What I think DC Hip Hop needs is two things an outlet and a flagship. We need an artist/ label to take the city as a whole and make it comfortable with them and gain support as well as notoriety.
At one time this was One Way and then Bodeago took a stab at it but what they had was an outlet. If the Bodaego movement had some hits behind there hype then they could have taken the city along way. I will say this, Once the City does get on, they will not be able to shut us down because there is just too much talent here. If you look back to the early days of hip hop, the artist were all local NY knuckleheads that knew each other, had friends that knew each other and those friends would debate who was hotter. But here that doesn't happen because if you aren't an artist you could care less about DC hip hop.
When I was living in Philly I came across a group named Major Figgaz. They basically ran the Philly rap game, there were others out there that did it, but everyone knew of The Figgaz. Once they started to attain the attention they deserved other artist got a chance to shine. That is were the likes of Freeway, Philly's most wanted and Eve got there chance to shine. Beanie Segal was a whole different story he was a street nigga that knew other streets niggas who some how knew Jay Z, need I say more.
But what DC needs is a group to play the part of Major Figgaz just to garner the area some attention and the outstanding artist in the city just have to be on top of there game to take advantage of all the exposure that they can find.
TV is a must. Bob Smoke TV was a great outlet but it's gone. The Scene was a great outlet but it's gone. Love TV is an outlet not a great outlet but an outlet however and with shows like the Scene Looking to return and DCMM Live TV looking to arrive on our airwaves the outlets seem to be coming back. So let's grab a hot artist whether it be rapper or singer and push him or her into the national spotlight and just ride their coat tails so we all can eat.
