Richmond Represent.
For anyone who’s wondering what it’s like to live here in Richmond, here’s a heelarious video all about our beloved River City. Granted, it may be one big inside joke. But if nothing else, hopefully you’ll get a kick out of watching a couple of white guys rap – plus there’s totally some sweet auto-tune action at the end.
It’s probably heavily inspired by the DC area’s Arlington Rap, but we love this one more because it’s about our hometown (and they mention three of our favorite restaurants). Plus it’s definitely already stuck in my head… “statues, statues, statues comin’ atchu”…
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Well I loved it! I have never been to Richmond but it is obviously FULL of talented and creative people. Can’t wait to visit.
Sweet! I was hoping you’d post this. Thanks for reppin’ RIC, Petersik’s.
reminds me of lonely island :)
haha that’s so cool! I just found out about your site from a friend at school and when i visited i realized yall are in Richmond! I am from Richmond but go to school in SC. I love your website! keep up the good work!
Thanks for posting this! I’m in RIC and saw it on Facebook today. I’m proud of this city (lived here 10 years now) and want everyone to know what we have to offer. Beside YHL of course!
Cute! I liked learning a little more about your town…and it is always funny to see hipster boys being silly.
Oooh, how coincidental that you guys posted this because I was just stopping by the blog to ask a question totally unrelated to design/renovation. Well, first of all, I love YHL. I discovered it about a month or so ago and have been working my way through the archives. You two are so inspiring!!
My question is actually regarding Richmond. I have never been to the city but have wanted to visit and am wondering if you might consider doing something of a “tell all” post, even though it’s kind of unrelated. I am curious about the good, the bad, and the ugly. I grew up in the Lewes-Rehoboth Beach area of Delaware and currently live in Wilmington, about 30 miles outside of Philly (for reference, since I read that you two have traveled in both areas). What is the arts/culture scene like in Richmond? Would you say there’s a relatively high degree of diversity for a city its size? What was it that really drew you two in to call it home?
Keep doing what you do and best wishes!
Hey Kim,
Good question! Richmond is actually full of the arts (one of the reasons it attracted us from NYC) because of VCU (an art university) and a strip of galleries that are always throwing open their doors and encouraging people to slip through for some free wine and cheese (an event called First Fridays which occurs every first Friday of the month). We would definitely say that Richmond is super diverse and you can find quite a range of people and interests. I think what attracted us were the totally different (yet equally charming) neighborhoods (there’s an are called the Fan which feels like NYC, our neighborhood which is full of historic homes from the 20s and beyond, an industrial area full of refurbished lofts, etc). Plus the fact that there’s zero traffic and affordable real estate really set Richmond apart from places like Northern Virginia (which we also considered for a split second before realizing the traffic and higher-valued homes wouldn’t work for us).
As for what to do/see/eat while you’re here, we love:
-Carytown (a hopping little “main street” full of food, shopping, and so much more- it’s one of our favorite places ever)
-Mamma Zu (by far the most legitimate Italian restaurant in all of the US- my mom, who’s from Italy, is obsessed with it when she visits)
-Bottoms Up (an amazing local-legend pizza place in The Bottom < – an area of Richmond City near your hotel)
-Belle Isle (where you can check out the river we pictured in the post below- and walk over the scenic bridge)
-Maymont Park (a pretty private rolling hills park – with free admission- that has Japanese Gardens and horse-drawn carriages)
-Stony Point Fashion Center or Short Pump Towne Center (two sparkly new outdoor walking malls that ooze with charm, good shopping, and even food)
-The State Capitol (if you’re into history or gorgeous domed ceilings- plus you can see John’s office from there)
-Kuba Kuba (a fun little cuban place with insanely delicious food and ice cold drinks in The Fan – a hip downtown neighborhood)
-William’s & Sherrill (my favorite “inspiration” store for luscious fabric and amazing showroom furniture and accessories)
Hope it helps! Other Richmonders feel free to chime in!
xo,
Sherry (& John, who I called to make sure I wasn’t missing anything)
LOL – that is so funny. The part that really cracked me up was when the taller guy sported the shaggy hair and a suit. Then it tossed it out of his face! How many 30 something guys in Richmond look like that?! So, funny.
Oh, and the Robert E. Lee triple take!! Too hilarious. Hey, I was thinking maybe John and some college buds could do a UVA one. Mr. Jefferson deserves his rap mention, too :)
XO,
Jacci
Ah! I love this! Its good to see that people can take some of the stuff that make our city so great and get a laugh out of it.
The Arlington Rap still gets me every time, especially because that really is my ‘hood :) Dudes with brown flip flops…so true!
Loved it!
My fav line was: “museums museums how could u not see ‘em”
:]
Thanks for that. Now I want to go to Richmond
It seems that the Beastie Boys are the influence behind this :) and I do think the (affectionate) joke is on Richmond:)
That was awesome! I was sneaking a peak at YHL at work (VCU medical campus!) and just had to show it to all my co-workers. It was great to see so many places the DH and I love to go.
That’s hilarious! And seriously, there are TONS of statues there…guess that’s what some serious history will get you!
Funny–I think this is the return of the white rapper. Haha. There is also the response from Fairfax County (whaddup!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ltMTXlCvk
Love the reppin’ of Fairfax Corner, my town!
Love it! Love RIC! And I’m dying to know what those three favorite restaurants are… time to compare our taste in Richmond restaurants!
Hey Blair,
Kuba Kuba, Mamma Zu and Sticky Rice are the best eats in Richmond according to us (and they mention all three!). Mmmm, I’m hungry just thinking about them…
xo,
s
HILARIOUS! It’s funny to see because I’m normally driving/walking around every place in this video 5 days out of the week. Gotta love RVA
Very well done. Makes me miss living in Richmond!
Richmond, VA is like a bigger Boise, ID! LOVE IT!
makes me want to move to VA
this is hysterical! i was born and raised in richmond, went to vcu and lived on monument. i know all those places like the back of my hand. i relate the most to the bow-tie dude!!! tooo funny!!!
I totally cracked up at the Byrd/crushing knees into oblivion bit. SO TRUE. (And the Godzirra roll at Sticky Rice is my fave!)
Mmm, the Godzirra roll at Sticky Rice is heaven on a plate!
xo,
s
If it’s a nice day, I will sometimes take my guests to Hollywood Cemetery, if they don’t think it’s too creepy. If that’s too creepy, we’ll go poke around St. Johns Historic Church in Church Hill. I’d recommend checking out the events calendar on RVANews.com to see if there’s anything to see – or avoid! – that weekend. And the Capitol’s tours are free, and interesting! When I worked at Old City Hall and later at the General Assembly Bldg I would go down to 10th street, get something from a vendor, and eat lunch on the lawn of the Capitol, weather and budget permitting. Days like today were perfect for that sort of thing.
I’m a Richmonder for the next 5 weeks (moving to Denver!) and I spotted this video before my husband. I called him and said the same statue line! I am excited about moving to CO but soooooooo sad to be leaving the RVA. And sticky rice!! We like the godzirra almost as much as we like the cruncy shrimp. Both of those are musts for us.
That is so horrendous and makes the Arlington rap look good but…Richmond is still my favorite VA city by far. (And I’m a northern virginian.)
Northern VA<Richmond
What a funny video! Sooo Richmond. And I love Mama Zu’s and Kuba kuba! now I’ll have to try Sticky Rice. Thanks for sharing!
That was fanatstic! It is clear the pride that y’all have in your city is great.
Okay well now I have to chime (again) in since we are throwing around good eats in RVA. Personally, while yes Bottoms Up is good, I much more prefer Sette (on Main and 23rd in the bottom) or 8 1/2 on Strawberry St. in The Fan (<– same owner as Mama Zu's and Edo's Squid!) Both are a must for good pizza and a great environment!
This post reminded me of the “Hastily made Cleveland Tourism Video” that is hilarious. Definetly not as complementary as your Richmond one, but super funny. I went to Case Western Reserve for law school and now live in Columbus, OH. Here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
you can also check out the “2nd attemp” at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM&feature=related
Caution: there is some profanity and it’s a little on the crass side. Each video is about 50 seconds long. Enjoy.
If I should ever visit the USA, then I definitely HAVE to visit Richmond.
I think that the bow-tie guy went to University of Richmond with me :)
That is awesome! So makes me miss Richmond. 1995 VCU Grad and worked downtown at VDOT for 6 years. I WOULD PAY BIG MONEY FOR COME CHRISTOPHER’S RUNAWAY GOURMET RIGHT NOW!!!! Richmond rocks!
OMG Mamma Zu! YUM! Man you all are killing me, I need a Richmond fix!
I was in the area like six months ago and about passed out when we went by the farmland in Short Pump (across from World Market, Kohls, etc.) that is now a crazy insane amount of condo housing… I am guessing the owner passed away and his kids sold the land to the highest bidder!
I’ve lived in Richmond all my life and absolutely love it! A few fav restaurants to add to the list: Comfort (stick to your ribs southern cuisine but with creative twists), Strawberry Street (their bathtub salad bar was a Jeopardy question once!) and Buzz and Ned’s Barbeque (their bbq beat Bobby Flay’s on an episode of Throwdown). Other things I love: the art museum, the festivals (Broad Appetite food festival is my new favorite), Pony Pasture, oh-so-much more!
Thanks for posting that video! :)
Hey Christen,
How could we forget Comfort? Not only is their meatloaf amazing, almost all of their produce is local and organic! Wahoo. And of course Strawberry Street is a classic. As for Buzz & Ned’s, we haven’t been yet. Something else for the to do list!
xo,
s
Love me some Kuba Kuba!! I love Richmond (even though the Arlington and Fairfax raps are pretty darn funny…)
Love it! so true too! One of our favorite places to eat is copollas… its a few doors down from the byrd, on the corner.
I think the inspiration for these videos is Andy Samburg’s (from snl) band… i cant think of the name of his band, but they do funny songs like that. lazy sunday, im on a boat, etc.
Ha Ha! How many bow-tie boys have I seen? Countless. This was really funny.
This brought tears to my eyes! Laughing ones mostly…I grew up in Richmond and spent the first 22 years of my life there. I moved to Manhattan over a year ago and am living the dream working for Martha Stewart herself. My mom sent me a link to your blog a few days ago and I just think it’s wonderful! I even sent it to several people around the office…maybe we can get it in front of Martha one of these days :) See hello to the good ol’ RIC for me; sending lots of love from the one and only NYC!
-Rachel
http://rayraynay.blogspot.com/
Never been to Virginia, but one of my favorite bands is from there (Carbon Leaf.) I’m an Atlantan but I hear that Virginians consider themselves the “True South,” and some of the architecture certainly looked familiar! Always wanted to visit Williamsburg, but adding Richmond to the list.
I wish someone would make a rap song about Atlanta…
yummmm sticky rice – sticky balls, so delish!
hi! fellow wahoo here. i recently found your blog and love your ideas and design inspirations. i had to comment on this post. my husband and i live in chapel hill (enemy territory for 2 uva grads!), but we are wannabe richmond-ers as 3 of our BFFs from college live in the fan, carytown and short pump and we visit all the time. kuba kuba is delish! i’m also partial to can can’s. 3 monkeys has a great sunday brunch!
As a native Richmonder living in Arlington, sadly, I’ve got to vote for Arlington the Rap as the best of the two. This one does show off some of Richmond’s great features, but fails in the satire department. Seems more like a promotional video, albeit a really fun promotional video. They got a few funny jabs in there, but it doesn’t quite carry through the whole video.
Thanks for sharing though. I’m going to post it to my blog too (with a hat tip to you of course). Love the blog!
This makes me miss RIC so much! Love kuba, kuba, Mamma Zu, Comfort…and everything you mentioned! The Northeast is great but there’s no place like home! Another fave of mine in Richmond is The Byrd Theatre in Carytown, followed by an ice cream from Bev’s.
http://www2.richmond.com/content/2009/sep/29/300000/best-richmond-video-ever/
Check out the story behind the video!
Hey Julie,
Thanks for that link! What an awesome story… and it appears that some of our readers now want to visit Richmond so it must be working!
xo,
s
This video is great! I used to live in Glen Allen several years ago (I’m now living just outside of Dallas, TX). It was nice to have a mini refresher of Richmond :-)
That was fantastic! Thanks for sharing … I was born in Fairfax and raised in NOVA so it’s always fun reading and watching stuff about my home!
This is too funny! I love the parts about the byrd and the bow tie boys. My hubby has been known to rock a bow tie, but he would never pair it with those sunglass straps. Ya gotta love Richmond!
I saw the video on Facebook earlier and LOVED it! Richmond is the best…although as a lifelong (minus a few years for college and grad school) Richmonder I’m a little bit biased.:) We can’t forget about Friday Cheers on Brown’s Island (great bands, great scenery!), Legends Brewery (great beer), and Alamo Barbeque (brand new in Churchill-great jalepeno mac and cheese). Also, Ukrop’s!! My mom actually shipped rainbow cookies to me while I was away at school.:) Love the diversity, the weather, and the people here. Thanks for posting the video and for doing such a good job of representing the RIC.;)