Novelty rapper Trinidad Jame$ has New York City ready to shove pitchforks in his ribs over comments made concerning Atlanta’s hip-hop supremacy over the Big Apple.
It’s natural to laugh — “Trinidad Jerome” jokes aside, James has done little to assert himself as a serious creative force since the first buzz surrounding 2012’s “All Gold Everything.” That laughable, choke-during-the-piano-recital stammer of a freestyle on the Tim Westwood show alone should have thrown James’ prospects into the pigpens.
The whole “Atlanta runs New York City” angle gets complicated when you consider the likes of Das Racist, A$AP Rocky, Kilo Kish, Joey Bada$$ and their ilk putting the Big Apple back in the spotlight in recent years, ostensibly without Atlanta’s presence.
Trinidad James isn’t wrong, though.
Atlanta hip-hop doesn’t just run New York City, it runs the world.
“No,” you say? Can’t believe it?
Turn back the clock to 2009 —Waka Flocka Flame’s “O Let’s Do It” gleefully tearing buppies a new one with its mindless energy and slack-jawed nonsense. Gucci Mane declares Jay Z is not the king of rap, and XXL magazine responds by giving him the cover — while he’s in prison. Millions-upon-millions of online “rap purists” complain the Atlanta sound is taking over radio in the likes of Chicago, Detroit, and yes, New York City.
Nothing has changed aside from Atlanta’s dominance growing more apparent. People trashing “Versace” by Migos in one breath are often the ones praising Killer Mike’s “R.A.P. Music” in the other. Whether you like Future or not, his pop approach to hip-hop has turned him into one of the most sought-after talents of our time.
Cee-Lo Green is charming America on “The Voice” now, but as a member of Atlanta’s Goodie Mob he helped popularize the term “Dirty South.” Fashion isn’t immune either — check out the latest CoverGirl Janelle Monae, a longtime Atlanta transplant. Funny enough, the people mentioned in these last two paragraphs, Migos aside, all belong to the Dungeon Family, an Atlanta music collective.
How can a person dismiss Atlanta when the likes of Grantland and BBC wrote how the year’s best reviewed hip-hop album — Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid in a m.A.A.d. city” — reminded them of Outkast’s “Aquemini”? This is not a coincidence, but a sign of the zeitgeist.
It’s hard to argue otherwise when rappers admit this outright. What’s the Drake lyric? “Born in Toronto, but somehow I feel like Atlanta adopted us?” Drake, Pusha T. and countless others have acknowledged Atlanta’s supremacy in rap today.
The people crying foul are either self-styled “purists” who don’t want to look like “dreaded n-words,” as Byron Crawford would say, or sad-sack never-beens from New York City.
It’s odd considering Atlanta’s reputation for black wealth, political and cultural power; many call the city the “Black Mecca.” If hip-hop truly is, as many argue, a black art form, why wouldn’t the music find it’s home in Atlanta?
Wossen is a senior majoring in journalism.
