U Street Music Hall has gained a reputation in Washington, DC in 2010 as the home of progressive and classic dance music. House, techno and dubstep are usually on the bill at the venue, however, this was not the case yesterday evening. Unruly Records is known in the dance community for significant contributions to the house and breakbeat friendly genre of Baltimore club music, but with a roster that includes drive time DJs and urban radio personalities DJ Quicksilva from DC’s 93.9 WKYS and Jay Claxton from Baltimore’s 92.3 WERQ is a major staple in urban music as well. In connecting with U Street Music Hall owner, bass maven DJ and club music devotee Jesse Tittsworth to host the Direct Drive Record Pool, it added a significant importance to the nature of U Street Music Hall’s importance as a key music locale in the Nation’s Capital.
The Direct Drive Record Pool is an important hip hop industry standard in the DC/Baltimore area. Originated in 1995 by Unruly Records, it’s an industry heavy meeting point for performers, journalists, DJs, public relations and marketing specialists, label executives and socialites. Between hearing the latest breaking mainstream urban radio records, artists with upcoming albums are allowed to play tracks and humanize themselves with an intimate audience of people all likely heavily involved in the on the ground push of albums and singles in this particular market. The concept has roots in rock and roll, R & B and disco, and is an industry staple that has importance in being the place where deals actually get made between those behind the scenes in the industry, and artists can get a feel for public reception by those who will be the initial deciding factor for the success of an album on a commercial level.
Last night, the pool was sponsored by Sony Records, and Saigon and Sean Garrett, both with forthcoming 1st quarter 2011 releases distributed by the label were in attendance. Saigon’s Greatest Story Ever Told is a tale in itself, the Just Blaze produced debut has been withheld release for easily five years due to squabbles between the artist and his prior label Atlantic Records. Preaching positivity and a return to an era of good feeling in hip hop, tracks with Faith Evans, one featuring a sample from Super Mario Brothers and a Swizz Beatz banger with Jay-Z collaboration were highlighted and favored by the Brooklyn rapper. Loverman Sean Garrett took to the stage next, and has both an EP and album dropping for 2011. Heavily relying upon his nickname of “The Pen” for other artists has led to Garrett being the most prolific hit writer for in recent Billboard history, with fifteen number one hits in seven years of writing music. The first truly hip hop inspired songwriter to have such success, from getting a preview of his solo releases, the focus is on tried and true messages of men treating their women right, with raw sexual lyricism as the calling card for Garrett’s expectation of success.
I had the opportunity to interview both artists at the event, and more forthcoming news regarding future Unruly Direct Drive events can be found by visiting @candicenicolepr or @IAmNikaWatts on Twitter.
Enjoy!
elivindotorg 