Dirty South

Before entering this class, the image that the words “Dirty South” would have conjured up in my mind would include dusty farmland, old trucks, Skoal rings in faded Wranglers, tobacco-stained teeth, and miles of empty dirt roads—in essence, my hometown. I would have pictured old men with shotguns, racism, and intolerance. Now, however, I see Lil Wayne, Outkast, and Lil John. My original mental picture would include Hall’s use of the all-brawn, no-brain stereotype of the black male. The only way for any young black male to achieve any sort of social standing in my hometown was to become the star of the football or basketball team, and the only way for a young black female to achieve it was to hang on his arm—another kind of trophy. Now, I see Atlanta as a sort of center for the Dirty South—in a musical sense. The idea of the ATL is a defiance against the type of traditional Southern culture that I described earlier. It’s a fist shaken at the “Old South”, the sprawling plantations and the crowded and segregated ghettos. The ATL and the music associated with it have exploded onto the international artistic landscape because it is a vocal expression of that defiance. You wanted us to be separated from you? You’re going to call us the ATL? Well, we don’t want to be associated with you anyway. We’ll just take over your city and make it as bad-ass as we are. Cobb calls Atlanta the new Mecca for black people—what Harlem was in the 20’s. Well, it is. The kind of musical revolution that took place in Harlem is taking over the entire South, with Atlanta at the center, and from there, spreading across the globe. Lil John is probably the first artist that pops into my head as an exemplification of that particular musical revolution. The biggest reason that he’s my personal touchstone to that type of aesthetic is because his song “Get Low” was probably the most often played hit of my freshman year of college—the first time I was really exposed to that type of music in any substantial way. “Wait, The Whisper Song” by the Ying Yang twins is my other sensory memory from that time period that really defines the “Dirty South” for me.