Matt Miller, Dirty Decade: Rap Music and the U.S. South, 1997-2007: Atlanta

Cover of Pastor Troy’s 2000 CD (detail).

Dirty Decade: Rap Music and the U.S. South, 1997-2007

Matt Miller, Emory University

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Essay Sections:

Rap Scenes and Styles of the South:

City Sections:

Miami
Houston
New Orleans
Memphis
Atlanta
Virginia Beach

Atlanta:

Atlanta's status as the Dirty South's capital rests upon two interrelated features: its status as a growing population center and symbolic "mecca" for African Americans, and its role as the economic and transportation hub of the Southeast. Largely a satellite of the Miami Bass scene in the mid- to late-1980s, by the 1990s, Atlanta was one among several expanding southern urban rap centers. By 2000, the city's rap prominence far outstripped that of Memphis, Houston, New Orleans, or Miami. It seems unlikely that any other southern metropolis will be able to catch up with the investment and expansion that have solidified Atlanta's position as the rap capital of the Southeast.

Like other cities covered in this essay, the rap scene in Atlanta did not begin to build any sort of significant momentum until the late 1980s. Early rappers like Mojo and the club DJ known as King Edward J attracted local audiences, but remained obscure outside the city. The earliest rapper to develop any degree of more-than-local prominence was Peter "MC Shy D" Jones, a transplanted New Yorker who built a career rapping in Atlanta and Miami. At first, the dominance of Miami pulled Jones to work with Luther Campbell, recording and performing with 2 Live Crew. "In the late '80s," writes Roni Sarig, "Atlanta became a sort of colonial outpost of Miami hip-hop."37

OutKast, Atlanta's best-known rap act (1994, LaFace).

As Atlanta's rap scene began to gain momentum, a generation who took rap as their primary frame of musical reference came of age. Club DJs/producers like Kizzy Rock and DJ Smurf began to cement the city's reputation as a source for uptempo dance music that could hold its own against Miami Bass. Atlanta artists like Kilo, Success N Effect, and others released recordings on independent labels like WRAP/Ichiban or Black Label, but few recordings made it outside the city. In a prelude to the expansive years, the early 1990s saw a number of national chart-climbing, "one-hit-wonder" releases from Atlanta-based or -connected artists, including D-Roc's "Bankhead Bounce" and Duice's "Dazzey Duks." The Atlanta scene's roots lay in the city's black neighborhoods, including the sprawling Southwest, East Point, and Forest Park near the airport, the areas surrounding the Atlanta University Center's cluster of historically black educational institutions, and "east side" neighborhoods like Decatur.

In early 1992, Arrested Development was the first group associated with Atlanta to attract the attention of national audiences and critics. Composed of college students who for the most part had grown up outside of the South, but who were able to exploit the stereotyped expectations of national audiences about what a southern rap act should properly look and sound like, Arrested Development's imagery evoked a black South in which poverty and rurality figured centrally. A sample-heavy, "East Coast" production style and a lack of references to club life, partying, and dancing signified the group's disconnection with local aesthetic and thematic priorities, and while their first album achieved critical acclaim and high sales numbers, their long-term effect upon the local Atlanta scene was minimal.

Goodie Mob on the cover of XXL magazine (1998).

Considerable investment by major labels began in 1989 when Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds moved to Atlanta and founded the Arista-backed LaFace Records. Along with their best-known act, OutKast, the label released rap music by female rap group TLC, Goodie Mob, Cool Breeze, and Witchdoctor, as well as a wide range of artists working in the R&B genre. LaFace's most prominent success story and the rap group which has become most closely associated with Atlanta — OutKast — was, in many ways, atypical of the Atlanta club music scene that prevailed in the mid-1990s. OutKast became the standard bearers of southern rap, but they were initially chosen to record by their producer Rico Wade because of their ability to render complex and non-repetitive raps ("no hooks"). In both musical and personal style, "they weren't no ghetto Atlanta niggas — no gold teeth. They were hip-hop."38 The statement shows how musical and visual style, social class, and regional affiliation could all be tied up in the same equation of rap music authenticity.

Jermaine Dupri, a producer who founded the So So Def record label in 1992, represents another important node in the Atlanta rap network. Dupri grew up in the College Park area of Atlanta. He became involved in the music industry at a young age, thanks in large part to his father, an executive who helped organize the first touring rap concert in the early 1980s. Dupri achieved enormous commercial success as a songwriter and producer before the age of twenty with teen rap group Kris Kross. He went on to produce commercially successful artists like Da Brat, and in 2000 he became a vice-president at Arista.

The Ying Yang Twins show their allegiance to "the ATL" (2005, TVT Records).

Not only did an increasing number of Atlanta-based artists — including Ludacris, T.I., Bonecrusher, Gucci Man, and Young Jeezy — find national audiences, but the exposure of stylistic subgenres associated with Atlanta far outstripped that enjoyed by other cities in the South. As detailed in a later section, "Get Crunk," Atlanta's position at the center of the southern rap spotlight made it easier for artists like Lil Jon or D4L to pitch their approaches to making music as a subgenre of rap (crunk and snap, respectively). The power that these artists and their business associates possess to name, categorize, and periodize ideas within the rap form speak to Atlanta's privileged position. In the increasingly globalized and media-connected world of rap, place still matters, both as a certification of authenticity, and as a way to maximize structural advantages and connections.

Atlanta rap slogan on a basketball jersey (photograph by Matt Miller, 2007).

Audio Samples:

ATTENTION: Some of these audio samples contain explicit content.

OutKast featuring Goodie Mob, "Call of da Wild" (1994 LaFace)
(20 sec.)
An underexposed track from OutKast's debut album showcases sophisticated rap skills and forward-thinking production work.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

Diamond featuring D-Roc, "Bankhead Bounce" (1996 Elektra/Asylum)
(20 sec.)
Before he joined the Ying Yang Twins, D-Roc brought the rap spotlight to an Atlanta neighborhood with his catchy song and accompanying dance.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

Goodie Mob, "Dirty South" (1996 LaFace Records)
(20 sec.)
The song crystallized a way of thinking about the South at a moment when southern rap was on the verge of becoming a national phenomenon.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

DJ Kizzy Rock featuring DJ Smurf, "Crank this Shit Up" (1996 Ichiban Records)
(20 sec.)
Music designed for local club scenes relies on energetic music and exhortative lyrics.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

Lil' Jon & the East Side Boys, "Get Crunk" (1997 Ichiban Records)
(20 sec.)
Lil Jon has become the public face of crunk.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

Ying Yang Twins, "Wait" (2005 TVT Records)
(20 sec.)
The Ying Yang Twins took crunk from a scream to a whisper in this 2006 hit.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

Trap Squad, "What's Happenin?" (2006 Asylum Records)
(20 sec.)
"What's Happenin?" was the first single from Trap Squad's Asylum Records debut

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

D4L, "Laffy Taffy" (2005 Asylum Records)
(20 sec.)
The wide exposure of this infectious "snap" ode to strip club dancers speaks to Atlanta's centrality in the southern rap universe.

RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime

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Essay Sections:

Published: 10 June 2008

© 2008 Matt Miller and Southern Spaces