Recently I expressed my hope about the DC rap scene to Andrew Nosnitsky, renowned music critic, former DC resident and contributor for places like the Fader, Complex, RBMA and Pitchfork. This was his response;
flockapella asked:
What do you think about the DC area ever “popping off” with rap? Everybody keeps telling me that it won’t happen because Go-Go or DC is too small or DC doesn’t have the connections like somewhere else…
Well the thing to remember about DC is that this is a city that has always been far behind the curve as far as hip hop goes. As I understand it rap music wasn’t even really considered cool until BIG and Puff smuggled it in through Howard in the ’90s. And prior to Wale (and Tabi!) getting a push in like ‘07 local rappers were mostly rapping for other local rappers and transient college kids or rapping as underbills/homies at the go-go. Not to devalue either ofthose circles, it’s just that they were very insular. So as far as commercial/crossover viability goes the scene is still in its infancy, the network infrastructure is still being built.
But the talent is definitely there. Trel and Glizzy are tremendous lyricists and legitimate street stars locally. Lightshow and Gleesh are well on their way too. Then on the other side you have Oddisee andXO exporting some of the smarter and more progressive boom bap being made anywhere and all sorts of promising new artists popping up in the middle. To be real things look better for DC rap right now than they ever have, certainly better than they did when I was living there. It might take some time before anyone else notices but I’m optimistic and I’m almost never optimistic.
