Rollin Deep South

[baboon2004]

As a sequel to last week's (or the week before's?) thread on Miami bass, how about helping me to find my way through the tangled thicket of southern hip-hop? Cash Money I know the basics of, but there seems to be so much more to discover. ILM has helped a bit, I must admit (does that constitute heresy these days? ), revealing not only some great Project Pat records ('Oooh nuthin' is just great rolling hip hop with a killer horror theme beat) but the somewhat bizarre connection between Dizzee Rascal and Houston rapper Chamillionaire:

http://ilx.p3r.net/thread.php?msgid=4434462

So, talk Memphis, NOLA, Houston, Florida, Mississippi....

My faves for starters:
Project Pat - Ooh Nuthin
DJ Screw - anything
David Banner - Choose Me
Juvenile - Ha, Back That Azz Up, all the classicx

 

[luka]

there's lots of blogs which have tons of information on obscure southern hiphop. the whole spizzazz diaspora. erm, someone else will no the names better than me
governmentnames.blogspot
weaveintheyhairweedintheypurse.blogspot

others too. all use the spizzazz house style.
loads of them anyway and pretty thorough.

 

[luka]

and to be fair to ILM the knowledge base is far greater and far broader, if only because there is so many more members.

 

[DavidD]

We're not spizzazz people and our erm "writing" is more us just having fun talking about music we dig than anything on the level of what d_l_k or something is doing at govt names but http://manyshrimp.blogspot.com
has some mp3s and random stuff to check out.

I'd reccommend, if you're at all interested in the Houston scene, to check out Damage Control radio (which I made a thread about here at dissensus) which is basically the best source to learn about houston hip-hop. Then I'd definitely recommend Paul Wall and Chamillionaire's album Get Ya Mind Correct because its just flat-out great. The production isn't next level or anything but the houston scene is about this style of clever MCing, like Lil Flip style if you're familiar with him. Other Houston cats to watch out for - Mike Jones, Slim Thug, Z-ro, Devin the Dude....

As far as stuff from the rest of the south...there's Outkast obviously but you should definitely check out UGK (Bun-B + Pimp C), 8Ball and MJG, the Geto Boys and 3-6 Mafia if you're not familiar with them. Those guys have sorta laid the groundwork for a lot of the different crunk stuff you hear....Trick Daddy's another southern rapper who's worth checking out, his best-of if they ever make one would be incredible. His new album is really good too.

I'm going on 3 hours of sleep right now and I have a paper to right but once I've sorted everything out I'll come back and post some specific records and probably better advice. I'll have Serg from So Many Shrimp take a look at this thread too, he's a huge Houston hip-hop fan.

 

[DavidD]

http://ilx.p3r.net/thread.php?msgid=4376866
That thread has william wiggins aka d_l_k talking about why he likes Houston hip-hop.

 

[baboon2004]

and to be fair to ILM the knowledge base is far greater and far broader, if only because there is so many more members.

Yeh, of course - its downfall is inevitably that, due to the deluge of threads on indie bands I've never heard of, some interesting threads never get the attention they merit. Oh,a nd thanks for the links to those blogs - great stuff.

Thanks for all those tips David - kinda weird how Screw/Swishahouse type innovations haven't been incorporated into other Houston hiphop really, from what you say. Love 'We Started This' from 8Ball and MJG, and Trick Daddy's 'I'm a Thug' chopped and screwed is a (very slow) blast.

 

[puretokyo]

The best southern hip-hop track I've ever heard, no question about it, is Juvenile's "Numb Numb", from his 2003 "Juve the Great" LP. Absolutely amazing, I can't praise it enough (or even believe it was made). One of the darkest, most menacing/uplifting hiphop tracks I can think of.

"If you score some coke from me you will be numb numb numb numb, numb numb numb numb,
if you don't get it from me you will be dumb dumb dumb dumb, dumb dumb dumb dumb,
you'll be coming back in minutes to get some some some some, some some some some"

and one of the best lines ever,

"I'm just tryna put some clothes on my daughter, I hope they ain't ridin' I need to sell your son a quarter".

Hit the P2P on that one for real.

 

[SergDun]

Thanks for all those tips David - kinda weird how Screw/Swishahouse type innovations haven't been incorporated into other Houston hiphop really, from what you say. Love 'We Started This' from 8Ball and MJG, and Trick Daddy's 'I'm a Thug' chopped and screwed is a (very slow) blast.

um I don't think that's very accurate at all, screwed and chopped music pretty much dominates houston hiphop, shit some artist sell more screwed and chopped albums than they do regular ones. Screwed music has affected almost every aspect of houston's hiphop scene, and pretty much the whole south.

some albums I'd say are worth peeping

project pat - layin da smack down
E.S.G. & SlimThug - Boss Hogg Outlawz
Memphis Drama Vol 1
Crooked Lettaz - Grey Skies(david banner and kamakazi when they were on penalty records, which was a subdivision of tommy boy)
Lil Keke & Slim Thug - The Big Unit
Scareface - The Diary
Dj Magic Mike - Bass Is the Name of the Game
Gucci Crew - Everybody Wants Some
Gangsta NIP - SouthPark Psycho
UNLV - Straight Out The Gutta or Unfortunately No Longer Virgins
find some Gangsta Pat

then there are a bunch of artists to look for like K-rino, Mr. Madd, Youngbloodz, Sir Daily, Killa Kyleon, Street Military, Native, Pitbull, pastor troy, 5th ward boys, seagram, big mike, willie d, sammy sam, al kapone, cory mo, powerhouze, young ro, trae, killa klan, street military, gritboys, guerillla maab, papa rue, Fiend, HAWK, magno, weckshop, botnay boys, crime mob, sammy sam, 334 MOBB, goodie mobb, Dirty South Rydaz (DSR)
once you start finding stuff you'll kind of find your way about things, collabs happen a lot and there are a ton of songs on various mixtapes

ok thats long enough, mostly texas related stuff but there is some other shit in there.

 

[DavidD]

Lil Keke's "Southside" is a great track.

And yeah sorry I didn't mean to imply that screw music didn't influence houston's hip-hop scene...

 

[mikemac]

DJ Smallz's Southern Smoke mixtapes are a great place to start and will lead you to lots of new Southern artists. They include all the hot tracks, although I haven't heard the latest ones (a new one seems pop up every few weeks).

Volumes 8 and 10 are the best.

 

[DavidD]

DJ Smallz's Southern Smoke mixtapes are a great place to start and will lead you to lots of new Southern artists. They include all the hot tracks, although I haven't heard the latest ones (a new one seems pop up every few weeks).

Volumes 8 and 10 are the best.

Definitely true, 10 is one of the best and I forget what number it is but the one hosted by Chamillionaire is good too. The recent ones I haven't liked so much, the one with Roy Jones is kind of crappy.

 

[Woebot]

i've picked up a totally excellent comp called 'crunk classics' (TVT), got it imported, which was ace for a beginner like me. features brilliant things like UGK's "pocket full of stones" (remix) and JT Money's "Who Dat"

also did some research on screw here:
http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000894.html

the guy datboypollo (email in there somewhere) can sort you with the screw.

my 1c.

 

[baboon2004]

And yeah sorry I didn't mean to imply that screw music didn't influence houston's hip-hop scene...

It was my mistake in drawing the conclusion that you'd implied that - reading back, you just commented that the Chamillionaire production wasn't at all next level, and I kind of generalised upon that a little too much.

I suppose part of the observation was my own, in that, outside the chopped and screwed stuff itself as applied in a remix fashion, I haven't noticed too many 'out there' productions on the Houston tracks I've heard. Which may well be because I haven't heard enough yet.

 

[baboon2004]

Oh, and thanks everyone for all the recommendations - for the relatively small number of people who belong to Dissensus at the mo', the amount of music knowledge gathered here is staggering.

Haven't heard any of the 'Southern Smoke' tapes yet, but tracklistings alone look great.

Just heard the instrumental version of Lil Wayne's 'Shine' yesterday - what a novel beat... Must get hoild of the 'Platinum Instrumentals', cos it promises to be something special.

 

[DavidD]

"Shine" is one of the best cash money tracks I think, I've used the 12" at nearly every party i've dj'd.

That TVT collection Woebot brings up is definitely cool, its sort of a strange compilation and it inexplicably doesn't have any 8ball and mjg, but its worth it, most definitely. I'd recommend either UGK's Ridin' Dirty or their greatest hits (which is the album Dizzee talks about listening to after he was stabbed) if you like the Pocket Full of Stones remix from Crunk Classics. "Bia Bia 2" is also a great track from that collection.