Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta

CHAPTER 5. Gangstas and Playas in the Dirty South

chapter 5 Gangstas and Playas in the Dirty South Something strange has happened in the rap industry in recent years, given the profusion of artists ostensibly marketing themselves as southern or identifying with “the dirty South.” Such artists have gained increasing popularity in the hip-hop arena nationally and, in some cases, globally. This seems strange because when rap emerged in the mid-1970s, the East Coast was its undisputed epicenter of production. From the late 1980s into the early 1990s, the West Coast, which was then primarily known for gangsta rap, also became a force to be reckoned with in the rap industry. The idea of the South as a legitimate base and space for artists to produce rap, which has often been viewed as an inherently urban (and masculine) verbal art, had been virtually unthinkable until recent years. The success of many southern 197 rap artists in the contemporary era should not obscure the reality that trying to get noticed in the rap industry was long the equivalent of attempting to squeeze water from a rock for many rappers from the South. There was a time not too long ago when the very idea of an MC or DJ from the South, if ever it crossed the minds of major producers or celebrated artists in the rap industry, was more likely to come across as amusing. I mean amusing here in the sense of how Samuel Johnson famously likened the phenomenon of a woman writing to a dog walking on its hind legs, the kind of thing that one takes note of out of amazement that it can be done at all. At worst, the idea of rappers from the South probably struck many in the rap industry as being ridiculous. A January 2004 article in Ebony magazine entitled “SouthernFried Hip-Hop,” with the tag line “Down-home lyrics and strong dance grooves are ingredients of a tasty menu,” registers this long-held view of the South in the rap industry: Whether it’s grubbing at a local barbecue spot in Memphis, bling-blinging while riding in a Caddy on Peachtree Street, or just kicking it at a joint on Bourbon Street, the Southern lifestyle has taken the hip-hop world by storm. Once the butt of jokes in the New York City/Los Angeles– dominated world of rap music, it’s now cool to hail from below the MasonDixon line. . . . The “Dirty South” has joined the rap party, and rolling through the ’hood will never be the same.1 Indeed, the question that David Bry raises in a June 2002 cover story for Vibe magazine, one of many publications that has registered this sea change in the rap industry, seems quite appropriate: “Back during hip hop’s much lauded ‘golden era,’ who would have thought that the entire country would be looking southward for stylistic cues?”2 I am amazed myself that southern rap is in a very different place now from where it was when I first noticed and began to track the development of the genre back in 1997 as a graduate student. Back then, it was obscure, unfamiliar , and seldom thought of by anyone at all. It was mentioned marginally in the media, if at all. While once virtual outsiders, southern artists have come to represent the vanguard of contemporary hip-hop. The South has moved from the margins to become the veritable new epicenter of rap production in the United States. Southern rap, including the “dirty South” variety, has become an established subgenre in rap, moved into its second decade of production, and produced numerous albums. Though few would 198 Chapter 5 have ever anticipated such a southern invasion, we have seen moments in recent years during which southern-based and southern-identified rappers such as Nelly, Ludacris, and David Banner, along with such groups as Outkast and Nappy Roots, have all dominated the hip-hop/R&B charts. These artists are among those from the South who have received extensive media exposure and achieved high levels of popular success. Furthermore, we have witnessed the emergence of a significant number of both female and white rappers identifying with the South. Many contemporary rap artists are emphasizing the immediacy and specificity of life in the South, including the rural South, and are constructing the South as an organic and viable here and now in the visual iconography and lyric content of...