Regardless of where he was born, Ludacris is an unapologetically southern rapper. The South, and even Atlanta in particular, began to develop their own sounds in rap music before Ludacris started making music, but that did not stop Ludacris from attempting to make a song that would enter the pantheon of southern rap with “Southern Hospitality”—which is exactly what happened. Not only did the song “Southern Hospitality” help put Ludacris’ name out to the public in the south, it blatantly identified the area he claims to have come from and many of the customs there, acting almost as a guide to the southern rapper lifestyle. As a whole the song “Southern Hospitality” acts as an introduction to southern rap and southern rap customs for those who would be unaware of such things which it does by having a relatively plain beat with hallmarks of dirty south rap that does not detract the listeners attention away from Ludacris’ simple and easy to follow rhymes explaining things for the listener. This idea fits the time period in which the song was released, 1999, adding a real motive and meaning to what on the surface level could be seen as a silly song.

Rap in the South caught on later than rap in the Northeast and on the West coasts, and some of the earliest pioneers of southern rap would be groups such as 2 Live Crew, the Geto Boys, and UGK. These groups all had distinct sounds and hailed from southern cities such as Miami and Houston, and were skillful enough as lyricists and entertainers to draw some national media attention. The term “Dirty South” was coined by a rapper who goes by the name Cool Breeze, as a way to distinguish southern music in the rap world that had no context to be put in (Rehagen 22). The East Coast and West Coast rap scenes were both established and based in cities, but the south is less urban and is dirtier physically, because there is “red clay” and “dirt roads,” and hence the term “dirty south” was born (Rehagen 22). Yet it was not until years later, when acts like Scarface (of the Geto Boys) and OutKast really put southern rap onto the national radar in the mid-90’s. From the perspective of sociology, “dirty south rap” became a real subculture in the mid 1990’s which is evidence of the influence southern artists during that time period such as OutKast had (Miller 203). As a result of that increasing popularity, by the late 1990’s, dirty south rap began being embraced by the critics and public—even beginning to take up a large share of the music market (Grem 56).

To contextualize this within culture in the American South in the 1990’s it is important to remember that this time period was only several decades removed from the height of the civil rights era, and that many communities in Southern states resisted changes that came from the civil rights era harder than other areas of the country. Also, like in Northern cities, integration led to white flight which led to blacks being more or less segregated into neighborhoods and school districts even though the federal government technically prohibited segregation. A big difference lies in the fact that most Northern and Western cities are primarily liberal, supporting the needs of the lower classes whereas the entire area considered the dirty south is very, very conservative (Carter 93). Immediately post-civil rights era Barry Goldwater became the first politician to use the “Southern Strategy,” which involved using coded language to appeal to whites’ racial fears and thereby get whites in the South to vote based on race rather than their own interest (Carter 94). As a result, both poor people and racial minorities, namely black people, have been victimized by the political systems in the South for decades—ultimately that ends up with black people staying poor and ending up in prison, often times due to a lack of honest ways to live and the bias of the American justice system against blacks in particular. For example in 1950 it was estimated that between 50-75% of people in Southern prisons were black, even though blacks did and still only make up roughly 12% of the population, yet in 1990 it was estimated that in the South 48% of prisoners were still black (Roscigno 324). In these ways the racial climate, particularly in the South, has been uneasy for a very long time. While it took longer for rap music to reach the south, it did there what it did across the country which was give a voice to the voiceless, and the dirty south movement in rap began as the first big wave of Southern rappers began to be able to express those voices.

Ludacris in particular was and is very aware of that racial climate, which is easily noted through the original title of his debut album which this song was first released on, Incognegro. The word “incognito” is defined as “with your true identity kept secret (as by using a different name or a disguise)” (“Incognito”). This title would suggest that Ludacris is abandoning himself and becoming a random black person in America to make this album, which is full of stereotypical rap themes with song titles such as “Mouthing Off,” “Hood Stuck,” and “Ho”— the last of which he rhymes a surprising amount of words with the word “ho” and to emphasize his point even more he inserts the word “ho” into other words (ex. the “Ho”-zone layer, instead of ozone layer). This album sold well and then was re-released after Ludacris signed to Def Jam, under the  somewhat fitting name “Back for the First Time.”

While this dirty south area of subculture continued to grow and expand more towards the mainstream of culture and music, many people were already familiar with it as indicated by its growing amount of cultural significance, but being that it was growing so quickly and gaining popularity so fast, many people who were not familiar with it or it’s ideals were getting exposed to aspects of dirty south culture and music. That is where Ludacris’ “Southern Hospitality” gains its major significance. The song takes many topics that are significant in that dirty south rap culture and elaborates on them in the form of quatrains. So Ludacris picks four subjects for each verse and has a quatrain about each subject which is how the song acts as an introduction to dirty south rap culture for those who may be completely unfamiliar. Topics that Ludacris chooses to have quatrains on range from Cadillacs and sweat, to the phrases “Dirty South” and “twenty-inch.”

Throughout each quatrain, the thing that is being talked about is repeated at least once per line. For example, the first quatrain reads “Cadillac grills, Cadillac Mill’s/Check out the oil my Cadillac spills/Matter of fact, candy paint Cadillacs kill/So check out the hoes my Cadillac fills.” Through that quatrain it is easy to see the emphasis put on the word “Cadillac” because of the constant repetition of it, and the fact that the topic of the quatrain is repeated in each line immediately before the end rhyme serves to emphasize very blatantly that the end rhyme is applied to the repeated phrase and that those end rhymes are significant in relation to the current topic of the song. So just in that small quatrain Ludacris quickly conveys to the listener the importance of grills, mills, and candy paint in relation to Cadillacs using literary devices such as rhyme and consonance, while also using rhyme to convey how Cadillacs spill, kill, and fill. Through the one quatrain, Ludacris provides as much information about Cadillacs as one would ever need to understand the culture surrounding them without going into a detailed enough explanation that the listener would automatically get lost. Also, through the constant repetition and simple end rhyme (mills/splills/kill/fill) Ludacris simplifies the ideas that he is conveying quite a bit with the intention that new listeners could understand and push themselves to understand because on the face value of things what they are listening to seems so simple.

From the repetition of “Cadillac” Ludacris shifts to the repetition of the phrase “twenty inch.” The fact that phrase is a descriptor rather than a simple noun allows Luda to broach many different topics rather than restricting that quatrain to one specific topic, and it also allows him to play off of the previous quatrain by using phrases like “twenty inch high” and “twenty inch-ride” to add the idea of 20-inch rims to the Cadillac that he was previously talking about. By following a similar pattern throughout the song, Luda uses many descriptive phrases as the repeated themes, such as “mouth full,” “hand me down,” and “pretty ass,” so that in those quatrains he can touch on many topics rather than sticking to one—but that makes the quatrains when he does stick to one topic such as the ones about Cadillacs and sweat stick out even more and leaves them with more emphasis.

The music behind this song is very simple, as there are not many layers and there are no samples, making it a completely original beat created by Pharrell. The main layers of the beat are the percussion, electronic sounds, and vocals. The simplicity of the beat allows much of the attention of the song to be focused on Ludacris’ lyrics rather than enrapturing listeners with the music by itself and distracting them from the song in that way. The loud bass is used frequently as it is a hallmark of dirty south rap so it only makes sense that a song about dirty south rap would carry the trademark sounds of that subgenre of music. The bass also complements Ludacris’ raps because the bass hits twice while Ludacris is repeating the subject phrase for each quatrain to emphasize that subject, and then Ludacris pauses as the beat moves on before he adds the word that is the end rhyme which emphasizes those words also through their separation in time from the rest of the text. So the beat and Ludacris’ rhyme patterns help emphasize the important words in each line, which draw the listeners attention to those terms and makes it extra easy to follow along.

As a whole, this song is Ludacris’ introduction into dirty south rap for listeners who have not before been exposed to it or understood it. It informs the listeners how dirty south rap sounds, what it talks about, how it talks about those topics, and through those things quickly indoctrinates listeners who may not have been familiar with this type of rap music into it. In conclusion, dirty south rap is “a bold statement from rappers who felt estranged from Atlanta’s economic and social progress and excluded by their southernness from competing in a rap music market dominated by New York and Los Angeles” and this song is Ludacris’ final invitation to people who were not familiar with that musical movement after it hit the mainstream, allowing those listeners to catch up quickly (Grem 56).

Yet beyond serving as an introduction to dirty south rap culture, which this song undoubtedly does, this song is a satire of Southern rappers in general. The simple, story-book sounding rhymes and repetition sound very playful and the fact that it falls on an album called Incognegro on which Ludacris is making music under the guise of being a random black person is not a coincidence. Throughout the entire album Ludacris is making clever music all while satirizing Southern rappers by making songs about similar topics but making them ridiculous in different ways, such as the song “Ho” mentioned previously in which atleast every several words he either says “ho” or inserts it into another word. In this song Ludacris takes a different angle, making it sound very much like a children’s story book, which emphasizes his point throughout the song that Southern rappers are simple and childlike, caring about material possessions and meaningless ideas and images like kids do. Further indication that this song is a satire is some of Ludacris’ later works, some of which are also satire (ex. Word of Mouf) and some of which are very serious (ex. Release Therapy) and contain very deep songs about sexual abuse and struggles with faith. This is evidence that there are two sides of Ludacris, the intelligent, thoughtful Ludacris and the comical, satirical Ludacris—both of which make serious points. Incognegro came out before Ludacris was signed, demonstrating that he was not making this music for a major label, in which case it would much more likely be serious rather than satirical because these are themes that the music industry promotes. Then the labels liked this album as a serious album so Ludacris got signed, and his next few albums were just as ridiculous and satirical (Word of Mouf & Chicken-N-Beer), but by then he had established himself and made money, proving that he could survive in the industry. Then only several years later he released Release Therapy, his first fully serious album, and won a grammy because of it. In the context of the album and his career trajectory, it seems obvious that this song is a satire and is mocking southern rappers and their childish ways—while double timing it as an introduction to dirty south culture.

Works Cited

Carter, Dan T. “Is There Still A South? And Does It Matter?.” Dissent (00123846) 54.3 (2007): 92-96. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Grem, Darren E. “The South Got Something To Say”: Atlanta’s Dirty South And The Southernization Of Hip-Hop America.” Southern Cultures 12.4 (2006): 55-73. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

“Incognito.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Web. 26 April 2015.

Miller, Matt. “Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture To Pop Culture.” Journal Of Popular Music Studies 16.2 (2004): 175-212. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.

Rehagen, Tony. “Derivation Of Dirty South.” Atlanta 52.7 (2012): 22. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Roscigno, Vicent J., and Marino A. Bruce. “Racial Inequality And Social Control: Historical And Contemporary Patterns In The U.S. South.” Sociological Spectrum 15.3 (1995): 323-349. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” was released on short notice in March and sent everyone who likes rap into a frenzy. The only real description from Kendrick to the public about the album before it was released is that it was “unapologetically black.” Upon release of the album, everyone could see why. There are heavy influences of jazz and R&B in the songs on the album and the album as a whole offers a very critical critique of race in America and what it means to be black. But it was done beautifully. Kendrick Lamar has always controlled his own narrative in terms of the persona he is seen through as a rapper, and what it comes back to is that he is from Compton so he is familiar with black stereotypes and gang life, but he is not a gang banger and is unfailingly honest and observant, as he has offered critiques on many different topics since early in his career—beginning more with sexism and masculinity, and now moving heavily into race.

The song “Hood Politics” begins with a voicemail on Kendrick’s phone asking Kendrick to call back. The music then really begins and before too long Kendrick begins the chorus which basically consists of Kendrick saying he has always been at the top and honest while calling out the people around him for being the opposite. He then ends the hook with lines about how they used to carry guns but now 14 years have passed since then “on the dead homies”— so he is swearing on his dead friends that what he is about to say is true. He begins the first verse saying he does not care about rap politics because his friend is really dead, and he cannot do anything about it. Kendrick then reassures himself that he will continue rapping hard and not conforming to rap stereotypes (“Wore no chain in this game”) before continuing to rap about how he became successful by rapping in a way that was true to himself so that is what he will continue doing. Then he basically says that he is cool with everybody so nobody can mess with him.

After the chorus repeats, the second verse gets going with Kendrick getting out of a car to be informed of threats from another neighborhood to which Kendrick responds toughly that they’d be making a mistake to mess with us and it would end up with an ambulance coming slow because they don’t care about black people and there would be cameras there to film the whole thing and reinforce black stereotypes. Kendrick then briefly mentions the LAPD and how they give people “football numbers” (a large number of years in prison) all of the time without a real reason or second thought. Kendrick then goes into a metaphor he extends for a while about “DemoCrips” and “ReBloodicans” which is formed on the basis of them all being opposing groups who share the same colors (republicans and bloods=red, crips and democrats=blue). That idea is introduced with the lines “They tell me it’s a new gang in town/from Compton to Congress” which is very thoughtful and reflects his album cover which depicts some of his Compton friends making crazy poses in front of the white house. Kendrick then extends the political party/gang metaphor strongly saying “The give us guns and drugs, call us thugs/make it they promise to fuck wit you” which is a strong statement that really does point out similarities between the two things, even if they work on very different levels. Then Kendrick continues the metaphor by discussing how the government always screws over black people, like gangs often do, and ends the verse with “Obama say “what it do?’’ which is a reminder that Obama is viewed as black but he is a politician so he will still make things worse, indicating that the political problem is much deeper than race.

The third verse begins with Kendrick talking about how people always want what they can’t have, which is often the past, but that it is just people putting their priorities in the wrong place. He then tells people to not ask him about simple things like his woman or shows, but to ask him about the power he has through his audience to change the world. He then says he and Snoop are the biggest rappers on the West Coast, which is a sentiment that I doubt would be refuted at this point. The verse finishes with talk of more rap politics and discussion of how that doesn’t even matter, but if it did then Kendrick would still be on top of the world because he has the most influence.

In short, Kendrick’s narrative is reliant upon honesty, intelligent observation, and having real and street credibility which he reaffirms throughout this record as he emphasizes where he came from and makes intelligent, gripping observations about the world around him and how it affects others which is presented in a masterful, overly artistic and poetic way. This song is a perfect example of why people listen to Kendrick Lamar and beautifully demonstrates why he has the narrative that he has established for himself, how that narrative is credible, and why he will stick with it as he continues to make music.

1. Introduction to Big K.R.I.T.
   1. He was born Justin Scott in 1986 in Meridian, Mississippi.
   2. He began to have success in rap around 2010.
   3. He produces almost all of the songs he raps on, by himself
   4. He is signed to Cinematic music group, which is a part of Def Jam
   5. His music falls under the same dirty south rap music as Ludacris’ music, which my last presentation was on.
2. General information on the song “REM.”
   1. It is featured on KRIT’s 2013 mixtape “King Remembered in Time.”
   2. “REM” stands for “Rendom Eye Movement” which is the deepest part of the sleep cycle and is also when people tend to dream the most.
   3. It is a short song, less than three minutes long.
3. Explain the sounds in the song “REM” and how they contribute to the overall theme of dreams and sleep.
   1. There are 5 layers, and they are vocals, percussion, bass guitar, piano, and electronic noises.
   2. The melody is provided through the piano, bass guitar, and electronic noises.
   3. The electronic noises mainly seem like a tapping that is muffled to seem far away, or like you are hearing it in your sleep, similar to the vocals in the chorus.
   4. All parts of the music have a slower rhythm except the piano.
   5. All parts of the music are low in pitch except the chorus vocals and the piano.
   6. Many of the sounds such as the chorus vocals seem to be almost muffled through a computer filter which helps to provide the allusion that they are outside sounds you are hearing as you sleep in a less deep state of sleep.
   7. The piano scales in the chorus quickly change pitch and get lower and lower as the vocalist in the chorus repeats the word falling to add the illusion of falling into the music.
   8. The percussion is used to keep the beat going and provide a constant rhythm, and is used in a slower, not overly loud way so as to not disturb the low, peaceful, dreamy vibe that has been created for the song.
4. Explain the lyrical content of the song “REM.’
   1. The song opens with the chorus, which is about dreams and ends with repetition of the word falling which creates the illusion one is falling and immediately wakes up from the dream for the verses.
   2. The vocals are low in pitch and not fast in pace.
   3. The verses are very personal, conveying many of K.R.I.T.’s thoughts through first person narration.
      1. He speculates on the success of his first album, success, and his drive for success amongst other things.
      2. A very interesting sequence of lines is “Jiggaboos’ll minstrel you, but never me/ blackface my black face could never be.” That contains many literary devices such as a number of types of rhyme and repetition, along with heavy allusions to minstrelsy and rap being modern day minstrelsy.
   4. In the second line KRIT asks if his first album was “a dream or a nightmare,” which follows the dream/sleep motif that has been created.
   5. Overall, the lyrics are about not compromising personal values for money/success and the idea that he can be successful and change the world by making art that is true to himself, which to some extent he has done. This is evidenced in lines such as:
      1. “The revolution of minds will never televise” which doubles as a Gil Scott-Heron reference while talking about what KRIT hopes to spark.
      2. “I don’t know about my dreams/ cuz I’m more spiritual than lyrical.”
         1. Which means I care more about vibes and ideas than words.
      3. “I refuse to give up what I started/For false awards and cover boards in every store.”
         1. Which means I won’t sell out to make extra money.
         2. There is great alliteration, rhyme, and assonance in that line, which leads to a flow smooth enough that it could be a dream because the mind works in a fluid way.
      4. “Fuck a reality show, I’d rather do a tour.”
         1. Which means I want to do something meaningful to me over making money.
      5. “Remember me as just a visionary/I’m more Geronimo Pratt than OG Bobby”
         1. I am a visionary and am closer to a civil rights activist/black panther member than the drug dealer stereotype that rappers and more widely black men are viewed under today.
   6. Each verse ends with the word dreams.
   7. The second verse starts with the phrase from the chorus “I don’t know about my dreams”
   8. Song ends with the line “Too scared to go to sleep, cuz most times I often doubt my dreams”
5. As a whole, this is a candid song about aspirations, one’s ability to reach them, and the way one can reach them, which is all discussed through the motif of dreams; which double as aspirations and something your mind does when it sleeps, both of which are elaborated on and created by the music and lyrics.

Missy Elliott is one of the most commercially successful and well known female rappers ever, and some credit much of her success to the producer she worked with throughout her career, Timbaland. Timbaland is currently one of the most well respected rap and R&B producers of all time, and he actually got his start working in music growing up with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who would go on to become one of the most famous production duo’s of all time, The Neptunes. This song is produced by Timbaland, and is very simple which allows Missy Elliott’s vocals the opportunity to take center stage and really make the song. The beat begins with some noises that resemble human breaths before there is a jolt of thunder, making the “rain” motif that is to continue throughout the song abundantly obvious. The next thing to come in sounds like a bass guitar that is being distorted and playing several notes to make up a very small motive, and doing so at a very slow rhythm which creates a slow tempo to begin the song. At the same time as the bass comes in, the percussion comes in also. As far as percussion goes, it is rather light, allowing the bass to take center stage and accenting the bass with some softer, quicker notes to help balance out the pace of the song. Soon after, it becomes apparent that in the background of the song there is a constant chirping, almost as if there were a family of crickets stuck in the recording studio chirping throughout the recording of the song. That functions to accent the sound of the song with a higher pitch while also adding to the natural, outside vibe that is created by the thunder in the beginning and repeated at the end of the phrases with the thunder.

Besides several other small tapping-like sounds, the main other layers of the song are the vocals and background vocals, which seem to have both been provided by Missy Elliott. The background vocals are pretty constantly singing “I can’t stand the rain, ‘gainst my window.” That is sung at a high pitch which contrasts greatly with the bass guitar-like sound that provides the real basis for the music of the song, which leads to a reasonably high range in the melody. In contrast, most of the lead vocals are in a deeper, calmer, slower voice which fits more with the bass guitar and which add to the relaxed, natural vibe of the song as a whole. So in total, there are 5 layers (percussion, bass guitar, lead vocals, background vocals, and other noises—including but not limited to thunder, crickets, tapping, and distortion of the bass guitar). These layers all function to make a natural song that is low in pitch with some high accents and flows slowly but smoothly, like rain does. The bass guitar really provides the main tune and is accented by the percussion and electronic noises which help propel the song forward and accent different moments, whereas the lead and backup vocals both provide the rest of the melody of the song to contrast with the bass and both sets of vocals move very smoothly, keeping consistent with the motif of rain. The electronic accents in the song such as the thunder move at an average pace, but most of the song such as the vocals and bass guitar move slowly, with the exception being the percussion which quickly moves in and out to accent the melody. In terms of timbre, the percussion is high and quick while the bass guitar sounds almost like a moan, the way it is low and distorted. The electronic sounds range from a tapping, almost like on a desk, to the sounds of circkets and thunder, but they are mostly natural sounds that were added in to the track to accent parts of it and really create a natural, rainy vibe. The timbre of the lead vocals is low and somewhat masculine for a female artist, and the backup vocals are higher and increase in pitch as they reach the end of their phrase. There is no obvious call and response in this song.

In terms of the melody, it is led by the bass guitar and lead vocals which are both rather low, but the background vocals and higher accents provided through other sounds lift up the total sound of the melody to make it moderate, but still on the lower side and rather consistent. The contour does not change much, it mainly remains low before elevating with certain accents and the background vocals. The motives are short and simple which lead to simple phrasing, and the character of the melody seems to be rather disjunct. Also, it seems that in the bass in particular there is some elision and there are some blue notes. In that same vein, there is not a ton of harmony in the song, but the harmony that exists is mainly a function of the two layers of vocals and the bass added in. The harmony is rather consonant and hollow. The dynamics are constant and there is very clear articulation as the vocals clearly offset the rest of the music of the song. The timbre is relatively low but reaches some higher points throughout as the vocals reach higher notes from time to time.

This song is in duple meter, and as a whole has very slow rhythm. The rhythm of the bass and lead vocals are very slow. The rhythm of the electronic sounds and the backup vocals is a bit faster, and the rhythm of the percussion is the fastest the rhythm in the song gets. As a result of mostly slow rhythms in each layer, the tempo of the song, which is mainly dictated by the bass, is on the slower side. There is syncopation, and the motives are pretty slow moving and not overly long. As a whole, all of these elements come together to make a distinct sounding rap song that fits the motif of rain very well and accurately.

Regardless of where he was born, Ludacris is an unapologetically southern rapper. The South, and even Atlanta in particular, began to develop their own sounds in rap music before Ludacris started making music, but that did not stop Ludacris from attempting to make a song that would enter the pantheon of southern rap with “Southern Hospitality”—which is exactly what happened. Not only did the song “Southern Hospitality” help put Ludacris’ name out to the public in the south, it blatantly identified the area he claims to have come from and many of the customs there, acting almost as a guide to the southern rapper lifestyle. As a whole the song “Southern Hospitality” acts as an introduction to southern rap and southern rap customs for those who would be unaware of such things, which fits the time period in which the song was released, adding a real motive and meaning to what on the surface level, could be seen as a silly song.

Rap in the South caught on later than rap in the Northeast and on the West coasts, and ao some of the earliest pioneers of southern rap would be people such as 2 Live Crew, the Geto Boys, and UGK. These artists all had distinct sounds and hailed from southern cities such as Miami and Houston, and were skillful enough as lyricists and entertainers to draw some national media attention. Yet it was not until years later, when acts like Scarface (of the Geto Boys) and OutKast really put southern rap onto the national radar in the mid-90’s. From the perspective of sociology, “dirty south rap” became a real subculture in the mid 1990’s which is evidence of the influence southern artists during that time period such as OutKast had (MIller 203). As a result of that increasing popularity, by the late 1990’s, dirty south rap began being embraced by the critics and public—even beginning to take up a large share of the music market (Grem 56).

While this area of subculture continued to grow and expand more towards the mainstream of culture and music, many people were already familiar with it as indicated by its growing amount of cultural significance, but being that it was growing so quickly and gaining popularity so fast, many people who were not familiar with it or it’s ideals were getting exposed to aspects of dirty south culture and music. That is where Ludacris’ “Southern Hospitality” gains its major significance. The song takes many topics that are significant in that dirty south rap culture and elaborates on them in the form of quatrains. So Ludacris picks four subjects for each verae and has a quatrain about each subject which is how the song acts as an introduction to dirty south rap culture for those who may be completely unfamiliar. Topics that Ludacris chooses to have quatrains on range from Cadillacs and sweat, to the phrases “Dirty South” and “twenty-inch.”

Throughout each quatrain, the thing that is being talked about is repeated at least once per line. For example, the first quatrain reads “Cadillac grills, Cadillac Mill’s/Check out the oil my Cadillac spills/Matter of fact, candy paint Cadillacs kill/So check out the hoes my Cadillac fills.” Through that quatrain it is easy to see the emphasis put on the word “Cadillac” because of the constant repetition of it, and the fact that the topic of the quatrain is repeated in each line immediately before the end rhyme serves to emphasize very blatantly that the end rhyme is applied to the repeated phrase and that those end rhymes are significant in relation to the current topic of the song. So just in that small quatrain Ludacris quickly conveys to the listener the importance of grills, mills, and candy paint in relation to Cadillacs using literary devices such as rhyme and consonance, while also using rhyme to convey how Cadillacs spill, kill, and fill. Through the one quatrain, Ludacris provides as much information about Cadillacs as one would ever need to understand the culture surrounding them without going into a detailed enough explanation that the listener would automatically get lost. Also, through the constant repetition and simple end rhyme (mills/splills/kill/fill) Ludacris simplifies the ideas that he is conveying quite a bit with the intention that new listeners could understand and push themselves to understand because on the face value of things what they are listening to seems so simple.

From the repetition of “Cadillac” Ludacris shifts to the repetition of the phrase “twenty inch.” The fact that phrase is a descriptor rather than a simple noun allows Luda to broach many different topics rather than restricting that quatrain to one specific topic, and it also allows him to play off of the previous quatrain by using phrases like “twenty inch high” and “twenty inch-ride” to add the idea of 20-inch rims to the Cadillac that he was previously talking about. By following a similar pattern throughout the song, Luda uses many descriptive phrases as the repeated themes, such as “mouth full,” “hand me down,” and “pretty ass,” so that in those quatrains he can touch on many topics rather than sticking to one—but that makes the quatrains when he does stick to one topic such as the ones about Cadillacs and sweat stick out even more and leaves them with more emphasis.

The music behind this song is very simple, as there are not many layers and there are no samples, making it a completely original beat created by Pharrell. The main layers of the beat are the percussion, electronic sounds, and vocals. The simplicity of the beat allows much of the attention of the song to be focused on Ludacris’ lyrics rather than enrapturing listeners with the music by itself and distracting them from the song in that way. The loud bass is used frequently as it is a hallmark of dirty south rap so it only makes sense that a song about dirty south rap would carry the trademark sounds of that subgenre of music. The bass also complements Ludacris’ raps because the bass hits twice while Ludacris is repeating the subject phrase for each quatrain to emphasize that subject, and then Ludacris pauses as the beat moves on before he adds the word that is the end rhyme which emphasizes those words also through their separation in time from the rest of the text. So the beat and Ludacris’ rhyme patterns help emphasize the important words in each line, which draw the listeners attention to those terms and makes it extra easy to follow along.

As a whole, this song is Ludacris’ introduction into dirty south rap for listeners who have not before been exposed to it or understood it. It informs the listeners how dirty south rap sounds, what it talks about, how it talks about those topics, and through those things quickly indoctrinates listeners who may not have been familiar with this type of rap music into it. In conclusion, dirty south rap is “a bold statement from rappers who felt estranged from Atlanta’s economic and social progress and excluded by their southernness from competing in a rap music market dominated by New York and Los Angeles” and this song is Ludacris’ final invitation to people who were not familiar with that musical movement after it hit the mainstream, allowing those listeners to catch up quickly (Grem 56).
Works Cited

Grem, Darren E. “The South Got Something To Say”: Atlanta’s Dirty South And The Southernization Of Hip-Hop America.” Southern Cultures 12.4 (2006): 55-73. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Miller, Matt. “Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture To Pop Culture.” Journal Of Popular Music Studies 16.2 (2004): 175-212. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.

The song “So Far, So Far” by Raz Simone is one of the most honest, introspective songs off of the Seattle rhymer’s 2014 mixtape “Cognitive Dissonance: Part One.” The song is an introspective look at his life in terms of where he is opposed to where he thought he would be at this point in his life; but in his conversation of that he broaches many topics including the poverty cycle that many blacks are stuck in. The song is very low key and relaxed without many sounds and the sounds that are present are low and peaceful for the most part. The first verse begins with him unhappy with his baby mama who seems “ungrateful” and unhappy although she lives in his house and he works long hours at a minimum wage job to support her and his son. Then Raz talks about how she goes out partying on the weekends while he is out on the streets selling drugs—not because he wants to, but because he needs the money to provide his son with a reasonable life. From that Raz talks about what it’s like having lots of money, because then others immediately become needy and interested in you. From that many people spend their money in bad ways, like on women, but Raz says “I’m wise enough to know that fast money don’t stay,” so he has to keep working and working to make enough money that he can invest it in something tangible that could support him and that he could hand down to his son. That is part of his real life story because he was a drug dealer as a teen, and made enough money that by the age of 19 he bought his own club—so he has accomplished that goal.

The chorus is very nostalgic and reminiscent as Raz reflects on the dreams he had as a kid, which can be paralleled with the video below because presumably Raz is giving his son similar dreams, and hopefully a means by which to reach those dreams. The chorus ends with the repetition of the phrase “so far from that, I’m so far…” as Raz reflects on how far he and his life are from where and what he thought they would be by this point. The second verse begins the same way, with the same line as the first, about his baby mama being ungrateful. From there it goes into her complaining about him and him freaking out on her verbally, getting very profane, and then he apologizes and says he has changed before the verse ends.

The chorus is then repeated again, flowing into the third verse talking about he now has all of this money and it came from drugs as the clever line “I was turning hella white, vitiligo” is used to explain where the money came from. He then gets into the problems on the road to success, the “potholes,” and people who continually get in the way. He goes as far as saying these people are “just a nuisance” which is where he really begins to make his more direct cultural commentary. He raps “and these public school curriculums are just as useless” before continuing to rap about how the system of society needs to be tested, not the kids in schools. The strongest statement comes from the final quatrain of the third verse as Raz raps “They teach us how to go to work or to go to prison/creative marketing by the prison industrial system/And that’s pimpin’, that’s real/all these famous rappers will teach you how to go to jail.” In those lines Raz raps about how the public school system does not adequately educate black students to give them a fair chance to make it in school or in jobs, so they all end up in prison. In short, since blacks are not provided the opportunity to make a good living legally, they end up caught in the system that is the prison industrial complex, and that the people who run the prison industrial complex are the real pimps in society because they make a living off of these imprisoned blacks, taking advantage of them as a stereotypical pimp might take advantage of his girls. Lastly, Raz mentions how rappers contribute to the system, by setting an example of how to go to jail which acts as a further issue that helps direct more blacks straight into jail instead of showing them how to make something of themselves.

Through this reflection Raz thinks about how he has not reached where he wanted to be by this point, and then comes to the conclusion that the education and prison systems are part of the reason why he has not achieved what he wanted by this point. Through the video, which is very powerful, the ending lines also show how he is afraid of what fate may befall his own son, as he hopes his son will fulfill all the dreams and wishes he may have—like any father would.

Big K.R.I.T. is an artist who is known for crafting his own beats, which are often very soulful, and also for his candid raps. One of his most genuine and candid songs is the song “REM” off of his 2013 project “King Remembered in Time,” spelling out in full words the acronym that his rap name is made up of. The song is rather short, sitting at a mere 2:52, but it does not waste a second or a bar. The song immediately begins during the chorus, with the first distinguishable sound being a piano note at the end of the first line of the chorus which comes about a second into the song and serves to provide emphasis at that moment. During that very simple sound, there is a bass guitar playing some low notes rather quickly at the end of the bar. Immediately following that there are some computer generated noises that almost sound like soft, far off drums being tapped intermittently that echo from time to time and each note fades out very slowly, having a slow rhythm. That adds a mystique to the initial sound of the track while making the sound more complete and rich because it makes it sound like it is glazed over, almost as if one is dreaming but sounds from the world around them are being incorporated into their dream. During the beginning of the chorus, the piano only is used to accent the end of each line with one quick, relatively high note. The same line of the chorus and music then repeats, with an empty bar of the same sounds in between, before the chorus then continues with the same sounds except the piano picks up and plays scales over and over that are four notes long with notes that are close together, and move from high to low as the word “falling” is repeated to create the illusion of falling in the music as the piano pitch keeps progressively changing. During the time that the piano changes, the bass comes in and adds some undertones with simple, long, low notes to make the sound fuller. The chorus is sung in moderately high pitch but those vocals have been distorted to sound a bit unclear, similar to the drum-like noises, which adds to the illusion of sleep.

As the chorus ends abruptly and K.R.I.T. starts to rap, the real drum line which consists mainly of several notes that have a moderate rhythm at a reasonable speed which is used to propel the song along, but each motive ends with a clang that almost sounds as if the falling ended and something hit the ground. As KRIT raps “nightmare” at the end of the second bar, there is screaming in the background that sounds scared, as an added sound. Then throughout the first few bars it is like the beginning of the song musically but with the drums added in, and then at about the 35-second mark the piano picks back up with the same motives it plays over and over in the end of the chorus, creating a real melody and propelling the song along. The drums soon change into being mostly cymbals, but they have been altered also to sound glossed over and not loud or particularly clear, continuing to add to the dreamy motif of the music. Halfway through the verse the musical pattern begins again with the drums becoming normal and the piano scaling back, continuing the pattern that has already been established through the chorus and the first half of the first verse.

So as a whole, there are two vocalists but for the most part there is only one at a time, so as far as texture goes there are vocals, bass guitar, percussion, electronic noises, and piano, making five layers. The percussion is and piano are used to move the track along, but the piano along with the electronic sounds and bass guitar are used to provide a pretty low, consistent melody—much of which seems to be glazed over and distorted. The rapping vocals are low and interact with the bass, and are said in a meaningful yet quiet way, shaping up with the rest of the sounds to make a calm yet meaningful song very reminiscent of a dream or hearing other things from the real world while in a dream. The piano is slow and has a slow rhythm when the one note is played alone, but moves very quickly when the scales are played, increasing the tempo of the song from time to time before it reverts back to it’s original, relatively slow pace. There is some call and response in the bass guitar, but not in the lyrics, and in terms of timbre, the bass is low as expected, the rapping vocals are low and soft like the bass, the singing voice is higher but calming, the percussion is somewhat soft and just sounds like banging, and the computer sounds really sound almost as if a 2×4 was snapped and that noise was recorded and then distorted with a lot of reverb.

The melody of the song is created by all the layers excepting the percussion really, with the main accents coming from the piano that stands out because it is much higher in pitch than the rest of the song. The character is disjunct and the contour is low but continually cycles lower than back up with the change in pitches of the piano notes. There is a fair range since most of the song is low and the piano reaches pretty high notes in comparison. The motives are very short, generally consisting of about four notes, but they come together to form about average length phrases that are pretty relaxed due to the low pitch and the lack of harshness in the sounds that sound as if they have been electronically modified.

The song is in triple meter with a pretty average tempo that speeds up when the piano picks up speed. There is syncopation but no swing or notable blue notes. The rhythm in the vocals changes from time to time but stays on a pretty decent clip, but the vocals of the chorus are much slower. The harmony in this song is simple and like the melody, is driven primarily by the bass and piano, with the vocals also playing a pretty key part, mostly contributing towards the bass end of the spectrum except during the chorus. The harmony is a consonant and sweet minor harmony with a low timbre. The dynamics stay consistent as does the articulation, as the chorus matches up perfectly with the harmony and the verses match up well, but less so. The text as a whole represents dreams, ambitions, and the path towards reaching them which can be rough, but fits the synth-sounding and soft, deep sound palette that the music of the song provides very well.

Race is clearly a huge problem in America, and news outlets only recently decided to expand their views to begin to cover that recently as videos became easier to procure on things like cell phones, but nonetheless it is a huge problem, and has been for 400 years. Byron Hurt, award winning writer and documentary filmmaker, came to McDaniel to lead us through a discussion on “The N Word.” He began by defining the word and explaining its racial history in America before opening the floor to comments. Throughout the discussion he showed some videos, such as the Oklahoma SAE video and an MSNBC anchor blaming the incident at Oklahoma on rappers, specifically Waka Flocka Flame. The discussion that this fostered allowed many students to open up and share their opinions which resulted in several black students explaining that the word “nigga” is different from the word “nigger” in it’s connotation so they use the word “nigga,” several black students explained why they do not think the use of the word is okay, and several black students questioned the use of the word. Most of those comments seemed reasonable as they come at some level from experiences because black people in America have all had to deal with the word so most of the comments seemed well thought out and informed.

When it came to the non-black students comments, I was shocked. Several students stated that they were not bothered by the use of the N-word in the SAE video, and that what bothered them about that video was the mention of hanging–which is murder and everyone knows that is wrong. One student tried to compare black racism in America to the worldwide racism experienced buy Jews using the holocaust and the deli attack in France this year as examples of how Jews are targeted, so he completely missed the point of what racism in America is. One black student said he stopped using the N-word when his mother asked him if he would call her that word and he realized he wouldn’t, so he stopped using it, and another student responded that he wouldn’t call his mom the c-word–again greatly missing the point. So as a result, I became very frustrated during this discussion because the majority of whites not only in the world, but at this school, seemingly do not understand racism or why the N-word is so loaded, which is almost unbelievable to me. In conclusion, I believe a lecture on the N-word and its history would be much more appropriate for the members of the McDaniel community that need to come to terms with the word because a discussion certainly did not do it, so I spoke to Richard M. Smith, Assistant Professor of Sociology–who specializes in race, about the possibility him giving of such a lecture.

J. Cole has a very intellectual sermon almost on sexuality and several female stereotypes on his song “No Role Modelz” from his critically acclaimed, late-2014 album “2014 Forest Hills Drive.” Most critics and fans thought this was a great original body of work and was very true to J. Cole (Jermaine Cole) is as a person. The song “No Role Modelz” is a standout track amongst many great songs and it begins with an intro commemorating James Avery as “Uncle Phil” from the t.v. show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” He continues to say that Uncle Phil was the only father he ever had which is very powerful and that if he has a child soon, he will be a better father than Uncle Phil was, before continuing to speculate briefly on how Martin Luther King would have signed to J. Cole’s record label had the label been around back then.

Next, the chorus begins and the first few lines read “One time for my LA sisters/One time for my LA hoes/Lame niggas can’t tell the difference/Only time for a nigga who know.” That is powerful because it is talking about the stereotypes of a strong female african american woman (Earth Mother and Sister Savior stereotypes) verses the stereotype of a ho (gold digger, freak stereotypes). Through these lines Cole is indicating that men should desire the strong african american women and not women who are all about the sex and benefits, which is stigmatizing the ho stereotype as a negative—which it usually is. The chorus then continues with a repeated “Don’t save her/she don’t wanna be saved” refrain that seems to indicate many women are happy where they are, even if where they are and the state they are in is not how/where Cole feels they should be.

The first full verse begins with Cole unable to think of or find a role model, potentially for himself, potentially for all the young girls and women who need one. He continues to talk about how he was with a “bad bitch” last night which is a term that would typically refer to someone who falls in either the freak, gangster bitch, or diva stereotype. He then says that the girl is so bad she would make you leave your significant other to stay with her, before continuing to detail his sexual interaction with her. He then mentions how she says he is spoiled because he can have any woman he wants which he quickly denies, but then begins to think about how much better he was before he was a minor celebrity and included in that he thought about how when he was not famous he did not use the word “bitch” nearly as much, before the chorus comes back in.

The second verse starts with Cole talking about how he desires a deep, true love and making reference to Aunt Viv who was Uncle Phli’s wife on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” He continues rapping about how he cannot find that love because all he finds are girls from reality shows and then talks about how he will bring a number of girls home for the night and even let one wear his clothes, which usually is a mark of affection, but that happens before he asks for his clothes back and asks her to leave in the morning. The hook then comes in again and there is a quick interlude where someone older says something to the affect of “fool me once, shame on you. You won’t be able to fool me again.” There is then a quick bridge where J. Cole gets violent as he gets fooled multiple times which is evidence of either his lack of thought or his lack of self control, which could likely be related directly back to his sex life.

The third and final verse starts with J. Cole regretting that he is too young to be with Lisa Bonet and Nia Long who are t.v. actresses (NIa Long was in “The Fresh Prince”, making another reference back to the show) and who he seems to think of as more respectable, beautiful black women than the ho’s he deals with. He continues saying “All I’m left with is the hoes from reality shows” and that she probably could not even read a script which is why she was probably on reality t.v. He then reverts back to his regretting his young age wishing he was the same age as Sade or Aaliyah but that he is now just left with girls from the club. After that he repeats the phrase “she shallow but the pussy deep,” which is making a very clear statement about how he can get fulfilling sex but not a fulfilling woman, four times before reverting to the chorus.

As a whole, this song talks about how too many girls fit into the gold digger and freak stereotypes where they have no intellect but will have sex willingly either for their own pleasure or for material objects, and Cole is blaming the idea that so many women are currently like that on the fact that there are no good, wholesome, respectable role models for women these days, the way Uncle Phil was able to be his role model as he grew up in a fatherless home. That was discussed in our chat with Dr. Raley because all black women in the media are shown to be one, very dramatic stereotype that is highly sexualized which is why as J. Cole says, there are no role modelz for young girls today. By exploring that idea, Cole has an interesting take on modern sexuality and female stereotypes along the way.

Rap music is very cultural because of the roots it has in African American, particularly urban, communities— but it also varies geographically, both domestically and internationally, in its sound and style. Rap in what is considered by most to be the Southern part of the United States did not catch hold until after rap had begun to spring up in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Some of the first big name rappers and rap groups to come out of the South were the Geto Boys, UGK, and 2 Live Crew, and then before long groups like Three 6 Mafia and OutKast came out. For a time the South had no distinctive sound as the artists that were coming out all had sounds representative of their individual region so the music in places like Miami, home of 2 Live Crew, sounded much different than the music in Houston, home of the Geto Boys. Still regional distinctions differentiate Southern artists from one another, but OutKast brought much of the momentum in the rap world that the South had to Atlanta, and it has never left. The more recent artists out of Atlanta to make big names for themselves range from Ludacris, T.I., and Young Jeezy to the Migos, Young Thug, and Rich Homie Quan. Atlanta began to develop a regional sound in their rap music, and that style of music is now known as “dirty south” rap, which owns places in both the music and literary canons and is strongly representative of the society from which it comes.

From a societal and sociological perspective, dirty south rap was created as “a bold statement from rappers who felt estranged from Atlanta’s economic and social progress and excluded by their southernness from competing in a rap music market dominated by New York and Los Angeles” (Grem 56). But then, by the late 1990’s dirty south rap was embraced by the public and critics alike, gaining much acclaim and turning into a large section of the music market (Grem 56). A specific aspect that has been explored by sociologists is the connection between music and cars, which as far as rap goes is particularly present in the dirty south and is evidenced by Ludacris’ extended amount of lines about Cadillacs in the song “Southern Hospitality” (LaBelle 200). From a music perspective, this article also examines how cars can act as an auditory vehicle, specifically with rap music (LaBelle 200).

Matt Miller, a professor at Emory University, wrote about how “dirty south” music really started to come around in the mid-1990’s and became a subculture and how that culture promoted by dirty south artists has now become a section of popular culture, but how it has lost some of it’s original meaning that came through racist critiques along the way (Miller 203). It has also been noted how reflective of society rap is and how influential rap music can be in society as Marshall Berman wrote “rap is a product of the late twentieth century, not only in politics and economics, but in art” because it represents the main artistic elements of the time period which were dissonance and collage (13).

Dirty South rap is musically important for many reasons, but it is relevant to this project because Ludacris’ music fits into the dirty south category and “Southern Hospitality” is a perfect example. The song “Southern Hospitality” by Ludacris, along with arguably all rap is driven by the beat and the rhythm that is provided by the beat (Pederson 64). The rhythm of the beat is crucial as it represents the rhythm of the overall music and the rhythm of the hip-hop lifestyle, which in the South is typically on the slower side (Pederson 64). Also, no samples were used in the creation of the song “Southern Hospitality” which is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more common in a once sample-based art form (Marshall). The reason that sampling is becoming progressively less and less common is because the costs of sampling have risen and the number and scale of lawsuits over sampling have risen, making it more expensive and more risky for artists to make songs that are even loosely based off of a piece of work that has already been created (Marshall). From a music perspective, those considerations could start to explain the regressing prevalence of sampling in rap music and potentially why Ludacris’ “Southern Hospitality” has no samples in it (Baker).
Dirty south rap has also made legitimate language contributions to our society as chronicled in a recent article of the “Southern Journal of Linguistics” when Jennifer Blomquist and Isaac Hancock argue that it has not only made contributions to African American English, but that it has helped revitalize and publicize southern African American English again for the rest of the country (Bloomquist and Hancock 1). Much of this language would be dismissed by the public as insignificant slang, but linguistics research shows that it is very relevant because these words, some of which have history in African American English, are now getting exposed to the public on massive levels through dirty south rap which is changing the overall lexicon of America. From a literary standpoint that is an important idea to consider. Beyond that, rap music should be recognized as poetry more widely than it is, because “at the end of the day, Nas and Homer are both in the same line of work. Do we disqualify one because he rhymes over a break-beat instead of a lyre?” (Kenner 222).

In other words, as many people are starting to realize, regardless of rap musics presentation, it is poetry. Also from that angle, the literary contributions rap has made to the field of poetry are great, as “Hip-Hip MC’s have both built on and expanded far beyond the American poetic tradition” (Alim 60). Professor Alim of Stanford recognizes rap music as an “Innovative form of verbal art” that takes a great deal of effort and knowledge to deconstruct due to it’s literary merit and high level of intertextuality, which he shares in a published article in which he deconstructs the literary elements behind rap lyrics from some of the best lyricists in rap such as Pharoahe Monch and Talib Kweli (Alim 61). In David Caplan’s “The Art of Rhymed Insult” rap music plays a central role as he examines the history of rhymed insult and the difficulty of creating it, as rap is the most common and creative modern way of rhymed insult (Caplan). Rhymed insult is a large part of all rap, including dirty south rap, and thereby this article is useful in understanding just how difficult it is to create well-constructed rhymed insults (Caplan).
Ludacris is an example of a Southern rapper having great success highlighted by grammy nominations and a “Rap Album of the Year” grammy for his highly acclaimed “Release Therapy.” Ludacris’ real name is Christopher Bridges and he was born in Champaign, Illinois where he lived until the age of nine when his mother and him moved to Atlanta, where he has lived since. He got involved in rap music as a radio DJ and made money that way which he eventually used to start his own label and record and release his debut album titled “Incognegro” (Baker). He was then signed by Def Jam South and the album was re-released as “Back for the First Time,” which is the album that the song “Southern Hospitality” happened to be released on (Baker). He is currently one of the most influential Southern and dirty south rappers, influencing his peers as much as those before him influenced him.

References

Alim, H. Samy. “On Some Serious Next Millennium Rap Ishhh.” Journal Of English Linguistics 31.1 (2003): 60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Baker, Soren. “Pop Music; Ludacris Lives His Dream; The rising hip-hop artist, 21, is signed with Def Jam South, a subsidiary of the legendary New York rap label that was his favorite while growing up in Atlanta.” Los Angeles Times 2001: Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Berman, Marshall. “Close To The Edge: Reflections On Rap.” Tikkun 8.2 (1993): 13. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Bloomquist, Jennifer, and Isaac Hancock. “The Dirty Third: Contributions Of Southern Hip Hop To The Study Of African American English.” Southern Journal Of Linguistics 37.1 (2013): 1-27. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Caplan, David. “The Art Of Rhymed Insult.” Virginia Quarterly Review 88.2 (2012): 119-133. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Grem, Darren E. “The South Got Something To Say”: Atlanta’s Dirty South And The Southernization Of Hip-Hop America.” Southern Cultures 12.4 (2006): 55-73. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Kenner, Rob. “Word’s Worth.” Poetry 187.3 (2005): 221-224. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

LaBelle, Brandon. “Pump Up The Bass – Rhythm, Cars, And Auditory Scaffolding.” Senses & Society 3.2 (2008): 187-203. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.

Marshall, Wayne. “Giving Up Hip-Hop’s Firstborn: A Quest For The Real After The Death Of Sampling.” Callaloo 29.3 (2006): 868. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 9 Mar. 2015

Miller, Matt. “Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture To Pop Culture.” Journal Of Popular Music Studies 16.2 (2004): 175-212. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.

Pedersen, Birgitte Stougaard. “Aesthetic Potentials Of Rhythm In Hip Hop Music And Culture: Rhythmic Conventions, Skills, And Everyday Life.” Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex & Race 26.1 (2013): 55-70. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.