New Documentary Featuring Jay IDK, Chaz French, Phil Adé & More Covers The DMV Hip Hop Scene
CHECK OUT THE DOC ABOUT RAPPERS FROM THE REGION AROUND WASHINGTON, DC
#DMVOnTheMove: Here’s 12 Emerging Acts Elevating The DC-Maryland-Virginia Hip Hop Scene
GET TO KNOW THESE RISING PERFORMERS FROM THE DMV
#DMVOnTheMove: OneTakeDrew Is Helping To Breathe Fresh Air Into Virginia’s Hip Hop Movement
THE UP-AND-COMING EMCEE INTRODUCES HIMSELF WITH ‘VENTILATION’
#DMVOnTheMove: Rico Nasty Introduces The Sweet Savagery Of “Sugar Trap”
THE RISING RAP PRINCESS IS MAKING MOVES
#DMVOnTheMove: WillThaRapper Embraces Being The Street Runner With A Greater Mission
WELCOME TO SOUTHEAST DC
#DMVOnTheMove: RAtheMC Has That Hip Hop That’s Encouraging People To Live A Royal Life
THE DC ARTIST IS LOOKING TO EXPAND HER QUEENDOM
#DMVOnTheMove: DJ Young Music Is A Teenage Mogul With A Goal To Change The World
RADIO PERSONALITY. SONGWRITER. MUSIC EXECUTIVE.
#DMVOnTheMove: Ezzy Babe Is Entering The Game With His Home State On His Back
MO COUNTY’S OWN IS REPPING FOR HIS REGION
#DMVOnTheMove: Malcs Went From Sneakerhead Entrepreneur To Emcee On The Rise
OG RON C’S NEW PROTÉGÉ IS LOOKING TO DROP HIS BREAKOUT PROJECT
#DMVOnTheMove: Tate Kobang Wants The World To Know He Won’t Be Placed In Any Musical Box
GET FAMILIAR WITH THE SELF-DESCRIBED “KING OF BALTIMORE”
#DMVOnTheMove: Bobby Hagens Relies On Faith With Works To Keep His Musical Drive Alive
THE MARYLAND EMCEE TALKS NEW ALBUM, COLLABS, GOD & MORE
#DMVOnTheMove: Ace Cosgrove Embraces Representing The Youth’s Vigilant, Hostile Voice
(AllHipHop Features) Washington, DC is set to host the annual Broccoli City Festival this Saturday at the St. Elizabeth East Gateway Pavilion. Among the acts sharing their talents that day will be rapper-on-the-rise Ace Cosgrove. The DMV representative will hit the stage in front of his home crowd with his band BobMoeKill. The musicians made up of mostly George Washington University students are set to assist Ace as he runs through songs from his well received projects Us Vs Robots, Egos, Potential & Halos, and Baby Need Food. [ALSO READ: #DMVOnTheMove: Jay IDK Is Expanding His Tribe Of Supporters By Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge] Before he was putting rhymes together for his own work, Ace took on the task of trying to put his friends on. However, a tragedy five years ago led to the Gaithersburg, Maryland native to step behind the microphone. “My homie ‘Gino’ Cosgrove passed in 2011. He was doing the whole rap thing, and I would try to manage him – you know, set him up with producers and studio time, sh-t like that,” Ace explains to AllHipHop.com. “When he passed, I started to live at my homie Shane’s house where he had a studio set up. I would just see a bunch of rappers come by, and I kind of just started rapping myself.” [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/261255301″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] While Washington’s Hip Hop scene has been building its reputation over the last several years, at the time Ace began rapping, the city was mostly getting national press for political battles and the controversy over the football team’s mascot. A young Cosgrove initially had to travel outside of The District to locations like New York and Philadelphia in order to gather fans for his growing brand. DC is now demanding the attention of the Hip Hop industry. Ace is a member of a collective of local artists known as Hostile Youth, a unit helping to raise awareness about the talent surging in the nation’s capital. “My homie Hassani Kwess had the whole Hostile Youth thing already going. I met him, Vaunfe, and Black Diamond through Uno Hype. We just started connecting and making music together,” Cosgrove states. Besides DC, the DMV region is also composed of another major city in Baltimore, Maryland. Forty miles to the north of Washington is the site where Freddie Gray fell into a coma while in police custody and later died as a result of the questionable treatment by BPD officers. The 25-year-old’s death led to a youth driven uprising and the State’s Attorney charging six officers with various crimes. Beatles legend John Lennon is quoted saying, “I think the music reflects the state that the society is in.” The current state of American society involves necessary public conversations about police brutality and social justice. Cosgrove personifies Lennon’s declaration by using his music to confront the relevant issues his generation has had to face. In particular, the song “Freddies Dead” addresses the anger many young people felt after learning of the circumstances of Gray’s killing. “I think what happened in the Freddie Gray case is sad as f-ck. I think music is the most powerful thing in the world,” says Ace. “So as a Hip Hop artist, I think it’s my job to express with my music what other people are feeling but are scared to say.” [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248504380″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] The 24-year-old performer is not afraid to speak on the subject of spirituality either. His catalog features cuts like “Lost Of Faith” and “Lord Have Mercy.” The latter song has a hook where Ace announces “the devil couldn’t stop me.” Those are not just inconsequential lyrics. The words represent a personal mentality that drives the man who recites them. “Religion plays a big role. I’m not a super-religious person, meaning I don’t go to church every Sunday, but to me I feel like I made it this far because of my guardian angels and hard work,” responds Cosgrove when asked about the role of religion in his creative process. “I think sometimes when we as humans reach a low point we tend to lose our faith, so I talk a lot about that in my music.” Like any person walking this Earth, Ace Cosgrove experiences moments of dejection and disappointment. On his song “Burning Slums,” he opens up about having to deal with individuals around him being jealous of the productive moves happening in his life. However, the ascending rhymer is attempting to avoid those resentful cynics in his outer circle. “I’m a pretty distant person to begin with, so I deal with envious people by just saying, ‘F-ck it, f-ck them. I’m going to make the music even better and see if they are more envious when I drop this new sh-t.’ I’ve always been the type to not need people in my life anyways. If they stick around, cool. If not, f-ck em. They can eat a d-ck,” Cosgrove declares. The number of haters surely rose when Ace’s 2014 song “Making Moves” was featured during a recent episode of House Of Lies. The popular Showtime series starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell selected the track for the season five premiere which aired earlier this month. “Making Moves” has currently totaled over 24,000 plays on SoundCloud. Going by the user comments on SC or the top search suggestions on Google, House Of Lies sent a large number of listeners in Cosgrove’s direction. “I got connected to House Of Lies through ‘the plug’ [laughs],” says Ace. He continues, “My reaction [to the song’s placement on the show] was just like, ‘Yes, I’m doing something right here.’ I think the song started picking up a lot because of House Of Lies. The song is almost two years old. Before the House Of Lies placement, the views were much lower than that, so shout out to the plug.” [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/169772070″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] More tunes from A.C. are on the way. Just this week he dropped his […]
#DMVOnTheMove: Jay IDK Is Expanding His Tribe Of Supporters By Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge
(AllHipHop Features) Last August, promising Hip Hop artist Jason “Jay IDK” Mills let loose his latest music collection. Subtrap is a 15-track excursion through the mind of several characters created by the Maryland-raised wordsmith. The world was introduced to King Trappy III, Jon Jon, Matt, Ed, and Chris as each fictional individual offered his own tales of the drug game via various cuts on Subtrap. Following in the tradition of noteworthy conceptual rap albums like Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves, Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show, and Childish Gambino’s Because The Internet, Jay IDK’s opus presents an artisan capable of crafting an exceptional auditory screenplay, an otic motion picture that plays on the big screen in the listener’s head. And according to its creator, the magic of Subtrap is charming a wider audience by the week. [ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Jay IDK Talks ‘SubTrap’ Album, His Musical Influences & DMV Hip Hop] “I think Subtrap is a good example of staying relevant, because we’re noticing an increase of sales per month as opposed to an album coming out, doing a certain amount of numbers the first week, and then going down from there,” says Jay. “So it’s basically been word of mouth for that particular project. I think based off of what the content is, what I’m talking about, and how deep everything is, it gives the music value.” The LP features production by IDK, Lo-Fi, Skhye Hutch, Tobari, GameBrand, The Glitch Mob, Noose, Mr. Temmtation, and The Watcherz. While most of Subtrap is carried by Jay’s performance, BJ The Chicago Kid and Eddie Vanz lend their voices to the album as well. The soulful BJ appears on the track “Cookie Addiction” which highlights another player in the story of Subtrap – the influential Her. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/245203717″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “A lot of ‘Cookie Addiction’ had to do with that whole Her factor in Subtrap. Her is the music industry. I referred to the music industry as a girl,” explains Jay. “I took some of the experiences I had with women, put that together, and made it as if I’m talking to a woman. But at the end of the day, it’s all about this music industry.” Jay IDK’s eventual love-hate relationship with the music business actually began while he was serving time in jail. During that period of being locked away, Jason was encouraged by another inmate to take his hobby of putting words together and turn it into a recording career. A few years later saw the arrival of 2014’s Sex, Drugs And Homework. The debut album was the first example of the “Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge” approach that saturates every aspect of Jay’s persona and style. The former Prince George’s County Community College student adopted a mission of infiltrating this generation’s psyche with Trap sounds that are easy to digest intertwined with thoughtful content that goes deeper than what appears on the surface. It’s in that spirit that Jay challenges viewers to decipher the covert themes of his recent “God Said Trap” video directed by Jacob LaGuardia. “If you notice, there’s a lot of subliminal messages in this video. You would have to pause it or play it in slow motion to see some of these things,” says the London-born rhymer. “If you look at it, it seems like it’s just a regular, good quality music video, but it has these things in it that sets it apart.” Even with turn-up anthems like “The Plug” and “Two Hoes” keeping Subtrap balanced, Jay is still very conscious about letting the doubters know he has real rap skills. Loosies like “MC Hammer Freestyle” and “Hungry” drop as reminders of what the HXLY TRiBE leader can do with the bars. His most recent declaration of higher level emceeing came in the form of “Hello (Freestyle).” [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/240393932″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “Every now and then I have this sporadic moment where I feel like I need to prove or reassure people that I’m a rapper and a lyricist first. I try to challenge myself to write better than the last time I did it,” IDK states. “[On ‘Hello’] I was talking about people maybe not believing in me. I was trying to rub it in like, ‘Look you didn’t believe me when I told you, and this is what it is now.’” The freestyle was spit over the beat to Raekwon’s “Ice Cream.” Jay was just a toddler when the Wu-Tang Clan member’s classic single was released in 1995, but it is not surprising the music connoisseur dipped into the 90’s well. The 23-year-old’s Instagram page partially serves as a multi-genre monument to celebrated masterworks of yesteryear. Jay pays homage to numerous projects as inspirations (e.g. Bob Marley’s Gold, Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, Gorillaz’s Gorillaz). When it comes to Hip Hop, the works of DMX, Kanye West, and Eminem have been making a huge impact on his creative direction as of late. “If you listen to my new stuff about to come out, you almost get a little bit of a DMX vibe on some of the records. I incorporated some of that raw energy that he brought. That feeling of actually being a dog, an animal,” Jay tells AllHipHop.com. “Of course, I’ve always been a fan and studied Eminem. From him, I get a lot of my flows and some of the humor.” He continues, “I started listening to some older Kanye. Not even College Dropout, but Freshmen Adjustment. I listen to that to get an idea where his head was at before he really popped off. I compare myself at where ever I’m in my career to where a lot of these people were as well.” A taste of what’s to come from Jay arrived this week. He teamed with North Carolina’s Deniro Farrar to warn about devious n-ggas and thirsty b-tches. “Trust Nobody” is a menacing track reminiscent of DMX declaring “I don’t really trust humans that much these days” on “Dog Intro” off Grand Champ. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/258773667″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] […]
#DMVOnTheMove: Chaz French Uses Vulnerability In His Music To Foster Positivity In His Listeners
(AllHipHop Features) The region around the nation’s capital is the next locale set to be a major center point of the Hip Hop industry. Chaz French is among the young performers rising from the District of Columbia. The 24-year-old emcee is already making noise across the country thanks to his well received projects Happy Belated and These Things Take Time. Many listeners have discovered a sense of relatability with Chaz. His lyrics demonstrate an element of fearlessness, exemplified by content that presents intensely personal elements of his life. [ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Jay IDK Talks ‘SubTrap’ Album, His Musical Influences & DMV Hip Hop] “Sometimes the stuff I’m addressing in my music I haven’t addressed elsewhere. I feel like I’m my most vulnerable when I’m making music. So why not be as open as possible?” Chaz tells AllHipHop.com. “I know there’s somebody across the world that’s probably going through the same thing or something similar.” Chaz’s songs cover dealing with family issues, overcoming homelessness, using drugs, and being a parent. In fact, fatherhood is a central theme of the DC native’s work. The cover art for both Happy Belated and These Things Take Time serve as tributes to his children. “My number one inspiration are my kids. My dad wasn’t involved in my life as much as I wanted him to be, and I want to be the total opposite,” expresses Chaz. “I don’t ever want my kids to feel like they’re alone or are going to go without. I’m a dad first before anything.” Chaz’s own childhood began in Washington, DC. His earliest days were spent in the Northeast quadrant of the city before he began attending elementary, middle, and high school in Prince George’s County. He also spent time living in Texas before officially launching his rap career. The future rapper born Chaz French built a relationship with music early on. His first introduction to the art form came as a church drummer, but it was during an extended time being grounded that he discovered his gift as a writer. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/232265872″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “One day I got in trouble and got put on punishment. I couldn’t really go outside for weeks, so I just started writing music,” explains Chaz. “Then in 9th grade I did a talent show. Everybody went crazy, and that’s when I realized I wanted to take this serious.” Becoming a rap artist may have come as a surprise to some of the people who knew a young C. French. Especially since it was thought being a pastor was Chaz’s true calling. His ability to combine words and tunes in such an effective way was perhaps a revelation to French as well. The talented wordsmith admits he was not always a close follower of Hip Hop culture. However, Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon as well as Kanye West’s College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation would eventually help spark a creative fire within Chaz. “Growing up my parents didn’t like to listen to Hip Hop, so I never had any rap CDs. All my parents listened to was Gospel,” says Chaz. “When I was old enough to buy my own music, those were the first albums I bought. When I was homeless that’s all I listened to – Kanye, Cudi, and Amy Winehouse.” Anyone familiar with Kanye, Cudi, and Winehouse will instantly recognize the similarities of those three Grammy-winning performers. Each have used their music to confess painful moments they have experienced throughout their life. Chaz exhibits that openness as well. Happy Belated presents a somber soundscape covered by heavy bars about doing cocaine (“LMGLML”) and dropping out of school (“Primavera”). However, These Things Take Time shows Chaz was in a different state of mind when making that project. The album is a brighter presentation from the 368 Music Group representative. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/170207191″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “I don’t want to be in a dark place forever. That’s what I was going through at that time, but during the transition [from Happy Belated to Take Time] I was happier,” states Chaz. “I was able to provide for my family and my daughter. My relationship with her mom had gotten better. My relationship with my mom had gotten better. I was in a happier space.” He continues, “Who wants to be in a dark mood all the time? I’m trying to get people out of dark places and let people know it’s cool to be happy, it’s cool to smile, it’s cool to be uplifting, it’s cool to be positive. Positivity is not something that people like to glorify, so I want to be one of those people that brings a positive message and has a positive influence on the youth and my listeners.” Fans can expect his next collection to be a mixture of Happy Belated, Take Time, and whatever he is feeling once work on a specific project begins. At the moment, Chaz is just recording constantly. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/246609420″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Upcoming efforts will also consist of the religious references that have been embedded in much of Chaz’s music. Take Time opens with the creator’s mother offering a prayer of protection for her son. French later gives thanks to the Man Above on the cut “Let God” which features his blood brother Eddie Vanz and Lito Walker. “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I know there is a God. I know He blessed me with a talent, so I’m always going to give back to him as much as I can through that talent,” says Chaz. “I know that’s him speaking through me to somebody that doesn’t have an outlet. It’s very important to put God first, because without him nothing you do would be possible.” .@ChazFrenchhh represented the #DMV in the #ATL for the #OnlyInYourDreamsTour. #CCCLXVIII #GalleryFamily pic.twitter.com/nJzg7iOrgf — Yohance (@HUEYmixwitRILEY) February 13, 2016 Chaz French is still a fairly fresh face in the recording business. As his career progresses thanks to introspective tracks […]
