But the emcee’s discography got a boost this week with the release of the song “Fall In Love,” which announces its presence with a funky flute lick, segues into a sassy R&B vibe and features a tasteful bass breakdown at the end. Also in the mix: the DMV’s Ciscero. (Jazz/hip-hop group Badbadnotgood and producer Kaytranada reportedly handled the beat.) The track, which got a “Hottest Record In the World” designation Thursday from BBC1’s Annie Mac, also has at least one fan among from D.C.’s hip-hop luminaries:

Yo this @GoldLink Fall in Love is fuego ?. Good work champion ✊?hottest record on @AnnieMac #bbc1 #madeindc #aCreativeDC #hechoendc

— kokayi (@kokayi) August 26, 2016

Trouble Funk – E Flat Boogie (Instrumental)
Kid Claws – Link
Teething Veils – Dinner Date
Protect-U – Time 2 Technique
Middle Distance Runner – The Fury
Otis Infrastructure – Oxbow
Sriram Gopal – Sink
Nick Garcia – Sun Jam
Drive TFC – Pocket Bitters
Waltz Brigade – Sarsparilla
Ken & Brad Kolodner – Skipping Rocks
B Side Shuffle – Introducing
Carolyn Malachi – Blowing Smoke
Power Pirate – Bring Them Back
Tom Espinola – Blackberry Blossom
aerialist – shputnuck
GoldLink – Palm Trees/Late Night ft. Masego
The Harry Bells – Rum and Coca Cola
The Linemen – Mystery in the Making
Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie – Three Day Beard and a Rusty Jeep

And After That, We Didn’t Talk arrives on Soulection a week ahead of schedule.

GoldLink has been on a steady incline since his 2014 EP, working with hip-hop superproducer Rick Rubin and making XXL‘s Freshman Class issue, while popularizing the hip-hop subgenre he calls future bounce.

In a 2014 interview with Bandwidth, GoldLink said he didn’t pursue music as much as he defaulted to it.

“I didn’t want to go to school, and I couldn’t work a 9-to-5, and I didn’t know what to do,” the MC told Bandwidth’s Briana Younger. “So I decided to try rap.”

Stream GoldLink’s And After That, We Didn’t Talk via Spotify or purchase it on iTunes.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

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.

Shy Glizzy has been on the rise locally for a few years, but he got his first national hit with his 2014 single “Awwsome.” GoldLink — whom we interviewed last year — popularized the sound of “future bounce” with his 2014 project The God Complex and has been ascendant ever since, recently working with superproducer Rick Rubin.

In the hip-hop industry, XXL‘s Freshman Class is a big deal. Locally grown artists have benefited from their inclusion on the cover in the past: Breakout D.C.-area rapper Wale made the list in 2009, and two years later inked a deal with Rick Ross’ major label Maybach Music Group. Gaithersburg, Maryland, native Logic appeared on the list in 2013, and announced a deal with Def Jam weeks later.

This year’s Freshman Class also includes “Trap Queen” singer/rapper Fetty Wap; Timbaland protégé Tink; underground favorite Vince Staples; “Try Me” crooner and MC DeJ Loaf; Atlantans K Camp, OG Maco and Raury; and G-Unit affiliate Kidd Kidd.

That’s what I asked Bandwidth’s contributors to help me do last month. Our writers sent me their picks for their favorite D.C. music of 2015 thus far, and the result was this extremely awesome playlist (stream it below).

One limitation, though: I had to pick songs that have been uploaded to Soundcloud. As it turns out, not everybody puts their music on the service. A lot of rock and punk bands, in particular, use Bandcamp, and some artists — for reasons my under-30 brain is still struggling to understand — don’t even put their songs on the Internet for free.

So this playlist still isn’t as exhaustive as I wanted it to be, but it’s still pretty freaking great. Give it a listen on your computer or chosen mobile device, and be sure to chide us in the comments, on Twitter or via email for missing your favorite D.C. music of the year. (Seriously! Send me your nominations — we want to hear it all.)

For more coverage of D.C. music, follow Bandwidth’s Track Work series.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image, clockwise from top left: April + VISTA, Kali Uchis, Young Rapids (partial image), Ras Nebyu, Prinze George (partial image), Visto.

“Vroom” finds the young Rick Rubin favorite rhyming over bits of Elliott’s 1997 hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” resulting in another ’90s throwback work that’s part ominous, part buoyant — and a sturdy platform for GoldLink’s dexterity. There’s also an element of Virginia pride here: Elliott is a native of Portsmouth.

“And since I moved to V-A, you can call it supernova,” GoldLink boasts.

The loosie is enough to make one hope for a collaboration between Elliott and the up-and-comer, whom Bandwidth interviewed last spring.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Some of this year’s most unforgettable local songs didn’t come from comfortable experiences. They sounded fed up, and particularly urgent in a year marked by growing inequity at home and multiple slayings by police in places that didn’t feel far away.

In one of the year’s rawest rock songs, Thaylobleu cranked up its guitars to tell a personal story of police harassment. Chain and the Gang and Jack On Fire assailed gentrification with wit and hyperbole. Punk band Priests declared everything right wing. Two remarkable hip-hop works channeled frustration and fatalism among young black Americans: Diamond District’s Oddisee cried, “What’s a black supposed to do — sell some crack and entertain?”, while Virginia MC GoldLink rapped about all the glorious things he imagines happening to him — when he dies.

Not that peace and love felt impossible in 2014: In a touching song released two years after his death, Chuck Brown sang of a “beautiful life” enriched by the warmth of community. Promising newcomer Kali Uchis made us kick back with a soulful number steeped in giddy infatuation. Experimentation thrived in D.C. music: Young artists built on the region’s strong punk pedigree and expanded its boundaries. Mary Timony’s band Ex Hex embraced a classic sound and made one of the country’s best rock ‘n’ roll records. Local bands with shorter but distinctive resumes — like Laughing Man, Two Inch Astronaut and Deleted Scenes — sounded better and more creative than ever before. A Sound of Thunder and Gloom reminded us that the D.C. area is still a reliable producer of top-notch metal.

As expected, Bandwidth contributors faced hard choices while making this list of the year’s best local songs, and not only because it’s our first one. Up until deadline, we were still hearing new D.C. songs we wanted to include. But in a place where mounting wealth has created a challenging environment for art, that’s not a problem, really. It’s a testament to a music scene that perseveres despite long odds. —Ally Schweitzer

Warning: Many of these songs contain explicit lyrics.

Flume

GoldLink

This year’s Trillectro headliners are rapper Big Sean and “Harlem Shake” producer Baauer, with significant hometown support from Fat Trel, Goldlink, Oddisee, Lightshow, Redline Graffiti and festival opener Ras Nebyu. Other acts on the extremely trendy lineup include Georgia hip-hop group Migos, R&B vocalist SZA, and Hudson Mohawke collaborator Lunice, among numerous others (see the full sked below).

Let’s hope the bigger venue cuts back on the long waits and epic lines that dogged last year’s Trillectro, which took place at the Half Street Fairgrounds.

Early tickets are for sale now at dctobc.com.

Photo by Flickr user Dj Teck 16 used under a Creative Commons license.