Washington Post music writer Chris Richards has a piece today on DMV rapper Fat Trel. (For the uninitiated, DMV refers to the District, Maryland, and Virginia rap scene.) To date, the only DMV rapper to have achieved nationwide success has been Wale, though it’s safe to say that even he hasn’t taken off the way many hoped and predicted. His most recent album, Ambition, did debut at #2 on the U.S. Billboard 200, but nearly 5 months since the release, it hasn’t gone gold yet, and the lukewarm reviews suggest that it might not at all.
Richards, whose opinions I value and have referenced before, thinks Fat Trel might be the one to elevate the DMV scene to Wale heights and beyond. I’ve heard a few of Trel’s songs, and he does have the qualities needed to be commercially successful. He’s a fairly agile lyricist who rhymes over sometimes grandiose, heavily synthed, club-ready beats. Here’s an example:
But does he rhyme about anything meaningful? That’s debatable. Richards writes that “At his most thrilling, he manages to sound dangerous in a genre that has exhausted the notion of taboo.” To me it all sounds a lot like the banal imagery of money, cars, violence, and women that has been played out for years now. On the other hand, I happen to know Trel’s ‘hood very well. The projects on Benning Road that he made his home were three blocks away from my house in DC, and I can attest that the violence that he raps about is not imaginary, even if his own role in it is exaggerated. I witnessed multiple shootings personally, as well as high speed police chases on a regular basis, some of which ended in dramatic crashes. The intersection at 16th and E, NE, was one of the most dangerous spots in DC while I lived there (my house was at 16th and D). Gun shots were not uncommon, nor were drug-addled junkies roaming the alleys. While the “E Street Bangers” that Krel references were kind of a sad attempt at a gang, they did know their violence…
And so the lifestyle that Fat Krel depicts in his songs is not entirely imaginary, but does that make it worth listening to? I don’t really think so. Yes, violence is a real part of life in much of DC and other urban centers, and so rapping about it is understandable and potentially important. Nobody would deny that when NWA and many others first did it in the late 80s and early 90s, it changed American culture in profound ways. But if Fat Trel is simply going to revel in it like so many other rappers do now, without adding something more innovative or intelligent to the mix, I don’t see how the still-insignificant DMV rap scene is going to distinguish itself anytime soon.
Then again, rap’s top tier is chock full of bitches-guns-and-money rappers, so maybe there’s a little room for one more—even if he’s Fat.
His new mixtape drops at the end of the month. I will reserve judgment until then.