A few unassailable facts about Washington, DC. There is a very real color line and social line that delineates the differences in DC nightlife. Uptown and downtown never party together. The famous U Street that’s going to be the bread and butter point for the next underground generation after hipster? Well, those people almost never party downtown with the stuffier K Street suits crowd. Also, on a larger level, black and white don’t party together. Black folks who enjoy a more urban club experience, like the jiggy glamour of Part at 14th or DJ Quicksilva’s night at Ibiza wouldn’t think of being caught dead at U Street Music Hall or DC9. Same goes for white folks as well who end up at any one of the plethora of K Street spots, Fur or the indie venues like DC9 or U Hall. Attention has been paid to these issues before, but with mixed results that were not maintained. However with the “Rock Creek Social Club’s” new “Good Life Tuesdays” biweekly party at Recess now on the scene, everything is about to change.
One of the key elements that makes this possible for DC is that it’s frankly really fucking small. If you’re an impresario of any scene in DC,and if you choose to cross over even one line, you’ve almost made your Six Degrees of Separation game incredibly simple and cut out about four degrees in the process. For non-impresarios and revelers, this means that all of the people who inform and create your party choices these days all get along really really well now, and if everybody drops egos, stand to be extremely successful as a unit on par with how the first USA Basketball Dream Team came along and dominated.
Jerome Baker III being the lynchpin to this party is a key boon for the success and vision of uniting all of the disparate cultures of DC’s urban experience in one room, and becomes the point that Jerome goes from being the dude who says nothing and makes money in this city to being a leading identifier of DC culture and putting his theoretical money where his mouth is. Connected to all of the top impresarios of underground culture in the city from Stereo Faith to Will Eastman to working at Stussy on the infamous Cmonwealth and Stussy block on 18th and U Streets, it was a matter of if, not when something major and important as a contribution would come from him.
Rock Creek Social Club Presents: Good Life Tuesdays @ Recess DC. from Rock Creek Social Club. on Vimeo.
Next are Modele “Modi” Oyewole and Sonya Collins. A successful and internationally respected blogger with the DCtoBC.com brand, Modi is 24 and up next as a underground/blipster/urban mainstream culture creator. The recent Boston College grad is one to watch and having just finished an internship with Complex Magazine and presently a contributor for drjays.com, both based out of NYC, he brings the legitimacy of being a prodigy with entrenched NYC roots to the table. Sonya, ex of her blog the Glass House (glasshousedc.com) is the heartbeat and pulse of the streets of Washington, DC. One of your favorite people’s favorite people, Sonya is a motivator and friend to urban culture with a knack for motivating the streets. There are a plethora of other collaborators with the party who are equally important as well, those are just the ones presently on my radar.
Last night’s party debut for the Rock Creek Social Club couldn’t have gone any better. Despite a tropical climate from a now fixed air conditioner not working for the early portion of the evening, inaugural event headliner DJ Impulse’s headline set did everything it needed to to give an outline of where the party would succeed. Touching the gulliest of hip hop (Rick Ross’ “BMF”) to the top 40 mainstream (Drake’s “Fancy”) to hipster electro (Major Lazer’s “Pon de Floor” once again proved it’s one of the greatest songs of this generation) and Bmore club (DJ Booman’s “Pick Em Up” crushed the club), the parameters for the initial look of this party melding all scenes has been set. This is a DC party though, and one expecting to draw from all scenes, so the necessary expectation will be that disco, deep house, Moombahton and dubstep will have to be introduced to take this to the next level, and soon, for this not to become just another night out at the club, but just with more of a racial mix than usual.
If you support TGRIOnline.com, you are a supporter of this event, and even further, I’d expect you to swing out on August 31st to the next one. If DC is going to be the cultural leader of the next generation that I expect it to be, this event, in pulling the uptown, downtown, black, white, indie, hipster, underground dance and mainstream jiggy folks together, is the look. This event, because of the individuals involved, can be a showpiece to the world of the new energy coursing through the veins of the up and coming creative class of Washington, DC.
All respect all isn’t just an email signature I often use, but also a key phrase that is a backbone of the next generation. To be ultimately successful, and reach it’s optimal point of success, The Good Life must achieve that. To quote great DC dude DJ Dave Nada, “Lezzzzgo.”
elivindotorg 