Pat Is Dope vs. Danny Brown

D.C. blogger and all-around hip-hop head Pat Is Dope hasn’t gotten much attention from DMV Beats, and that’s unfair. He serves up a steady stream of content on patisdope.com and has more than 190,000 followers (!) on Twitter. Surely they’re not all stripper/porno bots. Pat’s rep stems, in part, from his ability to get interviews, like the one he did with Danny Brown a couple of weeks ago. Brown gives shoutouts to Fat Trel and Yung Gleesh, discusses the severity of the word “shooter,” and accidentally burns his hair. There’s some debate in the YouTube comments section about whether the interview sucks, and Pat himself tweeted “all my interviews suck, im sad.” But it’s all actually quite watchable. —-Joe Warminsky

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit

If you watched HBO TV series The Wire, you probably have a favorite character: Bunk, McNulty, Omar, Bubbles, Stringer Bell, etc. For me, it’s Sen. Clay Davis, the crooked politician with the hilarious catch phrase. In his new video for “Clay Davis,” D.C. rapper Asheru channels the character through various scenes in New York. The veteran recalls 1990s rap videos, spittin’ on roof tops and in Times Square. It’s a pretty paint-by-numbers video, but the song is lively enough to hold your attention. —-Marcus J. Moore

Wale

For Wale, the best way to make people (himself included) forget about his now-infamous encounter with Complex magazine is to remind everyone why they know his name in the first place: his music. Last week, he offered his take on the Complex snafu in “Walk N’ Live.” This week, he delivered the video for The Gifted’s “Heaven’s Afternoon.” The black-and-white clip directed by Jon J shows a Rolls Royce crawling through the streets as Wale and MMG comrade Meek Mill reflect on a shared reality: “In the grand scheme of things,” Wale says on the song’s intro, “we were never supposed to have shit.” Cue William DeVaughn‘s “Be Thankful for What You Got.” —-Julian Kimble

Oddisee

It’s no secret that Oddisee wants some degree of fame. That’s why he moved to New York and broadened his creative style. On his new single, “Invisible Walls,” Odd does his best Drake impression, rapping and singing atop a spacious electronic track. Much like his work on Tangible Dream, Odd sounds odds with his own success: “All my stress is self-inflicted, coming from the fact that I’m tryin’ to get shit,” he rhymes. Moments later: “Ain’t nothin’ tellin’ me to wait but I’m/actin’ like people tryin’ to take what’s mine.” “Invisible Walls” is the first single from Mello Music Group’s compilation, Mandala Vol. 1, Polysonic Flows, out Jan. 28. Listen to Odd’s track below. —-MJM

Yung Gleesh

While most were busy finishing up their holiday shopping last weekend, Yung Gleesh released his new 16-track mixtape, Your Favorite Rapper’s Favorite Rapper. The title is a bit ambitious (I’d wager that my favorite rapper is entirely unaware of the Northeast D.C. upstart), but hip-hop has a long tradition of speaking things into existence. The tape pairs Gleesh’s zany disposition with beats from the likes of Zaytoven, Jay Cornell, and Kevin Erondu, the latter of whom incidentally attracted a lot of attention for his production on Rick Ross‘ latest collaboration with Jay Z, “The Devil Is a Lie.” Listen to the tape at Livemixtapes. —-Harold Stallworth