Uptown XO – Needs & Wants (video)

DC artist Uptown XO (of Diamond District) continues to bring on the visuals for his latest album Colour de Grey. This time the universal relationship track “Needs & Wants” gets the treatment with some beautiful shots. For anyone who’s ever had something good, and wanted something extra, XO lays the narrative out. AB the Pro produced the emotive track while XO and his team at Secret Society put together the video.

Uptown XO – Evolution (video)

New video of Uptown XO from "Colour de Grey". Evolution Produced by AB The Pro.

Directed by Backie T.

Uptown XO – Spread Love (video)

Uptown XO’s new album “Colour de Grey” continues to makes it’s rounds and gain attention. Today DC MC XO spreads love with his newest video directed by Jay Gregory of Cool Kids Forever Films. The ultra crisp, high def drive through the nation’s capital features Uptown XO rhyming over AB The Pro production tackling karma, politics, consumerism, and knowledge.

Uptown XO – Flowers (video)

Uptown XO continues to offer raw emotive rhymes that open windows to his world. The cold, gun toting exterior often belies the humanity behind it all. XO offers a story not unlike many with scarface dreams born of section 8, but fresh in its minutia the way only truth can be. The disection of this textured story’s cycle from evictions as a youth to the echos from the fridge; from the sales of kush in orange bubbles, to the understanding of how it employs the lawyers, the judges, the DA, and the jail workers; – all poignantly wrapped in the phrase “damn, ni&&as just didn’t want to flip burgers.” Earnest reflection over ill production. The sometimes morbid take on life culminates with the mantra “I got mouths to feed till they put flowers on me.”

AB The Pro produces the haunting track for Uptown XO to reflect and lay relish over, while director Backie Thomas creates stark visuals, brilliant in color, framing, and movement. It’s all prelude to the new album “Colour de Grey” coming from Mello Music Group Janaury 29th.

Uptown XO – Finding My Way

Diamond District emcee Uptown XO teamed up with MTVhive today to release the first single from his upcoming solo album “Colour de Grey”. The track, Finding My Way, was produced by A.B. The Pro and features a percussive funk loop that finds XO in an introspective mood – lyrically exploring all he’s been through – from childhood evictions and lost memories, to the battle for his soul: “Lost erything in life and had to start all over / I had to cope with the pain, no I can’t stay sober”

Uptown XO – RUGGED (video)

Uptown XO continues the march towards the release of his new solo album: "Colour de Grey." Today, XO offers a new visual for the track "Rugged" off his pre-album mixtape "The Color Gray." The track, produced by A.B. the Pro, features Obi Say and Awthentik spitting bars alongside XO who breaks it down to a fraction.

Uptown XO “The Color Grey”

Grey is not a color that gets much attention. But that’s not how Diamond District’s gritty lyricist Uptown XO sees it. For the DC spitter, grey represents the convergence of two worlds: dark and light. On the anticipated mixtape The Color Grey, XO continues to combine the street and the conscious in a way that’s honest and relevant to today.

The tape, almost entirely produced by AB The Pro, is sonically consistent. Wether a tune about bittersweet summer nights, the popular “Good Vibes,” or a gutter track examining the injustice of the modern prison system, the fantastic “Petey Greene,” the songs knock. The drums crack and the bass lines rumble. Lyrically XO shines, often taking the mood of the music and fleshing it out into a coherent and persuasive song. Few MC’s could so effortlessly spit lines so explicitly political and seconds later detail servin’ in a manner so precise, you know it’s from experience. Hood with a purpose, gutter but not nihilistic, Uptown XO complicates what ground an MC can cover.

 Like its namesake, XO’s tape creates something new out of opposites. Fans who prefer thought-provoking music instead of tunes to tune out to, The Color Grey is where it’s at. This is just an appetizer. The full course meal, Colour De Grey, will be served later this winter on Mello Music Group.

Uptown XO – Good Vibes

Uptown XO (of Diamond District) is preparing to drop his latest mixtape The Color Grey October 1st. In anticipation Secret Society & MMG have the new video for the standout track “Good Vibes”. The song sounds exactly like the title: AB The Pro builds the beat around a soothing vibe chord change that XO compliments with unorthodox flow. Mirroring the musical mood, the video’s director Blackie T takes us to a late summer barbecue in full effect: savory chicken and hot dogs grillin’, homies chllin’ and playing cards. 

Lyrically, XO makes clear that though skies may be grey at times, good vibes reign supreme. Lines like “The US Government played us like R&B, we were here before the colonies“ point to the underlying conviction that fuels XO’s tenacious but honest street style.

The Color Grey drops October 1st and XO’s official Mello Music Group debut album Colour de Grey lands in January.