RZA has a good point. If they focus on doing music for those who will actually buy their records, then they can’t go wrong. But I’ll still having a hard time with this whole “Why Is The South Running Hip-Hop” debate. Bad music comes out of EVERY region, not just the south.

man f**k hip hop. the south can care less. we got mouths and folks to feed. SO UNTIL YALL GET SOME BETTER BEATS AND MUSIC WE WILL CONTINUE TO RUN THIS SHIT MOTHERF*CKERS.how are we suppose to get motivated off that boring bullshit. get ya mind right and join the movement.

dmac, you’re a f**kin’ moron. what you don’t realize is that despite the fact bad music is not specific to the south, the majority of that bullshit ya’ll put out is killing hip hop. it’s gonna be hard to feed your family when hip hop/rap music/ black music/ snap music is dead. Fuck hip hop? naw monkey, f**k you. that’s what’s up.

you know what the problem is…........its not only the south….its everywhere to be real…..you have all these new “rappers” who don’t know there history…...to me hip hop is not dead…..because the OG’s are keeping it alive….examples…..lets start with the south…..UGK,Scarface,Outkast,...lets continue with the north…..The Roots, Dead Prez, Jay-z, Nas, Busta Rhymes,da whole Wu-Tang, 50 cent,Az,Red man, BBC,......next the mid west…......Common,Kanye West,now the west coast….Snoop,Cube,da whole DPG, as a matter of fact…look at all the albums that dropped between the years of 94 through 99 that was real hip hop….........if these dues keep making music Hip Hop will live…..who can take these guys places?......its like running a business…...you have a great group of guys doing a job and doing it well…...when it comes time for them to retire….theres no one there to fill their spot…....theres a few guys who can fill their spots and keep the legacy going…...like T.I., Uncle Murder,Guilty Simpson,Little Brother,Skyzoo,theres plenty more…..all im saying is learn ur history befor u hit da booth…...I bet if u asked a new “rapper” who is Dana Dane, or Pete Rock and Cl Smooth….they would be like Who?......or ask them to name every dude thats apart of the Wu-Tang…......They Can’t…...Know ur history!

The true problem lies in the truncation of viable “styles”, both beats and lyrics, to suit the taste of people who just want to dance (which had an appx. 15 year gestation period). In reality, we’re trapped in “disco” era of rap. Everyone is content to “do the hustle”, metaphorically speaking of course. My how the mighty have fallen. Everyone in the world is dancing to disco arrangements like they’re the greatest thing in the world. Just look to the past for all the answers. Disco just destroyed the essence of funk/soul/r&b;, rolled it into a nice vanilla package for the masses to consume and we liked it because…well because it made us dance. My girl tells me everyday how she knows the stuff the rappers are saying is crap, but the beats are tight to dance too. Bitches like to dance. Dudes like to bone bitches. Therefore dudes are willing to foster a musical environment that magnifies the possibility of money, cars and bitches (whom they can consequently bone; reproduction is one of the most basic programmed genetic behaviors). Who are we to point the finger? When in reality 95 percent of us would jump at the chance to live that lifestyle, even though we may curse it in our pseudo intellectual moments of hiphop elitism. It is what it is. True hiphop will never die, but will eventually be no different than P-Funk reuniting to put out a new 2007 record—dope but dated. Maybe not dated to those whose golden youth was spent absorbing and creating memories attached to the chords and melodies of their songs—but nonetheless dated. To quote a million philosophers: the past doesn’t exist, the only moment is the present… The present is no different than 10 years ago when Master P/ No Limit was doing the same thing, or in 92 when Dre dropped the chronic and dealt the death blow to “true hiphop”. The battlefield is new, but the war is now old. The funny thing about nostalgia is that we only remember highlights. Post 92, rap has always had what one might consider shallow lyrics and dance beats. People can’t get they’re heads out of the past. I prefer the gritty raw beats, but sample laws spread like cancer killing off a whole generation of soundscapes. Crunk beats with their running hihats and thick bass bump hard as f—k which is dope, but the arrangements which are brutally simple leave more discerning listeners wanting more. What we really need is balance. Why can’t we listen to Dre, Gangstarr, and T.I interchangeably? Is it really necessary to be so nationalistic about our regional flavor of hiphop? It’s dope to rep where you’re from, but at the exclusion of variety is ignorant. Life has progressed based on the exchange of DIFFERENT genetics from every corner of the earth. If anything, each of the sub-genres should be learning, exchanging and building from each other, not recklessly trying to knock down the other because we’re not feeling it. When did the animosity of rap turn from addressing the societal power structures who govern the streets (arguably the roots of it’s angst), towards every random dude that isn’t feeling you? Blind discrimination is foolish and can only be a dead end street. It’s a path we’ve been running for a long time, a serpent that will soon swallow it’s own tail only to re-emerge as the next rock n roll or rap. A change is gonna come, oh yes it is…

RZA is a legend and what he says is partially true. Southern hip-hop has basically ruined hip-hop.  It does not have any understanding of the culture.  The problem is - it is not urban. Of course, there are exceptions like Outkast/Goodie Mob/Scarface who are crazy creative with dope lyrics, but the other “bounce” crap is just plain stupid and corny. No clever wordplay.  It’s pop music. Why does it sell? Because the majority of black-America lives in the South and never really understood or got “real hip-hop” ever. They are country/non-urban. I mean, even Illmatic only sold 500,000 copies.  Southerners have never really understood NY hip-hop or West Coast hip-hop.  That “Laffy-Taffy” baloney sells becuase it relates to the mind-set of most of black-America. That being said, people still need to stop hatin’ and let them have their shine.  Most ‘real hip-hop’ has always been underground and it is still there.  So, just dig for the real.

In all honesty Southern Hip Hop fans have been exposed to so-called “real Hip Hop”! How else would artists like UGK, The Geto Boys, and Trick Daddy be as lyrical as they are without the pioneer influence of New York Hip Hop? It’s not possible! Even early 2 Live Crew records were made on the same principles as Bambaataa and Kool Herc. I think that as time went on and when more artists from the South started to get on being the first artists from their city to represent that particular culture became that city’s “pioneer” so to speak. People tend to respond to what they can relate to physically moreso than mentally where most had never even been to New York! Their only exposure was through the records and videos that they heard and saw from New York artists.
-Will a.k.a. HipHopIsAlive&Well;
http://www.myspace.com/lyricassassin
http://www.thablogger3.blogspot.com

every body was in the wu tang clan damn i think i was in that bitch at one point

Its the Chitllin circuit, and the other poster was right the majority of Black America is in the south. But it’s minstrel rap. These catz down here still live a Jim Crow lifestyle limited education and options not everyone but enough to make OJ Da Juiceman famous. They are not that socially conscience down here I liken it to Booker T Washington V/S W.E.B Dubois ...Like it or not believe it or not But the North as Gangster and Authentic as it wants to be are not to the degree of enjoying Field Ni^^ah anthems as these catz are.

Look at Tyler Perry in comparison to Spike Lee any artistic expression from the South is going to have an element of minstrelsy to it. Visit Richmond V.A, Petersburg V.A, Winston Salem N.C its 1965 in some of these area’s very uncultured very unexposed so they just expressing all they know were as other places can be multi cultured some of these towns only know Black and White and trust me the white man still got his foot on some of these people necks in the south, They don’t even know it because they don’t know any better. Many of conversations I’ve had in the south and heard grown ass men refer to white people as “Dem white Folk” or people just be impressed that I’m from NY. There’s people allot of people in the south especially Richmond that couldn’t even imagine a black person working in a sky scrapper and they’ve never even been in one for that matter. Its sad google Gilpin Court V.A its like a modern day slave plantation these things arent in the media but reconstruction hasnt materialized for many in the south im in FLA right now near Pork and Beans its 1960 there.

Y’all are trippin’. Who’s more awake to the realities of black life than the south? We just have a different culture where we are more laid back and don’t try to act like professors all the time tossing books at cats like they’re all stupid and you’re the smartest in the room.

We give love to the coasts too but y’all are some stuck up elitist bougie fools who think the music is all yours.

Face it, now you NY cats are bitin’ our jams. I hear more of Three Six Mafia and UGK in the ASAP Mob than I do any NY rapper. People from around the country don’t want to hear that boom bap sound no more and hear about y’all are the greatest. I bump Big Krit before Fetty Wap and so does the rest of the south. Get used to it.

F*CK the south they killed hiphop with their looney tooney rhymes and simplistic beats cough cough THE NEPTUNES and LiL Jon