Southern Hip Hop Quotes

What's weird is the Hot Boys and the whole New Orleans Cash Money thing had a really big impact on the Bay when that was popping off. I don't all the way understand it. I mean, I know that they were big everywhere and had a lot of commercial success in the mid to late '90s, but they were really, really felt in the Bay Area.

I'm from Atlanta, but I don't really consider myself an 'Atlanta rapper.'

I was listening to Young Jeezy and Shawty Red, and to me, the trap music they had was something special.

I know that people everywhere listen to hip-hop, but especially being from the South, you really get that influence. You go out, you party, and it's just always there. Also, I grew up listening and loving reggae music, too.

I got a chance to work with Mystikal and Mannie Fresh and Juvenile and all these people as I was growing up, and so that really influenced everything I do.

The whole '400 Degreez' album was inspired by what Outkast was doing, Organized Noize. That was what I was listening to around that time.

Yeah, I like Three Six Mafia and stuff like that.

From the outside-in, Atlanta is kind of perceived as like popcorn. People don't respect it as having artists such as myself and EarthGang and other lyrical talents and album-worthy artists.

We grew up listening to music like that: we grew up on the snap music, grew up off the trap music, grew up on all the South sound.

I grew up in the area where we had Three 6 Mafia, and Playa Fly, and 8Ball & MJG. My parents and my family used to listen to it. I learned from them there, and got more into it - listening to the beat of songs, and just learning more about music.

Oh man, I love what the South brings as far as the soul, and I really have noticed from even the early days of listening to OutKast and Goodie Mob that Atlanta and the South has a diverse sound to it. You have bounce music. You have soulful musicians. You have artists with vocals who try to do different things.

Hip-hop ain't died because of the South, that's retarded. When I named the album originally, I thought I bit off more than I could chew but you'd be an idiot to think I'm talking about how the South killed hip-hop or how New York isn't where it should be or where it once was. It was like, "Damn, I need to explain this?" But I thought, "Nah, the proof is right there. We should know what it is." I expect the hip-hop audience to be avant garde. I want them to be where I'm at or beyond where I'm at.

With me being form the South, I wanted to make this album like a G Unit.

The people I used to have around me from Nashville was showing love to the Cash Money clique on the strength of Buck trying to make it; making sure Buck gets to where he gots to go.

I started producing in California, and they called it mob music. When I moved to Atlanta, the sound was different. People in Atlanta didn't like to rap over West Coast beats. So I had to make adjustments to what was going on in the South.

I'm a Southern guy, so Jeezy, T.I., and Outkast are always playing on my iPod.

Atlanta can do crunk music, it can do snap music, it can do swag music. Atlanta has it all.

'Solja Rag' was designed for Juvenile. It wasn't one of them beats where I was gonna chop it and see who I was going give it to: it was Juvenile all over it.

I've made classic records, and going into making 'R.A.P. Music,' I was determined to top the entire legacy of the 'Pledge' series, and the fact that I won a Grammy, and the fact that I was associated with OutKast, and the fact that I'm a Dungeon Family member.

Triple 6 Mafia and Mystikal in Atlanta was one of my first shows. I remember how sweaty and smashed up everybody was, and it was so punk rock.

But then again in the East Coast, I think, Tupac, inspired everybody on the East Coast, everybody down south, everybody in the West Coast you know what sayin'.

If you know Down South production, Roland 808 is in almost everything.

I'm listening to early Cash Money, I'm listening to Juvenile, I'm listening to Waka Flocka, I'm listening to Lil B, I'm listening to Brandy, Kanye - that's my home playlist.

The people we grew up watching and listening to - Outkast, Gucci Mane, Hot Boys, Lil Wayne, Master P - all that type of stuff, we took those styles and made it our own.

But with country trap, I in no way want to take credit for that. I believe Young Thug would be one of the biggest pioneers in that.