Not merely charting Southern hiphop’s differences from the East and West coasts, and its rise to pop domination in the late 90s and early 00s, Sarig delves deep into southern North America, examining what each region has brought to the music. He even convincingly agues that, though New York’s Bronx is hip-hop’s home, rap vocals came from southern slavery’s oral tradition.
From 2 Live Crew and Miami bass, to Atlanta’s Lil Jon getting crunk for the clubs; whether it’s Memphis, New Orleans or Houston, Sarig captures the feel and smell of each, perfectly evoking why a style or success broke through. OutKast emerge as hip-hop’s Beatles, pushing the genre ever further and transcending its limitations; Virginia’s Timbaland and Neptunes are its producer-deconstructionists, sending Missy Elliott, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake into pop’s stratosphere.
Such domination wasn’t limited to super-producers. Atlanta’s LA Reid, founder of the local LaFace label (home to Pink�and OutKast’s early success) was snapped up to head Arista, thereby extending the South’s momentary Midas touch to white pop-rock through Avril Lavigne. The Dirty South isn’t the power it once was, though, and whether it can rise above the clich� (and perhaps genre death knell) of “cocaine rap” remains to be seen.
