Over the past few weeks, the internet has been on fire watching the amazing 90’s inspired track and video “But Anyway” by up and coming conscious hip-hop artist, Tarica June. Since soulhead’s founder, Ron Worthy, is from Washington, D.C., he couldn’t help but get a little homesick as our staff watched the video to the dope track. The song eloquently discusses gentrification among other topics and features many familiar snippets including sampled tracks by Suzanne Vega, Eric B. & Rakim (via D.C.’s own Soul Searchers‘ Ashley’s Roachclip sample), and PM Dawn (via Spandau Ballet’s True sample). We reached out to Tarica June to get a guided tour which will provide a bit more insight into her and the locations in the video.
Peep the video and guided tour below:
From Tarica June:
“At the beginning I am in front of Howard University by the business school (I am a Howard U Law School grad).
More about the scenery in the video:
All of the places in the video are particularly special to me and that’s why they are in there. I wanted to show them in a colorful way.
Malcolm X Park
The place with the waterfall is (unofficially) called “Malcolm X Park”, which is significant because of the name and because this is where the African drum circles go on the weekends (indicative of old Black DC). Some gentrifiers have tried to get the drum circle shut down, even though it has been in existence for decades, because they say the noise disturbs them. So far they have not succeeded but there has been a battle associated with it and pretty much everyone familiar with this park in DC knows that.Upshur Park
My siblings and I used to play at Upshur Park as a kid when I lived on Allison Street and I went to West (school). Incidentally, Allison is the same street my mother grew up on with her 15 brothers and sisters.Highlands Restaurant
Since I used Tom’s Diner (from Suzanne Vega) in the song I wanted to open the video in a diner and I thought that Highlands, being two blocks from my childhood Allison Street home. And being (that Highlands is) a neighborhood spot that is welcoming and that everybody knows has wonderful food, was the perfect place.Shaw – Marvin Gaye Mural
Besides showing a mural of hometown hero Marvin Gaye (probably the most famous musician to ever come out of DC), Shaw is important to me because the Shaw/U Street area is where I first started performing. It’s where I lived when I went to Howard, and it was my favorite part of the City up until recently when they added high end stores and overpriced condos and apartments to the area.Petworth Chuck Brown Mural
Chuck Brown is the founder of DC’s go-go music, so he is a hometown hero. He passed away in recent years and this mural was erected in his honor. Now the gentrifiers are talking about taking the mural down because they are going to build some high-end residences there so I felt like that shot HAD to be in the video because I don’t even know how long that will be there.”