Absolute DMV
Absolute DMV
From Courtside Memories to Kendrick’s Juneteenth Surprise
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Get ready for a fiery debate on Kendrick's bold move, where we dissect his influence on West Coast music and his ongoing rivalry with Drake. We draw comparisons to Drake's past beefs with Meek Mill and Pusha T, contemplating how these legendary showdowns stack up to Kendrick's charged performance. The conversation naturally flows to our own backyard, as we discuss the vibrant yet underrepresented local music scene. We highlight the need for more high-profile cultural moments in the DMV, tipping our hats to local heroes like Wale who continue to pave the way.
Finally, we get into the nitty-gritty of Maryland's regional identities, putting Baltimore under the microscope. From cultural nuances to the practicalities of travel, we explore what makes Baltimore distinct from the DMV. We wrap things up with an impromptu freestyle rap session, throwing down the gauntlet for local producers and singers to join our cypher. More than just a podcast, we're building a community—and you won't want to miss out. Tune in for an episode packed with energy, introspection, and a bit of friendly competition.
DMV. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Absolute DMV Podcast. It's your man, ace Boogie. I'm here with my man, mark.
Speaker 2Hey, what's going on, y'all.
Speaker 1And my man, ego, on the boards. I'm on the boards. What's going on, gentlemen? How y'all feeling.
Speaker 3I'm good. I'm good, I'm straight.
Speaker 2Can't complain. I mean, I'm dealing with this humidity and this heat bullshit that we got going on right here in the DMV right now.
Speaker 3but I think I'm domesticated. I had the African blood, but now I don't like this shit.
Speaker 1Bro, I'm a fool. I went out the other day and tried to play basketball.
Speaker 3Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Fuck that.
Speaker 1Yeah, crazy, I had a good run. I mean, we went 5-1. So you know, last game that was the one we lost. How did you lose? Because you know we was tired. I'm a little sore right now A little, you know, a little tender, but I'm holding it together. I played well. My teammates pretty much carried me, but I think I played well and I mean it was one of those things where it makes you realize that you're old. You know, just when you get out there you start playing. There's some young boys out there. I'm a little young buck. You think that your body can move. I'm a little young buck.
Speaker 1I felt like what was it? Will Smith and Ali, when he was like, move, legs, move, and they would not move. Oh man, it was bad in certain situations. Did you have that old man struck down the court? No, man, I was good. I threw on my ankle braces. I did have to have those on, but I threw on my ankle braces. No need braces needed. But I had my ankle braces and I went out there. I hooped, man, I shot some threes. I hit them with a couple hesitations, got to the lane, I smoked a couple layups, but then I got it together later on, like I said, we won five games in a row, that's a lot.
Speaker 1We played six games. We won five games in a row. What did?
Speaker 3your outfit look like you know black people. You know what I'm saying. Did you have a matching outfit?
Speaker 1Of course, but I mean, I was chill. I just had some black and gray LeBrons, some black and gray Nike shorts, but did you have Adidas and Nike? No, no, no. That's what I said. That's why I'm getting to his point. Check out the last podcast. Black and gray LeBrons. Black Nike socks.
Speaker 2Gray Nike three quarter wait a minute is LeBron, made by Nike, though of course.
Speaker 4I just want to make sure because, I know Jordan is.
Speaker 3I'm not big into shoes.
Speaker 1I think a lot of the big names Nike shorts and the only thing I didn't have Nike was my shirt, because I was repping my man's brand. Shout out to Stressed Out Gorillas S-O-G. I was repping that brand, but you know what I'm saying At the time. So, yeah, I was Nike-ed out except for the top. But, like I said, it made me realize I was old. And something else made me realize that I was old this weekend.
Speaker 3Wait, wait, wait. Mark, do you have anything? I mean, you just said, it was hot.
Speaker 2I mean, yeah, it's crazy hot. That's why the studio here is set to like 62 degrees, like it's as cold as it can go.
Speaker 3And thank you. Yeah, you're welcome, I figured, so my bad, sorry, ace. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1No, no, no, yeah, yeah. Something else that made me realize that I was old. I mean, look, I don't want to hate on the whole thing, because the whole thing was cool. Kendrick threw Juneteenth party or Juneteenth concert. Yeah, the concert was dope. I'm not going to lie, the concert was dope. Of course I didn't see the whole thing, but I mean he brought out a bunch of like independent unknown under. You know, I'm saying underground artists from yeah emerging artists from the west coast.
Speaker 1Yeah, bloods crips. It looked like everybody was out there and the love, everything was close. Love, it looked amazing, like it looked amazing. So Tell me how you real feel, though. That's why I don't want to hate on it, but I mean objectively thinking, see because, this is the whole thing, bro.
Speaker 1Everybody nowadays wants to say that if you have an opposite view, you're hating. So if this is the case, I'm hating, hater, I'm hating. And I never knew that I was a Drake fan until this beef happened. But the whole thing went great. The concert was great until Kendrick played Not Like Us six times in a row.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm not gonna play that track right now because I don't wanna be flat Bro, I love no, don't get it twisted.
Speaker 1I very much enjoy that song. It's a classic West Coast song. With a classic West Coast beat like it, it cranks. I love that song like.
Speaker 3You know what it feels. It gives me, it gives you that Tupac California love that's what I'm trying to tell you, yeah it doesn't matter what coast you were.
Speaker 1it gives you that explosive from Dr Dre that's what I think, yeah like it gives you that it gives you that classic west. I just want to say it's a classic west coast yeah, well, it's the same thing.
Speaker 2It's like exactly with that song you have the repetitive piano, the dun, dundun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, and here it's like with the chord progression it stays more or less the same, except for the break part. So it's just, it's easy to bop your head to, it's hard not to bop your head to.
Speaker 1Yeah and I mean, and, like I said, I very much enjoy the song. I want to say I love it because I really much enjoy that song, not like us. You heard it. We almost got flagged for it. I was dancing to it. No, we got flagged. Yeah, we got flagged to it.
West Coast Concert Excess and Talent
Speaker 1We almost didn't get flagged, we got flagged for it and I was dancing to it. But still, I really do enjoy that song. But the fact that homie played it six times in a row in that current situation just kind of made me feel like he threw a Super Bowl party to celebrate beating Drake through a Super Bowl party to celebrate beating Drake and why I think it was justified.
Speaker 3I mean, I think like again, this is me. I give mad props, I'm breathing like somebody, but anyway, wow, I'm sorry, I just heard it. Wow, I just heard it. But anyways, I feel that like the thing was a big up to West Coast, the West Coast stepped it up and represented and he had the whole West Coast pretty much on his back that's what it is and he needed to throw a concert and what brought it in? All his other tracks were dope, but this is the track that put the nail in the coffin and he had to play this over and he had Dr Dre. Actually, dr Dre said I see dead people before he actually that shit went hard.
Speaker 2And for him to do that, that's fucking crazy well, I think the the thing that was cool was that it was like, yes, you know back in, what was it like? 2013 or 14, or maybe even earlier, 2012,. He was basically crowned, you know, and everyone sort of passed the torch to Kendrick and this is almost like a coming of age, like he's now at the point where he's crowning or putting a stamp behind other emerging artists and like giving them a time to shine, because it was like a four-hour concert and not all of it was him, like it was a lot of other artists getting like their chance to do something. So then, like it sounds like when he brought it on, he like you know, a lot of other people who had been on stage before had come back on and got a turn to, like you know, be part of the event, which is maybe why I was on for six times in a row to give everyone a chance Honestly.
Speaker 4I think, it was like a grand finale.
Speaker 1I have no problem. The concert itself was dope, which, bringing out all the artists, everything like that, was dope. My biggest issue was just playing it six times in a row.
Speaker 3You're saying he was being extra. That's what you're trying to say.
Speaker 1Not even that he was being extra. It was like yo, you are the more lyrical rapper. I'm sure you expected to win. Why are you acting like you didn't expect to win? That's the only thing. It's one of those things like it's almost like act like you've been there before. Yeah but?
Speaker 2But to be honest, can I tell you something? I like Kendrick. I like him more than Drake, objectively, and I like his music more. I did not expect him to win because I thought Drake was going to be able to do what ultimately Kendrick did, which is make a very poppy catchy not to say that not like us is poppy, but it's very catchy song that everyone will be dancing to in the club and that's how you really win this.
Speaker 3He killed him on his own territory. It's in the public court, the public trial.
Speaker 2So Kendrick did his he killed him on his own. I thought Drake was going to do that, which he kind of did with push-ups, but then Kendrick just killed him again and again and again. There was no coming back.
Speaker 1I'll Never expected Kendrick not to win, because if this was the situation of, a battle is going to be won with lyrics, regardless of what. So if Kendrick can come out and bar that man to death like he did, he was going to win. The same way, pusha T came out and gave us some information that we didn't know with the bars, to the point where Drake couldn't even reply. Like it messed up a business deal, it was impactful. This is impactful because of how everybody is carrying it, but it's not going to stop Drake from moving in any way.
Speaker 3No, but if it was flipped, if it was on the other foot, I think Drake would have did the same thing.
Speaker 1I disagree because, like I, said, when Drake beat Mick Mill, he didn't do that and that was his first win. So he, like I said act like you've never been there, act like you've been there before. And Drake's never been there before, he's never been battle tested with nobody. He's only shot a couple shots at Jay-Z Jay-Z, shot a couple shots back, shot Shots at Jay-Z. Jay-z shot a couple shots back, shot a couple shots at Common. You know what I'm saying? Things like that.
Speaker 2Well, he did have you know it was a legit beef with Meek Mill.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. He had a legit beef with Meek Mill and even when he won that one.
Speaker 3He didn't go ahead and just be like hey, y'all, I beat this track did Well, I don't know, back to Back was pretty big.
Speaker 2Back to Back was big, but was it bigger than Well? Not like us.
Speaker 1But we are going to have to look back and see, okay, okay, because I mean we are going to have to look back and see, I just say people were playing it in the club for a hot minute though. That's what I mean.
Speaker 2I don't know how long it was charting for, but Not Like Us is really long.
Speaker 1No, this one is going on for at least a month. Yeah, bare minimum, yeah.
Speaker 3And it's already charted yeah, top two, no, top two singles of all.
Speaker 1No, and I think, like I said, this is a great song.
Speaker 3I love the song. I just, I just don't understand. It was a bit excessive. I don't know. I give, I give props, ride that wave man. He's doing it for west coast.
Speaker 1That's what I say but once again, I want to see, I wish we had something out here like they, like that. We're talking about dmv, yeah, I, I mean I, because we have certain artists. Iee a Wale, ie a Logic, logic yeah. You know what I'm saying? Those certain artists are big enough to throw a concert. I don't know.
Speaker 4A concert like that this is what.
Speaker 3I'm bitter about. The DMV is so spread that there's no like. The West Coast is the West Coast. Yeah, new York is New York, you know.
Speaker 1Miami. That's a. Do you know how many people are on the West Coast for them to be more united than we are?
Speaker 2well, I think part of the problem is, I think, that all these cities that we're naming have a big label presence. You, you know New York, california, atlanta, all these places have big hubs so that artists who get big and on an international or a national level don't have to leave there. Here in the DC there's not really a label presence, so anyone who gets big usually moves to the West Coast or New York, or New York or around the world.
Speaker 2Exactly. Idk Logic. You know, like Cordae, they're all doing really big things but, like you know, their labels are not here. Well, yeah, exactly. So that's the thing. The labels are out there, the industries are out there. Sorry, you did say Cordae.
Speaker 1I'm sorry, I forgot about Cordae.
Speaker 2Yeah, Cordae, he's got records with Nas that.
Speaker 1Nah, that's what I'm saying. He is big enough to.
Speaker 2Yeah, he's major and successful enough. And Gold Link too Shy Glizzy. No, I mean what I'm saying is we have the talent. Yeah.
Speaker 1And we have the artists, like I mean Rico Nasty. Yeah, we have plenty of people Like not even just those people, because those people already have deals and are already kind of on. I'm talking about, yeah, the Mark Therese. I'm talking about rest in peace, the Felipe Droz, feel the future type. You know what I'm saying. I'm talking about just Odyssey.
Speaker 2Yeah Well, odyssey's major, this dude's international.
Speaker 3Yeah, Odyssey's been producer and slash writer.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, there's so many artists, not just rap artists, but you got Raheem Devon, you got people who are in different categories. I mean there's a lot of talent out there, lola.
Speaker 3Yeah, monroe.
Speaker 2And then you got people who've been doing stuff for a hot minute too.
Speaker 1Of course you would say Lola Monroe, hell yeah, big ups to my Ethiopian. I know I was about to say with your Ethiopian, love this guy's wild. No, I mean but definitely though Definitely, though. I'm sorry you were saying.
Speaker 2No, I was just going to say like, even there's like OGs who have been doing it for a hot minute too.
Speaker 3You know, like DJ Kool, dj Kool, even though everybody thought he was all about New York, he was a big representative of the community and then we got old school Go-Go backyard junkyard. We have Chuck exactly.
Speaker 2We have our own genre here, which is cool and found nowhere else. Really, this is the birthplace of Go-Go.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly you know we have our own genre here which is cool and found nowhere else. Really, this is the birthplace of Go-Go Manny Wells and we've got some Afro beats. Manny Wells is pretty much another Afro beat or Afro singer, slash rapper. He's also dope as hell. I give props to him.
Speaker 2Ed Lee Shine is really dope, you know, for the reggae genre. And then on top of that you have Shoot. What was I going to say? You have Pusher T who lives around here.
Speaker 1No, he doesn't. He lives in Bethesda. We can't call him that. I mean, maybe he lives in Bethesda but he's not. He's from Newport News, yeah he's Virginia Beach or Virginia Beach.
Speaker 3excuse me me, I'm sorry not born, but lives he's in Virginia, but it's not DMV yeah, he doesn't rep, he doesn't rep DV he reps Virginia like the same thing as Timbaland and Missy Elliott and all them yeah, they say Virginia, but they mean that southern yeah, that's like yeah, I'm not gonna. I mean, if they come and rep us, okay, but they don't. That's what I know. I just know that we're what 95. Yeah, I'm not going to. I mean, if they come in and rep us, okay, but they don't. That's what I know. I just know that we're what 95? It's 495.
Speaker 4I know that, or the Metro, whatever Technical it's not about being technical, it's about being factual.
Speaker 1That's what it's about. Yeah, dmv means DC. Why am I lying? When are we ever factual?
Speaker 2yeah, maryland and virginia. We're naming for someone in virginia and baltimore's in maryland no, no, but they're not a part of dmv that's so technical.
Speaker 3The arbitrary lines do you want me to get, I'll put a map up but what?
Speaker 2what is the classification then? Is it because we I know we already ruled out the panhandle it has to be in the DC metro area?
Speaker 1We've ruled out the panhandle.
Speaker 3We've ruled out the mountains of Westminster and all that other stuff If you can't reach it by Baltimore, if it's $4.95, that circle or the metro.
Speaker 2I'm willing to give it $4.95.
Speaker 1Because the metro actually goes around $495. Yeah, so if you have a Metro station within about I'll even give you 20 minutes. Okay, so if you have a metro station within—20 minutes might be far in certain situations.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, that's too far, that's too far.
Speaker 1If you have a metro station within about 10 to 15 minutes— Of driving or walking Driving, so how about this?
Speaker 3You live in a DMV. How about this? Can you take a bus to Baltimore? Yes, no, no, no, no, no, no. A bus, like getting off the metro, taking a.
Speaker 1No, no, no, no. That's what I'm saying. No, because it's not a part of that system. That's what I'm saying, and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3So the Metro system has a system like a system that goes to Metro busing 495 doesn't even go to Baltimore At some point.
Speaker 1if you stayed on 495, you would never reach Baltimore.
Speaker 3Yeah, you got to say, yeah you. Why do we keep having to go through this? Gentlemen, we're the absolute DMV. We have to always have to.
Speaker 2It's a debatable People will argue either way. My question then is if we're going off of that time and it has to be part of the system that connects to the metro or the 495 loop, when the speed rail from DC to Baltimore is connected and built, is it then going to be part of the DMV? No, still.
Speaker 1They still won't count it.
Speaker 4You have to understand that Baltimore does not want to be Listen.
Defining Maryland vs DMV Area
Speaker 1Baltimore does not want to be part of the DMV. Baltimore does not want to be a part of the DMV. They are Maryland and if we are just saying okay.
Speaker 2You're going to have to have some Baltimore people on.
Speaker 1No, no, no, no no, no, no, no, because if we're just saying Maryland, then we include Baltimore.
Speaker 3Okay, you're saying it wrong, but if we're saying the DMV, it's Maryland.
Speaker 1That's what I'm saying. If we're saying Maryland, then it's just. If we're saying Merlin, then it's just Then Baltimore's included, but if we're saying the DMV, then Baltimore's not included, which makes it kind of confusing. I got you, but that's just how the breakdown of everything is.
Speaker 2It's like saying it's just where they all meet.
Speaker 1No, it's like saying that you're from New York City because you live in Buffalo, just because it's all the same state.
Speaker 3Yeah, that is true. Buffalo doesn't claim downtown. Yeah, they don't claim it, it's in New York State. Yeah, but it's not, it's Buffalo, new York, exactly. And even though, like it's not, the city, it's not the city.
Speaker 1It's like the city is the city and then anything outside of it— and also Cali is the same way, like California has Sacramento right. But they've opened it up to where they just be like the Bay. So, you understand what the area is? Yeah, the Bay, like LA Compton I mean Compton's a big-ass city.
Speaker 3No, no, no, the Bay has Oakland. Oakland over the bridge is Oakland, it is not San Francisco.
Speaker 1Do you understand? But you got to think about people from—I could be completely wrong here. I don't know if Compton is the city in Los Angeles. I don't know how big the city of Los—I don't know how big the city of Los Angeles is.
Speaker 3It's part of Los Angeles. County, but it's divided, like boroughs, like New.
Speaker 1York. So it's almost like the people from Baltimore County can claim Baltimore yes.
Speaker 3County and city depends on the culture right. So the county has its own culture than the city the city has. We're going to have to check this man.
Speaker 1No, I used to live out there. He doesn't sound too convincing right now.
Speaker 4This guy, I will say, yeah, baltimore downtown city is a very different vibe than Baltimore county Towson is much more rural houses, it's a county.
Speaker 3The city has Dundalk. You can get around, walk around the city where all the waterfront or whatever.
Speaker 1Yeah, Out in the county it's like Catonsville All those areas are in the county, so they can claim to a certain, can't? They claim Baltimore, yeah, so that's what I'm saying. So that's why I'm like it's the same thing in certain situations, but then to them.
Speaker 3They will tell you different, though. That's the thing about it.
Speaker 1Man look when they get it.
Speaker 3No, baltimore, I'm not part of the county, I'm city. You know what I'm saying. That's why I like Compton is the same thing. Compton can say I'm LA, but it's I'm Compton or I'm what's. Snoop Dogg is from Long.
Speaker 1Beach.
Speaker 3It's all the same county, or Orange County or whatever. It's different counties, but LA is LA. The Bay is a Bay.
Speaker 1I'm going to hit my Cali homeboys and they're going to get me right.
Speaker 2Absolute DMV to Cali baby, maybe it's just my view is tainted because like in Bethesda here, or like the you know somewhere in like the suburbs, like Rockville area, like getting to Baltimore by car is about the same distance as if it was to drive to like you know, like Arlington or something which is part of the DMV. So it's kind of like for me it's kind of like maybe it's just where I'm driving from.
Speaker 1It kind of feels like it should be part of it, because it's the same distance. No, no, no See, but I think what you're the time frame I was about to say, what you're speaking of is the it's the same closeness, you know, like 40 minutes in the DMV, one's not.
Speaker 2That's different, because the 40 minutes.
Speaker 1The 40 minutes, the distance is different. If we were to see where Arlington was in relation to here, it'll be like 15 miles away.
Speaker 2Yeah, but that's the DC traffic fault. But that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1We're holding it against the city of Baltimore here. Nah man, Stop trying to make them DMV.
Speaker 3They're Maryland man. Stop trying to make them DMV. They're Maryland man. They already Maryland. So we stray away from where we started off. I mean, we need the same kind of fell in love.
Speaker 1Nah, I mean this absolute DMV. We've been talking about the area. Fuck it what you talking about.
Speaker 3We right where we need to be. I'm talking about music, man.
Speaker 4We were just or just, hey look hey once again cause I was about to say something fucked up. I was really about to say something fucked up, yo I was really about to say something fucked up and and and you had to catch me we might have to edit this out. But yeah, uh, we might have to edit this out.
Speaker 1We're editing shit, nigga, yeah so nah, I mean cause, I'll be honest bro I don't. We might have to edit this out. We're editing Shut up, nigga, yeah. So I mean because, I'll be honest, bro, I don't really listen to too many DMV artists. No, the DMV artists I listen to are all the old heads and the top people. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3The Raheem Devons, the Wale's, how about we do this, hey, we'll give big ups. If anybody for the DMV artists want to hit us up, hit us up so we can give you some props and also we will put you on the pod. I want you on the pod. We're absolute DMV. We should do this shit.
Speaker 1Look at this guy. He's hey and he gonna want you to rap. So come with a freestyle.
Speaker 3Oh, I will do that shit I will call you out. I won't call you out.
Speaker 1He's going to give you an LOZ beat and you're going to have to rap on it. I got beats.
Speaker 2Drop a 16.
Speaker 1You know what I'm saying We'll make a cypher out of it.
Speaker 2It'll be fun.
Speaker 1Let's have fun with this shit. These guys are trying to bring me out of retirement. I don't even rap, no more.
Speaker 4I haven Cat in the Hat raps.
Speaker 3And any producers, any producers.
Speaker 2That could go viral though.
Speaker 3Like any producers in a DMV, any singers in a DMV, I want you. You have an outlet here. You have an outlet.
Speaker 1Yo Like comment. Subscribe Comment. Let us know what you think. If you want to hit us up, hit us in the comments. We'll figure out how to you know what I'm saying. Get it to work, let's get it.
Speaker 2Let us know your opinion about Baltimore and the DMV. Oh gosh this guy's crazy.
Speaker 3All right, man, Absolute DMV hey we'll do better next time.
Speaker 1Y'all be easy, peace, peace.