My homeboy had to remind me last night, he said, “Gipp, do you realize that you’ve been involved in every era of music from Atlanta?” I said, “Wow.”

This lady named Jean Carne was a soul singer who moved to my neighborhood with her son Joseph — she had this song called “Closer Than Close.” The same year, a guy named Ray Murray moved into our neighborhood.

Once we got together, Ms. Carne bought her son our first studio. And I remember the first time he called us to say, “Yo, my mom bought me a studio,” because that was the same day LL COOL J dropped “Jack the Ripper.” It’s so cemented in my memory. We played that record over and over and over.

Ms. Carne started taking me around — that was my introduction to the music business. She is a cousin of Peabo Bryson. At her house, I got to meet Stevie Wonder, I got to meet New Edition — I got to meet the industry before I got into the industry. Her daughter had a birthday party and we went with the Jackson 5. Atlanta was filled with so many superstars, just because of the civil rights movement: Larry Blackmon was riding around, Curtis Mayfield was riding around, Kool & the Gang was riding around.

Ray started teaching me how to rap. The first records he gave me were the Last Poets, KRS-One, just to give me substance, you know? But I created myself through two artists: Chuck D of Public Enemy and Ice-T. I learned more from Chuck D than in school. Ice-T represented that player lifestyle — that caught a young dude real early. “Power,” I remember looking at the album cover like, “Yo! You’re my guy.”

I was working at a Red Lobster on Campbellton Road as a dishwasher, and one day I was listening to Public Enemy. This guy beside me was from New York. He said, “Hey, Gipp, you like that group?” I said, “I don’t like this group, I love this group.” He said, “Would you like to meet them?” I’m tripping because we in Red Lobster; we washing dishes. “Well, my name’s Mike. Professor Griff is my little brother. They’re coming to town and I’ll take you to meet them.”

He took me down to Fulton County Stadium, and I remember this night not for the concert, but because of the way that Chuck D came to the concert: They were headlining and Chuck D pulled up in a cab. That was something that stuck with me for the rest of my career.

N.W.A changed the whole temperature. It kind of stopped music for a minute. It really put the aggression into rap that wasn’t there before. And then came Geto Boys. When they say, “Who was the greatest in the South?” Scarface, period. As a kid, SCARFACE was our Ice Cube in the South.

Every day there was new music coming out. It was so exciting. Everywhere you go someone would be, like, “You heard this?” And it was such a change from being a kid in Atlanta, because Atlanta was so soul — there wasn’t nothing bigger than the Commodores, O’Jays, Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield.

Goodie Mob, we gave you the heart and soul of where we was from. We gave you everything that brought us up, everything we was made from, what our mothers taught us, how we were raised.

We didn’t come from the projects. I’ve always been around affluent Black people, religious Black people — that’s all I’ve ever seen. Drug dealers and gangsters had never been prevalent in the city because nothing could be bigger than the King. That’s the reason why you had Goodie Mob speaking the way we spoke. Even at a young age, we rapped like grown men. We still gave you “Dirty South,” we still took you into the projects, into the streets. We did all of that. We just did it from a place of always knowing we had something better.

It’s also because we were signed by Babyface and L.A. Reid. We were never on a rap label and all the things our counterparts were getting away with, we couldn’t get away with. I remember when Babyface was like, “A song ain’t a song until you have a hook and a bridge.” And that’s all he ever said to us.

I was very much influenced by wrestling. I got to see artists like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, the Road Warriors all up close. The costumes — I knew what it did to people when they saw it. That’s the reason we started doing that in the Dungeon Family. We knew that if people didn’t understand us, maybe they would remember what we looked like.

Who would’ve knew Outkast and Goodie Mob could’ve been this? I don’t think anybody has a André 3000 in their crew but us. I don’t think anybody got a CeeLo Green in their crew but us. How could you beat somebody like us? All you’ve gotta do is say, “CeeLo, do some Gnarls Barkley,” and it’s over.

Every time the South creates a new style, they find something not to like about it. But if you think about it, we have not stopped since us. When you look at Future — that’s family, from the Dungeon — Ying Yang Twins, Lil Jon, Ludacris, T.I., Jeezy, GUCCI MANE. They didn’t like the Migos at first!

As long as Atlanta has a strip club culture, we will always be ahead of everybody. Somebody could take a Young Thug record right out the studio at Patchwerk, go right into Magic City Monday, get the prettiest stripper to dance to it, and it’s a hit record! It’s just something that doesn’t stop working.

Related Artists
BIG BOI
FABO
PROJECT PAT
PHONTE


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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz