>> With all of this freedom that we have, all of the ability to create and express and move and do so many things that we weren't able to do as young people, as young creatives, as young generations, as just a people.

We're still, I believe, worse off than we were.

♪♪ >> Welcome to "DMV: The Beat."

She took the rap world by storm with her Billboard Chart single "5 O'Clock."

This is the story of Nonchalant.

>> Growing up as the youngest in the family, the baby of the family.

Any baby of the family, you know what that's like.

You get to do any and everything.

I grew up in a two parent household, which was a blessing to have my dad up until I graduated from high school and he passed away my senior year.

But having two parents in the home and two parents that had the same ideals of how to raise a child in church, a lot of structure.

There was no sleeping over other people's houses when I was younger.

It was like my dad would say, "You have a bed at home, so you don't need to go to other people's houses to sleep."

I wasn't able to have a job.

My dad's -- and my parents would say, "Your job is to, you know, get good grades."

But once I got to my senior year and my dad passed away my senior year, actually, right when I was getting ready to graduate, that all changed because my mom, the impact of me losing my dad was just -- it was just too much.

And she was really lenient, like she said, "Okay, I know we want you to go to college."

My plan was to go to Hampton.

And she said, "I'm going to give you a chance to figure it out."

And she did.

She gave me like a month to figure it out.

And then after that month, it was like, "You didn't figure it out.

I figured it out for you."

Go to work.

Go get a job.

And so, you know, growing up, it was just beautiful structure for me.

It was a lot of love and structure.

I figured out that -- how much I love to do music probably was at the age of, I would say maybe 20 when I had an agenda.

You know, I always loved music.

Who doesn't love music?

But I had an agenda.

I became overwhelmed with the love for Janet Jackson and it was just like, "I got to figure out how I can meet Janet Jackson," so I was like, "Let me take this thing that I love to do anyway, you know, and get famous and go meet Janet Jackson."

So that's when I realized, you know, once I had an agenda, how much I loved it because now I'm doing it all the time.

There are a lot of production companies in the DMV in D.C. You know, there was a time of production companies.

Everybody had a production company, so I belonged to a production company and I was doing what I already loved to do, which I started out singing.

That's what I started out doing.

You feel that?

Feel that?

Only the -- only -- only the one.

I never felt like this before.

Only the one can make me feel like this.

Whoo!

Hey, Choppy Chop, hit that joint again.

Yes.

Yes.

Hit it again.

Hit it again, Choppy.

[ Speaks indistinctly ] Of God.

Whoo!

Come on.

You got faith.

You ever felt something you never felt before?

That's what He does for me.

We're going to start this thing like this.

He always rocking with me.

We going to start this thing like this.

"DMV: The Beat" right now.

Hey.

♪ I never knew, I never knew, I never knew, I never knew ♪ Lord, come on.

Let that go again for me one more time, RBI.

Let that go again.

Whoo!

Come on.

I never knew.

If you rocking with me, put your hands up.

If you ain't never felt a love like God's love.

Come on.

>> ♪ Never had someone ♪ >> Whoo!

Let me tell you a little something.

Let me tell you a little something.

Yo.

♪ Heavenly Father, sometimes I wonder ♪ Why You even bother to test me, bless me ♪ ♪ That's why I got to call Your name ♪ ♪ I wouldn't be the same ♪ ♪ If I didn't have You to roll with me ♪ ♪ In this life game ♪ ♪ 1,000 places, $1,00 times ♪ ♪ $1,000 people with $1,000 minds ♪ ♪ I know it's hard 'cause You're working against the odds ♪ ♪ I got a hard head, but You still get the job done ♪ ♪ The only begotten son ♪ ♪ You got the whole world to tend to ♪ ♪ I feel like the only one ♪ ♪ You focus on my every little need ♪ ♪ Give me everything that I want with the greatest of speed ♪ ♪ Lord, You're unbelievable, You know that I believe ♪ ♪ 'Cause you got my heart full of your love for God ♪ ♪ I'm looking up above, staying strong in faith ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know what it does ♪ Come on.

How I got the name Nonchalant?

Because I'm nonchalant.

I'm pretty laid-back.

I'm a silly person, but one of those production companies, I was in that production company and it was a slew of artists.

It was a whole bunch of us.

That's the thing about production companies back then.

You would have so many artists tethered to this one person, hoping that they would, you know, find a way to make you famous.

And at any given time he would say, "Oh, I have so-and-so coming through," or, "So-and-so is going to come to the studio," or, "So-and-so...." And it would be this megastar that he said is going to come.

And the first time I got really excited like, "Wow, okay, yeah, that's going to be dope."

The second time when they didn't show up the first time, I was like, "Mm, okay."

Third time I was just like, "Mm."

So he was just like -- you know what I'm saying?

You know, "So-and-so is going to come."

And I'm like, "Okay, well, that's going to be great.

Whenever they get here, that will be great."

He's like, "You're so nonchalant.

I'm going to call you that from now on.

Nonchalant."

And that's how I got the name.

>> I've known Non now for well over 30 years.

Actually, it's really a funny story in terms of how we met.

We both answered a solicitation for background singers for a singer in our area who happened to be related to Johnny Gill.

And so we both ended up there.

We were the only two that answered that solicitation, though, and he basically picked both of us since there was no one else.

And at that point we exchanged numbers.

We decided that we'd get together so that we could start our own rehearsals and that sort of thing, and the friendship just blossomed from there.

>> Met Nonchalant.... Let me see.

We were in Gateway Square messing around, playing with the keyboard.

Just... getting some raps together.

We were just freestyling, actually.

And she came out and heard us and was like, you know, "What you guys doing?

You guys do this all the time?"

And we was like, "Yeah," and then next thing you know, we hooked up and exchanged numbers.

And from there, you know, the rest is history.

We've together for -- you know, she hooked us up with Black Productions, and then we went on from there and did our thing.

>> What inspired "5:00 in the morning"?

The fact that I had to be out at 5:00 in the morning inspired me.

What inspired me is going to the post office.

I used to work at the post office, so I had to be at work at 6:00.

So I was actually driving at 5:00, and I would see young men out during that time.

They would be out rain, shine, sleet or snow, just like the mail lady, the mailman or the mail lady.

They would be out there and you knew what they were doing at that time.

And I just remember sitting at a light saying to myself, "I just really hope I don't ever see one of my nephews out here or a family member of mine out here because of drugs."

And we all know that drugs has touched every family in some form of fashion.

Nobody is immune.

But I just didn't want to see it.

And I remember saying that in the song, "5 O'Clock."

♪ 5:00 in the morning, where you going to be?

♪ ♪ Outside on the corner ♪ It just rings still so true.

But that's where it came from.

Not wanting to see a family member of mine out at 5:00 in the morning.

♪ It's really real ♪ ♪ When I feel the way that I do right now ♪ ♪ I see all my brothers underground pushing up daisies ♪ ♪ Man, it amazes me that you can't see ♪ ♪ What you're going to be, a statistic ♪ ♪ Everybody's gone cold, ballistic ♪ ♪ If you had a good day, damn, I must have missed it ♪ ♪ 'Cause you're mad at the universe ♪ ♪ Go to hell with everybody else 'cause you want your own first ♪ ♪ I got the urge to let you in on a little secret ♪ ♪ 'Cause you keep dying if I keep it ♪ ♪ All the keeling that you're feeling is from within ♪ ♪ For the copper, check the color of your skin ♪ ♪ Why lie?

♪ ♪ I couldn't try even if I had to ♪ ♪ Born with the bullet-proof vest when I had you ♪ ♪ A Black woman trying to get through to a few ♪ ♪ So you can leave the next crew ♪ ♪ 5:00 in the morning ♪ ♪ Where you gonna be?

♪ >> ♪ Outside on the corner ♪ >> ♪ You better get yourself together ♪ ♪ While you're wasting all your time ♪ ♪ Right along with your mind ♪ ♪ 5:00 in the morning ♪ ♪ Where you gonna be?

♪ >> ♪ Outside on the corner ♪ ♪ You better get yourself together ♪ ♪ While you're wasting all your time ♪ ♪ Right along with your mind ♪ >> ♪ Why should I do right and suffer ♪ >> ♪ I rather do wrong making that loopy and that hustler ♪ ♪ Instead of hot dogs I'm eating porks up in this mother ♪ ♪ And got a gang of loot up in the safe up in my covers ♪ ♪ On top of all that I push big fat Lex ♪ [ Raps indistinctly ] ♪ Just in case I feel like flexing ♪ ♪ So I must ask, for real, though, who are you?

♪ ♪ See, I'm a big man ♪ >> ♪ Yeah, you know you'se a big man, check it ♪ ♪ I went through 12 years of school ♪ ♪ They never could reach me ♪ ♪ A knowledge of my hood ♪ ♪ Is something they can never teach me ♪ ♪ I never stutter step, but I kept up with the Joneses ♪ [ Raps indistinctly ] ♪ My little pinky ring ♪ ♪ I did a lot of kinky things ♪ ♪ The girls knew it, flocked to it ♪ ♪ I'm around my old way, yeah, they still wants to do it ♪ ♪ It's not about the clothes that you got on your back ♪ ♪ But the money in your pocket and if you're down like that ♪ >> I remember being in the basement late nights just practicing on rap after rap, after rap, after rap.

But she did it all herself.

And my role in that was purely from the perspective of supporting my best friend.

I remember meeting with, you know, a management at the time.

She had Kedar Massenburg as her manager, and he was someone that was coming along at the time.

I think at that period he had just started representing Erykah Badu, so I did those types of things.

There were many, many trips to New York just to have meetings with individuals involved in her career, going to the studio to work with A&R from the label, MCA at the time.

I remember being in one of the studios and Mary and her sister comes in.

I mean, it was that type of experience, being with her while she worked on the album.

>> I got a call saying that, you know, we knew Non had got signed and we got a call saying that she wanted to do something.

She wanted us on the album.

So we was like, "Okay, cool."

And then it's a funny story behind that because that night we ended up getting pulled over and the song almost not came to be because we got pulled over on the back roads of Maryland, and next thing you know, you know, the cops just let us go.

And next thing you know, we were in a basement doing a song, and a few months later, it came out and the rest is history.

>> When I heard "5 O'Clock" on the radio for the first time, I was on Southern Avenue in D.C., in Maryland.

I was on Southern Avenue.

I had just turned off of Branch Avenue, made a right on Southern, and I'm going down and I'm sitting at the light at Southern and Pennsylvania Avenue, and "5 O'Clock" comes on and I am losing my mind.

And there's a car full of girls next to me.

They are losing their mind because they just, like -- you know, like, they love the song.

You know, they've heard it, and they love it.

And then they look over at me and I'm looking at them and they're like, "Oh, my God, that's the girl in the video."

It was so -- I mean, I want every -- I don't know any artist that hasn't had a moment like that in their lives if they had any type of success.

But, yes, the first time I heard "5 O'Clock" on the radio, just how I just painted that picture for you, it's just that vivid for me.

Incredible.

Incredible.

>> The feeling of hearing your best friend on the radio, with a hit at that, not something that was just, you know, a song, just another filler, but rather a hit song, it was so exci-- I was so proud of her.

It was exciting to me.

It was exciting to everyone in our circle, exciting to her family, obviously.

And it's just a feeling of pride that you can't even really explain knowing that this person has done such a huge thing at that time in our lives.

It's something that I can't even fully articulate.

>> When I first heard the song, I was just happy to hear my voice on the air.

And it was wild.

You know, just hearing yourself and, you know, your family members, nobody really believing it's you at first, you know, nobody really knowing that it's you that's doing the verse or even the video when it came out.

Nobody knew I was on the video because at first I had a mask on.

And then, you know, the second part, when I did my second shot, that's when everybody see my face.

>> To have "5 O'Clock" be lyrically -- lyrically, word for word, matching what's happening in 2023 is sad.

And I honestly have had so many conversations about this of, where do we go or how can we get out of this wormhole?

And it's unfortunate.

It's hard to see like a wormhole, like a black hole.

It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel because every day, every single day we get the reminder.

"Oh, no, we didn't -- we didn't -- we got two more murders.

We got two more killings.

We got two more kids, two more innocent bystanders.

Two more, one more."

And I don't see it.

So '96 to 2023, "5:00 in the morning" to 2023 is -- it's still here.

>> "5:00 in the morning."

The issues with where our youth.

We were the youth at the time, but there was still a lot going on in our community that we were just trying to change, you know?

"Where you going to be at at 5:00 in the morning?"

It's like, "Do you know where your children are?"

kind of thing, you know?

And now it's even worse.

It's children raising children, and they don't know where their children are, you know, and the streets just kind of gotten crazy.

>> ♪ Can you do just something?

♪ ♪ Let me get you open ♪ ♪ I want to know ♪ >> ♪ If you can do something ♪ ♪ Somebody said proceeding with caution's what I better do ♪ ♪ Folks can't take the truth, living in Xanadu ♪ ♪ Tip around feelings, it's critical thinking ♪ ♪ My thoughts will never be on no lifeline ♪ ♪ This ain't the 'gram, it ain't no filters ♪ ♪ Nothing but clear views and realness ♪ ♪ Something to sharpen your skills with ♪ ♪ Forget all the folklore ♪ ♪ Action over words, you see how your folks are ♪ ♪ But some of y'all never give love to the real ones ♪ >> ♪ Can you open ♪ >> What?

>> ♪ I want to know if you can do ♪ ♪ Just a little something ♪ ♪ Just a little something, something ♪ Nonchalant.

2023.

>> ♪ I want to know if you can do something ♪ ♪ Y'all don't know, but, yeah, you gonna get it ♪ ♪ Brain food sticker to your domes like fitted ♪ ♪ Grow just a little bit, y'all ain't with it ♪ ♪ Horse at the water won't drink, forget it ♪ ♪ Tide's On the shore, so I'm screaming out, underlay ♪ ♪ Break fake love on request, I'mma bundle it ♪ ♪ Amazon speed on delivery ♪ ♪ I visualize a movie in your mind ♪ ♪ When you hearing me ♪ ♪ So holler if you hear me, and move in God's love ♪ ♪ When you want to come near me ♪ ♪ Vibe, I'm superior, brown like some Hennessy ♪ ♪ Love on forever even when you knock into me ♪ ♪ I'm running it ♪ ♪ These bars have been solidified ♪ ♪ They were ripping the time even if the many died ♪ ♪ Look, I ain't the one to be...with ♪ ♪ Keep it clean, profanity, you ain't stuck with ♪ ♪ Why?

My mental's never minimal ♪ ♪ I'm penetrating even if it is subliminal ♪ ♪ Yeah, I love rapping ♪ ♪ A dope emcee, yo, with no ass clapping ♪ ♪ But that ain't hating, no debating ♪ ♪ When they doing they thing, they great ♪ ♪ I spend no time trying to divide us ♪ ♪ But most time trying to unite us ♪ >> In the DMV from 1996 to 2023, the landscape of music has changed in such a great way because now we have so many artists.

We have the ability to see so many artists.

We have so many -- we know that, you know, there are so many of us.

Back in '96, we had no idea.

I had no idea that there was a whole movement of hip-hop happening on U Street in 1996, but that's changed.

So I think that's the great thing, is that we have the ability to see things that we didn't have back then.

The landscape of the DMV as a whole has completely changed for so many reasons.

A lot of people say gentrification is happening to the DMV at a phenomenal rate.

And I see it, you know, and there's a wave.

You know, and unfortunately, some people are getting swallowed up in that wave and some people are actually riding that wave.

You know, of what's happening in the DMV.

But changing it is inevitable.

You know, it's just how we adapt to the change.

I grew up with in a neighborhood with neighborhood watch, and, you know, neighbors actually knowing each other in the landscape of my own personal neighborhood has changed and not in a good way.

So I think there's good and bad change.

One of the best ways that I've figured out to give back to the DMV creative community is RPM -- record pool mixes.

It's a throwback, in a nutshell, to the days of the old record pools where deejays came to get their vinyl and they met with artists every now and again, if the label brought them in, and I had that experience, I met the deejays here in the DMV at Tables of Distinction.

the record pool that was here, and they played "5 O'Clock," and the room was, I don't know, over -- I would say so stunned that a DMV artist, a female artist, no less, was rapping and had a record that was this impactful the first time they heard it.

And so record pool mixes is a takeoff on that, but I bring artists in.

The artists are -- they -- I want them to come.

All artists, as many artists that can come, come, send your music, but don't just send your music.

Come and meet the deejays, and, more importantly, meet other artists in the DMV that are just like you, trying to do what you do -- what you do -- and what you love to do.

So record pool mixes, RPM, is a way that I figured out how to give back to the masses of DMV artists and be impactful in a positive way.

>> And RPM is her opportunity to, again, give back to the community in a different way.

Mentor younger artists that want to be in this business, that want to be successful, that want to have that hit record.

She is really utilizing RPM to make another mark on this community, not just in D.C., but D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

And the response that she gets to that is is overwhelming, as well.

RPM is a throwback to the Jack the Rapper conventions that used to happen back in the '90s.

She is instituting that same type of community in terms of rap and music, period, here in our area, and I see that it's going to take off and it's going to probably be as big as that was because she is putting everything that she has into it.

>> Big things.

She does deejay mix pool, and she's still performing, you know, she's still out there doing things.

She loves this hip-hop community, and she does what she can do to uplift it.

And that's what I love about her, as well, you know?

>> My mother has anchored me completely over the years.

My dad continues to anchor me.

Even though he's not here, he's continued to anchor me over the years.

I have a very strong family base, really, really strong, and a lot of people don't have that.

But my family has completely anchored me over the years.

But the most important anchor that I've always had is God.

God has anchored me and completely directed my life, even when I didn't know He was directing it.

And then I look back and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I made that left instead of right.

Okay, I got that.

I got that nudge."

He has continuously anchored me and I'm just blessed to be able to recognize it.

That's the blessing in being able to recognize that anchor.

Now that I have the ability to be someone else's inspiration, someone that they can look to for inspiration, I would say the number-one thing, I'll beat this dead horse, first and foremost, you got to know that God is real.

You got to know.

You got to be humble to Him and be still and listen.

And if you listen and you're humble, because if you're humble to Him, you'll be humble to a lot of people.

And that doesn't mean, you know, to be servant or, you know, belittle yourself because this person is better than you.

No, it means that, if you're humble to God.

you'll be able to hear him.

'Cause when we're arrogant, we think we know everything.

Somebody said, "If you want to make God laugh, make plans."

Go ahead, keep on planning your journey, and then He'll come in at some point in time and say, "No, that's not it."

So I would say to any artist at this time, two things -- be humble to God, and something I heard someone else say, never get famous for being somebody else.

Be famous for being you.

♪ You better get yourself together ♪ ♪ While you're wasting all your time ♪ ♪ Right along with your mind ♪ >> ♪ Why should I do right and suffer ♪ >> ♪ I rather do wrong making that loopy and that hustler ♪ ♪ Instead of hot dogs I'm eating porks up in this mother ♪ ♪ And got a gang of loot up in the safe up in my covers ♪ ♪ On top of all that I push big fat Lex ♪ [ Raps indistinctly ] ♪ Just in case I feel like flexing ♪ ♪ So I must ask, for real, though, who are you?

♪ ♪ See, I'm a big man ♪ >> ♪ Yeah, you know you'se a big man, check it ♪ ♪ I went through 12 years of school ♪ ♪ They never could reach me ♪ ♪ A knowledge of my hood ♪ ♪ Is something they can never teach me ♪ ♪ I never stutter step, but I kept up with the Joneses ♪ [ Raps indistinctly ] ♪ My little pinky ring ♪ ♪ I did a lot of kinky things ♪ ♪ The girls knew it, flocked to it ♪ ♪ I'm around my old way, yeah, they still wants to do it ♪ ♪ It's not about the clothes that you got on your back ♪ ♪ But the money in your pocket and if you're down like that ♪ >> ♪ 5:00 in the morning ♪ ♪ Where you gonna be?

♪ >> ♪ Outside on the corner ♪ >> ♪ You better get yourself together ♪ ♪ While you're wasting all your time ♪ ♪ Right along with your mind ♪ ♪ 5:00 in the morning ♪ ♪ Where you gonna be?

♪ >> ♪ Outside on the corner ♪ ♪ You better get yourself together ♪ ♪ While you're wasting all your time ♪ ♪ Right along with your mind ♪ ♪ 5:00, 5:00, 5:00 ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ ♪ Put your fives up ♪ Come on.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, "DMV: The Beat" for having me.

We appreciate all the love and support you've given me over all the years.

D.C., DMV, thank you so much for all the love, 'cause there's nothing like love from home.

>> And "The Beat" goes on.

Thank you for watching.

>> And we out.

I am -- I am Nonchalant.

I am -- I am Nonchalant.

>> This program was produced by WHUT and made possible by contributions from viewers like you.

For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org.

Thank you.