When I was a kid and the east vs west marketing war bullshit was going on I was always riding for the south despite being from the north. All that Memphis, Houston, Nola, and Atlanta shit is foundational for me.
I actually got put on to Memphis shit by a juggalo kid I roomed with in a halfway house. Never thought id be indebted to a juggalo, but here we are. My old lady also a bad bitch, and has been to more triple six shows than I have which really makes me proud.
Anyways, this is a great way to start the morning! Thanks!
Hell yeah!
This is just me kind of shouting into the aether, but I’m reflecting on my youth and specifically my time in various juvenile institutions, largely in rural areas of the Midwest (although I did end up in Minneapolis for like nine months at one point).
The west vs east thing was really poppin’ at the time, though pac and big had been dead for a few years, but most of the kids I lived with for those years were all on that southern shit. Jay-Z, 50, and Eminem were probably the most popular rappers in the mainstream at the time, Ye and his contemporaries were on the come up, but a lot of that stuff didn’t get talked about. Maybe because we mostly came from poor rural areas, and the country shit resonated with us, but it was a lot of UGK, T.I., Master P, Wayne, Geto Boys, OutKast, Project Pat, Triple Six, 8Ball and MJG, etc.
I guess I just wonder if the rise of the South in rap music could also have been predicted by analyzing the musical preferences of rural Amerikkkan poors of the early-mid 00s.
Unrelated Story Time: There’s this one half native half Scottish kid I lived with from Oklahoma who lived and breathed by T.I. One day his mama called up to tell him the dopeman had come and took her car cause of a debt the kid had. He was in the phone room and we could all hear him screaming “The Dopeman come took Mama car?? The Dopeman done took mama car! Mama — mama I’m sorry mama! Mama I know — mama! Ima figure it out ma— yes I know you need the car for work — mama I’m sorry!” in his thick Oklahoman by way of Texas accent and we all thought it was the funniest shit ever and we gave him a ton of shit after that and sang T.I.’s “Da Dopeman” at him any chance we got for like a month.
In hindsight it’s just fucking tragic and I really hope his mama was able to get her car back from the dopeman :(
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
