Required Reading: Dirty South

When you live outside of LA or New York, sometimes you feel like your voice is never heard. That your stories are not seen as important from an outside perspective. How many movies or long running, successful comedies or sitcoms have taken place in Atlanta, Dallas or Houston? The South is perceived as backwards and uneducated and these negative stereotypes are not, by any means, the whole story of the South. This is a proud place that through it’s neglect, and isolation has built it’s own unique culture that has cultivated some of the greatest food, literature and music the world has ever seen. So, who will tell the true stories of what it is like to live in the South if not Hollywood or Broadway? How about the fables we hear from Southern Rappers?

These are tales of true entrepreneurs like DJ Smurf and Screw who went about their business the way they saw best. Originators like Paul Wall, who would rather write music for his own hood, rather than try and make mass appeal songs and still found national success. And, truly unique stories like that of Scarface, and his time in a mental institution in his youth and how it drove him to be one of the most respected musicians he is today. These are just a few stories of a lot of musicians and artists that were raised below the Mason Dixon line and shunned from major labels and popular East Coast and West Coast independent rap imprints because they weren't perceived as true Hip Hop. This drove many of them to the point where they felt that to survive they had to do it themselves; despite their love and appreciation of the Godfathers of Hip Hop and Rap, and a want to be apart of the larger community.

And do it themselves they did, and with a degree of success that has most other rappers around the country still trying to catch up. This month alone, Lil Wayne's The Carter IV out did the highly anticipated Watch the Thrown venture by Jay Z and Kanye West. As Bun B told VBS.tv for their documentary Screwed in Houston “A lot of these cats (in the South) learned to make what they needed to make happen outside of the system. They just said ‘fuck it,’ and it’s that ‘fuck it’ mentality that gets these cats these great deals” now with the major labels.

RZA of the Wu Tang Clan is quoted in the Ben Westhoff's book Dirty South saying “The South has evolved later than us.” Really RZA? This is a strange belief that has no root in musical history that dates back to prior then the late 1970s. True, Hip Hop and Rap may have come from New York, but the blues and rhythms that live in Hip Hop as we know it, and which is found in all modern popular music comes from the South and more specifically the Delta. The Blues is the father of all great American music, and comes from a combination of Baptist/Catholic cultures, and more importantly African cultures. These cultures melted from a more liberal allowance of a freedom of expression that was allowed in the colonial days of the South and Caribbean and in particular New Orleans. This is totally opposite of the Northern culture that did not allow slaves in the Protestant, English colonies that restricted any drumming or singing, since it was seen as a sign of unifying which would lead to revolts.

I could go on about how important Southern roots music is, but I know I am preaching to the choir here. A majority of this point is touched on more eloquently than I could ever put it by Ben Westhoff new book Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy and the Southern Rappers who reinvented Hip Hop, out now on Chicago Review Press. Ben goes on to show how Southern musicians in the last decade and a half have gone on to conquer the music style that was not necessarily created by them. These rappers had a better understanding of what everyday people want to hear from their musicians: party music. And Southern rappers went on to create some of the biggest dance crazes of the last decade from Crunk to Bounce and from Swerve to Snap.

Good music helps you forget all the problems in the world: war, Wall Street buyouts, and revolutions. And that is what Southern music has always been about. Thats Jazz; thats brass music; that's Country and that's especially the blues and the best blues helps you get over the blues. Southern music isn’t Gil Scott Heron, it’s Ray Charles. It’s not KRS One or Grand Master Flash it’s Scarface and Juvenile. It's not Tribe Called Quest it's Outcast. And note, that all the Southern artists mentioned sold more records then their North Eastern counterparts. And, what is the measure of success? Financial or critical?

Dirty South is a delightfully easy read, and I believe Ben looks at all the musicians in the book from the perspective of a true reporter. This is something you don’t see enough of these days. He put in a lot of hard work into this book, and it shows. From actually going out to meet such rappers as Ms Peachez, known for her Fry that Chicken song, to pretty much stalking Luke Campbell from 2 Lie Crew. All of this hard work contributes to him telling some amazing anecdotes about some of the musicians that have been a part of many of our soundtrack for the last 15 years. There are stories of rappers being true to themselves from the likes of T-Pain to people so self aware of their persona's and their brand that it is inspiring, like TI. These are stories that once you hear them you will never be able to listen to their work the same way again.

If you are at all a fan of music, especially rap, I highly suggest picking up this book. You will be happy you did.