Blogging on Meds

Chemically enhanced Southern rap

I love music! I just purchased the latest Hitmen CD for $5 on the corner, and let me tell you, it rocks! All 25 tracks. But thanks to the latest Sunday Times Book Review, I’m having trouble critically determining my relationship to music:

The critic is the only artist who depends entirely upon another art form, which means that part of his job is to determine the nature of that relationship. Should he be an advocate? A policeman? A curator? A hanging judge? A mostly loyal but occasionally snippy personal assistant? The decision is an unconscious one, perhaps, but once it’s made, the critic’s writing will be colored by his chosen role in the same way that our voices carry the accents of our birthplaces. 

Oh, pity the critic! I’ll try. The HITMEN SOUTH HITZ 4 DA LO is a contemporary survey of southern rap. What a big sound: southern rap is funky, over-produced, orchestrally electro and R and B influenced, and often less lyrical than New York rap, rather it’s more “unique voice” driven. Judging from DA LO’s tracklist, Miami is currently the capital of this sound, with Atlanta, Memphis, and Houston also contributing. Miami’s two biggest artists, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, are on 9 of the DA LO’s 25 songs. (Miami’s rise is directly linked to the many great producers—Timbaland, Scott Storch, Cool and Dre—who live there.)

Rick Ross at a Fader Magazine party in NY where, before performing, he demanded multiple Grey Goose bottles and to watch the Heat game. Lil Wayne and Trina.

Miami: drug boats in harbor and super-producer Scott Storch chilling at Mokai.

Of course, Lil Wayne is DA LO’s star. He comes in on track 3 “A MILL” with a “Ya Dig!?” (a phrase stolen from New York rapper Juelz Santana) then provides pun-filled, nasal-y rhymes on seemingly every other track. DA LO works as a “street cred” booster for Wayne, whose long delayed The Carter 3 LP is to be released next month. Wayne’s standout track on DA LO is a triumphalist “collabo” with Flo-rida, “American Superstar”: An electro organ rises over some piano, a techno beat trickles, and bass booms as Wayne explains how much money he has.

Wayne—originally from New Orleans but Miami-based post-Katrina—recently signed a new management deal with Gee Roberson and Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua , who also manage Kayne West. The first single off the Carter 3, Lollipop, is currently the number 2 download in America (and track 4 on DA LO). Like it or not (Lollipop is a perfect droning anthem), it’s the biggest song in the country.

It should be fun to watch the Lil Wayne Circus (he enjoys “smoking on lettuce” so much he’s been arrested for possession five times in a year) launch into the Kayne/pop stratosphere this summer. Wayne’s mentor, Baby, also raps—and well. His on and off girlfriend, Trina, also based in Miami, kills track 13 on DA LO, “Single Again (Remix).” Sounding salty and know-it-all-ish, Trina destroys her male counterparts (Wayne, Ross, Plies) on this remix. Check out Wayne and Kayne headlining Hot 97’s Summer Jam at Giants Stadium on June 1st.

DA LO’s other star, Rick Ross, is the ultimate enemy of rap purists, who complain he doesn’t rap at all but just ryhmes “boss” with “Ross” in a weird voice. And that’s true. But Ross’ production team, Cool and Dre, make some of America’s best music. In fact, their bouncy beats with R and B overtones helped propel Ross’ latest album, “Trilla,” to number 1 on the Billboard charts. Not to mention Trilla’s the best selling rap record of 2008. His current single, “The Boss,” is on DA LO. With a chorus by crooner T-Pain, Ross raps “I’m the biggest boss that you seen thus far.” Personally, I love both Ross’ debut album and “Trilla.” Rap is music not poetry and I care far more about how it sounds than what’s being said.

Other contributors to DA LO include Houston’s Bun B, Memphis’ 3 6 Mafia, and Atlanta’s Young Jeezy. All are great and help make THE HITMEN SOUTH HITZ DA LO VOL 4 a solid collection and proper survey of the current, dominant state of Southern rap.

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