Don’t call it a renaissance, but Memphis rap music is certainly seeing some extra shine in the digital world, lately.
Just this month, Juicy J released the second mixtape in his Rubberband Business series with Lex Luger, and it’s “single”, “A Zip & A Double Cup” (aside from being a supremely evil, drug-fueled sleaze-fest), is spilled across the pages of nearly every rap blog in existence. The other creative force behind Three 6 Mafia, DJ Paul, put out a tape of his own, Pray For Forgiveness, which features Paul and aspiring M-town producer, Lil Lody, manning both the mixing console and the mic. (Not to mention that Lody has a strong ‘tape of his own making the rounds, as well.)
You could say it’s been a busy time for southern rap legends, and that’s not even considering Project Pat’s recent work, the Cutthroat collective releases from Hypnotize Minds, a new Playa Fly tape from last year, and TWIII booked for a Mad Decent show in Philadelphia. But even then you’d only be considering the modernization of classic artists. And that completely ignores the current wave of new artists rediscovering the past.
From Lil B to Main Attrakionz to Spaceghostpurrp to, yes, Odd Future, elements of the Memphis sound permeate the landscape of underground/Hulkshare-only rap music. Thankfully, however, this isn’t bland, baseless nostalgia for a sound that reached the height of it’s popularity shortly after most of these artists learned to walk. But instead serves as a jumping-off point to explore a purposely lo-fi, subversive (at least by “mainstream” rap standards) sound.
With some of these artists, the influence is more overt than others. Spaceghostpurrp, for example, adds mountains of tape hiss to his tracks and a basement dungeon griminess to his vocals, in clear homage to Three 6 (even if his rhymes have less violence and more pyramids in them). Others straddle the line between direct influence and aesthetic adoption, like Odd Future, who draw on the macabre lyricism, but combine it with a sound largely of their own creation (there’s also DBX, who combines canonical elements of Memphis rap with, as Noz wrote for The Fader, “Chicago Juke and Baltimore Club”). And, of course there’s the insular, D.I.Y. collective approach to releases (Prophet Posse : OFWGKTA : Green Ova).*
So, it seems now is as good a time as any to explore the source material. Throughout the weekend, I’ll be mining the depths of the internet for the rarest of the rare Memphis rap tape cuts I can find on European YouTube accounts and posting them with or without commentary.** Why? Because a lot of this music is fucking great and few people know Tommy Wright III, let alone DJ Spanish Fly.
To start this off, “North Memphis N***a” was on compilation tape put out by Gimi Sum Productions in 1996. The release was put together by Big Hill Management, home to artists like Skimask Troopaz, Lil Gin and a bunch of other un-Googleable rappers. This track features the characteristic frequency noise and robbery tales, with Playa Dre from Skimask Troopaz doing his best Lord Infamous on the first verse, and seems like a good place to start.
Consider it the anthem.
-SM
(via SouldjahFromTheNorth)
*Not saying Memphis rappers are the only artists to ever push genre boundaries or assemble artistic collectives. Just that the anti-social content of their lyrics, tape splicing sound and word-of-mouth distribution network turned out to be a kind of proto-social media landscape that catered to teens with Walkmans rather than teens with smart phones.
**If you’d like to contribute, hit the ask box.
