This is the first time I’ve blogged anything in a long ass time. The 9-to-5 life had me all but discard of this domain name, but alas, we’re still alive! I came back here to announce that we’re proud to present our next show, featuring DC’s own Fat Trel. Check the flyer out above! Crazy, right!?

I blogged about Trel pretty in-depth a little over a year ago (check that here). While bigger names Wale and Tabi Bonney have worked diligently to put DC hip-hop on the map, Trel has been too, just a little differently. Trel’s been in the trenches (read: the studio), perfecting his craft and killing open mics and murdering shows across the country when time permits. Sure, the noise hasn’t been as loud (although it did garner some attention from Cash Money CEO Bryan “Baby” Williams aka Birdman, some big magazines, and a bunch of labels), but you’re about to hear it.

You may have caught Trel at DC’s Vitamin Water Uncapped show alongside Rye Rye, Wale and X.O. earlier this year (I was in there. It was wild!). If you missed it, here’s some footage:

He’s only 20, but his talent as a musician is unparalleled by most. I wouldn’t have said that before yesterday, when the DC to BC team hit the practice site for Krank Factory, the electrifying band that will be backing Trel on stage. He told us it was his first real time rocking with a band that wasn’t a go-go band, but watching him work, you would think he’s a vet. Adding his input for when the guitar should solo on a track, communicating with the lead keyboardists to figure out how to recreate the synth sounds for the live performance. He was doing all that. They jammed out for like 6 hours straight and didn’t even seem tired. That’s an artist if I ever seen one.

I don’t need to sell you on anything else except his actual music, which is what the compilation that we’ve put together will do. It’s called The Set List, and it’s (give or take a few surprises!) the exact same set list that all 500 fans will experience on Sunday evening. We curated it and finalized it with Trel before we gave it to you guys. We hope to gain Trel some new supporters through this mix; you can download this today and know all the words by Sunday. Lol. But really though, we think this could be a cool new way of experiencing music as a new fan. The old fans already know what’s up, but it’s worth a download because it features a lot of his crazy thumpers on one compilation. The best part for both old and new? It’ll sound completely different (but equally as awesome) with a live band.

The entire point of this blog post was to give you guys an exclusive. So here it is, “Nightmare”, the introduction to his heavily anticipated mixtape Nightmare on E Street, dropping at the top of 2012. Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD: Fat Trel – Nightmare [DC to BC EXCLUSIVE! PLEASE TURN THOSE SPEAKERS UP!]

DOWNLOAD: Fat Trel’s Nightmare Before Christmas – The Set List [Mix Compilation]

I’ll have the streaming version of The Set List shortly for those who can’t download. Gimme like 30 minutes. I gotta find some food. For those in DC, see you guys on Sunday (grab tickets here!). For those who aren’t there, we’ll definitely document that joint for you!

We were fortunate enough to recruit Top Dawg Entertainment recording artist Kendrick Lamar for a much anticipated performance at the 9:30 Club, making it his first-ever public show in the nation’s capital. The Compton standout is expected to sell out the 1200 capacity venue thanks to his loyal following in the DC metropolitan area. Kendrick will be joined on stage by fellow label mate Schoolboy Q as he cycles through his hits spanning from his early career to his most recent project, the critically acclaimed #Section80. Also sharing the spotlight for the evening are buzzing DMV natives Phil Adé and Phil Da Phuture, both signees of Grammy nominated crooner Raheem DeVaughn‘s 368 Music Group, as well as Houston’s own Ashton Travis, a lyrical mastermind recently crowned winner of the Hip-Hop Unplugged Series, hosted by Def Jam’s Lenny Santiago and MTV’s Sway. You never know who else may pop up, either…

If you have any sort of cyberspace real estate (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, your brand’s website, etc.), feel free to show the post love there too! Link for the Twitpic is here. #dontwuwwyDC is the hashtag for the event, so use it and abuse it up til the date of the concert to see who’s talking about it!

Event Details

Date: Friday, August 12, 2011

Location: 9:30 Club 815 V St. NW DC 20009

Time: 8pm until close (Doors open @ 8, show starts @ 9)

Tickets are now on sale. You can grab those bad boys two ways:

- Buying in-person at the 9:30 Club box office. Hours: 12-7, Mon-Fri and 6-11 on weekends. You avoid a service charge this way!

- Buying online: http://ticketf.ly/dontwuwwyDC

http://twitter.com/#!/DCtoBC/status/96581975376269312 <—— That is a tweet you can feel free to retweet in regards to the tickets.

I should add that the more support this event gets, the more everybody across the nation and the world will respect our city. We’re just trying to put DC in the game. People think about politics and government when they think about this area, so the DC to BC team is working really hard to change that.

Hit me back here or on Twitter (@DCtoBC) if you have any questions, and enjoy the day.

Welcome to the third edition of Singles Awareness Day. This year’s S.A.D. will be celebrated a couple days early, allowing you to ride into the weekend with 31 songs that say all the things that you’ve been thinking about love, lust, or anything in between. Most of these tracks you’ve never heard, and if you have, you won’t mind, because they just work so well on this compilation. Don’t think this just some sappy ass depressing music, either. Singles Awareness Day isn’t a day of mourning; it’s simply a time where you’re made aware of the single life, whether or not you’re living it. If you’re boo’d up, you can reflect on the lives of your friends who aren’t, or you can wonder what it’d be like if you didn’t have shortypop by your side this V-Day. If you aren’t, then you can play this and reminisce, living vicariously through the music.

If this is your first S.A.D. mix compilation you’re downloading, I should let you know that I do things a little differently: no tracklisting. Just get it, throw it in your iTunes, vehicle, iPod, and jam it. It’ll probably stay in rotation for a long while, so just be prepared to have some new favorite songs. As always, I dedicate this to all the maneaters, heartbreakers, and hopeless romantics out there. Click the artwork or the link below to download.

DOWNLOAD: Singles Awareness Day 3 [S.A.D. #3: The Mix Compilation]

Oh, and if you’re in DC, we’re doing it EXTRA BIG. Rock Creek Social Club has decided to throw a party around the concept, and that’ll be on the 15th. Sure, you may hear some of these tracks, but Jerome and Harry Hotter have their own playlists that’ll make partying on the day after Valentine’s Day super fun.

Thanks for your support. Any feedback, send my way in the comment section. If you’d rather e-mail, hit me: modi[at]DCtoBC.com. Thanks for all the artists who allowed me to throw their music on this. Everybody who submitted music and didn’t make the final mix, I apologize. It was a tough decision, but I think these 31 joints will satisfy everybody. Huge s/o to Odd Future‘s Matt for the album art.

My god-sister Amaka, my man Curtis and I have spent a while writing these 196 addresses on these envelopes for to DC to BC supporters. I tweeted about it, and you guys came out of nowhere with the requests. I think that’s incredible. As usual, thank you guys for rocking with the movement. I don’t even blog anymore on a regular basis, yet people still check the site consistently. Awesome.

Got more stickers on deck. I’ve given over $1,000 for free, so this time, I’m just going for $5 for a pack of 5. To mail out all those stickers was a pretty penny! I figure I’d at least recoup the cost of making these bad boys and sending them out in the mail.

Like the first time, send me an e-mail with your mailing address, and I’ll send you a PayPal thingy so you can purchase your batch of stickers. modi[at]DCtoBC.com (that’s my e-mail addy. I just use [at] instead of @ because that’s how you get spam!). Keep it simple, and just write a sentence or two about why you want a sticker. I’m just curious, and it’s always cool to hear how you came to learn about DC to BC.

I would say scoop some at Stussy and Commonwealth, but Omar told me they’re all gone. I f*cking love you guys. And thanks for not worrying about the $5! It’s just $5, and is just for those fans that have supported me! Whether it’s been since ’08 or you just got hip last week, I appreciate it wholeheartedly.

This is incredible.

So if you remember last year’s Single Awareness Day mix [S.A.D. 2] that I dropped, you’ll remember quite possibly your favorite track from the joint, Rob Roy’s “Carmencita”, and how hard it went.

Well, my girl Nicole from Dub Frequency informed me that they dropped a video today, and she hooked me up like the cable guy did my TV earlier today. Watch, enjoy, embrace, and spread the word.

Rob’s project is available on iTunes…I rarely buy music, but I bought this joint a while ago. His flow is outrageous, and he’s not your typical artist (at all). I hope this stamp will force you to do some Google research and find him. Or, you can just check out the last stuff I posted by him. Links below.

PREVIOUS: Dude Royal – Please Don’t Go [Remix] [feat. Rob Roy]

MORE PREVIOUS: Rob Roy – Fur In My Hat [Video]

DC’s newest men’s lifestyle collective Undercult is throwing another event with Stones Throw recording artist James Pants on Wednesday, October 21st (tomorrow) at Denim Bar in Bethesda from 7-10pm, and you should fall through! Jam some of the James Pants x Undercult mix below as you read the rest.

They’ll also be jamming fellow Stones Throw producing prodigy Madlib‘s Madlib Medicine Show #10: Black Soul, which isn’t even out yet. At the very least, come hear what one of LA’s most eccentric producer’s been cookin’ up for the past few months (or years; you never know with this guy).

Food and drinks (sushi, beer, wine, etc.) as well as shopping discounts from the Denim Bar will be at your fingertips, too. I’ll most likely either be in New York scoping out a CMJ real quick or in Boston running amok, but hopefully I’ve encouraged you to make an appearance and introduce yourself to these cool kids. Look out for Undercult’s full-fledged online space to launch November 7th (you can still see some cool stuff here), and find them on Twitter Nation, too. Shout out to Kevin.

Shout out to The Madbury Club (and Phil Annand, the mastermind behind that whole movement, as well as one of the brightest young minds I know) for recruiting me to write for “The Club” this week. This marvelous Columbus Day (hey, I’m just talking about the day outside and stuff, dude. I don’t particularly care much for the actual holiday. No work, though. So I can’t complain too much.), they dropped their coverage of NY’s tour date for The Smoker’s Club, and those photos, by Vincent Picone, are crispier than that Kia Shine song that dropped a few years back.

Check the write-up here, and explore the rest of the site for other incredible features, spreads, and writing. It’s next-level genius, really. I honestly think that when it’s all said and done, they’ll be one of those sites that people talk about like they talk about Complex, Hypebeast, and The Gee Pee. Ha. I had to throw myself in there. My bad!

Shout out to Ellington, too.

On 10.10.10, from 12-4pm, Roadside Organics and Green the Block invite you to join them for a Local Food Block Party at Bread for the City in Washington, DC (1525 7th St).

While organic fervor has struck in DC, it hasn’t yet reverberated across the city. These two awesome organizations want to bring the new food movement to those residents living in the District’s notorious food ‘deserts’, showing how bringing back age-old Sunday supper can anchor families in new healthy lifestyles.

We believe in the power of local food to uplift our communities, improve our health, and revitalize our local economy.

The event is part of 350.org’s Global Work Party that is putting people to work around the world to make a positive impact on our climate and environment. 

The event will be free (yep, free.) and will feature seasonal food cooked by several of DC’s best chefs and music from local hip hop artist Tabi Bonney. Watch this real quick.

Why am I telling you about this event? Well, besides the fact that my man Seth from Roadside Organics recruited me to help orchestrate the event, I think that there’s a solid amount of DC to BC readers that care about this issue. Organic food goes beyond expensive chains like Whole Foods, and events like this will prove this. Every meal makes a difference, so let’s get it! RSVP online and/or hit them on Twitter Nation (twitter.com/roadsideorgancs, the “i” in “organics” is missing on purpose), but you can just show up too. It’s free food, and you’ll definitely learn a thing or two. Why wouldn’t you come?

My man Callender hit me up to be a part of the New York City leg of this marvelous national tour with Big K.R.I.T., Smoke Dza, and my Curren$y, aka $pitta, aka the trillest lazy flow in the game.

October 5th,  7 – 11:30pm. $20 pre-sale and $25 at the door. Purchase your tickets ASAP (here) so that you don’t get to the door, muttering angrily under your breath about how outrageous it is that these tickets sold out on you like that.

There’s also a bunch of solid guest acts, including Pittsburgh’s Mac Miller. I say grab the tickets, and then come say what’s up. I’ll be there, posted like a stamp with my small but satisfactory squadron of scrambling scholars. Shout out to Heather, GFC, 2 Dope Boyz, and the rest of the folks on this event with me. Fall through!

GRAB TICKETS HERE!!!

]]> http://DCtoBC.com/2010/10/the-smokers-club-tour-nyc-stop/feed/ 648 http://DCtoBC.com/2010/09/the-ultimate-childs-play-recap/ http://DCtoBC.com/2010/09/the-ultimate-childs-play-recap/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:34:26 +0000 modi http://DCtoBC.com/?p=7730

I asked my man Brandon of ABB Video to come out and shoot our Child’s Play event, and that’s what he did! Him and ABB’s CEO, Dre, cut up some niiiice footage for this version of Child’s Play. I love how three different people chopped the same event up and still each had a very unique perspective. This one is nothing short of brilliant, and shout out to ABB for holding me down. Featuring so many cool ass people, some you may recognize from MTV Jams or from your walk home. No joke. Check it!

The other two videos that surfaced:

Reiana’s Recap!

Dre Eastwood’s Recap!