Bands

All Good Funk Alliance - Hailing from across the Potomac in Alexandria, VA, The All Good Funk Alliance have released several singles since 1997, and they have slowly built a loyal following of people hungry for that organic break-beat funk sound. From running their own labels, Funk Weapons and Super Hi-Fi, to remixing Kraak en Smack, Fort Knox Five, Ursula 1000, Woody Herman, etc. the boys have been around the block. Their sound has developed into many different styles from which they have released up-tempo b-boy jams and hip hop as All Good Funk Alliance, and house music as B-team. In 2004 they released On the One, a collection of past singles and new songs, on the defunct label Sunswept. In 2005 they self released Social Comment, their second album which was a politically charged album of hip hop and down-tempo, featuring the ideals and socially charged views from the mind of Swamburger and Alexandrah. They have even opened up for the legendary James Brown! An All Good set is bound to make your body move.

Asheru and the ELs- Asheru, born Gabriel Benn, is an African American hip hop artist, educator and youth activist. He is widely known for performing the opening and closing themes for the popular TV series, The Boondocks, as well as his pioneering and innovative efforts to forward the Hip Hop Education movement. Asheru, both as a solo artist as well as with the group Unspoken Heard, has gone on to travel extensively throughout Europe, Canada, the US and Japan, performing alongside artists and groups like Common, Mos Def, Jill Scott, Bilal, Ludacris, Edo G, J-Live, Wordsworth and The Roots, while collaborating and being featured on projects with hip hop greats such as Pete Rock and Jazzy Jeff. His lyrics are categorized by reflection upon the state of affairs of the current day Black American. Through his music, he demonstrates a desire to improve the attitude of Black people towards liberation through education and self-empowerment. He currently travels with a live band, The ELs, made up of a three (sometimes four-piece) band of accomplished veteran musicians and producers, namely Aquaman, Mr. Hu, and Zo!.

Beetnix - Their mission - give you not only the hottest tracks to bounce to, but also to give you something to think about. With intelligent, thought provoking, positive, and conscious music, the Beetnix are more than likely people you can relate to in one way or another. Hailing out of Charlottesville,VA – Beetnix started as two people messing around making music. Audiences started feeling what they did so they just kept pumping it out. The sound evolved. More people got involved. Virginia started to rally behind Beetnix because they were doing shows for huge audiences and no one else was really doing it like that out in Central VA. There music matches their philosophy, “We don't go with the structures of society, we see what is real and in front of our face. We don't co-sign any one way of thinking, we just tell it how it is. There is no good and bad, there just is.”

The Breden Sound System - The Bredren Sound System has performed in many benefit shows as well as university campuses for college students. They continue to spread their positive music through performances at local venues. They have worked with many local acts such as Don Carlos, Errol Dunkley, Junior Reid, Johnny Osbourne, Martin Campbell, Mikey Dread, President Brown, Triston Palmer, Agua Dulce, Eek A Mouse, The Gladiators, Jah Blood Fyah Angels, Pato Banton, The Meditations, Tippa Irie, The Scientist, Pysde Car, General Jah Mikey, Bunny Mystic, Twinkle Brothers, Yami Bolo and much much more.

DJ Jahsonic - Jamil Hamilton, aka DJ Jahsonic, has been playing music for appreciative crowds for over a decade. Since then, he has traveled the world in search of the perfect beat. Now, Hamilton co-hosts a weekly radio show on WPFW 89.3 with his crew, The Soul Controllers, as well as hosting and spinning at the hottest crowd at Marvins in DC on Monday nights.

Farid has been the head resident at ESL since the club opened in 1995 and he's been creating amazing sonic soundscapes ever since. He has two excellent 12" records entitled Crowd Control and Dealer's Choice on ESL Music and Main Ingredient on Rhythm & Culture Recordings. He's currently working to finish his next EP titled Freedom, to be released on Rhythm & Culture/ ESL Music.

Fatso - Rapper, singer, songwriter, fatso™ is a fresh and extraordinarily talented rising star in the field of entertainment. His unexpected, yet highly treasured honesty, intelligence and wit make him an artist to watch in a sea of predictability and mediocrity. For fatso, music is life and without it we cease to exist. His high-wattage stage-show has shut down non-assuming venues in his path. While his 1st major independent project was a compilation CD, fatso has opened for many artists. Some signed with major record companies including Carmon, D’wayne Wiggins from (Tony, Toni, Toné), Ruff Endz, Cap One and Grenique

Head Roc - For over the past 15 years Head-Roc has been regarded as the best that DC Hip Hop has to offer! Dubbed “The Mayor” of the DC Hip Hop, Head-Roc has come to embody the passions, hopes and dreams of a wonderfully talented and all too often overlooked DC music scene. His unparalleled ability to reach music lovers of all tastes puts him on par with established national recording artists in both music creation and live performance.

Head-Roc’s honest and relevant lyrics are a refreshing change in this current era of corporate Hip-Hop exploitation. His music has inspired many in the progressive movement to rethink Hip Hop’s potential for achieving social change and he is widely regarded as one of the key voices in this movement!

Mustabar - The Washington Post called Mustabar “a soulful crooner”. His debut CD release Natural High (Odara Productions) was praised for “the rawness of the sound in this age of technological perfection” and his newest CD, That Day (Kizum Music), has been called “an eclectic soul gem laid over funky hip-hop grooves” (both are available on iTunes and at Amazon.com).

Live performances continue to enthrall an ever-growing audience. From local DC hotspots like The18th Street Lounge, The 9:30 Club, and Black Cat, to hosting the opening of the Las Vegas mega-clubEyecandy, Mustabar ‘delivers the goods’ as only he can, with eclectic, energetic, mind-blowing material from low-key jazz cuts to high-energy releases to keep them on their feet and the dance floor packed. Whether as a solo act, acting as host, or sharing the stage with De La Soul, Femi Kuti, or international hit makers -Thievery Corporation, Mustabar connects with his audience and mesmerizes them with soul as deep as his voice.

Punk Rogers - Punk Rogers is a rock band hailing from Fredericksburg, VA. It is a band made up of 3 members. They have performed before in Mustock. They also run Punk Productions comprised of the band members as well as experienced engineers that offer digital production for anyone needing assistance in producing music & rental equipment.

Sleepy Wonder - From the legendary sound systems of Jamaica, comes the most dangerous Reggae/Rapper in the business, Mr. Archer, a.k.a. Sleepy Wonder. Born and raised in the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica, Sleepy gained recognition from literally ripping the mics of Sugar Minot's Youth Man Promotions, Gemini Disco, and Patrick Roberts, Stax International, now Shocking Vibes.

Sleepy is the frontman and heartbeat of Thievery Corporation, bring the house down to its knees every time with hits like "Warning Shots", "Radio Retaliation", "Amerimacka", and "Sound The Alarm". He has been with Thievery Corporation for about 10 years. With them he was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award and went against contenders such as Metallica. He was won the 2009 Virginia Reggae Awards for Producer of The Year Award and The Song Of The Year for "Radio Retaliation". Sleepy started his No Choice Entertainment Company, which houses No Choice Records & Studio. He continues to produce and release projects thru special distribution deals with VP Records USA and Victor Entertainment/24x7 Records Japan.

The Band Called Future

Band Website

 Plenty of party bands exhibit a vague notion of eclecticism. Using hip-hop, reggae, soul, funk and rock, they haphazardly throw disparate elements of each into a musical blender and pray for some cohesion. Many fail. But then there's the ambitiously dubbed Future, a D.C. quintet that seamlessly melds those genres by fusing emcee Antoine "Chuck Bucket" Ware's heady slam poetry and Gordon Sterling's explosive, soulful pipes with deep reggae grooves, driving rock rhythms and guitar pyrotechnics—often over the course of a single song. Future's extended explorations are unbound by stylistic notions.

The group, which gelled three years ago after Sterling and bassist Tony Moreno started playing with friends after the demise of a previous band, has adopted "Spread Love Massive" not only as the title of the opening track from its self-titled debut but also as a motto of sorts, evident in the positive vibes overflowing from the disc and the quintet's energetic live performances. "Our music is a conversation about the human experiment," Sterling explains. "As this experiment goes, so goes our music." Considering they're out-of-towners, Sterling says, "It's a real honor to be accepted [in the Triangle] ... people seem genuinely interested in seeking out groundbreaking new music."