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I don't live there, but I still what constitutes as Uptown. I really don't know why you think this is a new concept, but everybody I know from all over the DMV calls much of Northwest outside of Downtown as Uptown including my mother and her friends who were born and raised in the City for the most part. You don't need to live there to know what the boundaries are. Most people from Brooklyn and Queens don't visit Harlem that much or never at all, but that doesn't mean they don't know what Uptown is in NYC circles. Maybe it is just you and your own personal inner circle I guess, but whatever.
Yes Bronx and Harlem are on their sides and us brooklynites and queens heads are on our side.
The Uptown vs. South side differences in culture in the black population exist in other world class American cities as well. I think it has to do with the fact that uptown areas of cities have more worldly exposure to people from all over the globe. Uptown neighborhoods in world class cities are closer to better shopping districts. Black neighborhoods located uptown are located closer to rich neighborhoods. Folks uptown acquire a taste for the finer things in life.
Conversely, southern city neighborhoods are generally much more geographically remote and isolated as well as sometimes poorer. In many big cities, black folks in the far out southern most hoods never even go downtown because of lack of adequate public transportation and the crushing pressures of structural unemployment, poverty and racism to stay in the hood and rarely, if ever, leave. In cities like DC, NYC and SF, most of the worst neighborhoods with the worst public housing projects are in the far out southern fringes of the city where gentrification is minimal and tourists rarely tread. The southern hoods of large world class cities are definitely more forbidding than their uptown counterparts. Out of towners generally are more likely to be victimized there. Historically, Barry Farm in SE DC is definitely the most infamous public housing complex in the District. Similarly, project developments like Sunnydale and Oakdale in Hunter's Point are statistically the worst in San Francisco in terms of livability and crime. The projects in the far out southern fringe of NYC in Brooklyn in areas like Brownsville are so forbidding, news reporters were scared to go there to do a story:
Uptown in Harlem in NYC is known to have the flashiest black population in the city. Over the decades, Harlem has produced over-the-top money getting fly guys from local legendary drug lords Alpo and Azie Faison to fashioners like Dapper Dan in the 80's to flashy rappers like Ma$e, Cam'Ron and more recently A$ap Rocky. Conversely, the grimier southernmost neighborhoods of New York in the far reaches of Brooklyn in East New York and Brownsville produced grittier personalities in raw hardcore rappers like Group Home, M.O.P. and AZ. At first, Roc-A-Fella's Dame Dash from Harlem was skeptical about linking up with Jay-Z from Brooklyn back in the 90's because the county of Kings was known for its grimey hustlers.
San Francisco is another world class American city that has the classic Uptown vs. Southside dichotomy in its black population. The black population in the Fillmore, which is located in the northern-central SF, is home to the same type of money getting flashy hustlers that you will find in Harlem in NYC and Uptown in DC. Even older black folks in the Fillmore dress flashy wearing loud dandy suits every day with matching hats. Throughout the decades, the Fillmore district has produced its extravagant hood superstars as well from Fillmore Slim, the West Coast Godfather of the pimp game, in the 70's to West Coast Rap icons like Rappin' 4Tay, San Quinn and JT the Bigga Figga. Even the independent Rap music produced by Fillmore rappers was not as raw or frighteningly visceral as Rap produced by southern SF hoods like Lakeview and Hunter's Point from the 90's all the way to the present. For instance, Fillmore guys are all about getting money and looking fresh:
Whereas Lakeview, tucked away in the low tourist traffic southwestern fringe of SF, is grimey and forbidding with goons on the block still wearing tall tees and baggy Girbaud shuttle jeans:
There is definitely a difference between blacks Uptown and those in SE DC. Uptown is all about getting money and wearing the latest high fashion, sneakers etc. Everybody likes to get fresh, but Uptown pushes it to another level. Although Wale spent his adolescence in Montgomery County, his Uptown swagger is undeniable. Wale undoubtedly brought Uptown DC swag to the masses. Wale was definitely the man that made Nike Foamposites a must-have sneaker with the ghetto fabulous nationwide. Because of Wale, everyone is suddenly a sneakerhead collecting all the latest Jordans, Foamposites and beasting over streetwear.
I have been having this debate with DCALLDAY in another thread about the some of the slight cultural differences between black people who live Uptown versus black people who are from SE DC. As a DC native, I can definitely tell there are some slight differences in the accent, dress, attitudes, etc... For people who know and interact with both, what are your thoughts?
You mean, how the uptown folk tend to dress in three piece suits when nobody asked them too, and super uptight, when the bros from east side tend to dress normal and are usually straight?
When females from East side tend to be talkative, when uptown females tend to be afraid of dogs for no reason, and blame society for it?
Blacks in DC have too much attitude to still act like they are from North Carolina and blacks in NC sound country as ····. My little bro is from NC he doesn't sound like a DC person at all.
I take the Green Line Metro home and spend a lot of time socializing in NW (I'm guessing that's Uptown to you?). Yes you can tell the difference. I would say the Uptown people are typically leaner, better dressed, and can afford to go out. I don't see the SE people out and about that much because they probably can't afford to go to nice venues because of their lower incomes.
How would you know it was them? I mean do you walk up to most black people in a club, especially in an event with mainly black people, and ask them to identify their place of origin as well as the quadrant of the city from which they hail? Are we talking baout SE born and raised or those who continue to live there?
How would you know it was them? I mean do you walk up to most black people in a club, especially in an event with mainly black people, and ask them to identify their place of origin as well as the quadrant of the city from which they hail? Are we talking baout SE born and raised or those who continue to live there?
The kinds of places I hang out in people from SE couldn't afford. I don't mean for this to come off pretentious but it's the truth. I highly doubt someone from the other side of the tracks can afford $12-$15 cocktails and would be comfortable in a nice setting.
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