It’s no new news, secret, or surprise. The south is runnin this rap shit right now. Has been for quite some time. Think about it. Who else besides 50 Cent and Kanye has come out and been really successful in the last 5 years that isn’t from the south? However I think something has changed in the south’s music, and I’m not saying it’s for the worse necessarily, but something has changed. Think back in time for a minute. I want you to go waaay back and think about the first time you saw the video for Juvenile’s “Ha” record. Remember what that did for you? I know for me personally it took me to a place where I had never been, and by the looks of it didn’t ever wanna go. It represented something. To me, it represented the dirty south.

In the early 2000’s that’s what we were called in the hip hop community. The ‘dirty’ south. We embraced it and some even could say we coined it as several of our southern rap pioneers said and used the phrase. I remember Bun and Pimp telling me that “ Texas niggas get dirty, dirty in this bitch” very clearly. We used that imagery in most of our videos, we called ourselves the ‘dirty’ south, FUBU pressed up some ugly jerseys that we were all rockin that proclaimed us as the ‘dirty’ south. The dirty south movement was in full swing. Hell I remember there was even a group called Dirty, with it’s members being named The Pimp and The Gangsta respectively.

After the Juvie video we saw plenty of videos that took us to the backwoods or showed the more country, ‘dirty’ side of southern living. It was our identity. Yeah were country and we talk funny and all that shit but this is us. We rock gold’s in our mouth, we spend more on the wheels than the actual car, and like Trick told ya’ll, bitch we eat mayonnaise sandwiches. We were proud to be from the dirty dirty and it was our way of separating ourselves from the rest and It was cool to be country. And everyone, from the artists to their labels was with it. Because bottom line a lot of people were making a lot of money off the ‘dirty’ south and the checks were coming in very clean.

But now when I watch BET or MTV I see something different. I also see it in the magazines and even the album covers. It seems like the ‘dirty’ south went and got all clean.  No more gold’s in the mouth. Now if anything it’s diamonds, and even those are being looked upon as old and dated now. No more Chevy’s with the big wheels. Now everyone talks about their Benzes or Phantoms (which most don’t really own). If you see the latest southern sensation on TV the only way you can tell their from the south is when they open their mouth and talk. They’ve got on the new designer shades, their clothes look like they just bought em that day. He’ll be wearing the newest BAPE’s or Air Force’s, no more Reeboks. In the music they talk about going to Mr. Chow’s and flying to Paris for the weekend. They tell you about shopping on Rodeo Drive for their new Gucci hand bags. They’ll rap to  you about their new foreign girl they picked up off the runway and Polow Da Don even calls himself “The King of The White Girls”. The sound of the music has changed as well as now southern acts are not just working with southern producers to create that signature twang but now they are concerned with appealing to everybody. They also denounce all the broke niggas and let them know how much they really don’t matter. This is not “Ha”. This is not looking very ‘dirty’ to me.

But is this a bad thing? I think in some ways yes and in some ways no. Keep in mind “Ha” is 10 years old now. That’s a decade! In that time what is thought to be ‘cool’ has changed around us and we have responded. The southern rap scene has done that one thing that keeps not just communities, but all species on earth alive. We have evolved. More money is coming into our hands so therefore I think the music and lifestyle is starting to reflect that. I think its great that were getting money and some of our artists are really letting these labels have it when it comes down to the splits on the profits. This is great. I also think it’s great that this is giving more opportunities to us and allowing our culture to become more and more mainstream. And by mainstream, I mean acceptable to white people.


But on the downside I think if we continue to try to appeal to ‘everyone’ were gonna lose what made us so special in the first place. Remember they wanted to be us, that’s why we started winning. They liked the way we talked and they liked that we were not only different, but proud of it. Now if we wanna be them I don’t think that will work. I love the old UGK records because Pimp’s production really sounded like the south. It reflected our lifestyle, kinda slow, but we could still get shit crackin. Now with the fashion, that’s just inevitable, styles change. But I just think it’s kinda funny when you see Paris Hilton and Yung Joc wearing the same pair of shades. Hip Hop was built on going against the grain and inventing our own styles and trends. Fendi bags and shit? Come on. Can you picture Eazy-E rapping about a Prada handbag? That’s soooo not gangsta.

Overall Southern hip hop is going in a good direction as far as how we are perceived and the business aspect of it. The music is another story but we’ll get into that later. I’m not saying I wanna see Rich Boy in overalls in his next video anymore than I wanna see Ross devour a plate of fried chicken and mashed taters in his next one. I like the flossy shit. I’m flashy myself. I don’t wanna take steps backwards. I just think we need to remember exactly what we are and where we come from and be proud of it. This is the Dirty Dirty bitch! So let’s rep it well and rep it proud.