slash speaks...
The dmv Movement
Sup yahl... welcome to the
first installment of “Slash’
Corner”. For those of you
that don’t know me, I am a
producer/songwriter/businessman/consultant/jack-of-alltrades, Howard Bison, Native
Washingtonian (a rarity these
days), and one of the original
Hip Hop’ers in the DC area.
Some of my aliases are “Harvey Wallbanger”, “Slashwaterboy”, and Marcus G, which
is my retired MC name. I
figured it only right to make
my first column about the
DMV movement. Its a movement that is near and dear to
me... yet one that I find my
self distancing myself. I had
a very interesting conversation with an area engineer
whom has mixed some of the
top tier artist nationally and
in this area... and we were
discussing the state of MUSIC in this area... and what it
needed and doesn’t need....
and of course... opinions are
like assholes and we all have
em... but... for the sake of this
column.. I’ll voice my opin16
ions.. and you can reply to
me via twitter, email, or other
forms of communication that
the world wide net affords us.
But anyway.. we were talking
about the lack of bridge between the elder statesmen and
the new school. It was interesting to me how the DMV
movement mirrors African
American society over the
last few decades... My generation pretty much grew
up in single parent homes...
mostly mothers, with no real
reach back from the men in
the neighborhood... sure you
had a little more reach back
then the generation after
me... but ultimately ... most
of the young men were left
to venture out into manhood
alone.... or learning as they go
with the “homies”.... Its not
TOO different in the DMV
music movement.
Lets go back to 1988... when
DC was the murder capitol,
and most of the known rappers like Fat Trel and Wale,
were either dreams in they
daddies’ nutsac or JUST born
( dunno they ages honestly)....
well.. GO GO was our music
(and definitely a STRONG
part of the foundation that
HIPHOP on which built its
house).. But that Rap thang
that was somehow making
its way down here to the
DC area ( which a RACKA
GoGo bands were stealin the
songs as their own). Many
Washingtonians (this is PRE
DMV... a term Created by 20
Bello in the mid 2000’s.. I
KNOW .. I was there) were
resistant to GoGo ... hell..
Washingtonians were resistant to ANYTHING NEW
YORK honestly.... but some
of us felt something... we
knew that while we had our
own music... this RAP thing..
seemed to speak to the new
generation.. and PROBABLY
wasn’t going anywhere. And
what did we do? We jumped
on it! Typically with ridicule
in tow.... that ridicule would
continue through the 90’s.
While slightly more acceptable in the 90’s.. as Rap had
slowly started to become big
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