The 9:30 Club is starting a record label – maybe Adrian Fenty can, too.
Peaceoholics co-founder and tireless Fenty fan Ron Moten recently put out a CD of four Fenty-themed songs and promised that music videos would follow. With less than three weeks left before the Sept. 14 primary, Moten’s first video offering is now online.
“Don’t Leave Us Fenty” by Wali, a.k.a. Big Wax, featuring Weensey of go-go group Backyard Band, has been up on YouTube since Wednesday.
“Adrian Fenty, for my city did plenty,” Wali sings. But a lot of the song is about Fenty rival Vincent Gray, and there are a few cheap shots. Referring to the South Capitol Street shootings, the song says Gray “never showed up and six were slayed, ‘cause his only concern is William Smith get paid.”
That refers to the contractor who built a controversial fence around Gray’s home -- but the juxtaposition makes it sound like Gray had something to do with the shootings. The song also says Gray, as head of the Department of Human Services, “jacked a billion dollars and he didn’t render services.”
So the song is full of exaggerations and wild claims. (Aaron Morrissey of DCist, who is made of sterner stuff than I, actually fact-checked the whole thing.) It doesn’t seem like it will matter much. The video has only attracted about 2,500 views so far -- and sports a lot of deleted comments. Only a few favorable ones remain.
Of course, Moten is something of a campaign video star already. What’s likely to be Gray’s sole television ad names Moten as a Fenty “crony awarded millions of dollars” from the city. Moten told the Washington Post that the Gray ad “has mobilized his friends across the city to become more engaged in the campaign.”
“Tell Vince Gray, I said thank you,” Moten said. “He’s created a whole army.”
