Wale - Uptown Roamers

Wale may very well be the first rapper to come out of D.C. and have a significant level of success. At least, the first that I know of. He is a good rapper but nowadays it seems like it takes more than just being able to rap well in order to garner success. Regardless of whether he makes it in the industry or not, I appreciate the fact that he made a song about his urrea area. Which also happens to be the area where I grew up, so I'm feeling it from that perspective. Good luck to Wale!


Bonus coverage: Wale (feat. Bun B) - Go Mode



Am I the only person who finds it interesting that only singers seem to make it out of D.C. (or the D.C. area) and attain mainstream success? And aside from that producers. For example, Ginuwine, Raheem Devaughn, J.Holiday, Mya, Chink Santana, and Rich Harrison. There are probably others I am forgetting. But no rappers that I can think of. Granted, I now live in BodyMore so I'm not really aware of the home-grown rappers in D.C. that there may have been over the past few years, but Wale seems like the first rapper out of D.C. that I have heard of through the same media outlets (magazines, MTV, blogs, etc.) as other mainstream artists. And he's also the only rapper from D.C. that seems to have any buzz whatsoever.

But the grind that Raheem Devaughn has been on for the last several years and the success and respect he's now getting should be an inspiration to all the musical artists coming out of the Chocolate City. Is he the most talented artist to come out of the D.C. area in the last 5 years or so? If there are others, please let me know.