This is mainly in response to this thread over a CB, but also to the idea that’s been floating around that Alabama rap (specifically G-Side/Slow Motion Soundz) is “over-hyped” on blogs (ca. 2009-10):
Block Beattaz took a step forward musically with The One… Feel however you want to about Clova & ST’s lyrical abilities, but the production on the newest G-Side record leads southern music ideologies and the technological influence of Alabama’s Rocket City to unexpected convergences. (“Y U Mad,” for example, which is perhaps the defining track of Cohesive, is a trunk-rattling rock ballad, while “Came Up” evokes a feeling that is really kind of ancient, yet effectively incorporates the present — a kind of Genesis — how the stories and themes explored in the lyrics came to be.)
But regardless of what you think of G-Side’s music, it’s a really bad look to just write them off completely because they have a (small) group of dedicated and passionate fans (I don’t know that this is actually happening, but was suggested in the comments of that post). Also, it’s kind of like willful ignorance to talk down on G-Side’s “approach” without acknowledging that they’ve translated relatively minor Internet notoriety into booking live performances, selling physical and digital albums, and getting soundtrack placements resulting in, I would imagine, real income.
Slow Motion Soundz is earning actual money from their music. Think about how rare that is for an artist in 2011. All I really want to see is driven artists able to make a sustainable living off their music without a deal, an advance, an over-priced P.R. department, and a co-sign from someone who hasn’t spit a relevant verse in close to a decade.
There’s so many crazy, irreconcilable biases going on in Internet rap coverage that it often becomes more about the “writer” or “blogger” than about the music. And that’s where shit gets dumb and people get turned off to artists.
I don’t think it has anything to do with enthusiasm.
-SM
