Published: Monday - December 3, 2007
Words by Gritz
Blog by Gritz (Photo: BallerStatus.com (file))
What's crackin' bammas? I've been sort of quiet lately because, honestly, my process has been stagnated to the point where the most hip-hop thing I do is wear boxers that ride up mad high on my torso. And that's mostly because I am getting skinny on these bagel bites and disgusting knishes that I buy down the street. What I'm trying to say is this: if I could, I would wear boxers that did not stray from the waistline.
Thankfully, my spirits are being lifted straight from the place that birthed them: the District of Columbia. Every morning I wake up to "Welcome to DC," the new jumpoff anthem from Mambo Sauce. With lines like, "Even the mayor had a run in with crack / But we all kept it real and voted him back," these bulls have crafted what can only be described as the best city anthem since The Music Man dropped Gary, Indiana.
This joint makes me proud to be from DC. When I was coming up on the tree-lined streets of Northwest, I can't say my first forays into hip-hop were homegrown. Though I did own at least five different colors of Guess jean shorts, I had fallen under the tutelage of some Belgian adolescents who weaned me on Slayer and horror movies. As a result, I was marked as a "a bit odd" and never got a full night's sleep. With satanic verses in my blood, most of the rap that I experimented with was on the extreme end of the spectrum -- I think Sex Packets and Straight Outta Compton were the first tapes I owned. Other than Hammer, of course. Everyone had Hammer.
Eventually I shipped off to Connecticut and never really got a flavor for go-go or the DC rap scene, instead moving on to what were probably much less interesting pastures. It's not where you're from, but where you're at, I guess. That said, this Mambo Sauce has got me fired up, and I've already spent the last three months listening to Wale non-stop (peep my interview with him for EW.com). It's time to lace up the Nike boots and get back to the DMV.
For one reason or another it seems that no one's ever checking for the District (perhaps because they are obsessed with the false notion that New York still has good rappers). The capital may be going through a rough patch with Agent Zero's injury and the tragic loss of Sean Taylor, but something is percolating...
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