Why I love Where I'm From

Just like I have stated in my profie, I love music. I have lived all over the place and have gained respect of all types of music, (even country if you can believe it) specifically music that is native to a certain place, like, DC's gogo or the smooth steppin' music of Chicago (mid-west), Louisiana's zydeco. Even music within the same genre have different sounds, depending on the place: Louisiana, Florida, Texas, similar sounds, definite difference.

I recently went to go see the movie Hustle and Flow with my sisters. It was wonderful. Being from Nashville, I feel that they captured Tennessee, specifically the joys of southern music. I am not knocking anyone or where they are from, but there is such a pulse in Southern rap. No other place can reproduce that. It can get you so hype that you can't help but get crunk! I am a 100% Southern Gal who respects the vibrating bass and vulgar descriptive music; it's poetry to me. "I got a young brown stallion/and she 20 years old/ when I hit it from the back/ I see that hairy a$$hole"...Classic poetry. I have stated my case many times, defending my Southern rap, but as the white boy stated in the movie, it all comes from the Blues. The stuff our parents and grandparents listened to was risque; it was beautiful then, and it's beautiful now. It just has a different beat. Only a Southern rapper can fully express how he is moved by the way a woman specifically looks, dances, walks, and all the rest. I love it! Juvenile politely asking me to "Slow Motion Wit it", Tela asking if I will give him a table dance, Lil' Webbie saying that I look so good that he might have to "strong arm" me, "Girls in the Club (Hos Wit No Clothes) Showing Love" need I say more? To me, they are finding such interesting ways to let me (or any other female) know that he finds us attractive. In an odd way it is a bit flattering and definitely entertaining.

But there is a line to be drawn. If he is calling a girl all out of her name and telling her to get on her knees or some mess like that...well, I can't quite relate to all that. I must agree with my man Chris Rock though. He says that girls will sing along with what might be considered an offensive song but they have no problem with it because the rapper isn't using their name; "he ain't talkin' bout you, he talkin' bout them hos! It's true, I see it the same way. I go out with a friend of mine all the time and she is not a big fan of southern rap, actually she's not a fan of rap at all, but as I explained to her the eloquent manner in which they are actually praising the woman's beauty, she began to respect it, at least a little bit more. Above is a picture of me and Nashville's own Young Buck. I'm a big fan of his and was able to kick it with him for a second (nice guy, perfect skin). Thinking back on when I was little and too young to go into the club (Club Yesterdays...and a million other names, you know how clubs change names every other week), we used to drive around in the parking lot, hot as hell (parking lot pimping before it had a name) and he would be inside performing...the things you remember.

It is essential to portray the importance of the parking lot in southern amusement. Here in Nashville, a parking lot on a summer night, beit WalMart, the skating rink, Wendy's, or the club, is essential. The movie had a great scene with people doing just that. Putting on your best outfit driving around looking in other people's cars, making their cars jump and vibrate with bass and hydraulics, and ducking or running when you hear the occasional gunshots, depending on how many and how close they were... mmm, the good old days.

Something that annoyed me...I was watching MTV and they were I guess going behind the scenes and talking to Memphis folk to have them describe how they get down in the club and defining "crunk" because of Hustle and Flow coming out. Sway...Lord save us, I have never seen a black man so uncomfortable in my life! They would have had better insight with Kurt Loder than this dude! Ya boy, Sway, had no idea what he was doing or talking about! Unfortunately people think the south is full of rednecks, jheri curls, and gold teeth, though there is a truth to every stereotype, only an idiot would think this is how everyone got down. I'm glad that the south is finally being taken seriously because there is so much incredible talent to be discovered and music to be shared. Yes, even booty shakin music...