Artist Spotlight - 93 Bandits

• July 16, 2018

#floodthemarket

Alright, so we're here with the 93 Bandits. The first question we're going to start out with is how did 93 Bandits form?


Grizz : We started in like 2015/2016. I can't remember.


Rashad Stark : I want to say, it might've been 2015, late 2014.


G : Alright, so we were in this group, right? And nobody was dropping music except for me and Rashad. So we said hey, we should like break off into groups of two and drop individual EPs. Me and Rashad were going to make a joint and everybody else was going to make a joint. You know what I'm saying? So I remember I hit these niggas one day as I was going to work. I used to work at Best Buy. I'm like “Yo man, give me some ideas for the designs of these shirts, man”. And the niggas, I’ll never forget this shit - it broke my heart - said, “You can't design everything for everybody. Everybody's image is different.” I'm like, well I'm trying, you know? A couple of weeks pass and then we decided to break up. All love. So I’m headed to this b* house and I hit Rashad, I have this random ass idea. I'm like, “Yo, you want to start a group? Me and you, like a duo.” He's like, “I could see that happening.” I remember we had this song when we first started rapping, right? It's called Bandit Life and I was like “Wow, 93 Bandits. We’re both born in 93. That'd be a wave.” So after that we just kinda started planning on what we were going to do next. That was in like 2016. We had a little run, this little three song run we did. A lot performing and shit. Then we fell back to really hone and revise how we were going about the group because it was just two of us. It was a lot of niggas that had like eight, nine people in groups and shit. We just felt like we were boxing the whole rack of niggas with just two of us, you know. So that's where we are now. This rebuilding stage or rebrand. You got anything to add, nigga? *laughs*


RS : I just felt like everybody in the old group wanted different things and they were blaming it on the brand. It just got to a point where people felt frustrated and everybody wanted to go their separate ways. But it didn't really make sense for me and Grizz to not keep making music-


G : -because we got good chemistry.

So, we’re here with Rashad Stark & Grizz (Grizz on 13th, Steezy Grizzlies)… how do you all get your names?


RS : So, Grizz actually helped me determine my name. Back in the day, I had a name.


G : *laughs* What was your name?


RS : It was DLo The Hero. Eventually, I felt I needed to change that, you know what I'm saying? For my image, for my brand - I need to have a more serious name. So people can get on that, whether you fuck with the music or not. I don't know how many people really want to support a nigga named DLo The Hero. But I wanted to still stay true to myself, so I was going to stick to the origin of my original name. So it was between two: DLo Parker & Rashad Stark. One of them still sounded corny, so I already knew which one I wanted to go with. Spiderman is my favorite superhero. Iron Man. It's my second favorite, so I was like, I can go with that… sounds sexy, you know, like I'm like a porn star. So that's how that came to be. And Rashad is my middle name.


G : I just changed my name again. So its just Grizz. The Grizz on 13th is just for Googling purposes because if you Google “Grizz”, the fucking Memphis basketball mascot is called Grizz too. So it's really just Grizz. How I got the first rap name Steezy Grizzlies - I was smacked one day and I was watching Animal Planet. Matter of fact, my rap name when I first started was Steezy Snapback. I was in AP Bio and my man Danny, Daniel West, was like, “Oh, you can rap? But that's a shitty ass name.” *laughs* He was like, “The ‘Steezy’ part tight, but you gotta change that ending.” And this is when Curren$y was popping and I was on that smoking wave or whatever. So I was smoking, watching Animal Planet. Motherfucking grizzly bear popped on the joint and it was like the European niggas that be talking like *uses British accent* “The grizzly bear as he stalks his prey.” Just talking about him and, basically, saying how the bear is real peaceful but he could turn up too. So I was like, that's literally me, right? I recently changed it because I outgrew it. I'm not really “steezy” anymore, per se. As an artist, that name had a lot of growing pains. I had to learn a lot, trial and error, a lot of tapes. That was shit that came under that name. The new name represents moving forward.


What was your first real introduction to hip-hop?


G : I remember, man, I used to hang out with a lot of thieves.


So there’s a backstory to the “Bandit” part of the name, like shit *laughs*


G : Shit. redacted used to steal! Him and redacted . They came up off Target, hella CDs: 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Mobb Deep’s Blood Money , Lloyd Bank’s The Hunger for More . We were G-Unit stans. I was the only nigga that had a computer, so I’d burn CDs and then sell them at school. So that's how it was in middle school. Then I went to go visit my grandma in Chicago and my aunt had a random ass Kanye CD, The College Dropout . For a whole summer, I played nothing but The College Dropout everyday, bro. Everyday. Everyday for like six, seven hours, I'd be like on AIM, the lil AOL joint. Rapping to random white bitches, bumping Kanye West. Like “Age, Sex, Location. Yeah, I'm listening to Kanye West.” The whole CD is pink too! I was like “Damn.” It's just so tight. So I kind of had the contrast between gangster shit because I used to hang out with nothing but hoodlums. But Ye was off some different shit that I related to more. And then through Kanye, I found Pharrell and Talib and, surprisingly, Jay-Z. That's my first experience,


RS : I wasn't honestly - I'm kind of ashamed to even say it, man - I wasn't really into hip-hop like that when I first started out. I was more of a poet. At the time, I was in high school, in 11th grade and I won this poetry contest, got some good bread and that kind of streamlined into me freestyling and shit. But I would only freestyle big wild shit! Make niggas laugh at the lunch table and shit. So by the time I hit 12th grade, I just had an epiphany in class. I was just like, “Yo, I ain't got shit moe, like b* is cheerleaders, niggas is on the football team, niggas in engineering winning motherfucking contests in robotics.” I was like, I don't do shit. But I'm a poet. Let me see if I can streamline it into rap and I just ended up getting into it. I was in my motherfucking attic, make an iPod mixtapes, dropping them on DatPiff. I remember thought I was doing something man. I had one joint called, it was a Christmas project called The Naughty List , and my friends would support me. This is when everybody was on Twitter. And someone tweeted “I don’t know who this is… but you need to let him know he’s garbage.” And I was just like “Damn.” Let me really buckled down and see if I’m so shit, because I really didn’t know. So I started listening to more artists, more rappers. Probably whoever else was out. Then I heard Big Sean and I just like, “Okay, hold on.” I'm talking about mixtape Big Sean. I felt like he was a huge influence on me. I'm listening to him and I feel like he wasn't super like hip-hop, like super boom bap-ish. I was able to identify and fuck with it and be like, I can understand why this is practically good rapping. So I adapted the flow and I started doing that. Fast forward and I'm slowly but surely doing more and more researching and being more comfortable with my shit. Boom. We started going to Everlasting Life Cafe down on Georgia Avenue and that's when I was around some crazy niggas who knew how to rap, like Sir E.U., that nigga is amazing. I’m talking about they were RAPPING and people were resonating with it and all I could think was, “Yo, this is crazy.” And so I studied those niggas. Like, what the fuck are these niggas doing? Why do niggas think what they did was so tight and why are people captivated by it? I started to see: repetition, metaphors, similes. Really studying the vocabulary. Just trying to get into what really makes a rapper a good rapper. I had to like find my love of hip-hop in the midst of me trying to get better.


G : Back then, I think we actually rapped more than we do now.


RS : Oh, we most definitely did.


G : Because I remember how I would write a verse everyday, just because I was trying to be

better than them. But cookies crumble and bitches mumble. You know what I'm saying?


RS : It’s a new era.


In relation to that, and I think this perfectly rolls into what you guys were just saying at the very end - Do you guys believe that the presentation or the project itself is more important in this day and age?


RS : Presentation.


G : Presentation. Niggas is stupid. Majority likes the presentation. The gatekeepers like both.


RS : If you present something good enough, you can trick people into thinking that something is what it's not when it comes to a product. Whatever an artist decides to put together.


G : It's like buying Fiji water and shit. Fiji, it's just regular water but the bottle looks better. I know a lot of niggas buy the bottle.


RS : And they'll convince themselves, “Damn, this shit tastes cleaner! It be colder when you take it out the fridge! That shit blue!.”


G : Perfect metaphor for rap right now. Big ass bottle of Fiji water.


Putting on it in the context, what's your creative process as individual artists and as a group?


G : This is wild because I recently just changed mine, like as of May. I used to be really meticulous and take like three or four months to make a song because of everybody I'm around. I wanted to make sure the product was so perfect. Now? I hear a beat and if I resonate with it, I try and make the song as fast as possible. Get my ideas, the product and idea, just put it on wax so I can listen to it over and over again. And then I make my improvements after that. Because I'm starting to believe perfection with anything is ji impossible. And people want product. A lot of times niggas got stuck on the perfection of it. Fuck that shit, man. Whatever you produce to the world is what you’re gonna produce and it's gonna get better over time. As long as you keep in mind that you want to get better. So I just try to do shit as quick as possible and not get stuck on a song or stuck on a project. Keep it moving. I'm at the point in my skill now where I'm not making some shit. I'm just trying to get that to the point where everything I make is good. And then, eventually, where everything I make is great.


RS : Honestly, and I'm a bit ashamed, I normally just get drunk as shit and eventually just create. Like literally, when I dropped The Most Lit and The Most Lit 2 , I only recorded when I was drunk. I would get all my inspiration when I was drunk and off the drugs. Especially when I was drunk and off the drugs at the same time, but that’s just me. I can't even explain why it worked, but it did and my best stuff will come out of it. But I don't really have any rituals or anything like that. I'm always thinking of music. My projects, I never have a concept in mind for the most part, I'm always just making shit. Then the music speaks to me. If I make seven, eight songs, I know where my energy is and it feels like I don't even have to focus on it. And then it comes together as genuine as possible, when it just feels right.


G : That’s the thing about this nigga. Even if he feels “Eh” about a song, he’ll have enough confidence to put it out, like "Fuck it.” It'll be the song he doesn't even like the most. But everybody will fuck with it. How many times has that happened before? I’ll say a word wrong. And he will be like “Nah, it's good.” And, it's good. We'll put it out and niggas will geek over it and eventually, I’ll forget what the fuck I was even worried about with song.


That almost goes back to what you had just previously said about your process, about not being as meticulous with it and just getting your ideas on wax. Especially, I think, with people's attention span in music nowadays


G : I don't want anybody who reads this shit to be like I’m off some one & done shit in the booth. I’m off some rap a song, send it to these niggas (the rest of the 93 Bandits team), get their feedback. Maybe I could do this better or that better, but I'm not really about to be like, let me sit down and analyze the metaphor and the context of the similes that I have to put together to create this lyrical masterpiece.


RS : I feel like the reason we as artists are even like that nowadays is the business aspect of it. Once upon a time, I used to be extremely meticulous.


G : Nobody gives a fuck, that’s the sad part.


RS : You really just got to ask yourself what matters. Like for instance, I could have recorded any of my last projects in a professional studio. Does my music deserve that? Sure. Do I have all the resources to make it happen? Possibly. But at the end of the day, for me, it always stems back to creating. Picasso made paintings. Niggas probably sounded dumb as shit going to Picasso like, “Hey bro, you might want to put one more splat on that.” But then after he started getting that bread, it's like, what are you going to say? It's a different type of thing because when you’re making music for other people and the masses, first of all, they can't fucking identify most of the shit that goes into almost any of it for real, for real. It can be frustrating. There is always more music to make, but most definitely. If we got some shit that we know deserves to be taken time on or being really meticulous about bars, etc, we do take that time. But generally we don't stress about it.


You guys are MCs but you also deal with the production side of things. Who is the best producer in hip-hop, all-time, but then also your favorite current guy doing his thing on the boards?


G : Pharrell is the greatest producer of all time. Anybody could fight me over it. Pharrell Williams. I don’t think anybody can argue with that nigga’s catalogue.


RS : Yeah, I don’t have anything to say. *laughs* I would say Timbaland is up there as well.


G : But who's my favorite producer now? It’s between Tay Keith and Pi’erre Bourne.


RS : My favorite producer out right now is Yung Kifo. My little bro.

G : Oh shit! I feel like an ass. He’s the next Metro Boomin’, I’m telling y’all.


RS : I swear to God, that nigga just be in his room for like days.


G : He's 17. He’s in Colorado.


RS : He just trying to trap it out till he can get the fuck. That nigga don't even have the full version of FL. So that means that nigga has to crank them joints out. The mixes are clean. He's not going back to tweak anything.


G : He can't tweak anything. Remember when he just sent us his recent beats because he wanted to put his tag in it? I think he had to remake the whole beat just to put his tag in it. He’s only 17. He going to be the best, I’m trying to tell you.


So speaking on that, who are the members of 93 Bandits as a collective and what are their roles?


RS : Since we started off as a rap group, the first people who come to mind are always the artists. So first, it's me, Grizz and Hooks Ventura, as far as artists who have catalogues. We also have Ian Sadiqq, the PACE man. Yung Kifo, young producing genius, the prodigy. Pine Roasted, our DJ. We got Monty, manager/brand ambassador. And big VP, Farid. Lastly, we got Najee.

In your opinion, how does 93 Bandits differ from other collectives in the area?


G : Well, for one thing, I feel like we actually enjoy what the fuck we’re doing. It's like a lot of collectives, musically, are so worried about getting on, that there’s a level of desperation when I look at their product. Like, “Yeah, nigga. I’m from the mud.” Well, aite nigga. None of us are stacking. So you have to enjoy what you do. We make music we like and we enjoy. I hope people enjoy it. I feel like niggas make shit for other people all of the time. So I feel like if you do fuck with 93, you investing in a genuine brand of person. It's like having good product with good personalities. That’s our main appeal. Just regular niggas that do tight shit and you can do tight shit, too. I'm able to do it. If you're not, you can just get on the bandwagon and watch us do it.


RS : In being realistic, we have a lot of collectives in the city. I feel like when it comes to us, it's the energy and the vibe. Especially with the way we're expanding. There is so much stuff we want to do and it's not even just music based anymore. It's not just about who can rap or who can make a beat, you know what I'm saying? I like to think that the collective is a family that wants to strive and push quality.


G : It’s just a lot that’s wrong. The product be wrong, man. The ambition be wrong.



What was the thought process behind 93 Week?


G : So niggas always do a week where their collective drops music and, while that's tight, it's not different. I want to create experiences for people, more so than just music. So, let’s do shit outside of music to create hype around the music in order to hip people who know us socially to our music and vice versa. A lot of rap niggas, people don't really like them in person and that's not the case for us. We make good music and people like us personally. Hopefully. *laughs* So I don't like. Yeah. So we just created the experience for Niggas bath hundred percent, hundred percent. That was the whole idea behind the joint.


Where do you see the 93 collective in 5 years?


RS : I want to keep it a stack, man. It might sound backwards, but I personally don't even necessarily have a vision of where I want it to be yet. I'm a firm believer in having faith and having faith in hard work and you never know what can come out of it. Of course, there are a lot of like typical accolades I would like to reach, but for the most part I really just want to see where the brand can go with the amount of passion and hard work that I know we're going to put in. Five years is a long time. So if niggas is doing what they're supposed to, we might end up in places we don't even imagine, that we didn't set out to be.

G : I’m trying to make the 93 apparel like the next OFF-WHITE. Also, I want to eventually have an imprint under a major label. 93 Bandits Records. But my biggest thing bro, a lot of times this might sound like real cliche, but I'm not really doing it just for me. I’m trying to do it for everybody who I think is a creative genius.

Kavon Martez is Cultivating a Community Through the Game of Basketball

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
Basketball has a close relationship with the inner cities across the world. Sports such as tennis, golf, hockey, gymnastics, and so on, are not accessible for many black kids to participate in at an early age. A lot of this can be traced to a lack of access to resources within communities. With basketball, the game is simple. There’s not much equipment that needs to be purchased; all you need is some sneakers, a ball, and a hoop. In DC culture, basketball’s unique relationship with the city cannot be ignored. To understand it you must look past the mainstream of the NBA, where the Washington Wizards, formerly known as the Bullets, have struggled to maintain success since their last championship in 1978. Basketball is one of the true subcultures of DC. The Goodman League in SE DC, is a great example of that. NBA pros, amateurs and fanatics alike gather to participate or watch games throughout the summer. While those groups definitely hold impact, the biggest example of DC’s relationship to basketball is on full display with the game of 33. The goal of the game is to be the first to score 33 points, and there is no cap on the amount of people who can participate. What makes this unique to DC is the fact that many across the country play this same game, but they only play it to 21. 33 is a game that has been played on DC basketball courts for decades. No one knows the true origin of the game, but many trace it back to Patrick Ewings tenure at Georgetown University, and how Jon Thompson’s historic teams put DC basketball on the map in the 1980’s. Ewing famously sported the number 33 as a Georgetwon Hoya, and later on in his hall of fame NBA career with the New York Knicks. Kavon Martez explored this very relationship between basketball and Washington DC, with the debut of his documentary ‘33|DC’s Game’ alongside co directors Llyod Foster and David Ross. The short film explores the rules of the game, its possible origins, its ties to Georgetown, and DC’s love for basketball. For Kavon, the release of the documentary was a turning point within his life. Kavon is a native Washingtonian who previously dabbled with storytelling through making streetwear clothes. One day he decided to make a hoodie dedicated to the game of 33, and got a response that would propel his outlook on things moving forward. “So I used to make clothes a lot…that was like my first creative outlet. So the way it started was one of the most organic things in my life…I made like this dope hoodie explaining the rules of 33 and what it meant and then I put it up on my social media, just joking around and I never got a reception like that [before].I never had an organic response like that. I had no expectation that people would like the sweater. l was just like, this is cool, this is just DC, just a game we played. So I put it on my social media and I had like 150 comments of people like, "bro, I need this, this fire”. He soon connected with a friend of his, Lloyd Foster,a photographer attending NYU who introduced him to fellow filmmaker David Ross. Impressed with Ross’s previous work, a vision soon came to Kavon about what to do next. “I was just like, people really loving this idea of 33. You think we can make a documentary about 33? And I never went into a magical brainstorm like that before. That one night that I thought about it, I visioned everything that was going to come. And then we created the film and now I have a basketball organization named 33 Hoyas with over 80 kids.” 33 Hoyas is a youth basketball team founded by Kavon in 2020. In the aftermath of the 33 documentary, Kavon developed 33 Community DC, feeling a responsibility to continue what he started. I visited Kavon at Shepard Park Recreation Center in May to talk about this journey, and the outlook of the organization. From the very moment I met him, you could feel his focus and attention to detail in everything he said. You could also feel how much the culture of DC shaped him. In our conversation, Kavon discussed the pathway from the documentary release to developing a successful youth basketball program; connecting and receiving a donation from Chicago designer JoeFreshGoods; what he works to instill in the kids he mentors, and much more. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Ty Hobson-Powell doesn't believe in respectability politics

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
Ty Hobson Powell is one of the dynamic voices in DC advocacy. It’s hard not to be impressed with his resume. Ty finished high school at age 13, graduated college with his bachelor’s degree at age 15, and received his masters at age 17. It would be easy for Ty to be defined by these academic achievements, but his reach and influence go far beyond them. He is an activist that has been critically engaged with all issues relating to the well being of Black people in DC, especially within the last few years. In 2020, after seeing the frustration of his peers during the many racial justice demonstrations of 2020, Ty co founded Concerned Citizens to help organize the thoughts and voices of DC. Concerned Citizens started with marches, and soon moved into a place of advocacy through mutual aid drives and providing communal resources for residents of DC from turkey drives all the way to feminine care products. Ty’s advocacy has also crossed over into making sure DC Statehood has a future. He has been a partner with 51 for 51, a group that mobilizes to ensure legislation making DC a state has a future to be passed. Though Ty Hobson Powell wears many hats, he is one of the most approachable individuals you will ever meet. I met him on the corner of 14th and Crittenden St in Uptown DC, right across the street from Highlands. A random bystander probably wouldn’t guess that this 6’1 black dude posted on the corner arguing about how good Luka Doncic has been in the playoffs so far, is one of the leading advocacy voices in DC. But that’s the point. Civil engagement should not be gatekept, or have a certain look. That premise is what's kept the average person from feeling like they have a voice that can participate in the larger discussions. The politicians that represent us are not seen as real people who live the same lives as us, or people that we can just walk up to on a random street corner and talk to. Ty and I talked outside for about an hour. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

In Conversation with Yaddiya: Three years of Moechella, D.C. vs. GoGo, and the future of the Genre moving forward

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
“If you have a black-tie event, you don’t have any problem. But if you bring go-go in, you’re going to have problems.” This quote from 2005 was stated by retired DC Police Commander Larry McCoy. It captures the sentiment that many police officers and some government officials had toward DC’s native genre. In the early 2010’s gogo stood on its last leg as a cultural giant within the city, as many venues were shut down or reported, citing either violence or loud noise complaints from new neighbors. Many bands were often surveilled by police, and in 2010, MPD’s GoGo report was discovered, where officers passed around a list of weekly shows and performances, in the hopes of “intervening in violence” In 2010 Former Prince George's County Police chief referenced TCB gogo shows as , “violence masqueraded as entertainment”. Ten years later, on February 19th 2020, DC Mayor Muriel Bower signed a bill into law that designated GoGo Music as the official music of DC. This hillturn of the city's acceptance of gogo has a lot to do with the work of Justin “Yaddiya'' Johnson, and the mobile gogo movement he founded with Moechella. If you have been in DC the past 3 years, it would be very hard for you to not be familiar with the gogo event that often doubles as a form of protest. In 2019 Yaddiya put together years of experience in the gogo circuit and organizing protest against actions of the federal government during the Trump administration, to respond to a local incident involving gogo. The moment is pretty well known and infamous by now. A white newcomer to DC made a complaint about the gogo music being played out of the Metro PCS store on the corner of 7th and Florida Ave, a tradition that is beloved my DC residents. When the store stopped playing the music, this hit the nerve of Natives across the city, who were already dealing with the circumatsnces of gentrification in many other ways, now it was extending to the music!? The DOnt Mute DC Movement began and the gogo event of all gogo events was created, Moechella. Yaddiya and Moechella celebrated their three year anniversary on May 21st, 2022 with a concert at the Howard Theater featuring special guests, TCB, New Impressionz, Comedian and DC mayoral candidate Red Grant, DJ and EAT Founder AllHomage, DJ NahFr, and many more. I caught up with Yaddiya a few weeks before the event, in the midst of his promotion run. We sat on Wisconsin Ave near the National Zoo, and our conversation went as follows:

Keyonna Jones knows the Soufside has something to say in the Arts

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
The Southside of DC, affectionately referred to by many as Soufside, is often misunderstood. Many think of the violence that takes place in Wards 7 and 8, and the discrepancies in the amount of grocery stores and hospitals this area has in comparison to other parts of the city. While many attribute negative connotations to the Soufside, many see it as home to some of the most personable and resilient people you will ever meet. They see a place where the talent is unlimited in terms of sports, art, music, food and much more. Keyonna Jones has long been one of the people who has seen the potential for the Soufside. Jones is a creative in all facets of the term. She is the executive director of the Congress Height Arts and Culture Center, and touts herself as a one woman band who will get whatever needs to be done to advance the space of art within her part of the city. Keyonna has pushed initiatives forward such as SoufsideCreates, and since 2015, the CHACC has been a creative hub that artists can have exhibitions at, small businesses can vend, and people of all ages are exposed to new ways of interacting with their artistry. In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic and racial justice protests within DC, Keyonna was approached with a tall task. She and other artists in the city were approached by the Mayor to paint the yellow Black Lives Matter mural, located now at what is known as Black Lives Matter plaza in downtown DC. When Keyonna was recognized as one of the lead artists, and pulled from anonymity, she used the press she was receiving as an opportunity to continue her mission, push forward the creative arts space in southeast DC. I visited Keyonna at the Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center on MLK Ave in SE, to pick her brain on the past few years, and her mission of making art accessible in Southeast DC. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Nia Keturah Calhoun is Navigating the World of Art Without Compromise

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
DC is one of the most unique cities in the country in terms of its arts scene. You will see everything from street graffiti, and political art to fine art exhibitions and installations. Throughout each street, you will likely see a mural or sculpture of some kind, paying homage to history or just celebrating the rich culture of the city. Nia Keturah Calhoun, is one of the constant contributors to this very scene. Nia is a multidisciplinary hailing from Maryland, who is constantly creating art that celebrates Black culture in America. If you have been in DC within the past few years, it's possible you have passed by her art without even knowing. She has recently created a cherry blossom sculpture that was acquired by the Mayor’s office, and sits within SE DC. She created visual artwork for Rare Essence’s Overnight Scenario detailing the famous scene the song plays out, and also painted some street dividers with a nice question on them, “What do they call math in DC? AD+MO.” Recently, Nia was tasked with her first full mural. The subject? Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. By the time Nia finished the mural, the Senate officially voted to confirm Jackson and send her to join the court. I caught up with Nia at the corner of 14th and S Street NW, in front of the mural to pick her brain about the mural making process, and how she approaches her art:

Generational Equity Movement is changing the conversation around marijuana and black business ownership in Washington, D.C. 

By Nayion Perkins • July 7, 2022
On March 31st, 2022, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called for a vote on emergency legislation that would give the city the ability to close down any marijuana gifting business in DC. The bill would implement these changes as soon as May, and many I-71 gifting shops would have been subject to closure. For Generational Equity Movement, this breaking news caused shock for a few reasons. Not only were many of the members workers within the gifting community, they were hours away from releasing a documentary at the Angelika Pop-Up Theater at Union Market, that covered the very subject. GEM felt a conflicting feeling of fear of the unknown, but also power in knowing that they would soon have a movie theater sized audience that was ready to hear their input. Culturally speaking, weed has always played a role within the city. DC has their own customary smoking rituals such as using sheets and funnel. Since 2014, DC has been living in a gray area when it comes to weed. It was now decriminalized to where MPD could now give out tickets for smoking in public instead of jail time, all the while still being federally illegal. You could now walk around with up to an ounce of weed on you, as long as you showed no intent to sell it. Residents are even allowed to grow a limited number of marijauna plants in their homes. Businesses however, would face the most drastic and complex changes. Selling weed was still illegal, but simply gifting it to someone was now decriminalized.This law created the gifting industry. As a loophole, businesses often sell art, books, pencils, stickers or other items, and accompany that purchase with a selection of weed. Since the weed is in addition to the initial purchase, it is considered a gift, and by law, legal. Most of these dealings are done in cash. For eight years this trend has continued with many black residents starting lucrative businesses within the marijuana space. Many of them couple as creative businesses, often serving as incubator hubs for the arts. Within the past few years, this gray area had been in constant threat, with various legislation proposals to strike this status down, despite the fact that in 2014, DC residents voted overwhelmingly to have weed legalized in their city. Because DC is not a state, Republican Congressman from Maryland Andy Harris was able to insert a rider that prohibits local lawmakers from moving forward on legalizing marijuana sales. Generational Equity Movement saw how entrepreneurship in this space gave a new wave of young Black Washingtonians an opportunity to provide for themselves and insulate their communities. They also saw how the uncertainty of the marijuana laws in DC put many black entrepreneurs in danger of no longer being able to provide for themselves in a legal manner. So they decided to put together the documentary titled Young Gifting and Black, which explores DC’s relationship with weed, the positive things business owners have been able to provide for their communities, and how the issue of marijuana also goes into civil rights, and the politics of being denied agency without having DC statehood. I chatted with members of Generational Equity Movement, including their documentarian, to pick their brains about the state of the marijuana industry in DC, and what went into making their documentary Young Gifting and Black. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

An Interview with Frontline Women: Advocating on behalf of the people of Washington D.C. 

By Nayion Perkins • November 18, 2020
Activism is inspired by a call to action. People observe a need that is often neglected and ignored; and that neglect elicits action. This has been a constant theme for the year 2020, which has been plagued with the COVID-19 pandemic and racial strife in the country, especially within the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Frontline Women DC, a group of young black women who are advocating for the needs of Washingtonians are one of the best examples of recognizing areas of neglect, and organizing to address them head on. In early June, they came together in reaction to the death of George Floyd, a definitive last straw for many black people who were tired of hearing about police encounters ending with the same deadly result. “The inspiration was definitely through the George Floyd protests. That’s when we came together right at the beginning of June. We really just wanted to make an impact and we didn’t know exactly how we were going to do that, but we just wanted to be a part of this special moment in history. It was like a really weird time and it’s just like, I want to do something. I can’t sit home and watch this on social media and on TV and not be a part of the movement.” The need to participate in the overall movement for justice translated into the formation of Frontline Women. Subsequently, the group organized resources from district residents across the city to provide protestors with food, water, and general financial support to help protests spread their messages. Though their advocacy started with a desire to support protestors of racial injustice, Frontline Women’s mission has expanded into many areas that directly addressed problems DC residents are facing, especially when it comes to black women. “We wanted to center black woman because we felt like in the movement in general and also in DC, we don’t really see the focus of a lot of the movements and activism here being black woman. So we wanted to create the space for ourselves. A lot of black are black women are abused, killed, violated by the police and just by the system in general, that gets overlooked. I think when you have an organization that is founded by black women, we’re always going to put those issues first. For example two girls back in June, were murdered in DC. It wasn’t by the police, but we are still victims of violence within our community and outside our community. We really made an effort to donate to their go fund me’s and spread awareness to violence against black women in DC. I think it’s important to have things that are for us by us when it involves black women, because we’re always going to champion us.” Saige Ballard and Zymia Joyner are the young women referenced. They were two black teenagers who were murdered due to the rampant gun violence that has taken place in DC this year, especially during the summer. When Frontline Women heard of their stories, they immediately used the profile they built aiding protestors in order to funnel aid and support to those two families. Since the summer, Frontline Women DC have organized a series of events to give DC residents resources. Grocery giveaways to Wards 7,8, which are areas that have been historically disenfranchised due to their demographics and location. School drives to provide supplies, as many children went back to school in September without the same familiar infrastructure present. As election season approached, they mobilized to register people to vote, as well as sharing important information with their communicates about how and where to vote. Though they have been able to organize and provide resources to support many communities in DC, members of Frontline Women DC sounded off on a number of issues that are on their radar moving forward: “I think one of the biggest issues is definitely the lack of access to healthy food across the city, food insecurity in general. As DC has become more gentrified those neighborhoods before that didn’t have access to grocery stores, maybe only have like a corner store, now have grocery stores and things like that only because white people have moved in the neighborhood. You can see that these places where white people haven’t moved yet still don’t have access to groceries. Someone should be able to walk down the street and get food because everyone doesn’t have access to cars.” “I also think, to be a little more black women specific, DC is one of the most high risk places to have children in the country, especially if you live east of the river because there aren’t any hospitals, and the hospitals that are in DC right now outside of Howard, you can’t really go to most of them if you don’t have insurance or it’s going to be extremely expensive. That’s something that alarms me. That’s also a huge issue since we’re in the middle of a public health crisis; that there’s just not access to medical care, especially for black women, like there should be in a major city like DC.” “A big thing is cultural and social awareness, just coming back to DC and seeing how gentrifiers, even black people who are new to DC, not understanding the culture. We would like to see more emphasis on teaching people about black DC culture. I just felt like a lot of people are just not culturally sensitive or aware of how inspirational DC’s culture has been and how it’s being taken away through gentrification.” “DC has always been violent, but I feel like this summer in the past couple of years, it’s been super evident. We know that a lot of that is the effect of gentrification. People are being pushed together, but also there’s not a shared community responsibility just to keep everyone safe and alive anymore and that’s just stressful and kind of alarming to think about, especially as we get older and we’re going to start having kids and wanting to raise families here, it’s just not safe and we don’t feel safe when the police come. They don’t necessarily give the care and the proper attention to a lot of these cases like they should, the mayor doesn’t; It’s like us as activists and as community members are the only one who cares.We’re the ones supporting the families when they need help after they lost loved ones.” “It kind of goes back to gentrification. I know growing up here, there were a lot more resources for homelessness. A lot of homeless people had a lot more shelters that they could go to. A lot of addicts had drug treatment programs that they could get into, and now it’s little to none. That’s extremely frustrating, especially with drugs being exposed to younger kids. A lot more people are on the street and there’s a pandemic on top of all of this. Homelessness is at such an alarming rate and then people are already being pushed out from some of the places that they are staying. It’s very concerning.” You can follow Frontline Women DC on Instagram @FrontlineWomenDC in order to keep up with their community events, as well as receiving information on how to donate or volunteer.

Washington D.C. on Track for Highest Murder Total in 15 Years

By Norbert Klusmann • November 18, 2020
Amidst the most chaotic year in recent history… during a pandemic, during a social revolution regarding this country’s past, present and future racial transgressions, with a paradigm shifting Presidential election looming, Washington D.C. is facing a heartbreaking and familiar epidemic that it knows all too well: gun violence. Whether at the hands of the people sworn to protect and serve us or as a by-product of poverty, the lack of opportunities in our communities and displacement, murder has run rampant in the District in a way we haven’t seen for 15 some odd years. With 150+ murders in early October of 2020 (compared to 166 total murders in 2019), Washington, D.C. is on track for topping 200 murders for the first time since 2004. History of Murder Capital D.C.’s Mayor for Life, Marion Barry, once said ”It’s been like a frenzy. Once you start a name, it just becomes a name. You can’t get rid of it,” in respect to the city’s ‘Murder Capital’ tag. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Washington, D.C. did more than earn enough to earn the grim title. From 1988 to 1995, the homicide rate rested comfortably in the 400s, a frightening number for any city, but especially a city as small and compact as D.C. There were many contributing factors to this traumatic time period. First and foremost, we’d be remiss in not recognizing the profound effect the crack epidemic had on this area. Crack’s introduction in 1986 is the most obvious precursor to the ‘Murder Capital’, with D.C. also essentially becoming the ‘Crack Capital’ as well, with the largest crack-dealing organizations making as much as $8 million a month ($18 million in 2020, with inflation). This much street traffic, money and the murder that followed garnered a lot of attention - all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Newly elected President George Bush made it a point to “restart” the War on Drugs because of the drug trade in Washington, D.C., using crack sold in a park across the street from the White House as an example. The subsequent policing and attention caused more harm than good, as the murder rate rose in the following years, but this clearly outlines the landscape this nickname was given in. Factors in Violence: (gentrification, poverty, lack of opportunity) Gun violence is not an issue that exists in a vacuum. It is the culmination of a number of things, ending in the perfect cocktail of circumstances needed for someone to be injured, sometimes fatally. When citizens are asked, they bring up the following as contributing factors: D.C. natives struggle with a lack of opportunity in an economically booming city, rising rent costs forcing residents into unfamiliar (sometimes even warring) neighborhoods, on top of an already irreparable relationship with the black community and the Metropolitan Police Department. This creates a deadly atmosphere, a hotbed for gun violence. Residents don’t feel safe and it is obvious how some may feel that carrying a weapon for your own self-defense is better than potentially losing your life, falling victim to this new landscape they have been put into. On the other hand, when it comes to individuals that may not have any opportunity, any way to feed themselves or their families, relying on less than savory methods of making money become necessary. This puts an unavoidable target on your back - either with other individuals in the streets, the police or both. The powers that be in Washington, D.C. have a responsibility to its citizens, to ensure that they are never put between a rock and a hard place, in this way. The cross-section of economics and public safety can be seen plainly here and real steps need to bee made to ensure the progress of all Washingtonians. 34th N EAT Party Shooting More recently, there has been two captivating stories: a celebration turned mass shooting and another young life taken too soon by America’s over-militarized police force. In the days leading up to August 9th, near the apex of a somewhat dormant and stifled summer as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a video went viral on social media. Hundreds of bottles of liquor advertising an annual cookout branded the ‘34th & EAT Cookout’, featuring the popular D.C. brand EAT, prompted hundreds of people to take to the streets. A little past midnight, shots rung out. 22 people were shot. 21 individuals were adults, including 12 of which are women, 9 male victims and 16 people between the ages of 20-29 years old. Heartbreakingly, a 17 year old young man, a father to an infant, lost his life. No one has been charged for these murderous actions and no explanations have been produced. The event was a perfect cocktail for mayhem, with alcohol amounting to thousands of dollars, the common violent occurrences of dice games and other cash-based gambling at parties and cookouts, ontop of the reality of warring neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. DEON KAY Deon Kay was similarly young. 18 years old with years of life ahead of him, his journey was cut short in a way that is all too familiar to young black men in this country: by a gun in the hands of a police officer. Police responded that a tip that Kay and two others were in their neighborhood brandishing guns and officers actively went looking for them. Upon being discovered, Kay fled, trying his best to escape capture. Officer Alexander Alvarez runs ahead of Kay, trying to cut him off. As we can only guess at this point, Deon realizes his capture is inevitable and he tries to best to toss his weapon. While doing so, Alvarez shoots and kills Deon Kay. The weapon in question was found nearly 100 feet away from Deon Kay’s lifeless body. Police shootings happen everyday in America. Rarely are we, the people, given the information to truly discern whether or not justice was truly served. Do I believe Deon Kay could have been apprehended without loss of life? I do. But at the end of the day, we can only truly focus on how to stop these situations and circumstances from being common occurrences in our communities.

What is Police Abolition?

By Camara Stokes Hudson • November 18, 2020
Why don't you like cops - All people have inherent worth and dignity - and people are not their jobs. When people say ACAB or Fuck 12 they are attacking the institution of the police and people who uphold and defend that system, many of those people are current or former law enforcement. The fact is policing is rooted in anti-blackness and racism. The origins of American policing come from pre-civil war slave catching forces and has throughout its history created and perpetuated a criminal justice system that actively kills Black people and holds Black communities back.

Yaytunde Speaks: Expressing Artistry in Tumultuous Times

By Nayion Perkins • November 18, 2020
On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin, when he held his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Video of Floyd’s last moments were recorded, and ultimately went viral through social media, sparking instant outrage. Subsequently, protests began nationwide, and the conversation on race and injustice in America was sparked once again. For many young Black Americans, Floyd’s death was the last straw. The tragic cases of Ahmaud Arbery as well as Breonna Taylor were already weighing on the minds of many. This was insult to injury. It was also nothing new. Each year, the list of black people who are murdered at the hands of the police grows. Many of those cases conclude with officers not being held accountable for their actions. In June 2020, we saw a boiling point nationwide. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic prompting the shutdown of business and life as we know it, protestors of all ages took to the streets. Many, looking for an outlet. A way to grieve and sort through the familiar pain of losing life to a system that does not care whether you live or die. Protest across the country have brought light to issues when many mainstream media outlets have failed to feel the pulse of the people who are demanding change. During protests, many are inclined to carry a sign to convey a message or share something they feel needs to be addressed. Within the new generation of protesters, art has become an important medium to convey messages to the masses. Coupled with protest, the lockdowns put in place due to COVID-19 presented challenges for many. In a world where technology rules and everyone is now working from home or attending school remotely, it was hard to ignore the movement for social justice taking place outside. Social media would ensure that was the case. And though it was good that a lot more people were forced to pay attention because of the surrounding circumstances of the world, for those who are all too familiar with the pain of being black in America, it was hard to take in all of the news without it taking a mental toll. For DC born and raised artist Yaytunde, art has been a major outlet during this tumulus year. A true chance to make a statement, while also addressing the many emotions that the death of black people wakens.
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