DC and Maryland's underground Hip Hop fans have already been buzzing about the new CD "Distribution Deal" by Tree Gotti, the first solo act from local rap group, Da Committee. "I can't keep a copy," says Gotti. "People have been buying and bootlegging the jont like crazy. But we'll have enough pressed and ready for the Premiere fo' sho'!"

The event, held this Tuesday, Nov 8 at Club U-Turn on 11th & U Sts, NW, will feature the premiere of the first video made from the CD for the song "Welcome To D.C." The song is being touted as the definitive anthem for the District and the people who are as underrepresented in Congress as they are in the national spotlight…its impoverished, victimized, police-harrassed, drug violence-surviving black people. The tribute's melody-layered, hard-driving, "club-banger" beat is completely infectious. The song's unapologetic loyalty to its lyrical and musical foundations in Hip Hop is surpassed only by the phenomenon of its video, produced by Black Hollywood Films, a homegrown production company.

The video was shot, directed and edited by a team of three: Navaro "Vito Terrontino" Trice (co-founder of Da Committee), Michael Ray, and Donald "Black Hollywood" Goodman, BHF's CEO. Shot and edited with high-end prosumer digital video equipment, the presentation has all of the quality of an industry-made music video shot with a 16-35mm film camera. "We shot most of the shots with Mike (Ray)'s Panasonic in 24p," said Goodman, "but with the right lighting and Vito's jib and dolly equipment, we were able to do certain things cinematically the way the big boys do it. We're really trying to change the game in terms of the local video and TV game here in the DC area. True filmmaking is what Black Hollywood is all about," he said.

Trice's multitalented contribution doesn't stop at the creation of the video. He also provides the first of three energetic rap solos in the anthem, along with brothers Gotti and Frank Nitty, also from Da Committee. "'Welcome To D.C.' is so DC, it's like no other song…straight gully and to the point, it's straight street," said Trice. "And what we talk about, it's what we know, it's about that struggle living life in this city…the reason why (the song) is connecting with so many people is that lot of folks can feel our pain and can relate to what we're talking about."

But don't get it twisted. The CD's popularity among local fans has nothing to do with the dominance of DC's primary musical export: Go-Go. "Nah, we've been making this rap music for about seven years," said Trice. "Ever since Nonchalant came out with 'Five O'Clock In The Morning.' But a lot of music from DC has been shut out of the national scene with the whole Section 8 Mob and Tommy Boy (Records) fiasco. Our city is much more than Go-Go…it's R&B and Hip Hop too. Since '98, a lot of artists from DC have really doing it on a major scale (see Ginuwine, Mya, Amerie)…we still ain't where we supposed to be, but I feel like we're laying the blueprint for where we going and what it should be."

What's the future for Tree Gotti and Da Committee? "We're in a zone right now," says Trice. "We're gonna continue to kill the underground market. We've done well in our days…we've been knocking and scratching, now we kicking down the door."