Let me introduce you to the R&B singer Camari Drew. Hopefully this will be the first of many post from the young DMV artist. Camari has performed with local DC fusion band Lion Turf, as well as opened for Gym Class Heroes. Drew was also a part of the band which won the University of Maryland's Battle of the Bands. This past fall he also did several HBCU Yardfest. Camari is currently working on new material and a mixtape set to drop this spring. Check him out on his Myspace Music page. He had a nice Imeem page put together but we all know what happened to them.
This Friday's freestyle comes from Bishop entitled "Dear Winter". This is a fitting freestyle for today seeing that we got our first real sign of winter with this snow that's coming down as I put this up.
Some new music from my right-hand man Bishop entitled "Down". This is a great song for a wednesdays aka Hump-Day or any day that you feel you need a extra push to make it through the day. Keep doing your thing brother. The DMV is on it's way
My man Bishop is down in fla still banging out tracks. The lastest freestyle is to one of my favorite beats right now. Polo Da Don did his thing on this one... " flyer then the hollister bird"....
Go check it out on the myspace page and even download it on the ipod
over this weekend while trying to change a tire on 495 I found my boy bishop's first two CDs and a weird yet surreal feeling came over me. That very exist that we were at was one of our most frequently used ones to get off at to go push his CDs at wheaton mall. Back when we used to be on a grind seen mostly by street hustlers. I started to think about our Kanye experience and how that lite a fire under bishop that still burns today. The days at VIP and Dream, and occasionally platinum dancing the night away to the hottest songs of the day. Club hopping like lil frogs around 18 and up spots in DC, each time telling ourselves, "one day B's joint is gonna be in here".
Hours spent at the computer downloading and listening to every new track from every rapper everywhere and comparing them to bishop's joints. Getting the aim,text, or phone call at anytime for the latest rating to the newest songs. At times i used to think I was cheating on my girl with music and basketball because that all i seemed to be interested in. These same songs would often turn into the score to our weekly adventures around the DMV. Occasionally our love for this music would have us on trips out of town but we always remembered to let everyone know where we were from.
So as I sit here in Baltimore, 45 mins away from my hometown, I remember the feelings of old that even got me to that point. What I listened to that made me want to be apart of that world and create my mark in it. The songs and artist that shaped my ear for music and for what I thought was hot. Its funny because Baltimore used to be my escape from everything home (it also helped my girl at the time lived here), and now that I'm up here all these great memories are playing in my head like a movie reel that I don't want to stop. Here's one of my poems that expresses those exact feelings.
The Golden Age
My sisters and I would wait with our tapes to record songs off the radio
Do you remember that feeling when tribe first told you about their senerio
And naugthy made all the crowds say hip hop hoary, ho, hey, ho
Even mtv gave us our own video show
When cube was letting everyone know that he had a good day
While crucial conflict was in the middle of the barn smoking on, heyyyyy
I was in dc but a arrested development took me to see mr. wendel in Tennessee
And after school me and my crew wanted to find a girl named iesha at the playground like ABC
I would jump, jump, as I missed the bus with my backward clothes falling
At this time mike, magic, and bird were all still balling
Biggie had me reading word up magazine because of his dream
and who didn't want a starter jacket with the raiders even if they weren't ur favorite team
I couldn't think of what I would do "If I ruled the world"
I did know I wouldn't treat them like brenda's baby girl
Putting batteries in the frig so I could listen to my fugees tape on my walkman
If that aint work I took them from the remote just to hear questlove and his band
all the while arguing with my boys at the court about what bone was really saying
Cuz you know we all mumbled the lines until the chorus started playing
Back then I would wish I was a lil bit taller, wish I was a baller, wish I had a girl who looked good so I could call her
Bobing my head to wu tang as I waited for my carry out food playing the arcade version street fighter
For once it was alright to be a bad boy or for a brother to be on death row
Had me in my mirror with my brush trying to be a mc and create my own flow
You had to have a name with young, lil, or mc in it
Everybody wanted hammer pants and knew the dance to too legit
To set urself apart you had to get ur own type of cut with designs and a part
From cross colors to absolute madness, all of our clothes looked like African art
It wasn't til coolio that I realized that my hood was a gansta paradise
I lived on one of those blocks were the boom boxes blasted while the homies played with two or three dice
We tried to copy the same outfits we saw in the basement on rap city
I remember puff dancing in every video saying take that, take that, b4 all the name changes and became just diddy
I was singing o.p.p. but didn't know what it stood for
This was the era b4 the east coast, west coast war
Dudes of this time thrived on being the best storytella
This was when there was still only one artist on rocafella
I often wondered if we were menace to society because of being boyz in the hood
Now looking back on that time in my life I can say it was all good
So this weekend was my first one home since my boy Bishop aka Shayan moved to Fla and it was eventful to say the least. First off I want to say I'm gonna miss Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. Two legends in their own right lost in one weekend. I grew up on a lot of Hayes because of my father and his sound was one of a kind. I had many car rides around the DMV shotgun with my dad as Isaac was the soundtrack to our adventure.
SO after a weekend of changing tires and trips from bmore to dc and back again, getting chicken and mambo sauce at 3 in the morning, seeing spartan sandals, and trying to hoop way to early from this surgery, I realized that life these days is what you make it and that at the end of the day everything is everything.
Well we all know by now that Jay-Z is coming out with another cd called "Blueprint 3". He gave us a sneak pep at Kanye's concert in New York.
