The Imminent Decline of Southern Rap?
Interesting read.
Even though you didn’t ask for it, here’s my take.
At the risk of sounding like a bitter old head, I’d carefully suggest that Southern Rap has been creatively bankrupt for a minute. At least on the mainstream level. The gifted MCs that lack wide exposure often garner critical acclaim due to strong East Coast influences or production. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
That said, I don’t see Southern Rap falling off any time soon. Not on a commercial level (relatively speaking of course). Most of that stuff is just cheaper for the labels to bankroll. Sampling ain’t cheap. The worst that could happen is that the mainstream presence of Southern rap falls in step with everyone else, but even that strikes me as unlikely so long as producers have access to those shitty sounding 808s and synths that come with pro-tools. That cheap shit has infiltrated everything at this point…
Haven’t had a chance to read the linked article, but I really disagree with Deen on a couple of different fronts here.
- Re: “creatively bankrupt” on a mainstream level: No clue what this sentiment actually means, or how the article defines “southern rap,” but c’mon. Killer Mike, Z-Ro, K.R.I.T., Trae, Yelawolf and Killa Kyleon (that’s just off the top) have all appeared in “mainstream” rap blogs and publications and are, or have been, on majors. Maybe you argue that K.R.I.T. lacks creativity simply by virtue of being a southern rap “traditionalist,” but that dude is still making some innovative, sample-based music (“Small As A Giant,” “Moon & Stars,” “Children Of The World”). Anyway, “creatively bankrupt” should be reserved for dudes like Diggy and Mac Miller.
- “The gifted MCs that lack wide exposure often garner critical acclaim due to strong East Coast influences or production.” - Nah. G-Side/the SMS camp, Rittz, Tum Tum/Cannabis Club, Jackie Chain, Starlito — all guys, maybe aside from Jackie, that lack wide exposure — work best over distinctly “southern” (N.O. Joe/Mike Dean/R-A-L) production, or production that owes more to prog than boom bap (see: Block Beattaz).
- Re: “cheaper” to produce “southern rap” — Yeah, uh, “southern rap” is known for sampling a lot of funk and soul records (as opposed to the jazz breaks of the “East Coast” sound I think we’re talking about here), so this logic is pretty flawed. I think my main issue here is that this argument conflates “southern rap” with “trap music,” which is known for it’s “cheap synth” sounds, a la Zaytoven, Shawty Redd, Drumma Boy — and now, Lex Luger and Southside. Maybe that’s splitting hairs (both types of rap are, after all, made primarily south of the Mason-Dixon), but this is the problem when one paints with broad sub-genre strokes — you end up creating this “straw genre” that doesn’t exist to fit neat little critiques. And, if we are going to roll up all of these sounds under the banner of “southern rap,” the whole thing seems like a wasted exercise in upholding boring conventions about HIP HOP as a whole.
- Pro Tools doesn’t come with presets or soft synths. It’s a music editing program.
Not trying to be a dick here, but this analysis of southern rap is total bullshit. There’s a ton of awful music posted on Tha Fixx and Keep It Trill and Screw Heads everyday, but the same can be said (arguably with greater effect) of NMC or the clusterfuck of East Coast blogs with “hip hop” in their URLs.
This “problem with southern rap” is endemic to RAP MUSIC, period. It has nothing to do with geographic location.
-SM
