Rap music is hood music. Both in the sense that its lyrics and rhythms evoke the grim realities and fleeting triumphs of quotidian life in the contemporary urban milieu, but moreso because at least half of all rap songs are about neighborhoods. Be it the hood the rapper is from, the one he sells drugs in, the one he used to sell drugs in, or just one he thinks is particularly rough or particularly fancy, you can't swing a cat in a rap track without scratching a shout-out to some spot or another.
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While this is a straightforward affair in cities with distinct internal entities like Compton and the South Side, trying to rep your neighborhood in Atlanta isn't so simple. After Sherman burned the place to the ground, Atlanta was rebuilt by a 100-year succession of carpetbaggers, developers, and politicians on the take, leaving the city's map a baffling, decentralized spidermess that conforms to no known human system of logic. Neighborhoods here are amorphous blobs nobody agrees on the boundaries of, and whose names are only used by realtors to convince buyers they're moving to a nicer part of town than they actually are. Street and place names are changed at whim, or doubled up to the point where there are 71 streets named "Peachtree." Good hoods and bad hoods not only touch each other but sometimes are each other. Only in a city this geographically schizophrenic could you have a lifelong East Atlantan like Gucci Mane say "I'm a East Atlanta nigg*" and then IMMEDIATELY follow it with "You an East Atlanta bitch."Thankfully for the city's rappers and trappers, the Atlanta police divided up this maddening tangle into six patrollable zones. Not only does this provide a concrete place to tell people where you hail from, calling your hood "Zone X" makes Atlanta sound like a Logan's Run–esque dystopia in the not-so-distant future. Which, in terms of what's happening in hip-hop, it actually kinda is.
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Zone 1 is home to Bankhead and the Bluff, the titular drug market of the film Snow on tha Bluff. Apart from inspiring Freaknik-era shoulder-dance craze the "Bankhead Bounce," Bankhead is also T.I.'s old stomping ground and the setting for his 2003 genre-christening album Trap Muzik, which may make it the original trap in trap music. Incidentally, Zone 1 is where FDR built the country's first public housing project, Techwood Homes, arguably the first trap in history.Back when Atlanta was one of America's most dangerous cities, this is where most of that danger was happening. A gang called the Miami Boys brought the crack war up from Florida, funneling co*ke from the Caribbean straight up I-75 to the Connector and into Zone 1. The city used the 1996 Olympics as a chance to tear down Techwood and drive the Miami Boys out of town, and those who remained were pushed out when the Black Mafia Family moved down from Detroit and started running West Coast co*ke in exotic rental cars.While Bankhead has chilled out and now awaits gentrification, the Bluff is still a rough spot for a vacation, even if you're Jeezy. Although these days the violence has given way to more low-key finesses, like letting college kids move in and get comfy for a couple weeks before robbing the bejesus out of them.Notable Zone 1ers: T.I., Dem Franchize Boyz, Shawty Lo, Curtis Snow, Maynard Jackson, Gladys Knight and two of the Pips, D-Roc of the Ying Yang Twins (and "Bankhead Bounce" fame).
North Atlanta, including Buckhead and Lenox, comprises Zone 2 and is essentially an amusem*nt park for ballplayers' wives and rich lawyers. This is the part of town that earned Atlanta its "Black Hollywood" nickname and was an obvious choice for a drug lord cum aspiring rap mogul like Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, founder of the Black Mafia Family, to make his hub.The highways supplied a direct pipeline to every major city on the East Coast and Buckhead provided plenty of venues for Meech and his rap buddies to put their proceeds into circulation. BMF members claim to be the first strip-clubbers to "make it rain," which was as much about showing off as it was a rudimentary form of money laundering, much like the Family's public front, BMF Entertainment. Even though the record label only officially signed one rapper, California transplant Bleu DaVinci, Meech's largesse propped up the careers of a number of local studios and rappers, most famously Young Jeezy, in addition to ruining local nightlife for everybody outside the Family's payroll.After BMF set up shop and consolidated the city's drug industry, it was not uncommon to see 15-car convoys of Day-Glo Lamborghinis commuting (loudly) between Buckhead's myriad bottle-service bars and strip clubs. Nor for those Lambos to cause an hours-long traffic jam as they all tried to stonedly park and unpark in the same lot.Due to a number of high-profile parking-lot shootings, the City of Atlanta imposed a drinking curfew on Buckhead, and the cops began looking suspiciously at all the guys with quarter-million-dollar cars and chains with the same three letters. Meech didn't help matters by erecting a billboard proclaiming "The World Is BMF's," based on the one from Scarface. Eventually the DEA figured out that BMF entertainment was more than a record label with a single artist, and took down the whole operation, turning off the money faucet that had kept Atlanta hip-hop in diamonds.
Downtown and midtown Atlanta used to look like The Walking Dead after dark, and a bit like a businessman-themed Walking Dead in the day. When Buckhead shut down, the frat crowd headed for East Atlanta while the hip-hop set helped revitalize the intown. Nightmarishly huge clubs like Opera and Harlem Nights opened up featuring flaming champagne bottles, multi-tiered VIP sections catering to 20+ -person entourages, and uniformed Atlanta police officers they hire to—I don't know what. Certainly not to stop anyone from doing drugs. It's entirely possible they're hired just so clubgoers can do drugs in front of a cop.Right across the highway, a colony of recording studios like Patchwerk and Coach K's Quality Sound run all night, and then down next to the Greyhound station you have institutional titty bar Magic City, where producers take their new tracks directly from the recording booth to the DJ booth for DJ Esco to premiere, bypassing the entire record and radio industries in the process. It's probably the only farm-to-table hip-hop distro operation on earth.
The zone du jour. The trappest of all possible zones. If you're looking for Gucci Mane, this is the zone he'll be in. Provided he's not in jail (which, presently, he is). Zone 6 is where Young Scooter jugs out them Section 8 houses, where Future drinks like it's Cinco de Mayo, and where all the hoes stare at Rich Homie Quan when he walks through. It's essentially the capital of the "New Atlanta" that magazines like Complex keep going on about. I wanna say it's where Peewee Longway lives, but I have a hard time understanding him through that grill.The East Side is also a perfect microcosm of Atlanta's development chaos, with ritzy brunch lofts built directly overlooking some of the most dangerous projects in the city and multiple apartment complexes that claim the title "Little Mexico." (Shootings have thankfully come down enough to obviate the old sobriquet of "Little Vietnam.") It's an area in such churning flux the Zone 6 cops are still on the lookout for gangs that disbanded years ago and think new gangs whose members we met in person are just urban legends. Basically, it's the most confusing, f*cked-up, exciting trap in America. No wonder God lives here.Notable Zone 6ers: Gucci, Young Scooter, Future, OJ da Juiceman, Rich Homie Quan (ancestrally), Childish Gambino.Watch Noisey Atlanta on Noisey.VICE.com to learn more about Atlanta's Zones and the trap musicians who call them home.
As an expert in hip-hop culture and its regional influences, it's evident that the author of the provided article is well-versed in the intricacies of Atlanta's rap scene. The depth of knowledge demonstrated in the article showcases a keen understanding of the historical and geographical context that has shaped Atlanta's neighborhoods and their representation in rap music.
Let's break down the concepts used in the article:
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Rap Music and Urban Realities:
- The article establishes that rap music often reflects the harsh realities and occasional triumphs of everyday life in urban settings.
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Representation of Neighborhoods:
- Emphasizes that a significant portion of rap songs focus on specific neighborhoods, exploring themes related to the rapper's origin, current activities, or perceptions of certain areas.
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Atlanta's Geographical Complexity:
- Discusses the unique challenges faced by Atlanta rappers in representing their neighborhoods due to the city's complex history and decentralized structure.
- Mentions the impact of historical events, such as Sherman's burning of Atlanta, on the city's layout.
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Zoning in Atlanta:
- Highlights the six patrollable zones designated by the Atlanta police, providing a concrete way for rappers to identify with their neighborhoods.
- Describes the zones as a practical solution to the city's geographical challenges, while also contributing to the futuristic and dystopian imagery in hip-hop.
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Zone 1: Bankhead and the Bluff:
- Associates Zone 1 with significant figures and events in Atlanta's hip-hop history, including T.I.'s connection to Bankhead and the film "Snow on tha Bluff."
- Provides historical context, such as the impact of the Miami Boys gang and the 1996 Olympics on the area.
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Zone 2: North Atlanta (Buckhead and Lenox):
- Identifies Zone 2 as an affluent area known for its association with the Black Mafia Family (BMF) and the impact of BMF on the local music scene.
- Discusses the influence of BMF on local nightlife and its eventual downfall.
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Zone 3: Trap Houses and DIY Culture:
- Describes Zone 3 as a hub for trap houses and a center for DIY activities in the Atlanta trap scene.
- Illustrates the entrepreneurial spirit of Zone 3, where individuals engage in various creative endeavors, including music production.
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Zone 4: Southwest Atlanta (SWATS):
- Associates Zone 4 with influential artists like Goodie Mob and Outkast, representing the Dirty South movement.
- Acknowledges the fluidity of police zones and the impact on local communities.
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Zone 5: Downtown and Midtown Atlanta:
- Portrays Zone 5 as a studio haven, home to renowned producers like Mike Will Made-It and Metro Boomin.
- Highlights the emergence of new groups and the birth of a unique music genre.
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Zone 6: The Trap Capital:
- Designates Zone 6 as the epitome of the "New Atlanta," featuring prominent artists such as Gucci Mane and Young Scooter.
- Describes the East Side of Zone 6 as a microcosm of Atlanta's development chaos and contrasts between affluent and dangerous areas.
In conclusion, the article expertly navigates through the intricate tapestry of Atlanta's neighborhoods, illustrating how the city's geography, history, and zoning have profoundly influenced its rap culture. The writer's detailed insights into each zone provide a comprehensive view of Atlanta's diverse and ever-evolving hip-hop landscape.