It Went South

I'm from the East Coast, but my favorite hip hop might actually be Southern. I have just recently come to this realization.

Outkast is the first hip hop I ever liked. No, it wasn't "Sorry Ms. Jackson" even though that is an excellent track.




When I was in middleschool all the non-hip hop fans liked that jawn because it was on the radio. I wasn't feeling it at the time. Hip hop was inaccessible still to Middle School Nick. I liked The Clash and Black Flag and The Ramones and the punk of my Mom's generation. It took me a while to realize hip hop and punk have a lot in common.

So, I wasn't feeling "Ms. Jackson", but I did finally get into Outkast becase of "I Like The Way You Move" and "Tomb Of Boom." Big Boi's half of the Speakerboxx/Love Below combo Outkast did on their last actual album as a duo (unless you count the Idlewild soundtrack which I kinda do...) insantly moved me. I loved it. That double album won a grammy, of course. And it deserved to.





So, my roots as a hip hop fan started in the south. I have always connected to Southern Hip Hop for some reason even though I'm not from there. UGK, T.I, the super slept-on Back Wudz, Scarface, Goodie Mob...Hell, I even liked some of Lil Jon's shit. The south had and still has an approach to hip hop that is totally different than the rest of the county's. Actually (and this is something that I've been intrigued by about the genre for some time) hip hop is, for some reason, the most regional music of all. The South, The West Coast, The East Coast and the Midwest have unique ways of making hip hop still to this day.

Where I'm going with all this is that there's been some great Southern hip hop that's come out in the past few months. Killer Mike's 3rd entry in his Pledge series Pl3dge is great as an ignorant party album, an intellectual political "wake the fuck up" album and an "I'm gonna kill you!" album. Mike started out as an Outkast affiliate, but has really come into his own. Which is good because he's very talented.




Space Ghost Purp's Black Land Radio is a Do It Yourself Hip Hop classic. All the sound is distorted and the volume levels are fucked up. No pro tools, no big shot producers. Purp did most of the (ill) beats himself and throws in crazy, surreal samples of Mortal Kombat and Godzilla.



Juicy J and the incredibly talented beatmaker Lex Luger (yes, he's good even though the beats are all the same) have made not one, but two sick mixtapes in the Rubba Band Business series. What's great about both Rubba Band Business tapes is that Lex Luger's sound (especially on the classic Waka Flocka album Flockaveli) owes mucho to Three Six Mafia.

Have you heard Flockaveli? Okay, first of all don't hate on it. Keep an open mind. Listen, then compare it to the Three Six Most Known Unkown album. You'll see the similarities I'm talking about. And that's why it's a beautiful thing for Lex to work with the best Three Six member: Juicy J.



Speaking of Waka Flocka Flame, dude is a transplant to the south (he lives in ATL, but is from Queens) but his sound is definitely southern. His new mixtape Duflocka Rant is great and totally aggressive. It's great highway-driving music. Or working-out music. Or just angry music in general.





Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T has had two incredibly moving mixtapes with K.R.I.T Wuz Here and Return Of 4Eva. The dude can make beautiful beats and rap over them skillfully. He's very talented. I've seen K.R.I.T live twice and both times were great shows.



Soulja Boy's 1Up mixtape is pure weirdo rap. I know what you're thinking "Soulja Boy?" Yes, the "Crank Dat" man himself. Before you pass your judgement give 1Up a chance. Soulja uses the strangest possible beats on this tape and while he raps about the same old same old (swag, weed, drinking lean, shoes, killing mofos) his flows are never ever normal. Consider his shit on the Odd Future member Super 3's beat for "Retro Gamer"



On "Retro Gamer," Soulja Raps in a close to spoken word way. If a drunk hobo was doing spoken word at you. In a good way.

Oh, and then there's this from the same mixtape:





Finally, some stuff that's on HEAVY rotation for me right now is G-Side's AMAZING album The One...Cohesive. They capture the hard and the introspective and the weird of the South all on one album. "Never" is a track screaming at haters in a very David Banner way and then there's the freaky sex/lust on "Pictures" and the honest, down-to-earth track "Came Up" (which is my favorite on the album).






There's probably more recent Southern stuff that I'm forgetting. Yelawolf definitely deserves a mention. So does Jackie Chain...Hmmm. Perhaps I'll do a second installment of this "It Went South" post and give y'all everything I forgot to talk about.

Until Next Time,

-Vogt