Astronaut Jones – Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas
Jonathan Parker – Jacqui
Three Man Soul Machine – Rastaman Chant
Redline Graffiti – Two Face
Joy Buttons – Other
East Ghost – Clouds and Their Shape
Golden Looks – Rooftop
Justin Jones – My Father’s Gun
Griefloss – łłł
Lands – Sometimes
Olivia Neutron-John – 16 BEAT
Sligo Creek Stompers – Cuckoo’s Nest
Astra Via – Fast Forward
Young Master Sunshine Photogenic 1982 – West Georgia
Bad Brains – Ragga Dub
Peyote Pilgrim – District City
Cigarbox Planetarium – Oh! Tinnitus
Philip Lassiter – Set You Free
Wale – Love Hate Thing (Tone P Instrumental)
Bossalingo – Manha de Carnaval

Chopteeth – Weigh Your Blessings
Koshari – Into Shreds
Sligo Creek Stompers – Cuckoo’s Nest
Brian Whitmer – Kelly’s Lament
Peals – Belle Air
Young Rapids – Ugly
Five State Drive – Dry Clean Express
Teen Mom – Kitchen
Diamond District – Streets Won’t Let Me Chill
M.H. & His Orchestra – Cobblestone
Hailu Mergia and the Walias – Muziqawi Silt
The Caribbean – Echopraxia
Sara Curtin – A Little Again
Louis Weeks – Calder
GroundScore – Here We Are
Drop Electric – What Now, of Paradise?
Jonathan Parker – Sundown
Domingues & Kane – No. 5
Lo Fang – Invention No. 11
AXB – Quantum Chill
Wale – Love Hate Thing (Tone P Instrumental)
Elikeh – The Conversation
The Sweater Set – Lost At Sea
Warren Wolf – 427 Mass Ave

Nationwide this week is called Banned Books Week. At the D.C. Public Library, it’s called “Uncensored.”

Banned Books Week was established in 1982 to raise awareness of books that people want off the shelves. It’s not an issue limited to the McCarthy era — even now, parents, leaders and various interest groups rally to censor or remove books from libraries for all kinds of reasons. But the D.C. Public Library widens the scope of Banned Books Week, looking at any form of expression that’s been challenged, including music.

That’s why the library has made a playlist for Banned Books Week two years in a row, says Maggie Gilmore, a librarian in DCPL’s adult information services division. This year, the D.C. Public Library Foundation asked her to compile a list of songs with a dual theme: censorship and D.C. music.

Gilmore consulted her fellow librarians for ideas and solicited input from attendees at August’s D.C. Record Fair at Penn Social. This is the resulting playlist, streamable via Spotify and YouTube, below:

Bad Brains, “Banned in DC”
Chain & the Gang, “Free Will”
Parliament, “Chocolate City”
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, “Run Joe”
The Evens, “Wanted Criminals”
The Cornel West Theory, “DC Love Story”
Ice-T, “Freedom of Speech”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips, “Don’t Touch My Hair” (JD Samson Remix)
Minor Threat, “Straight Edge”
Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”
Unrest, “Malcolm X Park”
The Blackbyrds, “Rock Creek Park”
The Roots with Wale and Chrisette Michele, “Rising Up”
Diamond District, “March Off”
Marvin Gaye, “Got To Give It Up”

The playlist comes across as a celebration of outspoken music — not hard to find in this town, Gilmore says.

“[D.C.] is a natural environment for people to discuss political issues,” Gilmore says. Plus, she says, the city’s constantly shifting population can aggravate local tensions.

“With D.C. having so many people moving in and out of the city, there’s always been tension in the various groups that are represented in D.C.,” Gilmore says. She cites D.C.’s signature funk sound as an example. “Go-go has always been challenged by those who may feel it’s obtrusive — and maybe not even the music itself, but the social scene around go-go.”

The playlist debuted at last Friday’s opening party for “Uncensored: Information Antics,” the library’s new exhibit in honor of Banned Books Week. The show remains on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library through Oct. 22.

Gilmore says “Uncensored” and this playlist are part of the library’s larger efforts to document and support local expression in all forms. DCPL’s D.C. Punk Archive has been in the works for a year now. Gilmore coordinates the library’s series of punk-rock basement shows, meant to highlight its punk collection. After this, the library focuses on archiving go-go, then jazz, Gilmore says.

“Trying to highlight local music, [D.C.’s cultural] history and current artists — that’s one of the main goals of the basement shows, to provide a space for bands to play,” Gilmore says. “So this was an opportunity to continue on that.”

Related: WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show airs a segment on Banned Books Week Tuesday at 1:32 p.m. Can’t tune in? The segment will be archived on kojoshow.org.

Warning: Some songs contain explicit lyrics.

Via Spotify:

Between Sept. 26 and 27, 42 bands played across five stages in the relatively secluded West Potomac Park along the banks of the Potomac River. Ten percent of the event’s proceeds benefited the Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit set up to preserve and restore the federal land called America’s front lawn. With more than $750 million in backlogged repair work needed — and 39 years since the park’s last major renovation — the National Mall could use the help.

But the festival didn’t escape criticism in the lead-up to last weekend: a Washington Post article raised questions about whether public land should be given over to a private commercial event, particularly one with VIP tickets in the thousands of dollars. Not that the controversy appeared to dampen the spirits of 20-somethings who forked over their wages to see headliner Drake and the fireworks he brought with him Saturday night. (The Canadian emcee was one act Bandwidth didn’t get a chance to photograph; he only approved a handful of media outlets. See images at the Post or Fuse.)

Those with plebeian-level tickets (from $105 to $175) experienced a smoothly running festival — notable for any major concert’s inaugural year — with bands running largely on schedule both days. Attendees wandered freely between the stages to catch their favorite acts, with conflicts seemingly kept to a minimum, with only two or three bands playing at any given time.

But the vending operation was another matter. If Landmark returns for another year, it will need to get its food and beverage service in line. Food stands from local restaurants offered tasty variety, and there was plenty of beer to go around — but lines became unbearable Saturday as the day went on. Other reviews mention difficult parking, scarce toilet paper and sound bleed between stages.

Below, what Bandwidth spotted at Landmark Music Festival — in alphabetical order, and without the long lines.

All photos by Matt Condon

Ace Cosgrove

Albert Hammond Jr.

alt-J

Avers

Ben Howard

Chromeo

Chvrches

Empresarios

Ex Hex

Hiss Golden Messenger

Manchester Orchestra

Miguel

Rhiannon Giddens

The Joy Formidable

The London Souls

The Strokes

The War On Drugs

Twin Shadow

U.S. Royalty

Vandaveer

Wale

“It’s kind of like my N*E*R*D kind of project,” Wale said at a press event during last weekend’s Essence Festival, referring to The Neptunes/Pharrell side project. He added that he’s recruited R&B/pop performers Tinashe and Chris Brown to help out. As for other special guests, Wale told reporters he doesn’t have much to spill yet.

“It’s in the beginning stages,” the MC said. “It’s tricky because, the go-go album, I wanna include so many people like Go-Go Mickey, Genghis [Glover, aka Big G, of Backyard Band], Smoke [of Northeast Groovers]… a whole lot of people from back home I wanna include, but it’s like I gotta do it like in the system… so some people don’t even know that they’re about to get the phone call.”

The rapper went on to say he feels a little trepidation going into the project.

“Growing up in that whole scene, I know how people work and I know what they need to see for them to believe in it,” Wale said. “Go-go is the most jaded music, culture, genre in the world. These guys have been touring D.C., Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina for 20-plus years. And now I’m like yo, y’all wanna do a real real real album? And they’re like, ‘Psssht.’ So it’s a whole process, and I’m willing to take it on.”

The rapper, who got his local break merging hip-hop with go-go, dipped his toe back into the D.C. genre last December when he released “Miracle On U Street,” a go-go-flavored track produced by That Boy Good and Tone P.

Wale made national headlines this year when he dropped The Album About Nothing, his chart-topping album that included a guest appearance from his favorite comic, Jerry Seinfeld.

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.

“I got a love jones for your body and your skin tone,” Fatz rhymes on the tape’s title track, channeling Method Man. “Couple shots of Patrón will put you in the zone.”

But Fatz hasn’t been sipping any Patrón lately. Like Biggie, he’s been overweight for much of his adult life. Last year he decided to change that. In September, the rapper named Antoine Williams cut out liquor — plus soda, fried food and other indulgences. It seems that Fatz Da Big Fella doesn’t want to be so big anymore.

The rapper says losing weight is part of his plan to improve his live show. The Northeast D.C. native — nicknamed “The Mayor” in his Deanwood neighborhood — projected that the longer his sets got, the harder it would be for him to maintain his energy onstage.

“I love to perform, and I didn’t want my health and my weight to slow my performance down,” Fatz says. “My show from start to finish is electrifying. It’s just nonstop energy. So one way or another, I had to drop.”

The day after Fatz turned 29, he resolved to start eating differently and working out. He switched to mostly grilled and baked food, particularly vegetables. He got a personal trainer who put him on an intense workout regimen three days a week.

The artist estimates that since he began working with his trainer, he’s dropped about 100 pounds. But he’s not sure where he started — or what his peak weight was — because he was scared to find out.

“I didn’t even want to look at the scale,” Fatz says. “I just know I was getting too big.”

Fatz Da Big Fella didn’t expect to become a big fella. Growing up, he says he was stocky, but active.

“I was into sports…. I played basketball, football,” he says. “As I got older, you know, and loved the music, I was going out to eat too much.”

In particular, the rapper liked carbs. “I love pasta. I was a pasta guy. I thought I was in the mob the way I ate pasta. Pasta and liquor.”

It might have been the liquor that posed the biggest problem for Fatz. “I was doing too much spillin’, as we say. I was spillin’ a lot.”

Spillin’ — partying, drinking, living the good life — is a big part of Fatz’s image. He says his brother Ty Stunna and their associates at the Board Administration, the label co-founded by UCB’s “Tre” Johnson and big-name rapper Wale, have made spillin’ a brand. In June, Fatz will appear on a compilation hosted by DJ Quick Silva called Welcome to Spill Gang.

Warning: There’s a lot of adult content (and spillin’) in this video.

But when Fatz was a kid, there wasn’t much spillin’ going on. His 2014 track “Grew Up” talks about his upbringing in an overcrowded home near 49th and Quarles streets in Northeast D.C.

“Like 20 people, one house, four sleeping in one room, two folks on the couch — you gotta step over people to get to the bathroom if it ain’t already somebody in the bathroom,” he says.

Young Fatz consumed what was affordable and easy. “I grew up on soda. Like, 99 cent Rock Creek [soda] and Oodles of Noodles,” he says. “I grew up on a lot of sugar and sodium. Something that you cook and it takes three minutes, and you get full off [it].”

The stocky kid became a father at a young age. He had his first child as a teenager — a girl who’s now 11 — and later he had a boy, who’s now 6. As he put on weight, Fatz became worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with his kids, especially his little boy, who he says is already a promising football player.

Jazze Pha and Fatz Da Big Fella (via Instagram)

But Fatz still feels guilty about the few times he strays from his diet, like on his recent trip to Philadelphia, where he treated himself to a cheesesteak, a slice of pizza and a water ice. Then there was last week’s adventure in Atlanta, where he worked with one of his favorite producers of all time: Jazze Pha.

Hanging out with the Southern bon vivant — best known for his successes with T.I., David Banner and Ciara — led Fatz to drink alcohol for the first time since September.

“He has a new liquor out, and he wanted me to taste the liquor,” Fatz says. “I was like, I haven’t had a drink in like, seven months. But I would take a sip. Because I can’t sit here and just say something is good off of your word. I’ve gotta try it… I don’t wanna be a liar. ‘Fatz, you said Jazze Pha’s liquor was good! And it’s horrible!’ You know? I don’t want that.”

So he tasted the stuff — called Quiet Storm Vodka — and he seems to think it was worth the transgression. “It was pretty good,” Fatz says. “It was pretty smooth.”

With the cheesesteak and Jazze Pha booze behind him, Fatz is snapping back to his routine. That means grilled veggies, bleachers and running around a basketball court. It’s never easy — it sounds like his trainer runs a tight ship — but Fatz says it’s getting easier.

Pretty soon, he’s going to have to change his alias to suit his new shape. Instead of Fatz Da Big Fella, he might switch to the nickname he earned in Deanwood.

“I’m going back to the Mayor,” Fatz says.