So my sister’s fiancée was a volunteer DJ at a radio station- a couple of times a week, he had sets that were a couple of hours or so and it was fun to listen to occasionally even though it wasn’t always my thing. I went to visit her one summer and we went over to the radio station just as he was about to finish his set so that we could all go to dinner afterward. We’re sitting there listening to the end of the set when a song comes on and I swear on my life I could not stop myself from belting out one of the verses. My sister’s jaw literally dropped as I kept spitting out words, bopping along. ‘Wait, how you know this song?’ she asked me; I think she was genuinely curious but also really trying to get her goofy big sister to shut the hell up before someone heard me. I ignored her and kept going, but a slight realization at what in the world was coming out of my mouth dawned on me even though I was way too lost in the song and my own pleasure at hearing it to actually stop. By the time I got to ‘I smashed up the gray one, bought me a red’ I looked at my sister’s face and thought ‘oh man, I am saying some really inappropriate shit!’ but there was no force on earth that was gonna stop me from bleating out those last two bars. So I went all in, started doing a little dance, and I glanced over at the booth. My sister’s fiancée was doubled over laughing at me. My sister looked horrified and also was wheezing from laughter. ‘What in the hell is wrong with you?’ she managed to say through her laughing tears. I mercifully stopped at the end of the verse; whatever spell had come over me lifted in the collective guffaws, and I shrugged ‘I mean, it’s a good song!’
Y’all, this is me with Southern rap, our challenge today! It took so long for the hip hop tradition in this part of the US to gain even a measure of respect, starting from its humble origins down in Miami with 2 Live Crew (or so our more prominent narratives of the history tell us, anyway) in the late 80s to blossom into an incredible array of artists from all over the place. From Miami to New Orleans, Memphis to Houston, and then to Atlanta, hip hop flourished in a way that was absolutely unique and incredible, and we’re here to pay respects to that today. Geographically, this ‘hub’ of hip hop culture is immense, and this is reflected in the music, with various styles coming in and out of popularity through the decades while still reveling in the words I’ve put in the header for today, coming from André 3000’s speech at the 1995 Source Awards. (For those unfamiliar, The Source was a major magazine that covered rap and hip hop culture, boasting a huge influence in the industry and among artists and fans nationwide.)
What we should also acknowledge about the development of Southern hip hop is the way in which it mirrors a lot of stereotypes about the Black experience for those who are from/live in this part of the US. While the hip hop culture in the West and East coasts dominated (and continue to dominate) discussions of the evolution and cultural status of the genre, Southern rap bears the burden of either performing a collective imagining of what rap from this part of the country should look/sound like (unsophisticated, unintelligent, unintelligible, etc) or seeing its contributions to the culture minimized like their counterparts in the Midwest.
But there is a beautiful, strong, proud tradition of storytelling, language, and expression in Southern rap that presents the dehumanizing ‘thug’ culture as something entirely worth understanding and taking in. There are successful record labels like No Limit and Cash Money, fascinating sub genres like trap, and many, many amazing artists from not only the aforementioned cities, but also in Virginia, across the Carolinas, etc.
I’ll keep it to ‘this song means a lot to me’, since I wrote about it earlier this year. I love how this clip is so immersed in its place- it was so radical to see this back in the 90s.
Ok, it’s your turn-you know what to do!
1.) The tricky/fun thing about this 30 day ‘challenge’ is that you get one choice (see, it’s a challenge!). It’d be nice to have a mix of some less well known folks and some canonical stuff for our new listeners/explorers! Imagine that you’re helping to build a ‘Southern Rap’ playlist, for example. Classic cuts, deep cuts, your favorite cut-pick one and hit it!
2.) In order to keep the thread from borking, please limit yourself to no more than 3 YouTube/media links per day-that way more folks have a chance to post. If someone ‘beats you to it’ and posts a song you would’ve posted, reply under their post saying why you like this song/why it was your pick as well, etc. Let’s not give Disqus a reason to make the thread hard to navigate for those of us listening to the songs!
3.) Let’s keep this as positive as we can. Don’t yuck anyone’s yum, don’t snark on someone who may not be as familiar as others, don’t ‘Um, actually’ people, etc. Ain’t nobody earning any Internet Points out here.