Atlanta in 2015 is characterized by hipster hangouts and yuppie neighborhoods that each present a whitewashed view of the city. "Before the Beltline" will highlight the people, places and cultural happenings that made Atlanta the place to be before Yelp reviews, Buzzfeed articles and "The Walking Dead" arrived late to the party.
By 1994, LaFace Records established itself as a big time player in urban music. Their roster was top heavy with two acts, TLC and Toni Braxton, that appealed to both the mainstream and R&B's core audience. They sold lots of records, won plenty of awards and made (or in TLC's case, should've made) a bunch of money.
Carving a niche in R&B is like investing in established stock: you build enough assets to buy in, play it tight and make steady dollars. The genre had been around forever and showed no signs of fading as LaFace's vocalists took their place atop the business.
It was a safe investment to a fault. Rapidly, a seemingly endless line of female groups and solo artists sprang up like dot coms and middle class homeowners. The days of Motown, a single label having a monopoly on black music, were now gone.
Despite a healthy amount of content, the power and influence of black culture in music had shifted from R&B to hip hop. Anyone who wanted to be a real player had to hop on the rap train.
It was a safe investment to a fault. Rapidly, a seemingly endless line of female groups and solo artists sprang up like dot coms and middle class homeowners. The days of Motown, a single label having a monopoly on black music, were now gone.
Despite a healthy amount of content, the power and influence of black culture in music had shifted from R&B to hip hop. Anyone who wanted to be a real player had to hop on the rap train.
With music charts dominated by Run-DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy in the 80s followed by Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in the early 90s, New York and Los Angeles felt like the only places that produced rappers. In actuality, Arrested Development (3 Years, 2 Months and 5 Days In the Life of..., '92) and Kriss Kross (Totally Krossed Out, also in '92) came out of Atlanta around the same time. But without Braves caps or obvious drawls, their ties to the city weren't a defining part of their music.
Regionalism was running rampant throughout hip-hop. LaFace was simultaneously making Atlanta "the new Motown" but was still left out of the rap market. A perfect storm was brewing. The industry was ripe for an authentic, grown up and fresh act to storm the scene waving the flag for the the south.
Regionalism was running rampant throughout hip-hop. LaFace was simultaneously making Atlanta "the new Motown" but was still left out of the rap market. A perfect storm was brewing. The industry was ripe for an authentic, grown up and fresh act to storm the scene waving the flag for the the south.
By '94, NYC was no longer the center of the hip hop universe. Thanks to Ice Cube, Tupac and Death Row Records LA had, at worst, an equal claim to the title. Perhaps because of this, New York hip hop fans were unreasonably harsh critics of artists springing up from other cities. With LaFace now stomping into rap with OutKast, it wasn't long before Atlanta felt the wrath of an insecure fan base not ready for its home town to relinquish the crown.
NYC's vitriol was on full display at the 1995 Source Awards. The infamous on stage confrontations with the crowd from Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight are well documented, but OutKast also had a moment. After hearing taunts about being "country" in the year since Southernplayalistic was released, Big Boi and Dre were booed when announced as the winners of Best New Artist. Flanked by Goodie Mob, the Atlanta delegation took the stage together in enemy territory with the assumed disapproval that made them industry outcasts in the first place now undoubtedly true and in their faces. This was ultimately the tipping point in Atlanta going from tertiary market in the rap civil war to the center of the hip hop universe. NYC fans made it clear that they had no time for music coming from the south and, after Big Boi's sheepish attempts to quell the crowd's angst, Andre had enough:
"But it's like this though- I'm tired of them closed minded folks... it's like we got a demo tape but don't nobody wanna hear it. But it's like this: the South got something to say. That's all I gotta say."
I've never known anyone who wasn't from New York love NYC like its natives do. Growing up in or around Atlanta, the problem is exacerbated. Northern transplants pine for their home while making a point to let you know just how inferior the south was to wherever they hailed from originally. It's like hearing someone talk about how well read/traveled/educated they are- it starts off interesting but eventually you wish they'd just shut up. Andre wasn't only saying the south had something to say musically, he was declaring independence from northern imperialism that ruled mainstream black culture at the time. Movies and television overwhelmingly depicted black city life either in an overpopulated concrete jungle or gang ridden LA neighborhood. With OutKast, the tone was set for a new narrative to take the forefront and Atlanta was now the place to be.
