Lot of revisionary tales in here. Just to clear some things up briefly:
"Most" influential is a HUUUGGGGEEE reach. Come on, fam. One of the most influential, as in, if you were to make a Top 10 or something, it's definitely on there. But your claim of "most" influential is resting on niche styles of fashion and music that never caught on outside of a certain personality style or region...
Calling DC the "most" influential also shows an embarrassing lack of self awareness AND ignorance of other places in the nation. This is a large country, g...
DC is northern in some contexts but is far from typically northern. Using slang isn't a good argument, people everywhere say "I ain't gone hold you" now. Much of DC's architecture and dialect/accents are inherently southern, as is its climate and vegetation and natural landscape. These aren't small factors to brush off as if they have no influence on the people living in the environment, because clearly they do...
Ultimately DC is a north/south hybrid, has tools from both regions. In the modern day its en vogue for northeasterners to claim DC as one of their own, but we know that wasn't the case just a few decades ago...its both north and south, characteristics of both...
Im an OG with some insight about DC. I moved from Louisiana to DC in 2004. I spent over 10 years there and i can honestly say, the only places DC really influence in PG County and northern Va down to Fredericksburg. And Waldorf. Baltimore dont really fukk with dc. Neither does Richmond. I lived in Norfolk va from 2000 to 2003, they all gravitated towards NYC. They played a few gogo songs "overnight scenario, make a booty call" but that was about it. No disrespect but yall dont have much that's influential culturally.
Locs werent as popular in DC until Wayne took off.
Growing up in Louisiana we were influenced by houston and New Orleans. Houston was influenced heavy by LA, new orleans was too, but New Orleans started gravitating towards Nyc in the mid 90s.
I dont see anything anywhere with dc influence. Im the only one ive seen in Louisiana wearinh 990s. My girl calls them how to catch a predator shoes.
Richmond does fukk with DC, there are some strong ties there. Rich is independent, but it has some symmetry there...
Hampton Roads doesn't really pull any influence from DC and is more influenced as you said by NY and even Philly and NE NC to smaller degrees...
I will say DC has some influence into NC, the Raleigh-Durham area has deep ties to DC and DC trends are more known and appreciated there than in, say, Charlotte...
Ultimately DC's range of influence extends south, not north, which is an interesting tidbit for those who say DC isn't a southern city; then why doesn't its influence pool north? And more to the point, piggybacking off your points, DC's influence is more regional than national amongst black folk and is very specific. Cats can't claim DC is wildly influential when you can go most places and cats have never heard of a DC clothing line or listen to go-go or know what mambo sauce is...
DC holds its weight and is one of the dominant cities in our culture for sure, but using clothes and music isn't a strong argument for DC because many places are as or more influential on those two alone...
Also rappers are not as influential as y’all make it seem. Not sure where y’all from but where I’m from rappers are late to the scene and get all of their style from the street first.
Man 100, I've said that before on here lol. Rappers seem to influence kids from the suburbs more, which, to be sure, more people live in the suburbs than inner urban areas, so I'm not saying that's a small population to discount. They definitely touch alot if people...
But in cities it's kinda obvious that it's the other way around, people (and by extension, many rappers) are influenced by the trends on the streets where everything isn't as homogenized and generic as it is in the burbs. And it's like this across the country from coast to coast, the suburb/city influential divide...
I started running drugs at 15, which was 2004. Nothing I listened to at the time made me want to sell dope, and at that time I was into G-Unit, Scarface/Geto Boys probably my two most listened at the time. And not a single track made me think, "damn let me go find some crack and guns". Same with fashion...it was the people around me I actually knew and saw who inspired me, for better or worse...
Might be slightly different today, though. Social media has balanced mainstream culture so maybe rappers are more influential today than they were in the past, but I'd still say their influence is stronger in the suburbs in comparison...
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