Atlanta is the city of Oz. Left in between the storms of East West gangster rap of the 1990s, Atlanta had to fend for itself. Without the history or culture to keep their home on solid ground, the city’s music flew into a psychedelic cloud of funk and alphabet soup, only to land in a new technicoloured world of reimagined hip-hop. At least that’s how I see Atlanta. Like one of those mystical worlds you only see in stories. So often ignored in the American popular imagination, we’re left to wonder what kind of city produces the incomprehensible sounds of today’s Future.
Andre 3000 may well have been chanting, “The Wicked Witch is Dead” when Outkast took to the stage to claim Best New Group at the 1995 Source Awards. Facing a booing crowd, Andre laid down the prophecy, ‘the South got somethin’ to say’ and left down a yellow brick road to make it a reality. Outkast put Atlanta on the map. Then, a floodgate of talent opened, free from the bondage of conventional story, sound, and content. Today it’s almost impossible to look around contemporary hip-hop without seeing the ‘SpottieOttieDopaliscious’ shimmer of Atlantatude. More importantly, Atlanta gives us a window into what hip-hop might become.
Is it a coincidence that Atlanta’s modern torch bearers are pregnant with symbolism of days to come? Future, Lil Baby, Young Thug, Childish Gambino – if it’s not a reference to their carefree imagination, it’s certainly a nod to a long road ahead.
"Since growing old is takin' time, I'm actin' like I'm eight or nine" - EARTHGANG, ‘Missed Calls’
In any case, Atlanta remains larger than life itself. The deep warbles of a trap bass, the lingual labyrinth of slang and drawl, exaggerations of wealth in both diamonds and flesh – they all attest to the wizardry of smoke and mirrors that theses artists operate.
"I can see behind the smoke and mirrors
Niggas ain't really big as they seem (Hmm)"
- 21 Savage, ‘a lot’
Behind the machinery there are women and men. But rap often needs a wizard to show us the potential the genre has had all along, opening into a fractal world, rather than closing in on a duality of East vs West. In any case, the curtain falls by design in the long interludes the city is famous for, providing a day in the life which awakens listeners from the dream of Oz. It’s the Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik dress, it’s the Street Gossip, it’s the drip of playas yet to break into the mainstream. For me, Atlanta was always tinted with pimp coloured lenses.
So, as the world catches the contagion of trap and the Migos’ iconic triplet flow, all that’s left is to walk it out, click your heels, and say it three times: ‘there’s no place like Atlanta’.
Atlanta, The City of Oz
Take a look behind the smoke, mirrors, and magic of Atlanta’s new generation of hip-hop torchbearers.
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