The Break Presents: Noochie - XXL

The DMV, which is comprised of Washington D.C. plus parts of Maryland and Virginia, has one of the most colorful music scenes. The area is mostly known for gogo music but over the last couple of years, plenty of hip-hop artists like Wale, Fat Trel and Logic have made waves outside the D.C. metropolitan area.

Most recently, a new wave of MCs are beginning to gain a following. GoldLink, Yung Gleesh, Chaz French, WillThaRapper, Rico Nasty and plenty more are making hip-hop lovers notice that there’s a lot of fresh talent in Chocolate City. One of the new faces of D.C. proving his worth is Noochie.

The 21-year-old rapper is a bit new but already has the city behind him. After dropping his mixtape, Product of the DMV, last year, “Gutta,” a standout off the project, quickly started to spread around his hometown.

Noochie prides himself on creating music that is completely his own. “People tell me that [my music] don’t sound like anyone else from [D.C.],” he tells XXL over the phone. “It don’t sound like anything regional, it sound like it’s its own entity, it’s good music.”

Pay close attention to Noochie’s movement.

Age: 21

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

I grew up listening to: “I grew up listening to old school R&B, early hip-hop like Jay Z, but majority just R&B. I didn’t listen to rap really until I got older. My dad was in the music business. He really got me open to [music]. But I really didn’t start paying attention to the words in hip-hop until 2007, 2008, when I was in middle school and I moved to Atlanta. On the ride down to Atlanta, my dad and I drove. We were in a van and the radio broke.

“It was only two CDs in the car, Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt and Drake’s So Far Gone. So we drove from D.C. to Atlanta and the whole ride I’m only listening to two CDs. As I’m listening to it, I hear the words. I’m young, I don’t know what Jay talking about but it sound cool and I can picture it. It’s like a movie. And then I’m listening to Drake and it’s the same thing but younger, more relatable and from somebody my age range. When I’m down in [Atlanta] that’s when like Kid Cudi, J. Cole’s Friday Night Lights, Wale’s More About Nothing, Wiz Khalifa’s Kush and Orange Juice were jumpin’ and on my playlist at that time. Those projects got me writing.

“This is like 2009, I started writing and once I finally moved back to D.C. I lived in Atlanta for two years, I linked up with this other dude and started rapping at school. We started recording these songs and people started to actually like them. Then I thought this may be something I need to do. I kept doing it by myself and I kept getting good responses. By my senior year in high school I did this video and put it on WorldStar. It’s called ‘Got to Go.’ I didn’t have anything out when I put this out but it got like 100, 000 views by lunchtime and my Instagram and Twitter were blowing up. I thought I may have 15,000 views and a bunch of negative ass comments but it was good so I was like I got to keep this rolling. People were asking me if I had a project out and I didn’t have anything. So I said I got to get one now.”

My style’s been compared to: “I heard Ace Hood, Meek Mill, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar; I heard a range of stuff because I don’t have one distinctive sound. I try to make everything an individual feel. When I make a song I want you to feel what I felt when I made this song. If I was partying, I want you to party when you hear it, if I was mad, I want you to get mad when you hear it, if I was sad I want you to cry when you hear the song. That’s my whole goal; I just try and make everything an experience.”

Most people don’t know: “I just like to have fun. Money is the motivator of course but I [make music] because I love it. I’m in it to put the people around me in a better position. I’m just having fun with it.”

My standout moment to date have been: “The track I got called ‘Gutta’ got like a lot of responses. I was in Atlanta to record music and the response was crazy. I wasn’t home for six months but when I came home it was like I never left. Everybody was playing it, the video was on MTV Jams and BET. That was a big moment to me, to see myself on regular TV and people recording it. Even the responses I’ve been getting from people that are established. I ran into Ludacris and he loved it. That’s the bonus to me, seeing people you admire and they feeling your stuff.”

My goal in hip-hop is: “I’m trying be in that consideration of who are the best. That’s my whole goal; nothing short of top five, top 10. I’m trying to be one of the greats.”

I’m going to be the next: “One, I’m going to be the next one. When he walk into the room that’s him right there, he got it. Like Neo in The Matrix, un-fuck-witable.”