D.C. rapper Wale's latest video features a celebrity the whole world will recognize thanks to President Barack Obama: Ben's Chili Bowl.
Shots of the most famous chili dog stand ever -- inside and out -- are all over the video for Wale's April single "Chillin'", the chorus of which includes shouts to D.C. and Prince George's County but otherwise has no intelligible meaning whatsoever:
"Yeah D.C. chillin', PG chillin', my name Wale and I came to get it, came to get it, came to get it. My name Wale."
Whatever, man. You still got your Nike boots?
"Stuntin' in some other Jordan nines, I got Phil Knight talkin' about 'How you got them?'"
Guess so. Wonder if Phil Knight really talks like that.
Digressions, digressions. The important thing is that if MTV ever plays music videos, Ben's will once again be broadcast across the nation, as will Cardozo High School, Universal Madness and the street sign at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Kenyon Street in Northwest.
Oh, and Wale's also got Lady Gaga in the palm of his hand, in a disturbingly unbizarre outfit no less.
Sadly, it sounds like the D.C. rapper's once promising go-go inspired underground hip-hop is going decidedly mainstream. "Chillin'" takes from Steam's 1969 one-hit wonder "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" and largely consists of cliché you-can't-step-to-me lyrics and material-boy bragging (do love the "The way I'm stuntin' my material girls give 'em A-Rod money" line, though). Basically, sounds like everyone was mailing it in on this one.
At least he didn't forget his D.C. roots.
