"low-quality southern rap"
At least one of these terms is redundant
Stop it with the self-loathing, Dave-O. At least on this topic.
I'm not a huge rap fan in general, so I was allowing for the possibility of there being some good southern rap, or at least some with a bit of production value. ICP's music sounds like it was done on a casio. I mainly just wanted to get across that I feel for the young fans of this group, emphasis on the word young.
I grew up a rap fan, I speak it as my native tongue. Let me tell you southern rap is the worst fucking shit ever. It has been the dominant stylistic mover in rap for the past 10 years. If you didn't like rap before, this is that but with 100 times more suck added to it all with a lilting provincial accent.
I agree T.E. There was a time in the late 90's early 00's when I was worried that it would be overtaken by the midwest movement of Nelly and company, but it turns out my fears were much, much much worse. With respect to Outkast, Devin the Dude, Scarface and maybe one or two others who have been doing it for years, I can not listen to anything else south of Washington D.C. Unfortunately though where Hip Hop is right now, New York and the West Coast have mostly been slacking as well.
Oh and I forgot to add, in an associated story here is a recent article on the fall of southern rapper Mike Jones (the guy who used to give his cell phone number as a gimmick):
http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-07-23/music/mike-jones-who/
Not to drag this out any further, but let me do my best to, as they say, represent. I live in Dallas. And yes, the Neanderthal "club anthem" snap-and-screw garbage does get a lot of press, unfortunately.
But we do have a good group of hip hop crews, thoughtful MCs, and neo-soulsters (see: Verbal Seed, AwkQuarius, Playdough, Thesis, Bavu Blakes, Strange Fruit Project, N'dambi, and don't forget Erykah Badu).
There's a local supergroup of sorts called the Cannabinoids who are about to play some slots on Mos Def's current tour. They're a great live act, but they currently have an inaccurate internet presence. In other words, the 7+ minutes intro/skit thing on their MySpace paqe should be ignored if you're trying to get an idea of their actual sound.
Anyway, the South has much to offer true hip hop, IMHO. But for whatever reason it's the Play-n-Skillz who win the Grammies, and the "Stanky Legg" and "Ricky Bobby" dance tracks that get the radioplay, and thus the write-ups. I could go all Chuck D on "Who controls the radio and the record labels?" But I think I've taken up enough space on this one.