Word: rapped
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...Southerners like the Ying Yang Twins, Ludacris, Mike Jones and, of course, Atlanta duo Outkast, which last year became the first hip-hop act to win a Grammy for Album of the Year. The cutting edge of Southern music: a danceable, rapid-fire, bass-heavy rap (frequently blended with R&B) called crunk, fine-tuned and marketed by loud, gold-toothed former DJ Lil Jon and popularized partly through his massive and spectacularly vulgar hit Get Low. His music--along with the crunk (Southern shorthand for "cranked up," as in increased volume; it also alludes to getting crazy drunk) label...
Just how Southern has the urban-music scene become? Four of the 10 rap artists who got the most airplay last year were from the South. These days, the rappers from the lower states have clothing lines, accessories, even branded beverages (Lil Jon's energy drink is called Crunk Juice), not to mention alliances with the biggest pop artists. The Ying Yang Twins have collaborated with Britney Spears, and Destiny's Child commissioned Atlanta rapper T.I. on a recent single. Lil Jon has produced big crunk hits for Atlantans Usher (Yeah!) and Ciara (Goodies...
...writer-director Craig Brewer, 33, the film's July 13 release is the culmination of a five-year odyssey of slammed doors, we'll-call-yous and try-it-our-ways. Cast a rap star in the lead role, not a journeyman actor with zero marquee wattage. Make it in Los Angeles, not in your hometown. And, the Hollywood whisper went, could you please not be a white guy? Taylor Hackford had run up against similar prejudices in the 15 years it took him to make Ray. As Brewer recalls, "I'm sitting there sweating bullets, thinking...
...sidewalk. One couple chats in Portuguese; a trio converses in Czech. It's a U.N. in miniature--so much so that when a derelict wanders by, desperate to strike up a monologue, he asks a gaggle of teens, "Excuse me, do you speak American?" This guy is a rap artist without synthesizer, improvising an autobiography as he addresses the girls, and they pretend not to notice him. "Hey, Elaine baby, did you know I played high school basketball with Akeem Olajuwon? An' I was quarterback for the Jets. An' my seven sisters were kidnaped and raised by the Chinese...
...involvement in internal affairs often ruffles feathers. And in the instance of his now-infamous discussion with former Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74, when he attempted to redirect West’s energies from rap music to more traditional academic fare, it backfired completely. West subsequently left for Princeton, sparking the beginning of a decline for what used to be the world’s best department of African-American studies (Please see story, page...