7 Comments

1. Lamin is on dis ting!

   I LOVE Goodie Mobb, ever since Soul Food dropped I’ve been locked in hard. Not as much of a fan of c-lo gone solo but oh well. The first and second albums are particularly good for the heavy amount of Organized Noize production on them, one of the most underrated and best production outfits EVER. These records along with outkast’s ATLiens define a whole pre-crunk southern sound that I can’t get enough of. Melodic, soulful and lyrical this was ATL looking north making southern-hip-hop-not-rap (for those who care about the distinction) and coming up with their own thing. I still keep Soul Food on my too small iPod and just listened to it the other day on the train. Very few records I still listen to that hard 10 years later.

2. looking north as in detroit, or northeast?

   is the pre-crunk southern sound you’re talking about different to your ears than gospel-rooted ‘country-rap,’ like UGK or Scarface from the same period?

3. Nah that’s sorta what I’m talking about. Basically that soulful non-club oriented, non-booty rap that was the south’s response to hiphop before crunk, bounce, etc.

4. cool. in that case, i’m curious:

   you heard any of no limit’s stuff between 94 and 2000? TRU’s albums, or mystikal’s early stuff, cain and abel, mia x, silkk the shocker, or fiend? apart from housing some of the most unique voices and delivery styles in the game, beats by the pound (who basically produced all these dudes’ albums) are sonically kind of another side of that classic non-club, non-booty southern shit that organized noise also nailed in their own way. more synthy than ON and similar to what mannie fresh would eventually popularize, it’s got a lot of the elements you find now in crunk, but the non-club, non-booty feel is achieved with heavy doses of narrative and cinematic production. dunno if you’re into that, but i think this is a very under-rated group of producers, maybe even moreso than organized noise, and certainly worth checking out.

5. About distinction; it is a tired discussion, yes, but I’ve always thought the term “Southern Hiphop” sounds awful, like someone saying “Gangsta Hiphop,” instead of Gangsta rap. It’s a personal decision on my part. I know it’s not pc, I’m not concerned with that. They, the south, did their own thing and some of it is better/horrible than what was/is coming out of NY or anywhere at an given time. Two of my favorite albums from ’98 would be Goodie’s “Still Standing” and Gang Starr’s “Moment of Truth”… both great albums.

   As for NL, my favorite artist there was Young Bleed, and he’s probably the only artists on the label I can clearly say is non-booty, non-club, just straight rhyming, narrating, on cold beats.

6. Hey Lamin, What happened?!?, I got this great Juju video in my RSS reader but it’s not on the site?!? But nice vid… Four Drums at once!!! Jack yo bodi! Oooooh!

   But besides that, growing up in the Midwest, most folks I knew were more into No Limit than Dungeon family. Myself and my homies listened to Goodie and Outkast, but I felt like other folks, in my city, with more gangster leanings (at times it felt like most people) were into that other, more gangster sound.

   But, doesn’t that sound have just as much to do with the SF Bay Area? Master P lived in Richmond, CA and the Cress side gets shouted out in a bunch of songs I still listen to. (Which is something I wouldn’t have gotten in Milwaukee.) So the No Limit sound, as well as E-40, Twista, Do or Die, from that era which I would call non-LA/NY Gangster/a Rap, isn’t really a distinctly southern sound as much as Goodie Mob/Outkast, right?

   The discussion can get tired. But it’s all about where you were in relation (physically) to those sounds. Shooot everyone thought that Wisco natives, Arrested Development, were from Tennessee!

7. Great thread all. I also love Young Bleed, especially How Ya Do Dat. I’ve actually only heard a handful of songs never any of the full albums, but what I’ve heard is great.

   Boima: that ghost vid is my fault, I pushed it live prematurely. I assume Lamin has a more developed post brewing on that, or maybe you just get a fleeting glance.

   Quieto: no I haven’t really heard that stuff although I think I have one fiend 12″ somewhere, I should dig it out.

   About distinction, well if you read (the excellent) Murder Dog magazine you’ll notice that a lot of the people who didn’t (still don’t) get the attention NY hiphop got, rebelled against the term saying “We’re not hiphop we’re rap” or xxx regional style so I’m just trying to accomodate that difference. Out of that whole non-ny world I felt like OK and Goodie were some of those looking most closely at NY stylistically. Good discussion about some GREAT music.

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