VA.

Now, today's post is about Virginia, and the surrounding areas AKA, Maryland and Washington AKA homes to everything right about music (bold statement, I know. Let me finish here).As we all know the state of virginia has blessed us with two of the monsters of the rap game; namely, the Clipse and the Neptunes (Pharell's crew. get familiar). Maryland is home to our beloved Baltimore Club music, as well as a thriving underground rap scene and Washington is home to everyone's favorite rapper: Wale.

I'm not going to front and pretend that I know everything about the music scene in Virginia (Oh, home to Missy Elliot as well) but I do know that ever since I heard the song "Grindin'" I have been a rabid fan of the Clipse. That track came from an album called Lord Willin' which catapulted the duo into the limelight. After realeasing the album, they decided to take a hiatus, yet remained relevant by teasing fans with their mixtapes "We Got It For Cheap" Vol. 1&2
The group managed to only gain even more hype with each tape's release. Finally, in 2006 the Clipse blessed everyone with their latest effort: Hell Hath No Fury.
Filled with Neptunes production and some of the best raps heard during a period where nothing exciting was happening in the rap world.
Since then, the Clipse have been putting out mixtape tracks and remixes with different artists and have just appeared on DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz album.
The track that I am going to share with you is the Benzi refix of Kanye's Flashing Lights. Benzi gets the Clipse to spit over the beat and creates a version of the song much more powerful than Kanye's effort (I can't even listen to the Kanye one after hearing this).

The Clipse - Flashing Lights (Benzi Refix)

Next up on the roster is Baltimore's own Bossman. Now, honestly I don't know much about this dude so I cannot write much about him other than that he has a refreshing, gritty sound and makes people get the fuck down. He presents a different side of Baltimore's music culture, the grittier, hungrier side. As opposed to the Club scene, which is more of a pure "party" music genre. Anyways, this is his track "Tinted Crown Vics" which carries some of the most swagger I've heard lately (Turn the subs up and then bump this in your scraper).

Bossman - Tinted Crown Vics

Finally, we have a track from someone I have been championing for the longest time. That's right, Wale. Homeboy has blown up, finally. Performing at the MTV VMA's and now on the cover of URB with none other than Justice. I just didn't think I could talk about VA, MD & DC without mentioning Wale. So, here's another Wale gem: Get This Money (If you like the sample go on over to the Sweet Fix to pick it up: Sylvia Striplin's "You Can't Turn Me Away")(Do I shout them out too much?).

Wale - Get This Money

Until next time....