VA Dirty South: Raw & Uncut OST
(2000, Bottom Up) @ that high T&G res
I'm not uploading this record to shine light on some great, overlooked Southern rap music or to share with (largely) strangers the contents of a disc I find myself going back to again and again and again. I can't really say I've spent much time with it and subconsciously this post might really be just an excuse to revisit.
Surfacewise, I'm posting this shit to, for the first time, acknowledge some extra-musical media about the things this blog is about. This is digibootlegging as an advertisement for or endorsement of the best film I've seen about down south rap culture, The Dirty South: Raw & Uncut - Tales of Sex, Music & Money.
Dirty States has some great interview footage, too, but falls behind this film for taking on the neatly compartmentalized format of an MTV special designed to fire buzz words at consumer targets. Raw & Uncut is more like TruTV, starting off as some reality show about spring break freaks only to (somewhat incoherently) disintegrate into a detailed document about the feel and the history of Southern rap. All in all, its loose format captures perfectly (and without apology) the nuances of culture that color this music: Subwoofer as Sexual Technology, Pussy-Popping & the Male Gaze, Rap Music & the Bootyshake Rubric, Notions of Dirt & Purity in Southern Sex Clubs and Law Enforcement Offices, In Defense of Being Butt-Naked In the Middle of the Street, Luke Magic and Pirate Radio Charm and a thousand other American Culture dissertations that would bore anyone and accomplish nothing.
I make everyone watch this movie and lose respect for anyone that asks for it to be turned off.
10 comments:
Better than Dirty States...?? Thats saying something, let me find out.
thanks. i wish i could buy that dvd in my country.
Damn, is it illegal there?
Yeah, aside from the film's uncritical take on the representation of women and the whole strip-club scene (see cover for example), this is a great document of mid-1990s southern rap. My personal favorite parts are 1) Uncle Al on the air at BASS 91.9 and 2) the old church ladies protesting at Freaknik 95...
RIP UNCLE AL
"Thug Doubt"
I own this on VHS, and scream bloody murder every time my wife tries to throw it out.
Its definitely not this film's job to be critical of the way women are represented in rap music. Its an "emic" account, culture-specific. Its an outside observer's role to criticize those representations.
I'd be happy to see more "emic" & "etic" films on explicit rap in the future. Both sides almost always fail to say anything interesting at all.
I remember seeing that Revelations-signed woman at 5 points every school day at GSU waiting for the bus. She would say some vicious shit to any woman in tight clothing.
nice review over here : http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LCWLOU7IMIEM/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
I just think that, in reality, the gender roles and relationships in the culture that is the subject of this film (southern rapp)are a lot more complicated and nuanced than the film lets on. Yes, strippers and strip clubs are a big part of the scene, but this is not the only way in which women participate... which is a fact that I'm not sure comes through in the film. In part, this is a result of the film's focus on the top-tier of commercially succesful southern rappers, which is always a more exclusively male space than the grassroots scene that it grows from. There are lots of good women rappers in ATL, MIA, NOLA, but only one or two from each place rises to any sort of prominence. It is my opinion that this state of affairs is due to something more than just the fact that they are not as good or as interesting as the male rappers... to me, it is important to remember that this film represents only one of several possible ways in which an "emic" perspective could be crafted. I still think it's a pretty good film though... by the way, it was made by a dude who moved to Miami from NYC...
ThugDoubt
Definitely. And almost any of those "several other perspectives" might be way more interesting than this film to me. But I feel fine about a film capturing accurately the perspective of Luke or JT Money. I do wish it was balanced out by an equally good movie from the perspective of Mia X or Cheeky Blakk. Or like 5 other films.
I don't think doing interesting or quality work is what floats much of anyone to the top though, unfortunately. But I suppose its that disappointment that brings joy to digging or blogging or making your own film or record or whatever.
Send me a DVD-R of your film. And maybe point your fellow Pardner's ears toward the zshare clips on bouncebreaksarchive.blogspot.com, you said he was good at that sort of thing.
got a link kid???
to the flick i mean
Post a Comment