Crib Notes

MOVIN' THE CROWD: Rakim

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM RAKIM’S SHOW

You know the feeling you get when the DJ makes the last call for alcohol?

You know you probably don’t need another Blue Moon, but what the hell? You’re there; you may as well. Same goes for the A3C Festival. With more than enough acts to chose from, attendees staggered from one venue to the next looking for one last shot to keep them properly buzzed until next year.

Though the entire final day was full of joyful hip-hop activity, the most potent shots of the night belonged to Rakim, Mike Bigga (Killer Mike), J. Cole and … Grip Plyaz? (We’ll get to that later).

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By the looks of this video, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish Atlanta’s other hip-hop scene from the mainstream. Perhaps that’s the point. Of course, this is a song about “Caddys” — what more should one expect? Ride out. Park. Post up. Repeat.

That’s not a diss, just an observation on the visual tip. My hopes for SMKA’s The 808 Experiment are still as high as they were when I wrote about the compilation several months ago.

So, in case anyone gives a fuck cares, here are my votes (in this order) for the next video, if that’s even an option: 1) “Sweet Confusion” feat. Wil May and Toussaint, 2) “Alien (When in Rome)” feat. Jay West, Savage and Gilles, 3) “I’ve Been Drinkin’” feat. J Beans and Crysis.

Keep bangin’ people.

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GRIP PLYAZ

He’s one of underground Atlanta’s most recognizable MCs. He’s also a struggling artist.

So in an effort to scrounge up the necessary change to send Grip Plyaz to SXSW where he can showcase his reputable talents this weekend, Lavish Life Social Club and Come Up Kids are throwing him a going-away shindig.

Hosted by Grip. DJs Slugger and DiBiase spin. $5 before 11 p.m. Tonight. Clermont Lounge (the strip club on Ponce, fool!), 789 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-874-4783.

Here’s a recent Roll Call on Grip Plyaz:

Who are you?
Grip Plyaz. Hardest tool in the toolbox. Lavish Life Social Club representa

Describe yourself in three words.
Slum as hell

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Kunta Kinte and Martin Luther King Jr.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Hitler

What song do you wish you had written?
“Poppa was a Rolling Stone” by the Temptations

Michael Jackson or George Michael?
Michael Jackson (the black one)

LP, CD or MP3?
MP3

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Grip-Hop

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
This hipster shit

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Yo momma

(Photo by Chilly-O and HannibalMatthews.com)

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Is there a more self-referential genre than hip-hop? Once labeled “CNN for black people” by Chuck D, most commercial rap has long since lost that edge. But strip away the overt socio-political content and what remains is a strong sense of place — whether real or imagined.

No other form of music goes to such great lengths to lyrically represent/cultivate its environment. Despite Rakim’s claim that “it ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at”; it’s actually all about where you’re from or the place you claim as home.

Your city. Your block. Your crib. Not even your lack of imagination matters as long as you substitute it with plenty of ’hood references. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about moving the crowd. And geography is often the least common denominator.

Of course, there are very creative ways to do it, and very wack ways. Over the past 20 years, Atlanta has been the benefactor of both.

The latest song to rep the city doubles as a response to the club anthem, “I’m in Miami Bitch” by LMFAO. Due to appear on DJ Smiles next mixtape, the remix “Atlanta Bitch” features Niko Villamor, o8o of T!Katz, and Gripplyaz. As far as Atlanta theme songs go, C. Will of the blog Fresh.I.Am sums it up best when he says it’s “bound to be a club hit all the way from MJQ to Halo.”

But in a broader context, it got me to reminiscing on Atlanta-themed rap songs — from the overly familiar (Jermaine Dupri’s “Welcome to Atlanta”) to the criminally overlooked.

Released 21 years ago by MC Shy D, “Atlanta-That’s Where I Stay” (see below) was produced by DJ Toomp, who has earned industry acclaim in recent years for producing mega-hits for T.I. (”What You Know”) and Kanye West (”Can’t Tell Me Nothing”), among others. On the Shy D song “Atlanta-That’s Where I Stay,” he samples DeBarge’s “All This Love” to give the track the laid back feel that, when mixed with the Miami bass sound so prominent in the South at the time, helped give birth to Atlanta’s pre-OutKast Cadillac music.

Sort of ironic when you think about it — 20 years later DJ Smiles’ “Atlanta Bitch” still has the city looking to Miami for inspiration.

Check out 2009’s “Atlanta Bitch” and 1988’s “Atlanta-That’s Where I Stay,” and let us know which one you think best represents the Atlanta you know. If neither, name your song.

Listen: “Atlanta Bitch”

Download: “Atlanta Bitch”

Listen: MC Shy D, “Atlanta-That’s Where I Stay”

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God bless the child that’s got his own.

From the outset of SMKA Productions‘ newly released compilation, The 808 Experiment Vol. 1, it’s clear that Atlanta has finally arrived.

Surely, you say, the hip-hop capital of the world is no newbie to rap’s all-encompassing map. And you’re right. But among Atlanta’s emerging rap underworld — filled with hipster-leaning hoppers, 2nd generation ATLiens, and otherwise unidentifiable but objectively fly MCs — that original, Dirty South sound had been all but bleached out and forsaken. Until now.

With The 808 Experiment, SMKA accomplishes the seemingly impossible: It bridges Atlanta’s slick, hipster-hop derivative with the indigenous, red clay swagger for which the A has always been known.

Beats simultaneously swim in bass-drunk, 808 kicks while dancing between melodic, pastel-colored keys. Even when SMKA dares to sample esoteric pop songs like Sting’s “Englishman in New York,” the resulting track ["Alien (When in Rome) feat. Jay West, Savage and Gilles] is certifiably stamped “ATL.”

Their secret weapon? SMKA producers Blake “808 Blake” German and Kyle “7King” King, along with in-house “hustler” Mike Walberg, are all Atlanta natives. Damn near unheard of in this day and age, right? Meanwhile, the compilation features plenty among the city’s rising crop of natives and transplants alike, including Gripplyaz, A. Leon Craft, and Young Trimm (”Caddy”), trio Supreeme (”I’m On Fire”), Wil May (”Sweet Confusion”), and o8o of T!Katz (”Fire in the Hole”). But some of the biggest surprises come from lesser known cats who turn in equally stellar performances, including Double R of Miami, Nuff Sed, J Beans, Dee Rail, Fat Tony, Niko Villamor, Jay West, Rome Fortune, J Young, Radcliff Hyphen, Crysis, Brandon Michael, Toussaint, Alexandria Lushington and Tom P of Decatur. El da Sensei of New Jersey-based Artifacts is also featured.

With only 48 hours since it’s release it’s impossible to say just yet, but here’s hoping The 808 Experiment represents a truly formative moment in what’s already proven to be a watershed year for Atlanta’s slightly off-the-radar hip-hop movement.

Needless to say, I had to talk to the guys behind SMKA to find out where the heck they’ve been hiding. Oh, and you’ll never guess what SMKA stands for?

DOWNLOAD: The 808 Experiment Vol. 1

Y’all seem to have come from out of nowhere?
Mike: I’d say that’s pretty much right. 7King has been an engineer for awhile, he’s worked out of a couple of studios around town. 808 Blake has been producing for about five years since his freshman year in college. And I went to a business school out in L.A. So it’s kind of a motley crew. But we went to high school together at Paideia, but since graduation we all started doing our own thing and then Blake kinda got us all together and wanted to get serious about it. So it started about four months ago, man, at Chik-Fil-A during lunch, and we just kinda said let’s start a company and get serious about it.

What Chik-Fil-A were y’all at?

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SEE MORE PHOTOS OF ATLANTA INDIE MUSIC FESTIVAL @ SIDESHOWATLANTA.COM

Saturday, Oct. 8

Near the end of the scheduled seven-hour Atlanta Indie Music Festival on Saturday night, I experienced an epiphany: Hipster girls have zero booty meat.

No, that ain’t it. Just one observation among many made as I stood in the half-full parking lot adjacent to the Bench, watching trains crawl by at 5 mph in the backdrop while some of Atlanta’s finest took the stage in 40 degree weather.

Soon after the smell of hot skunk wafted into the crowd from the fire set in an industrial-strength drum by a member of Mach 5, it struck me. Hip-hop needs air to breathe. Never before had Supreeme seemed so precocious, as Shaka performed “The Best Years” shirtless. And Hollyweerd celebrated its one-year anniversary by striking a balance between controlled and chaotic, perhaps for the first time.

Still, the music (Gripplyaz, Jaspects, Mike Flo, Señor Kaos, Yelawolf, Newberry Jam, Flyy Academy, Kidz in the Hall, Brittany Bosco, etc.) was secondary to the family reunion vibe. For all the talk of Atlanta’s emerging rap scene being too trendy, it was inspiring to see the next generation lose its cool.

Now somebody please feed those skinny girls some chicken.

(Photo by Alan Friedman)

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HOT APPLE TURNOVER: Chi-town native and A-town representative, Thomasan of Proton, works up a sweat in NYC. (photos provided by Fiona Bloom)

As the buzz continues to build about Atlanta’s less celebrated (read: commercially exploited, critically mapped) hip-hop scene, Proton and Gripplyaz acted as ambassadors last week, taking their show on the road for the A Town vs. H Town showdown in NYC.

Held at the 205 Club, the point of the party was to feature rap acts that go against the grain of popular perception when it comes to Atlanta and Houston.

Gripplyaz was also featured. Check out more flicks below the break: (more…)

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YOUNG, BLACK AND WEIRD: Hollyweerd rocks the Drunken Unicorn.

(Photos by Hannibal M.)

“We on some black hipster shit in here!” announced Wil May, host for the hip-hop showcase “Perfect Attendance.” Yes, it’s true: Atlanta’s black hipsters are back and in full force. For the past several months, they’ve been organizing concerts and parties with the fervor of punk rock bands. Rarely a week goes by without a show featuring either Proton, Gripplyaz or Hollyweerd. Typically, all three were on the Perfect Attendance lineup.

Perfect Attendance was held at the Drunken Unicorn Friday, Feb. 8. It was presented by Fadia Kader’s Come Up Kids crew, and much of the two-hour showcase featured Jaspects as both lead performer and backing band. Several of the scene’s players were either performing or were in the audience, including Battery 5, Kid Kaos and others. Perfect Attendance was just the latest of dozens of events seeking to inflate the ATL hip-hop buzz to record levels, but it was as good an opportunity as any to see what the hype was all about.

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These days, with an ascendant progressive hip-hop scene on the horizon, everyone’s talking about Dungeon Family and OutKast again. (Like we ever stopped.) It’s important to remember, though, that while OutKast, Goodie Mob and Organized Noize blew up, most of the crew never really had much success, at least from a sales standpoint. Some will argue that classic yet underperforming singles such as Cool Breeze’s “Watch for the Hook” are all the success you need. Yes, they may be godhead in Atlanta, but to the rest of the world they’re almost famous.

Tonight, prodigal son Killer Mike has a big show at Django, and he’ll perform with Gripplyaz, one of those hotly tipped leaders of the new school. Both will be backed by Atlanta go-go group the X.O. Band. To mark the occasion, here’s a quote from a recent Killer Mike interview with HipHopDx.com that addresses Dungeon Family’s complicated legacy.

Dungeon Family fans got the shit end of the stick for over 10 years. They’ve seen their heroes like Witchdoctor, like Cool Breeze, like Backbone, like Slimm Calhoun, slip into the abyss. They have seen factionalization, they’ve seen disenfranchisement, they’ve seen everything except a glorious comeback. And the fans deserve that.

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