Remember that club over on Half St. SE? Near the Wendy's that also used to be there? Yeah, it was called Nation and while I haven't been over there in a while, I'm pretty sure it's now a parking lot for Washington Nationals' games or a building full of condos.
I've photographed Deontre Blayz a number of times over the years including the afternoon of August 26, 2007 while I was working on this study of a floating torso (not really). Anyhow, Deontre Blayz just dropped a pretty dope new album entitled Leaving Stagnation. You can download it for free here.
Had the opportunity to photograph Brooklyn MC Deontre Blayz early Sunday morning. You might have seen him here before. His upcoming project is a mixtape entitled Leaving Stagnation (also hosted by DJ Anonymous) due to drop 01-01-10. He says Leaving Stagnation "is about the feeling of being stuck and the sudden realization that you should just take off and leave that place behind." Something that all creatives can probably relate to.
We hit Gravelly Point at about sunrise to maximize the quality of light and minimize the number of people standing around in my frame. It turned out that the planes didn't depart as often as we thought they might nor were they as big as we thought they should be. I guess all of the puddle jumpers are slated for early flights. We also ventured inside of Reagan National to see what images we could find. We found a few in baggage claim but luckily we didn't find any airport security. Follow Deontre Blayz on Twitter. Shout out to airports. I might want to explore them a little more.
Although I've known Blayz since about 2003, I hadn't kicked it with him for such an extended period of time. And when we did kick it, it was usually in the music studio down in the basement of the McKinley building at American University. This time around, it was interesting to see his creative process but even more interesting to see him at work and interacting with kids. I guess we've all grown up.
Deontre Blayz is a Brooklyn-born MC and Howard University alum currently living in Washington DC. Derrick Bowers, also known as Mr. Bowers to his 4th graders, was formerly a teacher associate and is currently an aftercare instructor at E. L. Haynes public charter school on Georgia Ave. NW. Music is his passion but working with children pays his bills. We all know that becoming successful in the music industry doesn't happen overnight. In this installment of 8to8, I follow Deontre Blayz to illustrate a day in the grind of getting there.
P.S. this blog post includes an embedded slideshow so it might not be viewable in your feed reader. You might just have to head to the site Untitled, Michael Starghill.
