Documentary tells about hard-core hip-hop in the South

Cultural introspect sets this documentary apart from others.
By RON HARRIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
As feuds between East Coast and West Coast artists brewed in the early 1990s, another section of the country's hip-hoppers sat on the sidelines, waiting patiently for their time in the limelight.
That section of the United States was the "dirty" South, and their time has definitely come.
A new documentary, "Lyricist Lounge: Dirty States of America," attempts to put things in perspective. It's 95 minutes of interviews with deep South rap artists, pirate radio disc jockeys and plain old street people who open their hearts about hard-core hip-hop music in the South.
"Dirty States" comes together with the kind of cultural introspect that sets it apart from other inside peeks at the lifestyles of the rapping rich and famous. The South style is about texture and context, says writer and music historian Charlie Braxton.
"Hip-hop is the one form of black popular music that doesn't have its origins in the South, but its deeper roots are in the South," Braxton astutely points out.
And the lively interviews with various artists back him up.
In one scene we hear rapper Lil' Troy explaining that he was initially tuned in to the East Coast style of rap, but it was the smoother rolling West Coast beats and rhymes that sucked him into the business.
South rises
Big Gipp is a frequent interviewee on "Dirty States." He recalls attending the Source Awards at the height of the East Coast-West Coast face-off, and feeling the raw tension between the two self-described artistic tribes as Southern artists went largely unnoticed.
Now, thanks to current Southern chart toppers like Ludacris, Nelly, and Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys, the South has risen and is no longer left out of the mix.
In another segment, pirate disc jockey White Boy Pizall explains that hit songs are broken on stations like his, where Pizall plays exactly what the audience calls and tells him to play -- and not what major labels farm out to the Clear Channels of the airwaves.
"We backdoor little Joe 'em," he says in a thick Southern accent. Even if you don't really know what he means, it feels like you do.
The interviews are heartfelt, if not well-shot cinematically. Many scenes are fairly out of focus, or require better lighting, which detracts a bit from the documentary's overall production quality.
But overall, "Dirty States" is a clean education.
X"Lyricist Lounge: Dirty States of America" is on DVD from Image Entertainment.
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