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This July SoulCulture.co.uk unleashes its first in a series of downloadable, themed mini-magazine PDFs - The Chocolate City Special - OUT NOW!
Shining the spotlight on Washington DC, we examine some of the key musical and cultural highlights the city has to offers - including features on Hip Hop artists Wale and Oddisee and soulful artists Muhsinah, Bilal Salaam, Wayna, Raheem Devaughn, Green Tea and Steve Smith of Justaband.
We also look at the career of stage and screen actor Jeffrey Wright, and give you a run down of the best spots in DC to get your fix of music, food, shopping and arts and culture.
Whether you're planning a visit to Washington DC this year or simply interested in finding out about the valuable musical and cultural legacy of a city more famed for it's political position, check it ouuuut....
Download The Chocolate City Special PDF directly by clicking the image below:
The Idea of Beautiful. You could write an entire essay on such an intriguing matter. Snow Hill, North Carolina native Rapsody did write an essay on the topic but did it in the musical form. In her debut LP, Rap decided to take all that she learned from her previous three projects in which she explored different avenues and combine into a rare introspective effort. Rapsody’s ode to cultural assent and narration of her own heartbreak transforms The Idea of Beautiful from complex portrayal to personal abstraction and human-dignifying advancement.
A region with a distinctive culture, the music, food and language of New Orleans, Louisiana clearly influenced the title of local native Jeff Bradshaw sophomore album, Bone Appétit. The French rooted phrase Bon Appétit was created as a way to say enjoy your meal, and an album title referencing this phrase would suggest that the artist is delivering soulful music with a plentiful assortment of heat - which this is what Bradshaw does beautifully. 
Four albums deep and on the promo run for his latest LP, W.ants W.orld W.omen, this week SoulCulture caught up with a certain Mr Andwele "
Although having been in the music game for a good number of years, 
“Real Hip Hop’s been lost but now it’s found right here,” Guru recently declared in a London hotel room. The rapper, made legendary for his work alongside DJ Premier as the wordsmith of Hip Hop duo Gang Starr, was back in town “on a global grind” with producer and business partner Solar to promote their latest work together on 7 Grand Records; Guru 8.0: Lost and Found, which features Solar on the mic for the first time. I last spoke to the pair in the summer of 2007, when it was clear the duo were on a mission to shake up the impact of ‘intelligent’ independent Hip Hop. Catching up two years on, their path hasn’t changed... But has the climate? 
Though known mostly for its political ties, Washington D.C. is a city filled with arts, culture and fashion. For first time visitors, seeing the well known national sites can give you a sense of the city’s history, but it won’t necessarily give you a taste of the city’s flavour. For that, you have to venture to some of the eclectic neighbourhoods where DC’s diverse populations come together.
In order to give a feel for what there is to do, see, eat and experience in DC, this mini guide is going to take you through the individual areas that make DC a truly great city. Most of the locations listed below are within walking distance so this could be done as a walking tour. Divided into categories of “Food” “Nightlife” “Shopping” and “Arts/Culture”, this guide should help you find the right places and spaces to make your “local” DC experience genuine and exciting.
Words and Photography by Dafna “Lady Glock” Steinberg 