How Da Dirty Souf Has Won

How Da Dirty Souf Has Won A few months ago, I was talking to Ju-Ju of the Beatnuts. DJ Premier of Gang Starr was on the decks, slamming records into one another, shouting over the mic that he, DJ Premier, was at the club, spinning the tunes for our enjoyment. Ju-Ju had a drink in his hand and was scanning Table 50, watching the yuppie crowd dance. There was a bit of disappointment in his voice, as he spoke about New York City losing its footing in the hiphop game.

But here was DJ Premier, I said, a respected New York City producer (by way of Texas) who had the crowd moving to the old-school flavor of the city.

Ju-Ju was right. If you pay attention to the charts, it seems that New York City is nothing but old-school. We've lost our edge in the hiphop world to the South because we've forgotten that hiphop can be fun. Producers and rappers from the birthplace of the genre are consumed with making the music more menacing. They fill it with minor chord changes and violent fantasies of a Wild West ghetto filled with drugs and deprivation.

Many point to Jay-Z and Biggie, and the success they've had with this kind of gritty, autobiographical street poetry. But that's not what made them stars. Behind the machismo was a beat that kept people moving; production support came from re-sampled funk, disco and 80s r&b that was instantly recognizable to the crowd.

The Beatnuts, for example, knew that the beat and hooks were more important than what they had to say. Their gangsterism was more tongue in cheek-why not talk about the bitches, the bluntz and the booze, just for the fun of it?

The South's records are spinning in New York because they've embraced the music's party atmosphere. They've shed the boom-bap of funk breaks from up North in favor of the synthesized booty bass with all its whistles, party chants and low-rent tweaking. All it needs to do is get the girls on the dance floor.

Music critics said Kanye West would breath new life into hiphop, just because people nod their heads when they hear "All Falls Down" and "Through the Wire." They all said the same thing: Here was a black hiphop guy talking about being insecure, not macho. In their opinion, it was a revelation. West may have dropped out of college, but he won the graduating class' hearts.

But not mine. I've got T.I.'s "Bring Em Out" on my turntable right now.