown open mics were doing so well independently of one another.

The success of DC’s current wave of rappers is probably tied to the blurring of these lines. In recent years both communities have been so ingrained within in DC culture that the current wave of rappers have no choice but to adopt hand me down reverence for both. Take XO for example, who came up rhyming at the decidedly post-Union Tru Skool open mics but is also practically a descendant of go-go royalty, his parents being managers for the genre’s unheralded progenitors the Young Senators. Hopefully these types of blends can catch on nationally. If not it’s already resulted in plenty of great music.

* In the interest of full disclosure: I, too, have written about hip hop for the Post.
** But really no mention of Section 8 Mob or Questionmark Asylum at all?! Along with Nonchalant, those are literally the only DC rappers that casual national rap fans could name drop prior to Wale.
*** Ask Kanye West.

Mp3 blogs are teetering on the edge of irrelevance. Thanks to Twitter an artist can cut out that middleman completely and deliver new songs directly to fans and followers. From the studio to the tweets in just minutes. The DC hip hop community in particular has been taking great advantage of this approach. Here are some recent zshare jams, as tweeted by a few of the area’s most promising emcees. (You can’t keep this middleman out the game, dammit!)

XO – “F.R.N.O.“

RAtheMC – “We Ridin”” (Prod. Judah)

Mo Betta – “I Swear” (Prod. Whitefolkz)

Pro’Verb – “Persecuted Patriot” (Prod. Surock)

Kingpin Slim – King Of Da Inkpen 5 Song Sampler

Benji, Gorda Brega, Toney Night, XO & Syxx – “Uptown’s Finest 2”
Carty Yeah, Southeast Slim, Whitefolkz, Kingpin Slim, Mo Chips – “Hottest In The Hood (DMV Remix)“

Two brand new posse cut primers on the ever burgeoning DC rap scene.

First up is “Uptown’s Finest 2,” the self-explanatory title track from the forthcoming EP of the same name. Secondly, a whole slew of local faves hop on Red Cafe’s “Hottest In The Hood” for some unofficial remix action.

Equally talented but less blogged about about locals Tabi Bonney and X.O. (of Diamond District) are opening. Get your Nats fitted ready and hit the jump for some videos.

Check after the jump for a short documentary about the group.

Diamond District Mini Documentary from Diamond District on Vimeo.

New Wale Single, DC Graffiti, DMV Awards, Lyriciss and more!

Wale is kicking his 2009 project plan into lightspeed this week-launching what looks like the album release campaign. His mixtape with 9th Wonder drops tomorrow, the lead single Chillin drops on Friday, he’ll be down at Winter Music Conference later this month and hitting the college circuit the whole time. Oh, and he just caught his first hockey game. All you aspiring rappers take note-Wale’s interactive marketing strategy is sick. Don’t think you’re going to twitter your way into web 2.0 marketing synergy like that. Double bonus-you get major media press (XXL, The Source, Spin, Vibe, ETC) in the summer when you send out press-releases in the spring.

On Wednesday there will be a double feature of DC Graffiti Documentaries held by Words Beats and Life-a dope DC non-profit that does hip hop arts and education work. I heard both these flicks are hot-check em out!.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 9:30pm – 11:30pm
Words Beats & Life Headquarters (St. Stephen’s Church)
1525 Newton St. N.W.

BORF! by Paris Bustillos – 9:45 p.m. (running time-26 min.)

CHOCOLATE CITY BURNING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF “DOT-COM” by Apoxy One 0:15 p.m. (running time-54 min.)

This event is free. Donations welcome.

DOUBLE BONUS: Asad ULTRA Walker has a dope post over at his blog about DC Go-Go Graffiti history!

The DMV Entertainment and Music Awards (warning – site with totally annoying autoplaying music) were recently announced – check the nominees here. Shoutouts to Sarah Godfrey for getting nominated for “Most Supportive Media Person.” Bigups to all nominees and best of luck to everyone! IT’S AN HONOR TO BE NOMINATED. YOU COULD PUT IT ON YOUR MANTLE.

Overall, the award nominees where mostly what I expected: In general the usual suspects and a bunch of people I hadn’t yet heard of. In the future I hope they can make these awards a little more representative of who is really making noise on the scene and who just has a good e-team voting for them to get an award…

Ra the MC will be performing at the DMV awards – check out this video including some of her performance at Jamming Java. And yeah, what do you know about her DJ Premier produced track? I mean, what other MC from DC has a Primo beat? Check her myspace for a stream of “Anything You Like”.

Lyriciss has a new mixtape “The Day Job” (z-share link) and a new video for his single “Go Hard” featuring XO and Pro’Verb. The kid is nice and has been putting in mega-work overtime on his fast-rising career. I found myself in a deep head-nod while listening, smirking at his punchlines. Rookie of the year!

T.E.F.L.O.N sent me this exclusive freestyle over XO’s Realmatic instrumental by BKS. It’s dope. I love that beat and have been spitting over it the lil instrumental break at the end all week.

Whats good everyone, I know i’m late on a drop this month so I wanted to hit everyone with a quickie for right now… Here’s a little something i did over a track off of an upcoming DC artist named X.O.’s album called “Realmatic”. Go google it, download, support it, etc.. It’s produced by Best Kept Secret. Hit me with some feedback, I got alot of shit in store for when it warms up outside.

“REALMATIC FREESTYLE”

http://www.zshare.net/audio/571392322033edbd/

Realmatic is the latest collection of material by DC’s own Hip Hop upstart and my nominee for the City Paper Best of DC 2009 Local Hip Hop Artist: X.O. For the unfamiliar, the kid from uptown Georgia Ave has been tearing up the scene like pro for a few years now dropping a series of mixtapes and rocking mics across town. Over Realmatic’s bouncy go-go influenced hip hop beats, X.O. effortlessly graces tracks with an authentic flow that conveys a real D.C. street experience with the wisdom of a old head. It’s raw, it’s D.C., it’s from the streets, it’s poetic and it’s contemporary. Guest appearances from Wale, Trill, Gordo Brega and others, with beats by Best Kept Secret, Judah, YU, Baseheads and Nez and Rio. Available for free download on via zshare.

Bonus: There will be a release party and performance on Tuesday at Major in Georgetown. 8 to 10 PM

While the recording industry is busy lamenting the death of their business model at the hands of the Internet, a number of local hip-hop artists have found a way turn this market threat into an opportunity. Free download mixtapes (which are neither mixed nor on tape, discuss…) have been catapulting artists such as Wale, Ra the MC, Marky, XO and others into the upper reaches of internets stardom. No more standing on U Street peddling burnt CDs, the free download is the new strategy to burst onto the scene and connect with a new generation of listeners. Its like the indy punk zine for D.C. hip-hop.

Judah, one of the producers behind Wale, Ra the MC, XO and others, summed it like this: “Who cares about the radio, we know that radio doesn’t make or break artists. With the internet, the fans gonna find you.” Here’s some free downloads worth finding:

Ra the MC – A Mixtape About Something. One of DCs finest female MCs shows the boys in the industry she doesn’t play!

Marky – The Drive Thru. Theres something about a 19 year old DC MC rocking over a Citizen Cope track that’s worth checking.

The DMV Mixtape – August 08. Get ready for September’s edition with this fresh installment of the monthly mixtape from the DMV Music Blog Cartel.

XO – The Takeover. We wrote this up a few months back – get a late pass!

Wale – 100 Miles and Running. This is like the OG of the DMV free mixtape ish!