After '98/'99? Why isn't Organized Noize the influential mastodon in the South that they should've been, the exception rather than the rule (as you pretty much said)?

Because I suppose I can feel that. Moreso since 2005 and the rise of Jeezy and T.I. Southern rap is still the fresh shit, but if I were going to draw a parallel to NYC for example, even from their golden age to five years later in 2000 they still had a very different, forward-thinking (some/many would say whack) direction. But the south is still on their same 808 snare breakdown shit.

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