MeetThaDealer.com Interview With Yelawolf

Sound isn't great on this one but it's a good interview.

Yelawolf feat. Trae Tha Truth - "Shit I've Seen"

Ludacris Ft. Yelawolf & Rock City - How Low (Remix)

YelaWolf talks Top 5 favorite albums with Hard Knock TV

Bizarre featuring Yelawolf - Down This Road

Cashis - Focus On Stuntin'

If you're a regular BOI reader, you know that I'm very friendly to Shady Records and everything Eminem and Dr. Dre are doing with hip-hop. If it weren't for some of the great stuff they're putting out, I may not have had the inspiration to create this site.

Cashis has been hustling on Shady for a while, even when other acts like Obie Trice were leaving and Eminem was semi-retired. He's got some new work out and I hope he benefits from the current Yelawolf/Slaughterhouse buzz.

Yelawolf Amherst Cypher

Bun B: The Texas Beast

I had a neighbor, Curtis, who was from Texas originally. Our conversations about music were interesting. At the time, I was a typical geeky white hip-hop guy who listened to Kool Keith, Del tha Funky Homo-Sapien and Eminem. He told me he loved the Houston hip-hop scene and I knew nothing about it. I had always loathed early Lil Wayne and Cash Money Records and generally didn't think of southern rap very well.

Man, has that changed. I now understand why southern rap is so popular. My southern exposure is limited - I've been to Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. For some reason, with the exception of guys like T.I., southern rap is just a whole lot tamer than rap from the west coast or northeast. Sure, there is the typical tough guy talk and misogyny, but for some reason it seems less enraged. I've yet to find a southern 50 Cent or Eminem, and this may just be because the south - with all its problems - doesn't breed the sort of conditions that New York or Detroit does.

The two rappers I've been drawn to the most have been Bun B and Yelawolf. Bun B is as lyrically fit as they come and has dropped some brilliant lines, like this one from "Choose Your Side:"

I’m slightly off-kilter, somewhat tuned out
And loony-toony, I’m looped up and looned out
So not being of a sound state of mind
I’m an example of western civilization’s decline

Yelawolf has been mentioned plenty here before and the Alabama enigma has collaborated with the Houston rhymesayer Bun B on both tracks and in the music video for "Good to Go:"

Yelawolf's Been Everywhere, Man

As part of the XXL Freshman promotion whathaveyou, XXL teamed with DJ Whoo Kid and Blood Is One favorite Yelawolf to release this incredible song called "Alabama Gotdamn."

Download it here, now.

Yelawolf may be the darn near closest that the music industry has right now to raw Americana. Kid Rock has flirted with it but, as talented as he is, I could never see Kid Rock rapping over a Nina Simone sample.

The song, detailing his travels through the 50 states, strongly resembles a favorite by country legend Johnny Cash called "I've Been Everywhere:"



For anyone who hasn't heard it before, here also is the song "Mississippi Goddamn" by the legendary Nina Simone:

Hip-Hop As Social Commentary

Have you been visiting the Blood Is One Twitter page? No? Well, you should!

Will Pierce is the cofounder of Blood Is One. He isn't as prolific of a writer as I am but actually says some really brilliant stuff almost regularly. On the Twitter page he wrote:

The question of how much rappers should provide an example is the only mainstream debate about ethics in art the last 30 years.

Hiphop provides the only satisfactory compromise between naturalism and romanticism in contemporary art.

No other artform but hiphop has successfully decried the situation of a cultural underclass while trumpeting success beyond it.

That's in abstract- substance, means is another matter. It at least engages the listener to the thump and challenges them with a message.

Modern art does not invite question, fears it; hiphop is cultural dialogue. It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder.

Where would country music be if it had a sinuous system of self-criticism of hiphop? The social dialogue collapsed, biting became the form.

Hip-hop has been good and bad. All music genres have big problems and the biggest one that I have noticed for rap is that, in escaping the hood, rappers and DJs often bring the hood with them. For a long time, hip-hop was dominated by entourages of rapper's friends from back in the day who they've brought along in order to spread the wealth. Think Outsidaz, Ruff Ryderz, D12 and G-Unit. That doesn't happen that much anymore. Now record labels are filled with business ventures.

Despite becoming more and more business inclined, however, hip-hop manages to "keep it real" in a way that the lubricated genre of country, which Will mentions, rarely does. Rappers frequently start and own their own labels. Raekwon has been releasing his last few albums independently, directly to his consumers, while Eminem has owned his own Sirius satellite radio station and 50 Cent has used his fame to launch an acting career. This doesn't happen so much with rock musicians, who often are total messes and sneer at the business ropes that get tied around them when they ignore them. When trying to grab for money, rock musicians like the guys at Metallica often do so in reaction, using the courts to give them all sorts of copyright money while guys in hip-hop use piracy and bootleg music to their own benefit. Country music, meanwhile, with a few exceptions, has totally sold itself to corporate radio, with the only hope of breaking the hold being the rise of alt country guys like Jamey Johnson through iTunes and the internet.

As Will Pierce said, "Modern art does not invite question, fears it; hiphop is cultural dialogue. It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder." Hip-hop puts right up front alot of stuff that we prefer not to recognize. While educators talk theories about socially constructed gender roles, hip-hop shows us what happens in real life to young men when dad leaves home and mom drops her kids off with grandma so she can work all day. It shows us - through the tales of former drug dealers 50 Cent and Jay-Z or Yelawolf, who hails from methodone lab hotspot Alabama - what the drug war has done to African American, poor white and Hispanic communities.

In one song called "I'm Paranoid," 50 Cent declares, "We thought the dope and the coke would help us escape poverty. When that didn't work, we resorted to armed robbery." In a duet with Wu-Tang veteran Raekwon, Yelawolf called "I Wish," rhymed of life in the south, "Confederate flags I see 'em, On pick up trucks with the windows down, Why's he playing Beanie Sigel? Because his daddy was a dope man. Lynyrd Skynyrd never sang about slinging keys of coke, man." Even when it thinks it's apolitical or even ignorant, hip-hop packs more social commentary than your average indie rock or country band will in their entire career.

In fact, when you think about it in retrospect, the fact that academia wasn't pouring over rap lyrics and relating them to modern society shows academia might not be that clued into American societal dynamics.

Mac Miller: Frat Boy Rap

There's a whole new crop of rappers, singers and hip-hop acts out there. Alot of them are really damn talented and the presence of them is a blessing. Nevertheless, some appear more genuine than others. Take this video of the 2011 XXL Freshmen Roundtable:

At the end, you can see that Yelawolf is visibly annoyed by being present with a bunch of teenagers. Given his history, it is very understandable. While he has toiled for years, Mac Miller has tumbled out of high school into the rap game while Diggy Simmons, son of Rev. Run of Run DMC, has arrived where he is because of nepotism.

However, a guy like Mac Miller really makes me puzzled. Rappers like Brother Ali of Minneapolis or Sonny Bonoho of Seattle/Tacoma have been grinding for years, and this cat from Pittsburgh puts out a few mixtapes, films some videos and ends up on the cover of XXL and put on a level with a guy like Yelawolf. As Royce da 5'9 said in "Lyrical Murderers," "Imagine a grizzly standing next to a teddy bear."

While Miller has had a premature, lubricated ride to fame, Yelawolf has been grinding for years. He has been homeless and lived on food stamps. He has been assaulted and grown up in the methodone laboratory woods of Alabama. His previous effort at the big time, with the single "Kickin'," didn't go anywhere in 2007. Where was Mac Miller in 2007? A freshman in high school?

I've done some follow ups on Miller and looked up the songs he has available on YouTube. The topics are fairly trite, with beats that are reminiscent of Heiroglyphics and other pot-driven indie rap. With track titles like "Nikes On My Feet," "Senior Skip Day" and "Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza," the guy is not a lyrical genius but apparently knows quite a bit about smoking pot and getting the munchies. Life is tough on the mean streets of Pittsburgh, I guess.

Now, if Mac Miller is reading this, I just have a few recommendations. Take the chance at one of your next mixtapes or even your up and coming records to make a big tribute to those that paved the way. Since you seem to be into party rap, pay tribute to the people who paved the way: Beastie Boys, Digital Underground, De La Soul. Recognize that you have unbelievably blessed and that alot of people have put work in and never gotten as far as you have so quickly. I was 19 once and remember how difficult it is for guys of that age to really see beyond their own experience. Mac Miller would be advised to understand the hardship and pain that alot of us have gone through to get where we're at.

You don't need to have been shot at or lost friends to gang wars or car accidents to be a rapper, but you do need a holistic experience to be more than a passing fad that people enjoyed while puffing herb. If you want cultural resonance, you'll have to have something about you that resonates. Being a full of himself teenaged frat boy rapping about skipping school to buy cookies won't do it.

BOI Mix Volume 1: A Clear Night

Uploaded today is the first installment of what I hope to be a recurring line of Blood is One mixes. Going with the theme of this blog - "multiple skin tones, the blood is one" - I've made sure to encompass many different arenas of production, from electro to down south rap to old school soul samples. Here is the track list:

Miami Horror - Infinite Canyons
Emeralds - Candy Shoppe
Orbital - Belfast
Yelawolf and Gucci Mane - I Just Wanna Party
Slaughterhouse - Fight Club
Pacific - Narcissus (Alan Braxe Remix)
Flouie Fluent - N.W.N.Y.H.M.
Fat Tony - N!gga You Ain't Fat

Download here.

Yelawolf Says "Counting White Rappers Is Like Counting Your Black Friends"

Yelawolf talks getting booed off stage and standing out as a white rapper.

Yelawolf XXL Freestyle

Via Ill Roots:

Country Music + Rap = Secret Soulmates Part One

To anyone who is a connoisseur of both rap and country music, the similarities of rap and country should be no surprise. Both unapologetically portray worlds that hum below the mainstream of American society (but nevertheless make the force felt): one being the largely African American and Hispanic lower to middle class and the other America's rural and largely blue collar whites. Both are flat out honest in their music, one will show you the rough, money, sex and power pursuing world of the inner city and the other will show you the same in the country.

Both communities are conservative, God fearing and honest. Due to racial, cultural and geographical differences, the two communities don't cross over much. I mentioned this to a girl I dated years back (who was black, incidentally) and she said that, as much as they hate each other, they cross over in sporting events like Oakland Raiders games or professional wrestling events.

I'm not the first to recognize this similarity. Just about every white rapper has tapped in to the cultural similarities. Kid Rock merged rap with blue collar flag waving in order to deem himself an "American Bad Ass." Everlast took up the blues and helped make Fenders and Casios friends. Brother Ali echoes Everlast's gospel style in his songs, complete with guitar use. Eminem, in his more sentimental moods, frequently samples Ozzy Osbourne, Queen and Aerosmith, stalwarts of any suburban rock station. Meanwhile, Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch have brought gospel and blues beautifully into their work and Kid Cudi has sang acoustic ballads.

Yelawolf, an up and coming Alabama rapper of mixed white and Cherokee ancestry, showed working class unity in his video "Kickin." The song is not his best work (though it is good) but shows a great panorama of skateboarders, rednecks, police, Atlanta rappers and even a guy in a sombrero with none of it being awkward:

Now that's really multiculturalism.

Let's do a little compare and contrast. Here's Lightning Hopkins sing about that tried and true scenario: you make a good home for a woman, then they up and leave.

Now let's turn around and look at Mos Def, singing about a pretty ghetto gangsta woman:

Next comes Yelawolf, once again, with his song "Break the Chain," which samples Fleetwood Mac. The chorus, "Alabama dirt road, Dixie flags fly," is sung flawlessly over synthesizers, drums and chopped up Fleetwood Mac samples in one of the best steps at connecting the worlds of country and classic rock to the, at first glance, far different world of rap.



The similarities between the two genres, from gun loving to blues over women and a general embrace of masculinity, are so strong that this "Secret Soulmates" column will have to be a regular feature of the blog. I can already think of more than a few songs and artists that would work well in the next rendezvous.

Yelawolf - Good To Go

The first video release by "Eminem's replacement" since his signing to Shady Records:

Yelawolf - The Next Great White Hope

Yelawolf just got signed along with the supergroup Slaughterhouse to Shady Records, the label that Eminem started and that launched the career of 50 Cent. The guy is really interesting - half Cherokee and a small town boy from Alabama who once lived in the Bay Area. Slaughterhouse is probably going to be pleasing to hip hop aficionados like yours truly but Yelawolf may actually bring in cross over appeal and wreak in alot of love from white people too scared to touch hip-hop that doesn't look like them.

Besides all that, Yelawolf is mad talented and has paid his dues with mixtapes like Trunk Musik, which is available to download free. His lyrical ability is proved by his ability to spit over the best tracks in hip hop canon, like in this Outkast/Mobb Depp compilation:

Yelawolf OutKast and Mobb Deep Freestyle from I'm Really Popular! on Vimeo.