Please welcome Marcus K. Dowling to the DCMumboSauce team! He will be doing editorials and reviews. Here’s his first contribution to us….
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DC’s hopes for infiltrating the mainstream underground in 2012 ultimately start with Wale. No, I’m not stating that the top-of-the-charts Billboard star from the DMV is going to experience a precipitous fall from grace. Rather, it’s in the decision that his label, The Board Administration, made in not coming to terms with two once-affiliated artists, Fat Trel and the Slutty Boyz, that makes all the difference.
Hip-hop crews and artist-related labels are ultimately reflective of facets of the actual personality or media-fed persona of their leadership. As far as present examples, Drake’s OVOXO crew are all indie-pop minded and low-key hopeless romantics, an extension of Drake’s branding. Even Wale on Maybach is the fresh kick wearing, ho stuntin’ everyman in Ross, his days as a hustling prison guard clearly not far from his mind. Wale’s Board? When comprised at varying times of Fat Trel, Black Cobain, Mz. Sasha, Tiara Thomas, the Slutty Boyz and Fatz da Big Fella, two of these parts definitely created an disjointed whole presentation.
Wale’s Board Administration is an evolutionary study. Banking on the top mixtape rapper’s mainstream success as the engine that would drive its development was the clear directive, the label’s inaugural years of operation in retrospect appear as a dress rehearsal as compared to what will be 2012′s debut performance. However, as hotly debated as the issue has been for local observers, Wale’s image has never been in question.
Just like the Lox’s 1998 anthem, Wale’s all about money, power and respect. Let’s be real. The money’s clearly for buying sneakers and ballin’ at Stadium. The power, the trappings of his own success, not to be shared, but to be reveled in while spending the money on rare Nikes and even rarer strippers. The respect, lorded over the hip hop universe, Wale now able to escape questioning for buying so many sneakers and brazenly enjoying the acrobatics of the finest of women. It’s a classic, possibly even anachronistic hip hop ideal, such arrogance in the face of depressed people losing jobs in a terrible economic recession sowing the seeds of an anger that DC rap fanatics know all too well.
At his Nightmare Before Christmas performance at U Street Music Hall, Fat Trel introduced those in attendance to his Da Company (DC for short) 1135 label, featuring long-time associates and fun-loving hood-toughened emcees the Slutty Boyz plus a slew of young rhymers. The performance, focusing on Trel, his possibly too honest rhymes and his hardscrabble story as the main event, was a sea change moment in recent DC hip-hop history. Everything changed, and what was Wale’s lone kingdom, had now become a throne meant for two.
Trel’s not Wale. If tired of an emcee whose “ambition” in this life is to succeed in unbelievably grandiose levels of self-aggrandizement, you’d probably want to listen close. Outside of Wale’s mixtape career, the other across the board underground pop mixtape of note from the DC region is Trel’s 2010 No Secrets. Add VA-based superstar Lex Luger produced single “Respect With the Tech” to the mix, and you get a violent, sexual and absurdly true story that few will understand in reality, but all can appreciate in passion.
For the artists who, like the suburban born Wale know money, have had money, and understand how to handle the trappings of wealth, the Board is a tremendous fit. Alexandria, VA’s Black Cobain, Indiana-based college student Tiara Thomas, pulchritudinous hood mascot Fatz da Big Fella and quick-witted sexpot Mz Sasha all make sense there, all complementing Wale’s persona.
Da Company 1135? A street gang as family vibe permeates the proceedings, as these aren’t men who rap for money, these are kids who rap for love, safety and to define their lives. DC’s hottest mixtapes on the street right now? The Slutty Boyz placement in the WKYS Hottest Rappers of 2011 list celebrating The Votes Are In and Young Moe’s Humble Hustle, honest tales told by honest guys living a lifestyle defined by dollars and dreams.
The divergent paths for 2012′s most likely stars to rise from the DMV are apparent. It’s a race to see which style best engages our local streets and catches the ear’s of the industry’s top tastemakers. The Board? Da Company? Either way, there likely hasn’t ever been a better time to be a fan of lrap music of local origin. We’re likely not up next, but up now.
Please feel free to contact Marcus at dowling.marcus.k (at) gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter at @marcuskdowling.
Southeast
Comment on January 20, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Great read… a tad over-written but a good read… looking forward to reading more of your editorials.
-southeast
KT
Comment on January 22, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Dope and interesting read.
LT
Comment on February 7, 2012 at 9:36 am
book DaCompany x DaCompany1135 [at] gmail [dot] com
Drew
Comment on February 10, 2012 at 5:01 am
Fat Trel is not even wit the Board anymore he’s been separated from them since the beginning of 2011