The two reasons so many people hate southern hip-hop.


1) They cant relate to the environment – The south has its own slang, sound and culture that has expanded far beyond the roots of the south Bronx. If you haven’t stepped far outside of New York (based hip-hop) to understand what’s going on all over the country, you’re pretty much stuck with an unjust bias. At 14 as a staunch New York supporter (Tribe, Wu, Blahzay Blahzay, Smooth Da Hustler, Jeru, Gang Starr etc.) I wasn’t checking for Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik whatsoever, ditto for Atliens when that dropped. Going to school down south was one of the best things to happen to my musical tastes. At first I hated going to sleep every night with people right outside my window blasting various No Limit records, in little to no time I was introduced to artists like Devin the Dude, Fiend, Mystikal and Juvenile plus Aquemini got 5 mics my freshman year with a street single featuring Raekwon so I had to give it a try. It’s been on ever since and while I still don’t know as much as I’d like to about southern rap I’m always open to it.

What haters fail to realize is that in saying “Fuck the south” they’re pretty much denying one the right to tell his story. I don’t expect any southern artist to be the next KRS Shakespeare if they can make good songs. It’s not that hard to make a good song: standard verse + dope beat + good hook = good song. Newsflash for those not in the know – YOUNG JEEZY MAKES GOOD SONGS. On the crunk tip, Lil’ Jon had a legitimate movement down south prior to going mainstream, you’d have to spend time down there to understand what his music did to people in the clubs. We gave Nore a pass for “At the white boy club while I’m buyin’ the bar, they like ‘Hey now, you’re an all star!’ and another pass for “Put the bogie out in your face, now your face laced like ashtray face.” Why was that acceptable and why did we love his debut album? He had beats and hooks (and he was from New York) The Rich Boy “Throw Some D’s” record is incredible but people will hate it because he’s from down south. Young Dro raps his ass off better than any east coast newcomer this year, but people couldn’t hear past his accent and the “Shoulder Lean” hook to see that he was bringing it.

2) They don’t like the topic material coming from southern rappers – If you love The Clipse (Virginia is south btw) yet immediately shut out a southern artist for talking about drug dealing, you’re a hypocrite. I too agree that the cocaine/snow metaphor shouldn’t have been taken so far that a rapper went to building a full-fledged Snowman movement from the ground up, but Dr. Dre titled two albums with a slang term for marijuana and we all loved it. Jay-Z talks about spinning rims, Slick Rick wore big time jewelry and NWA killed people while disrespecting bitches. Why is it a problem when southern rap does this? Possibly because they’ve pretty much flooded the airwaves and made it hard for anyone to get shine. You cant be mad at their grind though, they establish a buzz where they are and let the majors come to them rather than the east coast approach where everyone has a demo or a Myspace music page. In 2006, so called hip-hop lovers cant distinguish a good southern record from a bad east coast record, nor a good southern artist from a garbage backpack east coast cat who raps about being true to the culture.

Outkast got universal love because they set a standard for upping their creative ante everytime out, Little Brother gets love because they stick to a formula of making more “real hip-hop”. But there’s a whole world to check for outside of cats who you feel obligated to respect. T.I. came out in 2001 with I’m Serious, the hipsters and bandwagon jumpers came aboard with Trap Muzik and after four albums in the game he still isn’t respected on the east. The Sqad Up series of mixtapes proved that Lil Wayne could rap with the best of them, yet people still sleep. Another reason the south is winning right now is the problem of infighting on the east coast, where everyone wants to be the king. In the south everyone either respects the king or doesn’t even concern themselves with jealousy over who’s on top.

Don’t get me wrong, some serious garbage has come about since the south has taken over (Yung Joc is trash, Ying Yang sound too much like degenerates for me to listen to, Franchize Boyz make candy music, and there’s a whole slew of generic acts not worth anything) All I’m saying is you’re hating a whole region for the wrong reasons. If you’re going to hate let it be because you understand the music and know that it isn’t suiting your tastes