Ask the people behind promotions group WERC, and they might say it’s the present. That’s because the Atlanta event planners are bringing their alternative party, VIBES, to D.C. for the first time tonight.

“It’s all about the energy,” says WERC co-founder Will Edmond. “If you come to our party, whether you’re 18 or 40, you can still have fun. When people actually experience a whole different side of the clubgoing scene — we’re not about bottle service or ‘Come in and spend $100 to sit in this section’ — it’s really about having a good time.”

Tonight marks WERC’s first event outside of Atlanta, but VIBES has always had a link to the DMV region — particularly its more bracing, contemporary hip-hop scene.

Founded in April 2014, WERC looked to a DMV artist to set the tone for its first party. Producer Lakim, known for his work with ascendant Virginia rapper GoldLink and tastemaker collective Soulection, filled what was then a void in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene.

“[Lakim] kind of spearheaded what we wanted to represent,” says Xavier BLK, one of WERC’s resident DJs. “We realized a lot of Atlanta was listening to more of a futuristic, progressive fusion of Atlanta-based music with the 808s and the Southern bounce… but no one was bringing [those artists] out here.”

The group — which Atlanta’s Creative Loafing recently named the city’s “best creative event planners” — wanted to present an alternative to the pricey and predictable nightclub scene, a culture that’s been declining in popularity. WERC co-founder Will Edmond says VIBES focuses on music, particularly the stuff you won’t catch on the radio. (He cites Canadian producer Kaytranada and Seattle’s Sango — both of whom have worked with GoldLink — as examples.) That approach meshes well with D.C.’s existing alt-club scene, which draws a young-adult crowd to midcity venues including U Street Music Hall and Velvet Lounge.

Two selectors on VIBE’s bill tonight at Liv Nightclub are U Street regulars: DJs Native Sun (who’s already played the party in Atlanta) and Underdog. Headliner Elhae isn’t local — he’s an Atlantan, too — but he is a triple threat: a producer, singer and rapper.

For a group based in Atlanta, WERC has built surprisingly strong connections here.

“I went to Trillectro [in Maryland] this year, and hanging out with all the DMV people was great,” Edmond says. “I met a lot of people up there who are doing the same things we’re doing… and I feel like there’s a scene in D.C. that’s building.”

Xavier agrees. In a way, the VIBES party is practicing a form of diplomacy.

“It wouldn’t be right to just pop into another city that we respect without showing love,” the DJ says. “We want to represent what it feels like there, too.”

VIBES takes place tonight at Liv Nightclub in D.C.

A highlight from Khepri’s recent Lottery Pick mixtape, “Jurassic” finds the MC taking cues from Eminem, Lil Wayne and Big Sean as she playfully — but ferociously — boasts about her growing claims to fame. That same boastfulness earned the native of Fort Washington, Maryland, a certain reputation during high school.

“I thought freestyling was [just] battle rap,” Khepri, 22, says in a phone call. “So it always sounded like I was coming for somebody. I [once] snatched someone’s bandana off in the middle of one of my lines.”

Eventually, Khepri learned freestyling wasn’t just battling. From there, she began to make songs “more about everything,” catching the eye of manager Lady Redz.

But Lottery Pick, released in July, isn’t Khepri’s only dinosaur-sized enterprise. Now a resident of Atlanta, she’s also venturing into acting, appearing in a suggestive Mountain Dew commercial that a Georgia-based director submitted to the brand’s creative director.

You’d think that between Lottery Pick, modeling and acting, Khepri would have her hands full. But the rapper/actor already has more projects in the works: an upcoming tour, plus her own racing-game app — which she hopes to eventually push to all mobile platforms.

But that’s what we get in the new Dazed and Confused-presented video for “Sinking Stone,” which is better described as a short action film with all the clichés of a Bonnie and Clyde remake, directed by filmmakers Alex Lee and Kyle Wightman, aka BRTHR. For this six-minute piece, the directors roped in the grill-wearing, outfit-coordinating twins who aren’t originally from Atlanta (they grew up in Chattanooga)—and if you saw Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, you’ll recognize them right away.

In the video, GEMS’ Lindsay Pitts and Clifford Usher make up the soundtrack to a young couple’s series of bad decisions—drugs, guns, more drugs and more guns—but they don’t make a cameo, which may be for the best.

GEMS plays U Street Music Hall Nov. 13.