And where are the parents?
Posted on 11/14/2004 4:48:36 AM PST by JesseHousman
S. Florida suburbs lure the makers of hip-hop From Miami Beach to Miramar, homegrown producers are laying down the tracks for the future of hip-hop.
Liberty City's Martin Luther King Boulevard isn't the only local road to the future sounds of hip-hop. Head west on Miramar Parkway about as far as you can before hitting swamp. Then turn into one of the many cookie-cutter gated communities that are the American dream, suburban sprawl style. If you're lucky, along with the SUVs, you'll find a van whose sides are emblazoned with the grinning metal-teethed mug of ``Dirt Bag.''
This urban promotional vehicle will lead you to the studio of Cool & Dre, the North Miami Beach High graduates and members of the hit rap group Terror Squad who, along with a handful of other producers, are behind some of the hottest tracks in the country.
Next on their plate: Miami rapper Dirt Bag.
''Right now the south is the biggest movement,'' Cool says. ``We're on top.''
South Florida has been where hip-hop comes to play for a few years now. But it's not just the weather and women that draw pop's top icons: It's the studios. Genre kingpin Timbaland can often be found at North Miami Beach's legendary Hit Factory/Criteria, working with Missy Elliott or Jay-Z. Circle House, the North Miami studio owned by members of the reggae group Inner Circle, is a favorite place for rappers to record and mix.
Trick Daddy, Trina, Pitbull and Jacki-O may be the faces of Miami hip-hop. But behind the consoles is a growing cadre of 305-bred beats-makers, songwriters and knob twiddlers: Red Spyda, the Diaz Brothers, Gorilla Tek, Righteous Funk Boogie, DJ Khaled, Del, Young Hollywood, Jim Jonsin, etc. One of hip-hop's most ingenious groovemasters, Scott Storch, now makes Miami his home.
STAR POWER
Pop music in general, including hip-hop, has been producer-driven for years. South Floridians are not just working with their friends and neighbors; they're also drawing national clientele. They've worked with P. Diddy, Ja Rule, Fat Joe, Beyoncé, the Roots, Iconz, Dr. Dre, Lil' Kim, Fabolous, Juvenile, Eminem, Mystikal, 8Ball and MJG, Angie Martinez -- to name a few.
''Miami's the hottest spot in the country,'' says Righteous Funk Boogie, whose work with Trick Daddy and Trina is credited with launching the current Miami sound. ``All the industry people are here now. Before we had to go to New York or L.A. Now the industry is in our backyard, the opportunity is here. Let's make hits.''
GETTING THE VIBE
The story goes beyond the professional studios. New computer programs allow artists to record at home with comparative ease. Lil Jon recorded much of his new record in a rented Miami Beach mansion.
The hottest jam of last summer, the No. 1 Storch-produced Terror Squad song Lean Back, was crafted in another Miramar studio, Jerusalem, in the home of 99 Jamz's DJ Khaled.
''Most of the newest, hottest producers are out of Miami,'' Khaled says. ``Producers are getting their vibe here. Miami's culture has a southern vibe and a northern vibe, a sexiness and a ghetto vibe.''
''Miami producers are very motivated, they bring a lot to the table,'' says Jacki-O, whose just-released album debut features a smorgasbord of South Florida producers. ``They're just as good and not as expensive.''
MOUTHS OF THE SOUTH
In part, Miami is riding Southern hip-hop's wave of popularity.
No less a figure than Lil Jon has argued that crunk, Atlanta's much-ballyhooed signature sound, is just an update on Miami bass.
''Crunk is bass music anyways,'' says Dre. ``The Miami sound is anything with 808s [drum machines]. And a lot of bass.''
''Our music is just a bit different than other parts of the south,'' says Righteous Funk Boogie. ''Where they slow it up, we speed it up.'' Still, he says Miami still has a ways to go to catch up with New York or Atlanta. ``There's no music out that gives Miami its own signature sound, like Atlanta does or Miami did in the Luke [Skyywalker of 2 Live Crew] days.''
The sonic elements of Miami hip-hop are typical of grooves born in nightclubs, block parties and strip clubs.
But it's out in the 'burbs that they often get nurtured. Here, the Terror Squad makes its bombs.
HUMBLE BEGINNING
Marcello ''Cool'' Valenzano, 28, and Andre ''Dre'' Lyon, 28, met in the shadows of, but were unaware of, North Miami Beach's fertile studio scene.
The Venezuelan and Jamaican friends made ''nerdy'' high school chorus cool.
They had an R&B group, but when that career didn't pan out, they turned to producing other acts.
Tracks for P. Diddy and Ja Rule helped their label Epidemic land a deal with Jive that's worth, according to one report, $2 million. Their work with Fat Joe, the Nuyorican rapper who makes South Florida his part-time home, earned them their Terror Squad membership and medallions.
You can see Dre in the video for Take Me Home; the six-foot-seven former ball player is the towering figure singing the hook.
The duo's studio is in Dre's home, because Cool's ''the family guy,'' he says. The house stands out only because of the Dirt Bag van, and because weeks after Ivan passed, the shutters are still up.
They acknowledge their place is about as far from the actual hood as can be. But ''ghetto'' long ago became a state of mind.
''We're not street dudes,'' Dre says. ``But we're in touch with what's going on in the hood. We're the dudes you throw at executives.''
NEW RELEASE
In addition to their work, they're getting ready for the release of CDs by Epidemic acts Dirt Bag and Tony Sunshine, an R&B singer.
Along with labels Poe Boy and Slip-N-Slide, they're trying to create a business infrastructure in Miami: a permanent economic base, not just the transient opportunities offered by awards shows and vacationing celebrities.
''As far as helping Miami, it takes Poe Boy, Epidemic and Slip-N-Slide to sell 7 to 10 million records,'' Dre says.
``It takes us all to really be successful to be able to put back into the community. I think we're moving in the right direction, of creating opportunities down the road. In 10 to 15 years we'll be another Atlanta.''
It reminds many of what's wrong with our children. If it isn't the homosexuals wanting to get their hands on them, it's these hip-hop sleaze bags. America's youth are being converted before our eyes by garbage noise-makers.
Great....just great....
So where are the people creating melodies and lyrics?
And where are the parents?
Hip Hop isnt music its rythmic noise.
As you pull up to a traffic light, in any city, the boom, boom, boom and mindless chatter of the imbecilic rapper intrudes.
I'll add this to my list of places I'll never live.
Many are in prison. Some have been murdered by their friends. It's great to know our children are being entertained by the crap entering their brains via the earphones.
Out to lunch or on vacation.
How do you know it's "mindless" if you can't specifically state lyrics?
And there lies the blame.
Who in the hell truly understands the lyrics. Most don't even know the meaning of that word. Mindless comes to mind.
Me.
Most don't even know the meaning of that word. Mindless comes to mind.
Ha! Well, that would be too easy.
"And where are the parents?"
God only knows-I'm always amazed at parents who just leave their kids adrift with no guidance, then wonder why they are into doing bad s***. If they listened to the lyrics of a lot of this stuff, it should be perfectly obvious that there are just some things young kids don't need to hear, any more than they need to see most "R" rated movies or read Playboy/Penthouse-adult content is adult content no matter what the venue, and children are NOT adults.
"Invictus" has been my favorite poem since I was a child...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10176199.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Yet another reason to do what I have been advocating for years: cut South Florida loose from the good part of Florida, and let it go adrift.
The fact that Florida has little in taxes has nothing to do with all these people to live and work in South Florida.
Of course, places like Liberty City, North Miami and North Miami Beach are sh-tholes. That's life in urban America my friend.
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