{"id":267,"date":"2012-03-18T17:26:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T22:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/?p=267"},"modified":"2014-04-14T14:51:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T19:51:12","slug":"dmv-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/2012\/03\/18\/dmv-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"DMV on the rise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/files\/2012\/03\/Fat-Trel-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-269\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/files\/2012\/03\/Fat-Trel-2-252x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/files\/2012\/03\/Fat-Trel-2-252x300.jpg 252w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/files\/2012\/03\/Fat-Trel-2.jpg 458w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Washington Post<\/em> music writer Chris Richards has a <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/entertainment\/music\/can-fat-trel-take-dc-rap-to-the-top-tier\/2012\/03\/07\/gIQApMplGS_story_2.html\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">piece<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0today on DMV rapper Fat Trel.\u00a0 (For the uninitiated, DMV refers to the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">D<\/span>istrict, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">M<\/span>aryland, and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">V<\/span>irginia rap scene.)\u00a0 To date, the only DMV rapper to have achieved nationwide success has been Wale, though it\u2019s safe to say that even he hasn\u2019t taken off the way many hoped and predicted.\u00a0 His most recent album, <em>Ambition<\/em>, did debut at #2 on the U.S. Billboard 200, but nearly 5 months since the release, it hasn\u2019t gone gold yet, and the <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.metacritic.com\/music\/ambition\/critic-reviews\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">lukewarm reviews<\/span><\/a><\/span> suggest that it might not at all.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard a few of Trel\u2019s songs, and he does have the qualities needed to be commercially successful.\u00a0 He\u2019s a fairly agile lyricist who rhymes over sometimes grandiose, heavily synthed, club-ready beats. \u00a0Here&#8217;s an example:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fat Trel - Respect With The Teck (Offical Music Video)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GbvNA7jo-SU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But does he rhyme about anything meaningful?\u00a0 That\u2019s debatable.\u00a0Richards writes that \u201cAt his most thrilling, he manages to sound dangerous in a genre that has exhausted the notion of taboo.\u201d\u00a0 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.\u00a0 On the other hand, I happen to know Trel\u2019s \u2018hood very well.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I witnessed multiple shootings personally, as well as high speed police chases on a regular basis, some of which ended in dramatic crashes.\u00a0 The intersection at 16<sup>th<\/sup> and E, NE, was one of the most dangerous spots in DC while I lived there (my house was at 16<sup>th<\/sup> and D).\u00a0 Gun shots were not uncommon, nor were drug-addled junkies roaming the alleys.\u00a0 While the \u201cE Street Bangers\u201d that Krel references were kind of a sad attempt at a gang, they did know their violence\u2026<\/p>\n<p>And so the lifestyle that Fat Krel depicts in his songs is not entirely imaginary, but does that make it worth listening to?\u00a0 I don\u2019t really think so.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Nobody 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. \u00a0But 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,\u00a0 I don\u2019t see how the still-insignificant DMV rap scene is going to distinguish itself anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, rap&#8217;s top tier\u00a0is chock full of bitches-guns-and-money rappers, so maybe there\u2019s a little room for one more\u2014even if he\u2019s Fat.<\/p>\n<p>His new mixtape drops at the end of the month. \u00a0I will reserve judgment until then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Post music writer Chris Richards has a piece\u00a0today on DMV rapper Fat Trel.\u00a0 (For the uninitiated, DMV refers to the District, Maryland, and Virginia rap scene.)\u00a0 To date, the only DMV rapper to have achieved nationwide success has been Wale, though it\u2019s safe to say that even he hasn\u2019t taken off the way many &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/2012\/03\/18\/dmv-on-the-rise\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">DMV on the rise?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/enielson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}