WEBVTT - Survival of the Crunkest 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 Hey, y'all, Eve's here. I know you're ready to get 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.640 into this episode, but really quick. We have been loving 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:09.080 connecting with y'all over black storytelling, and if you've really 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.559 been loving the show, then we would really appreciate it 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.200 if you would leave us a rating and review, subscribe 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.840 to the show, and share it with your friends. Thanks y'all. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:22.079 Now time for the episode. On Theme is a production 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:45.840 of iHeartRadio and fair Weather Friends Media. 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.600 Eves, tell me you're from the South without telling me 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.560 you're from the South, I spit. 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.760 My adolescence dancing to crunk music and snap music. 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.760 True, that works, But to be fair, those Johns were 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.120 popping everywhere in the US in the early adds. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.000 You're right, But because they were born in the South 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.920 and they were under the banner of Southern hip hop, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.679 it felt like it was a quintessential part of the 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.600 black Southern experience at the time. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:11.280 Cuche And you. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.520 Know what, Katie, I missed that music. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.720 And I don't just mean in a nostalgic I have 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.840 fond memories attached to it kind of way. I mean 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.720 I miss the energy, I miss the playful, miss the 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.400 organized chaos and the joy of it all. Maybe it's 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.680 just easy to want things to be like they used 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.840 to be. But for the brief and delightful time that 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.600 Crunk and Snap were in the limelight, hip hop felt 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.560 so bright, and now I can't help but feel like 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.080 a lot of that light has faded. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.240 Today's episode Survival of the crunkas. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.559 All right, we're gonna do a little exercise. Okay, close 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:54.800 your eyes. Now, imagine yourself as a teenager, say thirteen. Yeah, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.120 you're in a friend's living room on a summer weekend. Okay, yeah, 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.360 her mother has graciously let four other girls stay over 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.240 for a sleepover, and y'all have already eaten dinner, plus 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.600 the obligatory post dinner snack of hot Cheetos and Sprite Remix. 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.680 You've already changed into your pajamas, you've made prank calls 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.959 from the house phone, and you've watched reruns on UPN 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.639 and you're a little spent because you've just finished playing 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.200 about six rounds of Hood Rules UNO. But the night 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.240 is still young, and y'all decide that it's time to crank. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:28.720 Some music up. 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.760 It's the mid two thousands and y'all want to dance, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.120 so of course it's going to be some snap music. 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.200 Y'all take a vote and your choice wins. 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:38.520 But what is it? 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.920 What song are you playing from the six disc? Seedy Changer, so. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.440 Jo boy O, Fitness ho, watch me a row? Why 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:46.760 speak creat Day? 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:52.840 That's a good choice. Good choice. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.040 So snap music was actually a child of crunk, which 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.000 grew out of the party life. It's origins lie in 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.400 nightclubs and Miami bass music, and it's made to get 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:02.880 you hype. 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.840 In other words, the perfect fight in music. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.160 I mean, yeah, if you want to put it like that, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.919 and the lyrics definitely encourage wreaking havoc from time to time. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.760 See three six Mafias Tear the Club Up, an early 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.600 entry in the genre, Our. 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.359 Little Scrappy is No Problem, in which he says you 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.280 can get crunk in the club, roll with your hood, 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:24.680 get stomped in the club. 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.079 Yeah. A lot of that enthusiastic energy and adrenaline did 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.040 work itself out in the music in some aggressive lyrics, 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.800 but hey, they were still party songs, exciting beats and 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.640 call and response, a lot of vibes that would have 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.720 you bouncing your shoulders and sweating with their dancing partner. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.800 Despite the violence that the songs were nodding too, and. 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.680 Some fites did pop off around these songs. But crunk 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.240 music was also a mainstay in more wholesome settings like 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:53.880 gray school dances and talent shows. 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.360 I mean, some of these songs were literally telling you 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.040 to dance and how to do it. Get Low a 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.720 song that at our tender age we absolutely should not 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.240 have been listening to. But Little John and the East 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.200 Side Boys and the Yin Yank Twins were telling us 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.080 to drop that, shake it fast, pop it to the 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.720 left and the right, back it up and then wiggle 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.760 with it. Simple, clear instructions, so easy your grandma could 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:19.960 do it. 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:26.200 Okay, And now that I think about it, it's giving WOBBLESI. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.160 Hey, good enough for the radio, good enough for the 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:30.839 line dance at the family cookout. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.799 That's a stretch. That's a stretch, but the points dance. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.160 The fact is krunk had gotten really popular by the 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:42.520 early to mid two thousands. That simplicity, those repetitive lyrics, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.560 the energetic vocals that called to release energy through the 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.720 body through movement and action in one way or the other, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.840 was hitting a nerve with the people. Krunk had a 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.279 plethora of hits with songs like bone Crushers, Never Scared 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.839 Crime Mobs, Knuck if You Buck, and get some crunking 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.039 System by Trilville and Pastor Troy, and it was getting 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.400 cross genre play with artists like Usher and Sierra. 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.080 And Little John was truly the king of krunk. He 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.160 produced so many of these songs. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.120 Absolutely, and the word krunk was in all but one 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.400 of his album titles. He fully embraced the impact of 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.200 his crunk legacy. And if it weren't for Little John 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.360 and the other artists who made krunk a mainstream success, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.560 Snap music wouldn't have been able to ride in on 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.599 its coattails, even though the Yin Yang Twins were super 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.960 associated with crunk music. In a twenty twenty one interview 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.120 with Sean Press, Cain said that they made strip club music, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.640 not crunk music. This was d Rock's response to Sean 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.039 Press saying the world thought of their music as crunk. 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:45.000 It's all adrenaline. 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.000 So it was a very specific moment in time when 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:53.880 that music came out. 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.040 I have a lot of fun memories of it because 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.040 it was such a hype period of time. It was 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.240 a period of time wherever it was clearly having a 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.120 lot of fun. Yeah, there was a lot of adrenaline. 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.680 I think adrenaline is a really good way to put 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.200 it in That's something that I immediately think of because 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.360 it's about being in the club, it's about dancing together, 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.520 it's about getting buck Like there's just so much energy 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.960 in life, in the lyrics, in the production of the songs, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:22.840 and in what they were calling you to do in 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.400 the songs. And I don't know if I have an 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.040 answer to it or if I can put my finger 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.000 on it, but like, what is it that we needed 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:32.360 that for in that moment? 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.839 Why was that music so popular? Do you have any 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:35.880 ideas well? 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.000 I think the adrenaline comes from the fact that it 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.680 was like about togetherness in a way, like the songs 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.400 when they come on, you know, people rush into the 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.280 dance floor, Like if you drinking your sprite and you 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.920 hear that beat drive you write it like everybody does it, 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:51.840 so it's like a group thing, you know, and like 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.640 you're bouncing off the energy of somebody else. So you know, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:56.320 if you knuck it in bucket or ready to fight 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.560 so am right, you know what I'm saying, Or you know, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.279 if you ain't never scared, I ain't never scared either. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.960 So it's like that energy that you're feeding off of 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.719 with the people that you're with, even if you don't 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.000 know them. They could be strangers like I ain't never scared. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.760 I ain't never scared. And also like there are groups 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.160 of people singing these songs right like Lil John and 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.840 the East Side Boys, Yingang Twins. You look at the 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.160 music videos like they're all you know, at the skating 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.360 rink or at the club or just in a parking lot, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.600 just all together, and it's kind of like maybe there's 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.640 one main person, but they with they crew, they would 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.680 they click or whatever. It wasn't like, oh I'm the star, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.400 like get away from me. Like they was in the trenches. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.920 They was on Cascade Row, you know what I'm saying. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.360 And especially like because Atlanta I think was like leading 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:44.920 it Atlanta supremacy. You're just down to earth making music 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.000 for the streets. It's fun. We're gonna get these dances off, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.480 we're gonna talk a little bit of shit, and we're 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:52.880 gonna have a good little time. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:55.760 It's like we all having a block party together. Basically. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.840 Yeah, and there is also a chaotic energy in that 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.840 period in Atlanta, but in the United States at the time. 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:04.520 I mean just thinking about the style of dress. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:11.600 Extra tall tees, extra long shorts, shades for no reason, bangled. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.960 Down to earth. You could get that stuff. You get 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.800 a ten back of these shirts for the cheek, for 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.400 the low and you're looking fresh and people are like 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:21.080 that shit, you. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.160 Know, and those mesh slippers. Do you remember those mesh 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:32.400 slippers that everybody used to get. They had a moment 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:35.680 and I don't blame you. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.760 Me and my household, I did not see slippers, but 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.280 they approved my point that it was a chaotic time 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.280 in a lot of ways. And I think that you know, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.880 this was post millennium chaos. So I think we were 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.200 kind of moving into these years. We were still having 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.400 a lot of fun. We were still like figuring out 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.120 Internet things. There were just energy coming at us from 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.400 all these different directions. 0:08:58.520 --> 0:08:58.720 Yeah. 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.280 I think very like experimental too. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.120 Yeah, it's very experimental and very loose, Like that's one 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:05.719 thing that I get from this period of time, like 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.280 we didn't take ourselves too seriously. 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:09.440 Yeah, And I think because you know, like the ninety 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.560 nine two thousand, it's like, oh, it's gonna be two thousand, 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.440 We're going to be like in the future people were 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.800 like on their little like Millennium wave like trying to 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.319 be like futuristic in dress. But like by that time, 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:19.800 I think people were like, Okay, well it's just the 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.720 same old, same all, Like let me throw on these 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.120 tall te's, let me put it on this hat at 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.160 like an impossible angle and like hit the street. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.000 And it got something air brushed on it. 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.960 Oh yeah, absolutely, some ristones are somewhere, whatever the case 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.520 may be. So yeah, I think like we didn't take 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.439 ourselves too seriously, and it showed in the music. It 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.600 showed in like you know, getting beats off of YouTube 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.960 was YouTube grow wherever folks was getting beats. 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:47.840 Yeah, it was it was just going to come up 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:49.040 when it comes to music and. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:50.520 Then just putting it out because like a lot of 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:52.800 times people would just put it out and it would 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.160 go viral for the time and then that's how people 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:56.840 heard it, and then that's how it got on the radio. 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.600 The music industry really like pushing this in the beginning. 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.120 It was the people pushing it. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:01.640 Yeah. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.719 It was a grassroots, like really collective effort to like 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:06.600 make this music spread and it did. 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:07.120 Yeh. 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:08.240 A testament to. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.360 As much as as many issues as we might have 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.960 with the music. Now you know, it was hot Hot, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:29.679 it was snap music. It was different. Yes, it was 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.880 a successor to krunk. Still fun, still made to get 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.840 you hype, still holy southern, Still more about the style 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.200 than the substance. But it was a little more lighthearted 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:41.680 than crunk, A little sillier. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.160 I mean the genre is home to Laffy Taffy, a 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.720 Snap classic. Not the most serious of songs. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.800 Okay, a lot sillier. The artists moved on from tearing 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.200 up clubs to tearing up the dance floor. Some songs 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.079 had actual snaps in the beats. Do It Do It 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.520 Pull Palace by Bhi with k raph and Little John Bunny, 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.319 Hot by get Rich Click. We were squarely in the 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.880 mid two thousands, paying per text message and downloading frame towns. 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.280 It was a struggle, wasn't it putting? 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.559 I think they like me and walk it out on 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:18.280 our iPods, uploading low resolution videos of synchronized dances with 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:19.880 our friends to YouTube. 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.240 Don't talk down on it like that, like you weren't 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.000 bumping those two two. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.160 Oh girl, me and everybody else. 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:31.000 Snap music successes were coming out of Atlanta, Left and right. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.480 Many Snap songs were topping the Billboard charts. Groups like 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.880 Dem Franchise Boys and Defoel were becoming Snap superstars, and 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.800 some Southern hip hop ogs like the Yin Yang Twins 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:43.880 and Little John were still in the game. 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.079 Can't forget tea Pains, Buy You a Drink? All the 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.280 kids and grown ups fell in love with that song. 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.960 It was the perfect mix of R and B and snap, 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.400 and he actually talked about snapping in it from the 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.040 very beginning of the song, even in the second part 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:58.599 of the title, Shoddy Snap. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.360 Katie, what do you think was up with those snaps? 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:01.559 Like? 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:03.120 Why did we like them so much? 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.480 Then? You know, I think it just it was like 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:11.360 the hoods. I am big pentameter, if you will, all right, 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.719 get us together, keeping each other on beat. Okay, we 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.160 were moving in unison. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:25.320 It's basically the two thousand version of a scat Okay okay. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.280 Yes, we were taking that collective memory h from our 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:30.320 ancestors and. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.720 Transforming it, transforming it, bringing it into the future. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.559 Mutating it was evolving. It was the natural course of history. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.160 Probably also has something to do with all the sense 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.960 that was involved in the music, because I'm sure there 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.439 were some technical aspects to it as well, but I 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.040 appreciated those snaps. And Soldier Boy, as we all know, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.000 was a phenomenon and had a lot of snaps in 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.800 his songs too. There's no doubt that Soljia had a 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.760 huge influence on the trajectory of hip hop because of 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.839 how he incorporated the Internet in his music. By his 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.839 own words in his own tweets, he has said that 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.400 he was quote ahead of his time. I don't disagree 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.920 with the sentiment, but I would amend that to say 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.920 that he was right on time. The music industry was 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.199 shifting strategies because it realized that music would soon rely 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.400 heavily on digital platforms. People were file sharing and using 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.920 social media more, and Soldier Boy capitalized on that to 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.800 get more downloads and more notoriety. He would change the 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.600 name of Crank That to the names of other popular 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.520 songs and peer to peer platforms, and he leaked his 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.880 songs on MySpace. Here he is in a Billboard interview 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.920 with Hillary Crosley that he did when he was seventeen 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.360 years old, talking about his first album. 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.679 Well made you guys, make your album title a website. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:48.959 Before on my record deal, I got my success through 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.719 the internet, like I had too many hits on the 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.000 site before My record. Deal is if I name my 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.719 alms what tim dot com, it's gonna be like the website. 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.240 So the website gonna be like the CD, like that, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:13:58.960 back and forth. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.280 At the time we were recording this the Crank. That 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.280 music video has five hundred and sixty eight million views 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.480 on YouTube. It was his first single and it set 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.360 the stage for a Snap music dance epidemic. There were 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.479 dances that went along with songs before think of the Chickenhead, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.240 but regular folks started uploading their own videos of soldiers 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:20.480 dances to YouTube. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:22.560 YouTube was becoming. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.400 A place where lay people could get a lot of 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.120 attention and artists could promote their brands with a bunch 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.880 of success. The TikTok dance crazes, the rappers who made 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.480 their lanes on SoundCloud, the strategic use of social media 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.040 to amplify your work and bring fans into the fold. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.600 That all has some precedent in Soldier Boys work in 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.080 the mid two thousands. All Snap music was the soundtrack 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.080 for all of this, So even the folks who don't 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.120 care for it can't deny its deep imprint on the 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.920 music industry. A lot of folks were hating on Snap music, though, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:59.240 including Soldiers Music, saying they were killing hip hop. I 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.520 mean it's it's like when any new music that the 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.920 kids are into comes around, and Snap music it came 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.160 with the whole host of new fingle technology that the 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.200 old heads and the hip hop purists weren't used to 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.720 being associated with real hip hop. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.480 Yeah. I remember some folks like calling a ringtone rab 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:18.760 really trying to play it mm. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.640 Hmm, And just hearing that phrase makes me feel old, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:27.440 like it's something like still saying tape instead of records, listening. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.960 To that terrible rap again, get off my patch? 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:34.520 And then and now. 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.640 The Snap era isn't regarded super highly in the hip 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.120 hop canon. It was a star that burned brightly but 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.440 died pretty quickly. People recognize its meteoric rise, how much 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.160 of a fun and unique time it was, how the 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.920 artists who did snap music did it well. I would 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.600 say it's artistry hasn't gotten much acclaim though, but it 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.920 has been noted as a game changing phase between krunk 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.760 and traps rise to the mainstream and all the darker 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:09.200 Southern hip hop that was to come next. In a 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.160 wild interview that the King Yang Twins did on Hot 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.200 one O seven point one in Memphis in the two thousands, 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.680 Cain said that he didn't really like the party music 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.600 that they made. I ain't really fallen on a club 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.640 of music we make, but I ain't one of it. 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.920 It ain't it ain't really talking about n okay. And 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.600 that's the flip side of this coin. It was a 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.880 fun moment in hip hop, but crunk and snap music 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:36.440 were good time friends. 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.240 Snap music had such an impact. People were playing it 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.920 all the time, Like you said, people were uploading their 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.120 renditions of the dances and the songs to YouTube just 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:52.680 because just for funzies, and like I imagine seeing your 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.280 art everywhere. But like, knowing these nogoods was in three 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.680 sixty deals, like I would be like, I don't, I 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.040 don't like it, you know what I'm saying. Like if 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.639 you made some art and you didn't get paid the 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.440 amount you should have been like the hood loves you, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.200 but the hood love ain't gonna pay those bills. And 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.240 so I could see them not like feeling a way 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:14.639 about it. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.800 In that regard, you're talking about the artists who had 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.320 Snap songs, who didn't necessarily make it big or make 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:21.200 a lot of money from them. 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.320 Yeah, like the Yiang twins, I can see them signing 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.320 a bad deal and not getting their worth monetarily, and 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.000 so I can see them like being like, oh, I 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.800 don't like that. If you own your masters, if you 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:36.919 were getting one hundred percent of them checks, I'm sure 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:38.639 you would love that music. You'd be like playing some 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:40.480 more and play some more. But I can see not 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:42.760 liking it or like kind of be wanting to separate 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.720 yourself from that like silly, youthful time. When you're older 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:47.720 money ain't getting no money off of it until you 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.639 have grown as a person and an artist, right, I 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.200 would think that it was more like an economic. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:55.480 Based on the way that they said it in that interview. 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.359 It was in real time, so they were saying this 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:00.160 at the same time they were putting music out out 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.760 that would be considered part of that era. But the 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.159 context of that conversation made it seem like there was 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.560 actually something about the substance and what the messages that 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.400 they were actually delivering to people in those songs wasn't 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.320 their favorite. And that's understandable because we know a lot 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.560 of times artists do things to make money because they 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:19.879 have to sustain themselves too, but also like they have 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.640 arranged within their artistry, some of which may include conscious 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.160 things and some of it may include things that don't 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.480 take that much thinking about. And when they were talking 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.040 about it in that interview it was couch and another conversation, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.399 they were like, I think they were a little drunk 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.080 or high or something, to be fair, but whatever the 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.520 mood was, they were still you know, saying what they 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.600 were saying, and they were just talking about how much 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:46.879 they care about the kids and how important the kids are, 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.320 and like raising them upright and them getting an education 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.359 was okay. So some part of it really did seem 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.159 like them saying, this music is cool. I'm glad that 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.159 it's resonating with the people. But it didn't seem like 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.280 it's what they wanted to be defined as, and they 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.080 didn't want people to see it as the limits of 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.240 their artistry, Like that wasn't the boundaries of what they 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:09.960 could actually do and the things that they could actually 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:10.800 say in their work. 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:13.320 Yeah, I mean, I think people often like have this 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.240 like false economy, like either you listen to snap music 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.800 or you focus on your education, like you were our 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:22.000 salutatorian and were snapping with the rest of us. So 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.600 you know, so it's like, I mean, don't take yourself 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.680 too seriously think that you are like the reason for 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:29.600 the high school dropout rates. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.320 R like no, fair, fair point. 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:34.320 Yes. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.560 So do you think that snap music and crunk music 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:39.520 is something that artists should be proud of, like an 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.440 era they should look back on with pride? 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:43.480 Well, I know mister Soljia does. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:45.639 Oh yeah, he's still talking about it. 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.359 Oh yeah, but yeah, I mean I do. It was 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.639 an era. It was something that was created organically and 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.119 it was fun. And people still be listening to songs. 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.520 I mean people still be swags a white people. Oh yes, 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.119 it still gets trying to get going on swag surfing. 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.920 Recently they couldn't do it a little. Still, it's not 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.720