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!

If you know me, if you’ve been in my vehicle or been in my dorm room while I was in college, you’d know that my affinity for A.B. The Pro‘s music is probably unrivaled. I have a lot of confidence in this SE representer’s sound, and he’s my favorite artist on DC’s Studio 43 imprint. I felt like his mixtape he dropped back in ’09 was criminally slept on as far as production and the artists featured. You can tell that he cares a lot about putting DC on the map, and he without a doubt brought out the best in artists that otherwise may not have been able to convince you of their talent. In my eyes, “Stussy on My Back” with Young Marley could have been a local smash if the proper push was behind it (Stussy could have easily jumped on that joint and licensed it out and more money could have been made!), but 43 made the poor decision to push “W On The Fitted” instead, which was by far the worst joint on the entire tape. No offense to any of the artists on that track, but…that joint was so weak.  But hey. I’m not hear to chastise too much. That’s the past. We’re on to the future.

A.B. let me hold an early version of the mixtape to give him some feedback and criticism, and it’s so awesome to see that not only did he take it well, but he actually listened to the majority of what I said! Swapped some songs out, changed the tracklisting, and dropped a lot of freestyles over industry beats. In order to give you A.B. as an artist as opposed to just a producer, I feel like he needs to rap over his own $#!t. The one thing that I wished he did was to start the album with “Young Jimi Hendrix” (which is the first preview I’m gonna give you), or at least make that joint #2! It goes way too hard and kinda introduces you to what the entire album is gonna be like. Besides that, I don’t have too many gripes. The beats are mixed and mastered to thump in the vehicle or through your headphones, he has some club bangers that’ll make you raise an eyebrow and wonder why he doesn’t have stuff on the radio (or with bigger artists outside of DC, to be completely honest), and while he’s not exactly a rapper, you can’t be mad at his lyrics, cuz it’s all stuff people can relate to.

DC is proud of this, but I’m tryna make sure everybody beyond DC hears this product. Featuring a lot of untapped and under appreciated talent that you can read about on the back cover, this is a really good project that I’m proud to have been a fake-me-out A&R on, lol. Nah but really. Jam the previews, and then grab it below.

DOWNLOAD: A.B. The Pro – Crown Vic Music [Mixtape]

Nobody in DC raps better than Fat Trel. Nobody in DC makes a cleaner hood video than 1st Impressions Studio.

Now that you’ve got both of those facts straight, I invite you to see Northeast DC’s most popular fool in his environment. Goodness. If this isn’t gutta gutta, I don’t know what is. I’ve been campaigning for this guy to take over the city for a while now (read my post about him here), and it looks like things are finally starting to look up! I smell a major label situation of some sort coming. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Exactly what the flyer says:

the great progression (“the gee pee”). the movement you’ve heard about, but have yet to see actually move. well, it’s finally upon us; all i need now is funds to make the dream a reality. yeah, you heard me. the moola and the guap, like wiz said on his album. what better way to donate to a good cause than to throw a video game sports tourney / kickback on the eve of sunday, october 10th? NBA 2K11 dropped (with a playable michael jordan, who you can see in the background!), recently; we’ll be playing that on PS3. but while we’re at it, we might as well pay homage to dreamcast, a system so ahead of its time the industry couldn’t handle it. it dropped on 9.9.99, and 2K premiered its first game, NBA 2K, on this console.

we’ll have two screens going all night; one with the newest 2K offering, and the other with vintage dreamcast 2K sports games (NHL, NBA, and NFL. we ain’t playin’!). suck at video games? so what? come to support! we got jenga, connect four, uno, taboo, music, and great people to keep you occupied. $5 to fall through (larger donations welcome). it’s in g-town; e-mail modi[at]DCtoBC.com for the address. complimentary cocktails by belvedere, the best vodka in the biz.

Yeah, you read it. Starts tonight at 8pm. You don’t have work tomorrow, so don’t even fake like you do. Feel free to bring more beverages to spice things up, too. Could be some surprises there, too. You never know…!

Not in town/can’t come out to support, but still wanna donate!? We appreciate that! Check out our donation link below.

Links riiiight to my PayPal account. If you’re curious, the funds you donate will help pay for the beautiful website as well as any fun events like this that we have in the near future. We appreciate you! Do me this favor and tweet about the event via this twitpic link: http://twitpic.com/2wdv0e. Thanks for supporting another DC to BC/The Gee Pee-powered gathering, and hopefully you’ll enjoy it like the last joints we’ve had.

Well, that party was incredible. Thanks to everybody who came out to support, as well as those who tried but had prior engagements. A special shout out to those who attempted to get in after the event reached capacity; the Donovan House Hotel couldn’t have been any more unreasonable about that situation, but that’s a different story entirely.

Long story short, we packed the joint, people enjoyed themselves, and The Great Progression / DC to BC, LLC has pulled off another successful event. This time, we’d like to thank Christine and Allison of Lunchbox Theory for letting us jump on board with them, as well as my big brother Daniel of YEBies, who I wanted to get into the mix as well. The all-around diversity of people that we got to come out for this joyous occasion was incredible, for lack of a more fitting word, and I’m very excited to see what’ll be next as far as an event for the people who support this movement I like to call The Great Progression.

Check out the first of (hopefully) several short video segments that document this wonderful experience, shot (and flipped in record time!) by my brother Mike Sanchez.

Feel free to throw this video around, embed it, and pass it to people who you know were there, but don’t know that this footage is available. The Gee Pee. Coming soon.

even though i’m on the west, i’m still supporting my area. i got some exclusive footage from DC to BC correspondents out of h-town, throwing us the first live performance of “pretty girls” that i’ve seen. no gucci mane verse, but tre is there in full effect, singing the hook like he’s at the go-go.

i also got my man cayan‘s latest jam, “live from the capital”, produced by my man A.B. the Pro. you guys already know how i felt his mixtape, get it here if you still haven’t, all crazy beats.

DOWNLOAD: Cayan Live From The Capital [prod. by A.B. The Producer]

man oh man, this track is ridiculous. produced by mo digga. west coast anthem from a DMV artist. no joke. marky spittin’, the synths are hittin’, the entire thing is something you would hear in game‘s 6-4 impala. and he isn’t even jump on this beat, man – he’s frolicking. it sounds too easy for him.

DOWNLOAD: Marky – The Anecdote

shout out for ill vibes for putting me on.

re-up. enough people didn’t get this joint, it’s way too trill for people to miss it.

off of tabi‘s new album, coming soon (it’s either fresh or superstar, as he has two more albums coming. he’s on that plies album release schedule – every few months, baybeh.) probably my favorite of the tabi songs i’ve heard. the beat is too vicious, and the title alone deserves applause. raheem needs more respect in the R&B game, too. he’s top 5 in my opinion. show him that R-E-S-P-E-C-T! i’m demanding it now! his voice is sweeter than a plate of yams. with extra syrup. oh boy.

DOWNLOAD: Tabi Bonney & Raheem DeVaughn – Fever [Peanut Butter Slow Jam]

i won’t lie. i don’t know much about this guy, but he’s nice. nobody ever e-mailed me his stuff except my homie major from goadome talk, and i don’t even know why. he’s a nigerian-american like myself, and he’s from maryland, like myself. so i already support the man. ha. R&B crooner raheem devaughn has recently signed him to his boutique label, 368 music group, and that this mixtape dropped sometime last week.

my hunch is that there will be comparisons to wale, because they are both nigerian and from the area, and their flows are somewhat similar. but i think his flow and subject matter distinguishes him enough for the chit chatter to cease. i wish i had more info about the guy; i don’t have a bio for you because i didn’t do thorough research. sometimes it’s better like that, and i can be pleasantly surprised like i am now. i’ll make sure i’ll keep an eye out for his future projects. jam a couple samples, and get the mixtape below.

DOWNLOAD: Phil Ade – Starting On JV [Mixtape]

let me know how you feel about the project via the comment section. if you caught the post i did on sneakerpimps DC, the flyer tells me that he’ll be performing alongside clipse, wale, kingpin slim, and other area artists this upcoming weekend. i heard his stage presence is pretty vicious, so catch him there and be your own judge.

i’ve never posted an AP the prince track on the blog, but i’ve heard a few joints, from freestyle videos to loosies on other sites and his myspace page, and his confidence and dare i say swagger is what won me over. he’s also not afraid to take risks, or rather, cross over genres. this joint is like an electro / hip-hop fusion, but don’t think he goes soft on it. the rock ‘n’ roll influence actually makes the track harder than most. off th new album entitled bella loona love. call me crazy, but i can hear chamillionaire on the remix of this with no problems. slightly reminds me of his collabo w/ weezy, “rock star”,  which you can hear below as well and tell me if you co-sign or disagree wholeheartedly. whatever. enjoy both.

DOWNLOAD: AP The Prince – Bonafide

DOWNLOAD: Chamillionaire & Lil Wayne – Rock Star

also, AP is one of the top breakout artists on this MTV contest thing, so if you liked the song, please support him by voting here.