It’s funny how the boundaries of a city help define a signature sound and style that can coalesce into a full blown local cultural movement. We wanted to take an in-depth look into local hip hop scenes across the country from hip hop’s birthplace in New York down to trapstars in the Dirty South all the way out to the West where it still feels good to be a gangster.
Today, imeem is launching Keys to the City, a new program designed to paint a multimedia picture of the sights and sounds of a city’s hip hop music scene as told through the eyes of one of its most popular artists. Every other month, we will be featuring a city where a distinctive hip hop scene has emerged, such as Philly, Atlanta, L.A., Seattle, and New York. We’ll offer artist-guided video tours, original mixes from local DJs, music playlists featuring hometown artists, behind the scenes photos from local venues, and much, much more.
The first episode, Keys to the City D.C., is hosted by the rap Ambassador to the Capitol, Wale. After stirring up noise regionally with radio singles, “Nike Boots” and “Ice Cream Girl,” Wale caught the attention of Mark Ronson, who recently signed him to a joint venture deal with Interscope.
Keys to the City D.C. is an inside look into the city that gave birth to this emerging superstar with exclusive video of Wale, original interviews from AllHipHop.com, an exclusive DJ Mix from the One Nation Hip Hop radio show and a Keys to the City playlist from burgeoning hip hop blog, illroots.com. Get down with D.C. on this first edition of Keys to the City and let us know about your local music scene.
- Will from the music team
