Atlanta Hip-Hop Week 2

Atlanta Hip-Hop

Atlanta Georgia may not be the birthplace of Hip-Hop but out of the heavy bass infected muddy waters of the Dirty South a come the rebirth of the culture. It is widely credited as the birthplace of Crunk Music ever since Lil John ripped through the scene circa 2003 with his bass heavy, and spiky jumping synthesizer rifts. Though it seems even being a huge fan of East Coast Hip-Hop myself that the majority of the Hip-Hop audience gives the South less artistic credibility than deserved. Beyond the commercially driven finger snapping, and “supermaning” is a region with enough artistic diversity to rival that of New York in the mid-90’s. On one hand you can have six-time grammy award winning Atlanta Rap pioneers Outkast with their poetically intricate lyrical approach flowing over funky but melodically soulful beats while on the other hand you can have Dem Franchise Boyz whose straight-to-the-point simplistic lyrics ride on a sing-songy flow over heavy bass. Whether it be Outkast touching on contemporary issues such as Baby Mama Drama on Miss Jackson to the rigors of staying afloat in the constantly changing music industry spun by the fickle masses or Dem Franchise Boyz spending a whole 4 minutes and 38 seconds over a 50,000 dollar beat articulating their affinity for a five dollar piece of apparel on “White Tee” you will see the artistic sound and content of Atlanta varying but at the same time being so concentrated in a particular region that it resembles a Soul food like cornucopia of musical art.“The concept of the Dirty South as elaborated by the Goodie Mob and other rappers and producers in several of the major cities of the South was complex, contradictory, and multidimensional” says writer Matthew Miller in reflection of his evaluation of the region. He seems to notice the same interesting aspect I described in the proceeding paragraph but it’s not that hard to when many Atlanta artists have been successful breaking through mainstream and now run most of the Hip-Hop world which shunned them ever since Outkast proclaimed “The South has something to say” in their acceptance speech back at the 1999 Source Awards amidst a East-West Coast rivalry fiasco. Not only have they taken the reins but they have also added their own artistic spin to it, when once Hip Hop birthed the five elements of the MC, the DJ, Breaking, Graffitti paint, and the B-Boy, it has not changed into the MC, the DJ, Cranking Soulja Boys, Automobile Candy paint, and the D-Boy. So whether it be the honestly harsh but heart-driven poems of former dope boy T.I. or the animated and lyrically intricate yet comedic rhymes of Ludacris, Atlanta has proved and made their worthy contribution to the culture.