Atlanta Rap 2014-2016

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
Actually Florida seems connected with all this swag/soundcloud rap stuff, and I have seen comments from yanks online suggesting that Florida is known as being a particularly extreme/crazy state.

Note on the wiki the early connections between Atlanta and Miami (the prevalence of bass in production etc.)
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
I wonder if the shift of dominance in rap from New York to Atlanta might be partially explained by this 'mecca' aspect and New York's enforced gentrification?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_New_York_City

In a news item of April 3, 2006, however, the New York Times noted that for the first time since the American Civil War, the recorded African American population was declining, because of emigration to other regions, a declining African American birthrate in New York, and decreased immigration of blacks from the Caribbean and Africa.[2]

PROBABLY NOT, but my half-baked theory has diverted me from work for five minutes so there's that in its favour
 

luka

Well-known member
the atlanta thing happened early. i remember reading an article in the source or vibe about it. phife dawg had just moved there which i think was the excuse for the piece.
you had laface records early on. just a shift in the centre of gravity.
 

luka

Well-known member
and youre probably right that economic factors played a part just as milton keynes hosts quite a few big company headquarters.
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
it is bizarre, really, when i consider how abstract all these cities are to me

new york is either a 90s rap video or a postcard

atlanta isn't even somewhere i can PICTURE

LA - the wealthy hollywood hills of curb your enthusiasm, high schools where skateboarders jump down stairsets, compton, crenshaw boulevard... a collection of cliches
 

luka

Well-known member
i just looked it up and phife it seems moved to atlanta in '94 so even by then you had talk of a powershift.
 

luka

Well-known member
it is bizarre, really, when i consider how abstract all these cities are to me

new york is either a 90s rap video or a postcard

atlanta isn't even somewhere i can PICTURE

did you not watch those vice videos? for all their flaws (like getting rappers arrested or whatever, fairly serious flaws) they did give you a sense of the city, how it works etc. why it occupies the position it does just in very real geographic terms
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
edit: I was wary of watching those VICE videos cos I heard they were basically poverty porn for hipsters

Skim-read a lonnnng profile of Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) in the NYer just a few days ago. (His TV show is set in and called 'Atlanta'.)

They started talking about trap music, a poundingly kinetic form of Atlanta rap that originated in the crack-and-weed dens known as trap houses. “The rhythm of it is interesting,” Beetz said, “but I feel abandoned by the lyrics. Rhyming ‘blunt’ with ‘blunt’ with ‘blunt’—”

“It’s music for making drugs by,” Glover explained, his brow furrowing. He lost his virginity to a trap song, and one of his goals for “Atlanta” is to make the show feel as vital as the music that constitutes half its soundtrack.

Cornelius said, “I agree with her, though. You want some more metaphorical language, like Jay-Z.”

“Jay-Z be saying the same shit, too!” Glover said. “O.K., take ‘The Race,’ by Tay-K. Play that fuck right now, if you got it.” As Cornelius searched Spotify, Glover explained, “Tay-K was sixteen and on the run for murder when he made this song. It’s a real Jesse James story.” He pulled up Tay-K’s photo on his phone as “The Race” began to boom. Glover said, “Look at this kid! He’s a baby! He never had a chance! Y’all are forgetting what rap is. Rap is ‘I don’t care what you think in society, wagging your finger at me for calling women “bitches”—when, for you to have two cars, I have to live in the projects.’ ”

“That makes me think differently about it,” Beetz said.

Glover stared off. “Young black kid in Texas with a murder on him,” he said, finally. “He’s definitely going to die, and it’s sad.”
 

luka

Well-known member
talking about road and rail infrastructure and atlanta as a hub meaning drugs always go through there by necessity.
explaining the different sections, lots of cul-de-sacs, big wide roads. it's not remotely urban in the way we would think of it. it's completely sub-urban. very spread out. quite desolate in a sundrenched way.
 

luka

Well-known member
perhaps it's poverty porn but equally who else is going out there to tell the story? who else thinks the story is even worth telling?
fine if there's a more serious minded, less lurid documentary to watch but if there's not, and you want to learn something, you'll probably have to watch the vice one! or go to atlanta.
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
good points, well made - i'll watch it, then

i liked the one they did about road rap presented by mike skinner - had some great poverty porn in it
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
There are books but is Corpse gonna buy a book? (I kid, though seriously Roni Sarig's "Third Coast" was legitimately great at breaking down regions and moments effortlessly. History, background culture, rap scenes. It follows Outkast as the Big Narrative which ofc it might but it still works well enough at explaining the details, biased as it might be)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5yGlYNqfPU4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k-03G_LndVI" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5iP4twL_N9c" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YXJZBdy_yNk" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B0WDQCry_G8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Barty is Very Familiar to me. They're the same kid, they've gotten ahold of Heavy Mental and they think this is the brilliant break through moment of rap. Don't even know about Sir IBU or Doug E. Fresh, can't handle it. I've had friends who didn't get Young Thug until 1017 Thug, said the rapper who sang "GET THAT HOE RIGHT GET HER HOOKED ON POWDER, WATCH HER SNORT HER LIFE AWAY TILL SHE DON'T KNOW VOWELS" was 'too happy'. And its in those early tapes you not only see the very formation of his ideas but understand the lineage he comes out of through his contemporaries.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9atks2_m7Pg" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8AsTOX8nZWw" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eUHf3PbQy2g" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
thanks for that, haven't listened yet. i'll clean the kitche, have a listen then either concede you're right or right something pedentic and overly technical with lots of links.
 

luka

Well-known member
barty has lost heart. so i'll quickly review these tunes.

im da man-annoying
aint gon let up-best song ever
teabag that hoe-annoying
what up with the pussy-annoying
hands on deck-sounds like one of those things where a rapper (or his management) thinks hes creative or something and wants to prove it by getting some british laptop nerd to produce his album and it turns into a dogs dinner and everyone involved tries to forget it ever happend.
rich kidz-i quite liked this lot. remind me of pretty ricky.
 

luka

Well-known member
can i see the clear line of evolution from this to migos et al. not really tbh. would need the dots joined up for me by an expert.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
done. because it's a special post i'm going to write it on a word document before posting it. i will take an embarrassingly long time to write something that 3 people will skim, but nonetheless i will do it.
 
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