December 17, 2025 • 39 mins
How Atlanta artists, from T.I. and Jeezy to Anycia have used mixtapes to define the city’s sound.
STARRING: DJ Drama, Anycia, Zaytoven
NARRATED BY: Jewel Wicker
SUBJECTS: Music, Atlanta history
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Atlanta is yesterday and tomorrow at the same down time.
Now these nineties.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Babies are the adults.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So nostalgia that I've been expanded to include reminiscence of
the early two thousands, from Edward J to DJ Drama
making mixtapes to Grady Babies making matchups on the Internet.
What once was never dies, It lives on in the present.
Atlanta has no future without the past that makes it possible.
(00:32):
A big rule, and Atlanta is futuristic nostalgia.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
For the last five years, Atlanta's music scene has carried
an unshakable weight take off.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
A beloved entertainer shot dead early Tuesday morning after a
party in Houston.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Early a month after his passing.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
A cause of death has now been released for Atlanta
rapper rich hokwon.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
All right and at rest in peace to Little Kid.
He has died at the age of twenty four.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
A reptive.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
A scene once defined by its consistency and brilliance was
suddenly in the spotlight for horrific losses promising artists taken
before their time.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Legends gone too soon, but.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
The city of Atlanta is mourning the loss of local
hip hop pioneer Rico Wade tonight with ten. Atlanta hip
hop icon dj Unk has died at forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Timsy reports The Round.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I was covering Atlanta's music scene through all of this,
and I won't lie. The energy felt heavy, like the
whole city was in mourning, trying to figure out what
to do with its grief.
Speaker 7 (01:39):
It really felt like, you know, the last couple of
years had been a dark cloud over the city.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
DJ Drama was feeling it too.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It placed the city in a space that we weren't
used to. You know, it didn't feel like home.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's a big statement from someone whose home has been
Atlanta for the last thirty years, who's played a huge
role in platforming local artists through mixtapes like its infamous
Gangster Girl series.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
To the world, we looked unified and you know that changed.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But the way Drama sees it, this dark cloud, this
moment of uncertainty, it's just another opportunity for a rebirth,
a chance for Atlanta, a city once symbolized by the phoenix,
to burn itself down and rebuild from the rubble.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Every two years, Atlanta literally like blows itself up and
creates this new sound from Damn Near Dungeon Family on
from Bluda to Tip to Jiezi to Gucci to Chains
to Future the Negos to Thug to Yadi to Kardi
and got it Like.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's just there's.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
Always these new breed of artists that takes the world
by storm.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So who's next? After so much loss? What could make
the city feel like itself again? What sound could cut
through the heaviness and bring joy? In the summer of
twenty twenty five, two mixtapes stood out as answers Grady
Baby from the rising star Anisia and the first woman
from Atlanta to have our own gangster girls.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Mixtape, Baby Go Get Some Money.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And a futuristic Summer from the city's legendary producer Metro.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Bobek Save Me That.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
You.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Both projects lean into the city's nostalgic sound from the
two thousands and twenty tens, before the dark cloud crept
in from party music like crunkin Bee Snap, then rockstar
rap poured through car speakers skating rinks in the clubs.
Mixtapes have always been something special in the South. Not
only were they pivotal in getting our music heard across
(03:45):
the country in the world, they've given artists room to
experiment been the rules musically and build momentum catching major
label's attention. So for our final episode of the series,
we're looking back at the rise of mixtape culture in Atlanta,
how DJ Drama's iconic Gangster Grill series was born, and
(04:05):
how that blueprint created a path for newcomers like Anicia
to carry the city's.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Sound into a new era.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And we'll dive into the party sounds that Metro Boomin
taps into to bring joy back to the city. For
black folks, a period of morning is usually followed by celebration.
This story is no different. I'm Jewel Wicker. This is
episode eight of Atlanta Is. Our story begins, like so
(04:34):
many of Atlanta's great stories do, at the Atlanta University Center.
It's the mid nineties. Outcasts Southern playlistic Cadillac Music has
just dropped.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
DJ Drama.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Tyree Simmons back then is a teenager from Philly tagging
along with his dad, a noted civil rights activist, Michael Simmons,
who is in town for a convention. Here Drama discovers
Atlanta in the National Black Arts Festival.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I really just had never experienced anything like what was
going on in the city as far as you know,
seeing so many young, black, affluent creatives and all walks
of life.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That image impacted him so much that he returned a
few years later, this time as a Clark Atlanta University student.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Before I was known around the globe, I was known
in the AUC.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Relocating to Atlanta allowed Drama to connect with young creatives,
the types of people like the ones he first saw
at the Arts Festival.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
The AUC is such a melting pot of people of
color from so many different places, with so many dreams
and aspirations and ideas and hustles and ambitions.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Drama wasted no time When he got to Atlanta. He
was into djaying, but within the first week he was
already battling other DJs around campus. In his sophomore year,
he met his current business partner in Generation Now founder
Don Cannon.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
He was literally running around his freshman year my sophomore
year trying to befirm me, and I kind of was like,
come on, young boy, like I'm busy, you know what
I'm saying. And he was like, yo, I make beats
on DJ too. I'm from Philly, And I was like, Yeah,
that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Drama ended up listening to some of Cannon's beats reluctantly
that shit was fire.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
He was like baby DJ Premire at the time.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
The pair quickly became inseparable.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But while other DJs were busy battling or crafting beats,
Drama was laser focused on one thing, making mixtapes. Mixtapes
have evolved a lot since they were first created in
the nineteen seventies, just like hip hop itself. By the
mid nineties, they were almost like what playlists are today,
just a lot more analog.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
The original first mixtapes that were created were literally live
recordings of DJs in the clubs that were then put
on the cassettes that dope boys and hustlers would cop
off the DJ to ride around New York City.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Mixtape shifted over time.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
In the early two thousands, artists like fifty Cent used
them as demos to get the attention of the music industry,
and it works. In the streaming era, a mixtape is
almost a marketing term, a nod to the freedom and
experimentation of old mixtape culture. Today, once a project hits
(07:30):
streaming platforms, you can't even tell the difference between a
mixtape and an album. But back when Drama was coming up,
he'd hand picked songs and create different playlists or, as
he says, tapes and sell them on the AUC campus.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I would have an up North hip hop tape. I
would have a down South hip hop tape. I would
have a reggae tape. I would have a neo soul tape.
Even before the term neo soul existed.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Drama was now living down South, but carried the culture
from up North with him.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
With the due respect, I wasn't listening to what was
coming out of Atlanta when it came to mixtapes. I
was listening to who Kid and Green Lantern and Clue
and those guys and watching what they were doing how
they were doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
But Atlanta did have its own mixtape history that started
long before Drama settled into his clerk Atlanta dorm, and
soon he'd become a part of this lineage. Before gangster grills,
before Drama's drops echoed through clubs and car speakers, Atlanta's
mixtape foundation was being built by two crews who practically
split the city in half, Oom Camp on the west
(08:41):
side and the J Team on the east side.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I mean, when I got here, Edward J Was running
the game.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
DJ Jelly is from oom Camp.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
He's a Saint Louis transplant turned Atlanta legend who worked
everywhere from teen clubs to Magic City and Hot ninety
seven point five. His tape were full of eight oo
eight's and the sounds of Atlanta based music. Jelly moved
to Atlanta in nineteen eighty nine. He'd stumbled across an
article about Bobby Brown's recording studio in his mother's copy
of Essence magazine. When he touched down here, he got
(09:13):
a short lived internship at the studio and eventually linked
up with MC Assault, a guy with a dream of
making a name for himself through mixtapes.
Speaker 8 (09:25):
Salt sublimely when they hear the tapes, say Cake, you're
hearing my name Jelly, The MC is Salt, so people
would know us.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Together, the pair wanted to build an empire. They crossed
paths with Big Oom and Atlanta hustler and real estate entrepreneur.
With his financial backing, they formed oom Camp, a collective
that would eventually turn into a label and promote artists
like dj Unk, who died earlier this year, but in
two thousand and six, with the help of Andre three
(09:52):
thousand in t Payne. He had the whole world walking
it out, but Boom Camp's rise in the early nineties
hidden an immediate.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
Obstacle with j was like this east Side mix tape Kingpin.
He had like Smurf Yeah, Kizzie Rock, had a bunch
of DJs up under him and they would basically run.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
In the Atlanta King Edward J, as he was known
back then, ran the East Side.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Gonnack.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
He started with the record store in the eighties, but
when sales weren't cutting it, he began making his own
mixes and selling them at his store. His crew, the
J Team, dominated with tapes like Bedroom Boom, Take a
guest to what that sounded like?
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Slow Jam blends that the crew would talk over Boom
Come on Girl with J saying.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
By the nineties, Edward J was a mixtape legend and
oot Camp was ready to challenge him. But instead of
copying the J Team, Jelly built on their blueprint, flipping
slow O, R and B vocals over fast paced beats,
creating a distinctly Atlanta sound that would eventually become the
DNA behind songs like ghost Town DJs My Boo. A rivalry,
(11:18):
or call it healthy competition was brewing, two crews fighting
for the sound of the city. Jelly says oot Camp
came to the west side of Atlanta, but Edward j
was to the East side.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
We would be on the streets Sunday through Sunday, like
we would sell the dope on the West side and
we would just hand the foot We'd take our book
bags and we go sell it. Say hey, we got
this tape we got ed with j looking like a bitch.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You know, that'd be something that was our pits.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
They sold a lot of mixtapes this way, and.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
We would sell thousands and thousands of mixtapes and cassettes.
We were literally supporting all of our families off of
those mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
The East Side to J team had some incredible DJs,
including He's he Goes Why Mister Collie Park These Days.
When Smurf returned from college, oom Camp was revving up
a mixtape.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
War broke out.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
Smurf made a tape called Jelly Going Fishing and it
was basically a light diss on me.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Bum Camp responded with their mixtape one seven.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
We basically had all our rappers rap and talk about
them bad and you.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Know, played the Duzen and then we dissed them. We
just the whole jt.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
This rivalry kept Atlanta fresh with mixtapes, and oom Camp
expanded to physical stores on the West Side and eventually beyond.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
They were selling their tapes at the flea market on Old.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
National at Greenbrier Mall, then throughout the South, and when
college students from the AUC went back home, they take
those tapes back with them, spreading Atlanta's sound. By the
time DJ Drama arrived at the AUC, the mixtape war
had cooled. Edward Jay's Rain was winding down.
Speaker 7 (12:58):
I kind of missed their era of domination, but when
I got to Atlanta, it was pretty much oom Camp
like on the streets. Jelly Amante had the mixtape game on.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Smash, and now a kid from Philly with a love
for blends and a hunger to make his mark was
about to take the mixtape to a whole new level.
Gangster Grills didn't start as a grand plan. It started
because Drama needed a Southern mixtape to sell it Hot
ninety seven point five's Birthday Bash one year in the
early two thousands.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
And Jelly and them were probably like four or five
boosts down from US.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Drama was with his business partner Don Cannon, that made
just enough money to pay off their own booths.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
But Oom Camp, I'm watching literally in front of my
eyes these guys like make tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Drama had always loved mixtapes. Now he was seeing firsthand
how they could be a serious business. Around this time,
he and Don Cannon were part of super Friends, a
collective of auc DJs who would go on to have
huge careers. DJ Mars, the group's founder, is currently Usher's
tour DJ. DJ Trauma does shows with Dave Chappelle. Back then,
(14:11):
Drama says the collective's focus was on dominating.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
The clubs, not mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
He recalls a time when he attempted to get sponsorship
money for his tapes.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
This particular woman who had a lot of corporate sponsors
at the time, and then we get sponsorships to promote
parties and do things, and we went to her trying
to get her to sponsor our mixtapes. And I remember
literally Mars saying to me, Yo, don't go to her
to waste sponsorship money on mixtapes. Like oom Camp has
(14:43):
that shit on smash, Like there's no competition like let.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Them have that.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
They didn't see eye to eye on this, Drama says
he and Cannon eventually got kicked out of super Friends, but.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
He kept going.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
But in a matter of years, Gangster Grills became the
Southern mixtape the one artist fought to be on. Drama
graduated from Clark, Atlanta. He moved into a duplex in
the old fourth Board on Glenn Irish Drive.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean it's this dingy old crib.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
That dingy crib was where Gangster Grills was born. In
the studio, it was in a.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Room where people keep their.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Washer and dryer inside that cramped laundry room. Drama brought
the style of the up North tapes he loved, but
paired it with a reverence for Southern MC's on the Rise.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I was also a very very very huge fan obviously
of what was coming out of Atlanta and what was
coming out of the South musically, because I had now
been down here for five, six, seven years, and you know,
I wanted to put the South on my back in
a sense and to show like yo, the South guy
(15:46):
spinners too.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
People were taking notice.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
One day, Drama says he got a call from a
guy named Jason Jeter, who'd come across one of his
mixtapes in a barber shop and jotted his phone number
down from the back of the CD case. He was
working with a young rapper that he really thought Drama
needed to hear. This was the first time someone had
actually pitched an artist in him. He invited Jeter in.
The rapper, a man who was going by tip to
(16:10):
his duplex on Glen Iris.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
It was very quiet. I remember we had these bi.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Vocals on inside his makeshift studio. The young MC spit
a freestyle.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
He picked this Jay z Rockefeller for the fan beat,
and he wrapped eight or sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Bars, despite not having a single hit record yet. He
ended the rap with a bold statement. He called himself
the King of the South. At this point, Gangster Grills
was more of a compilation tape. It didn't have freestyles,
but Drama kept working with the Young MC would eventually
become known as TI. Soon a Gangster Grills tape would
(16:47):
raise TI's profile. The mixtape included bone Crushers Never Scared
featuring Killer Mike, and a breakout first from the self
proclaimed King of the South kiss.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
No Way to Take Own Man by your supplied.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
It was a hit.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Still, it would be years before others started calling t
I the King of the South.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
By two thousand and.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Four, Gangster Grills had come a long way. Drama had
enlisted Little John to make his iconic.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Stamps Great Zeals, and.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The mixtape was proving to be a vehicle for breaking
and celebrating Southern rappers like Young Giz, who approached Drama
about having a Gangster Grills tape of his own, But
Drama had no idea who he was back then, and
he didn't think the rapper was ready for his own tape.
Jes persisted and offered to pay and well when he talks.
(17:42):
Their first tape, Streets Is Watching, was released in two
thousand and four, and the next year they released Chopper
Die Holding a GZ said he couldn't go to a
gas station without seeing his tapes being sold.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
They were everywhere.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
The tapes helped build hype for Jez's two thousand and
five major label debut Let's Get It Doug Motivation one
oh one, which landed at number two on Billboard's Album Chart.
Then in two thousand and six, they released the Can't
Ban the Snowman mixtape. By this point, GZ was a
bona fide star, expanding the reach of Gangster Grills, but
(18:24):
also using the tapes as an alternative path to showcase
his talents to the industry. But there's one more artist
Gangster Grills turned into a superstar. Lowayne had hits as
a member of the Hot Boys with songs like I
Need a Hot Girl.
Speaker 6 (18:39):
Ya Said a Hot draw bands scoted, but.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
The group disbanded, leaving Wayne and his career in limbo.
Through Wayne's dedication series with Drama, he reinvented himself. Drama
served his host yelling and hyping listeners up Bill Wayne
freestyled over a popular.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
People how did you motherfuck?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Does this?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Weezza be Niggaspichen.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And Wayne's dedication series under the Gangster Grills brand the
fine mixtape culture in the mid odds, mixtape Wheezy, as
he was known, was a force. Other artists were either
upset that he hopped on their records, effectively making it his,
or they were tapped into his marketing powers. Sometimes a
(19:26):
Wayne freestyle would end up on an official remix of
the original song. By this time, Drama wasn't just a
staple for the rap underground. The music industry was starting
to see gangster grills as a legitimate marketing tool.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
When record labels are planning an artist's rollout, it was like,
all right, you gotta go on one of six a park,
you gotta be on double XL, and you gotta have
a gangster grills.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Drama wasn't just breaking stars, he was becoming one himself.
He was getting calls from the biggest and best in
the business and got a record deal at Atlantic. Things
could been going better. The morning of January sixteenth, two
thousand and seven, promised to be more of the same
for the DJ. He was at his Walker Street studio
with his business partner Don Cannon, plus a few of
(20:12):
the college students stayed hired as interns from the AUC
and some other folks.
Speaker 7 (20:16):
We were working on my album at the time, trying
to make sure all the records for the album were
coming together.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But then Drama got a call from someone at Grand
Hustle TI's company. The callers said they'd gotten a tip
from a family member who'd worked with local police.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
They told me, like, yo, it just got word that
they're about to come rage on. I still didn't fathom it.
I come raid us, Like for what.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Raid why would police want to raid the office of
a DJ? The tip was right. Drama says he stepped
outside and immediately heard helicopters swirling overhead. Police cars surrounded him,
and officers approached, guns drawn. Drum and Cannon were arrested
for selling quote unquote illegal The Recording Industry Association of America,
(21:04):
a trade group representing Drama's colleagues at labels and music.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Companies, were somehow involved.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Drama says he was out on bond before he even
began to realize the gravity of what was happening.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
Tip was one of the first calls I made when
I got back to my house. He asked me if
I checked my bank account and I was like, what
you mean? And he was like, bro, they hit you
with the RICO. You know, at the time, I didn't
know shit about what RICO was, and he was like,
go check your bank account.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That was what.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
I logged on the back of america dot com and saw.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
My shit said zero point zero zero.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Drama and Cannon were being charged under Georgia's Racketeer, Influence
and Corrupt Organizations law. This was a charge usually reserved
her mobsters, not DJs. Sure these quote unquote illegal CDs
had been unauthorized compilation tapes, and they featured copyrighted material
when an artist what freestyle over an existing song?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
But rico.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It turns out not everyone in the music industry saw
Drama as a marketing genius. Being hit with that kind
of charge is usually the worst thing that can happen
to a person, but this is show biz, and all
publicity is good publicity.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
Maybe a day or two later, I got a phone
call from Atlantic and they were damn there, like head
over heels with excitement, like yo, you can't pay for
this type of publicity, Like how soon can you get
the album out?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Drama was widely known before he'd been arrested, but he
set the raid to get celebrity status to new heights.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I was like, oh, yeah, this shit is the best
thing that ever happened in my career.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Gangster Grills survived, Drama survived, and the legacy of Atlanta
mixtapes didn't just continue, it expanded.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
It's incredible to think about today, but.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
In the chaotic aftermath of the two thousand and seven raid,
Drama probably couldn't imagine Gangster Grills extending into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Nothing came of the rico charges.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Authorities never officially dismissed the case, but they stopped pursuing it.
In the irony, the attention only made Gangster Grills bigger.
Suddenly the brand wasn't just influential, it was now infamous,
a symbol of how the music industry the establishment benefited
from what the underground created, but never fully embraced or
respected it.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Requests kept coming.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
The twenty tens brought artists like two Chains, Meek Mill,
Chris Brown, and Kevin Gates all lining up for a
Gangster Grill's tape, and Drama and Cannon launched their own
record label, Generation Now, signing rappers like lul luzi Vert
and Jack Carlow. And then in twenty twenty La rappers
Tyler the Creator enlisted Drama and paid homage to Gangster
(23:43):
Grills with the album call Me If You Get Lost, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
To the Disc, Golf and Willie's and Shit if You
Lost per feew Moments Again.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It won Tyler a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
First off, I'm hyped.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Thank you to J Drama.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
You are fucking so important rap music.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Back in two thousand and seven, while Drama was navigating
raids and Rico charges. A nine year old girl in
South Atlanta was attending a Christian school. She wasn't thinking
about mixtapes, but one day she'd become an artist who
played a role in pushing gangster grills to a new,
younger generation.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Her name is Ansia.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
The other day I was actually scrat y'all talking to
chat GBT, and you know it's bad when that bitch
tell you she like, I don't think basically, in my words,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Think you take that shit serious.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Like you really the first lady to have a Gangster
Girls take in Atlanta, George, you have a whole guess girl,
so like that is a part of history, Like that's
what separates you from a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I was like, oh, what bitch you wright.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Anitia is the latest braggadocious rapper out of Atlanta, and
she's hilarious from the moment you meet her. Her aura
is luminous, her voice booms, filling up any space she
occupies or is drama puts it.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Her energy becomes the energy of the room in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Her twenty twenty five Gangster Girls project Grady Baby isn't
just a mixtape but a portal back to a bygone
era before the grief of the last few years settled over.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
Atlanta, get your money, it's your Daminds are our flawless niggas.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I called her up to talk about the mixtape and
what she represents in this era of Atlanta music. When
we speak virtually, she's lounging in her living room wearing
a baggy T shirt with her face on it. She
I said she can smoke a blunt.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
I certainly if you smoke, your blink.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
And then motions as if she's handing it to me
through the screen. I don't smoke, but I'm not about
to admit that out loud and blow this bonding moment.
I want us to have a good time.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
I want us to talk. We had a great time.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Anisia grew up around strong, opinionated women. Her mom was
a hairstylist, which gave her a ton of access to
listen and learn from adults about what fascinated them but
also what gave them stress and next time with.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
My Barbie Dolls all business.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
She wasn't just at work with her mom, she was
outside with her aunties too.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
That's how it started with Shirley Temples because it made
me feel like I had a drink, so like I've been.
When I think about it, I really think about like
the fact that I was, really I've been outside.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
She remembers her mom getting bootleg mixes they called them
mixtapes back then at the gas station with a full
tank and a new soundtrack full of two thousands R
and B. They'd ride around town with a top down
and they're white convertible. This feeling, this era is the
inspiration behind her mixtape, Grady Baby.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Even the title was her mom's idea.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Grady Baby is a popular phrase here and a nod
to the hospital where Anisia was born. Having Grady Memorial
Hospital on your birth certificate is like having a stamp
that cements just how Atlanta you are.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
And that's like how you know, like, Okay, oh you're
from Atlanta. For I ain't gotta say too much. I'm
a Grady Baby, shut up.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Grady is located in the center of downtown Atlanta. Big
names like Spike Lee and Killer Mike were born there,
so we're a bunch of regular folks like my mom
and grandma. My granny used to call it the Gradys.
Because when she was born in the twenties, there were
two wings, one for black residents and one for whites.
Over the years, as newer hospitals open, Grady picked up
(27:18):
the reputation that many public downtown hospitals often curate this
stigma that is the place you go if you're low
income or don't have insurance.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
But one thing they cannot ever play with Gretdy about
Gretty is number one for trauma response. Baby. They would
save your mother's fucking life.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Anisia wanted to wear the badge of being a Grady
baby with the honor and pride so many folks here feel.
The mixtape is built around popular samples from the two thousands,
most of them from Atlanta artists, where some samples transformed
the original sound into something completely new and unrecognizable. An
easiest version of sampling says true to its source material.
(27:54):
She wants you to hear the direct link between her
and the local artists who have inspired her work. Like Nivea,
you can hear her two thousand and four songs Okay
Slipped into Peekaboo, Cute Cute, and Little John and the
East Side Boys two thousand and one song Nothing's free.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
It's turned into so fine.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Really fine.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I ain't worry about a nigga. I'm Chris about she.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
These simples have one thing in common. They come from
the era when Atlanta was making R and B crunk.
The idea was simple, what if we could take the
energy of the music folks for throwing bowse to in
the clubs like the five five nine in Southwest Atlanta
in the mid nineties, and blended with the emotions and
melodies of contemporary soul for the new millennium. That's how
(28:43):
you get a song like Sierra's Goodies, which launched crunk
and be to the masses. Anisia wasn't even born when
DJs first started mixing the smooth voices of R and
B singers with high energy Atlanta bass and crunk music,
and she was still in elementary school during the peak
of frunk and B, the subgenre that upgraded the nineties
(29:04):
mixtape sound. But these eras clearly made a lasting impression.
When Anisia first approached Drama to host Grady Baby and
bring it under his brand, he saw the connection to
He says, the project embodies what hip hop has always
meant to him.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
She words to me.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
When I think about hip hop and culture are nostalgia, evolution,
and reinvention, and in a lot of ways, it's almost
like bringing those three things together.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
By the time Drama signed on for Grady Baby, Anisia
only had one request, talk your shit and make it
as Atlanta as possible. He does exactly that on those scrubs,
weaving in nods to old clubs like Figure eight and
then nearly abandoned.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Greenbrier Mark.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Somebody Tacos.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
For Drama.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Anisia doesn't just represent nostalgia for past hip hop eras
she represents the future too.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
She's a part of the Atlanta legacy where I'm talking
about how every couple of years, like this new breed
of MC of artists bursts onto the scene and creates
this whole new cultural dominance for the city.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
After years of darkness in Atlanta, he says, folks are
finally recognizing the city's successors. Anisia's Grady Baby reminded Atlanta
that our past is worth holding on to and building on.
Her mixtape brought back the joy of the two thousands
and the intimacy of those bootleg CDs you burn with
your friends. It proved but drama has always known mixtapes
(30:43):
or where Atlanta discovers who it is, and Ansia isn't
the only one reaching back to move the city forward.
Because while Grady Baby reintroduced Crankinbee to a new generation,
another mixtape was bubbling up when that tapped into a
different era of Atlanta, into nostalgia, a reminder of the
years when the city felt light, loud, and unshakeably fun.
(31:07):
That mixtape was metro Boomin's A Futuristic Summer.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
So I loved it so much, I was like, why
the fuck am I out on this? Like, what the
hell did we mean? What is wrong with y'all?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Anisi is talking about a futuristic summer? Another mixtape released
this year, when that has been taking over clubs and
strip clubs for months.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
I told him if they could put it on a
tip and get that motherfucker punctured inside of my brain
and I could just play them or about had.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Some theme music.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
But metro Booman announced the project, it rang out like
a bad signal for my people, and by my people,
I mean anyone who was a teenager or young adult
in Atlanta during the late two thousands and early twenty
tens the title alone, nods to the local futuristic era
were swagged out artists like Rich Kids and Roscoe Dash.
Sported polos and delivered melodic rhymes that blended the legacies
(32:07):
of Atlanta rap.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And white Boy prepe.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Before I ever heard a single song, I had an
expectation of what it should sound like. The trackless promised
collaborations with Rosco Dash, Schooly of Ridge Kid, Travis Porter,
and Young Drug Waenside. Thank you Yeah, sign me up immediately.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Anisia's yelling is appropriate.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
In my opinion, Metro absolutely nailed the concept, even if
folks who aren't familiar with Atlanta culture from this era
didn't immediately understand it. Metro didn't rely on samples for
this one. The beats are brand new, but he explicitly
tapped into the late two thousands of Atlanta. This is
(32:54):
for the folks who partied in Atlanta during that time,
and by partying, I don't mean sitting in a second
looking cute, I mean full body dancing. Hosted by DJ Spins,
a futuristic Samma plays like a love letter to locals
who feel like the city has morphed into something unrecognizable
and maybe that's why Metro released it as a mixtape
(33:15):
and not a traditional album. It's playful and intentionally communal.
Metro was having fun making music with his friends, like
the legacy trap producer is Atoven.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
I knew it was something special as soon as I've
seen all the familiar faces that was in the room.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
The process felt nostalgic for Zetoven too.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
It's similar how I used to have my mama's basement,
which is all the artists just over all the time,
just that it was that fun party energy.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
In that basement.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Setoven produced a series of projects, some of the mixtapes
as Drama worked to introduce the masses to artists like Jeez.
Stoven introduced us to Gucci Man, O j De, Juice
Man and Migos. They wrapped about the trap, yes, but
they were also playful and fun this time around. Along
with bringing back Gucci and Quavo, Zay and Metro brought
(34:03):
in two new female acts, Yknice and Bunnabe Hits Shit.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
He liked the way y'all know, we're using the old
keyboards and old drum machines from back then, So I
was like, oh, this is right up my alley. I
Know It's gonna be something special.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
It's a true mashup of old Atlanta, pulling from the
city's different party scenes, sometimes reaching back to the nineties
when Booty Shake bass and Call and Responds club music
set the tone. That energy comes through on the track Butterflies.
And then there's day Want to Have Fun, which brings
together a twenty tens Avenger style lineup Travis Porter, Young Droe,
(34:43):
and Gucci May. By the time the beat morphs from
a strip club opus to a trap anthem Saytoven's churchy
Organs are already nestled into the production, teasing what's to come.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Scootam Man World, shots to your earl, and girls having Fun,
Girls Kiss.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
But a futuristic summa isn't just nostalgia. It's a reminder
of how Atlanta's veterans and newcomers have always been in
conversation with one another. My favorite track, take Me Through There,
feels like Quevo passing the baton to Yk Nice, both
of them determined to remind folks of the city's culture
and energy. It's crazy to see how one summer has
(35:30):
shifted the vibe here in Atlanta. It's reminded our legendary
artists of who they are and their impact.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
And it's shown our new.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Acts how we always come together to push our culture
into the future. Because when Atlanta wins, we all win.
This summer Betoven didn't just get a boost from A
Futuristic Summa. Pluto and yk Nie is when Whemmy, a
true song of the Summer contender, revived a deep cut
(35:58):
he produced in twenty twelve for OJ Juice Man. This
revival has made him revisit his catalog because he knows
folks are still listening.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
That's all I'm doing is going in, pulling up the
old beasts and maybe making the drumshit a little harder maybe,
and an organ riff in it that I didn't have
in it. Nothing a lot is just real minute stuff
that I feel like, okay now the beat is all
the way complete.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The way of Futuristic Summer helped Atlanta find itself again.
It's the same idea Anitia used on Grady Baby, and
it's the same philosophy behind Gangster Girls too. Drummas as
mixtapes like A Futuristic Summer are keeping the legacy of
mixtapes alive in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
Mixtape as an art form could have been eradicated or
non existent if it wasn't for new artists embracing that
nostalgia or continuing to keep these legacies alive.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
This process is keeping nostalgia. Ala reminds me a lot
of Atlanta, an imperfect city that's always influx and always
in conversation with its past and future.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Atlanta ain't just the city, It's a living embodiment of
rising to the occasion, from the church fuse to the
trap house, from the barbershop to the films that we
don't watch this city reinvent itself time and time again,
every block, every beat. We don'et seeing preachers become influences,
(37:33):
students turn heartbreaking the resurrection. We done see dreamers bring
Hollywood to the South. We've seen artists billed stages from
nothing but concrete and courage, and the next generation carry
that sound, that attitude, and that soul forward at Loanta
don't just change. It evolves with every rise, in every fall,
(37:54):
in every club that close. So wherever you find yourself
in the future, keep it Lona in yard, remember its
spirit of reinvention, that Southern shine, and that faith it
was to come next. Because Atlanta isn't done telling this story.
It's just writing the next verse. In the Song of
Its Legacy. This episode was written, reported, and produced by
(38:23):
Juel Wicker, with additional production from Maurice Garland and Christina Lee.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Our.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Supervising producer and editor is Shiva Bayatt. Our Managing producers
are Rose Through Liney bacon O, Mary Graham, and Shamara Rochester.
Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin. Original theme
music by aman Soota. Sound designed by Siva Bayatt and
aman Soot, mixed and master by a mind Sohota. Fact
(38:52):
checking done by Sean Setero. Clearance counsel Donnison Khalif Perez,
Lisa Khalif.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And Jacqueline Sweat.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Executive producers for will Packer Media a Will Packer and
Alex Bowden. Co producer for will pack Of Media is
Nimmi Mohan. Executive producers for Complex are Jack Irwin and
Norah Callahan Beller, Head of talent relations for Complex. It's
Anthony Already Special thanks to Tyler Klan, Tyre Harrison, Chris Senator,
(39:25):
Noams Griffin, and Candice Howard.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I'm Big Rude peacet
Atlanta is yesterday and tomorrow at the same down time.
Now these nineties.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Babies are the adults.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So nostalgia that I've been expanded to include reminiscence of
the early two thousands, from Edward J to DJ Drama
making mixtapes to Grady Babies making matchups on the Internet.
What once was never dies, It lives on in the present.
Atlanta has no future without the past that makes it possible.
(00:32):
A big rule, and Atlanta is futuristic nostalgia.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
For the last five years, Atlanta's music scene has carried
an unshakable weight take off.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
A beloved entertainer shot dead early Tuesday morning after a
party in Houston.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Early a month after his passing.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
A cause of death has now been released for Atlanta
rapper rich hokwon.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
All right and at rest in peace to Little Kid.
He has died at the age of twenty four.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
A reptive.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
A scene once defined by its consistency and brilliance was
suddenly in the spotlight for horrific losses promising artists taken
before their time.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Legends gone too soon, but.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
The city of Atlanta is mourning the loss of local
hip hop pioneer Rico Wade tonight with ten. Atlanta hip
hop icon dj Unk has died at forty two.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Timsy reports The Round.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I was covering Atlanta's music scene through all of this,
and I won't lie. The energy felt heavy, like the
whole city was in mourning, trying to figure out what
to do with its grief.
Speaker 7 (01:39):
It really felt like, you know, the last couple of
years had been a dark cloud over the city.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
DJ Drama was feeling it too.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It placed the city in a space that we weren't
used to. You know, it didn't feel like home.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's a big statement from someone whose home has been
Atlanta for the last thirty years, who's played a huge
role in platforming local artists through mixtapes like its infamous
Gangster Girl series.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
To the world, we looked unified and you know that changed.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But the way Drama sees it, this dark cloud, this
moment of uncertainty, it's just another opportunity for a rebirth,
a chance for Atlanta, a city once symbolized by the phoenix,
to burn itself down and rebuild from the rubble.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Every two years, Atlanta literally like blows itself up and
creates this new sound from Damn Near Dungeon Family on
from Bluda to Tip to Jiezi to Gucci to Chains
to Future the Negos to Thug to Yadi to Kardi
and got it Like.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's just there's.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
Always these new breed of artists that takes the world
by storm.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So who's next? After so much loss? What could make
the city feel like itself again? What sound could cut
through the heaviness and bring joy? In the summer of
twenty twenty five, two mixtapes stood out as answers Grady
Baby from the rising star Anisia and the first woman
from Atlanta to have our own gangster girls.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Mixtape, Baby Go Get Some Money.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And a futuristic Summer from the city's legendary producer Metro.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Bobek Save Me That.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
You.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Both projects lean into the city's nostalgic sound from the
two thousands and twenty tens, before the dark cloud crept
in from party music like crunkin Bee Snap, then rockstar
rap poured through car speakers skating rinks in the clubs.
Mixtapes have always been something special in the South. Not
only were they pivotal in getting our music heard across
(03:45):
the country in the world, they've given artists room to
experiment been the rules musically and build momentum catching major
label's attention. So for our final episode of the series,
we're looking back at the rise of mixtape culture in Atlanta,
how DJ Drama's iconic Gangster Grill series was born, and
(04:05):
how that blueprint created a path for newcomers like Anicia
to carry the city's.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Sound into a new era.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And we'll dive into the party sounds that Metro Boomin
taps into to bring joy back to the city. For
black folks, a period of morning is usually followed by celebration.
This story is no different. I'm Jewel Wicker. This is
episode eight of Atlanta Is. Our story begins, like so
(04:34):
many of Atlanta's great stories do, at the Atlanta University Center.
It's the mid nineties. Outcasts Southern playlistic Cadillac Music has
just dropped.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
DJ Drama.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Tyree Simmons back then is a teenager from Philly tagging
along with his dad, a noted civil rights activist, Michael Simmons,
who is in town for a convention. Here Drama discovers
Atlanta in the National Black Arts Festival.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I really just had never experienced anything like what was
going on in the city as far as you know,
seeing so many young, black, affluent creatives and all walks
of life.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That image impacted him so much that he returned a
few years later, this time as a Clark Atlanta University student.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Before I was known around the globe, I was known
in the AUC.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Relocating to Atlanta allowed Drama to connect with young creatives,
the types of people like the ones he first saw
at the Arts Festival.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
The AUC is such a melting pot of people of
color from so many different places, with so many dreams
and aspirations and ideas and hustles and ambitions.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Drama wasted no time When he got to Atlanta. He
was into djaying, but within the first week he was
already battling other DJs around campus. In his sophomore year,
he met his current business partner in Generation Now founder
Don Cannon.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
He was literally running around his freshman year my sophomore
year trying to befirm me, and I kind of was like,
come on, young boy, like I'm busy, you know what
I'm saying. And he was like, yo, I make beats
on DJ too. I'm from Philly, And I was like, Yeah,
that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Drama ended up listening to some of Cannon's beats reluctantly
that shit was fire.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
He was like baby DJ Premire at the time.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
The pair quickly became inseparable.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But while other DJs were busy battling or crafting beats,
Drama was laser focused on one thing, making mixtapes. Mixtapes
have evolved a lot since they were first created in
the nineteen seventies, just like hip hop itself. By the
mid nineties, they were almost like what playlists are today,
just a lot more analog.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
The original first mixtapes that were created were literally live
recordings of DJs in the clubs that were then put
on the cassettes that dope boys and hustlers would cop
off the DJ to ride around New York City.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Mixtape shifted over time.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
In the early two thousands, artists like fifty Cent used
them as demos to get the attention of the music industry,
and it works. In the streaming era, a mixtape is
almost a marketing term, a nod to the freedom and
experimentation of old mixtape culture. Today, once a project hits
(07:30):
streaming platforms, you can't even tell the difference between a
mixtape and an album. But back when Drama was coming up,
he'd hand picked songs and create different playlists or, as
he says, tapes and sell them on the AUC campus.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I would have an up North hip hop tape. I
would have a down South hip hop tape. I would
have a reggae tape. I would have a neo soul tape.
Even before the term neo soul existed.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Drama was now living down South, but carried the culture
from up North with him.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
With the due respect, I wasn't listening to what was
coming out of Atlanta when it came to mixtapes. I
was listening to who Kid and Green Lantern and Clue
and those guys and watching what they were doing how
they were doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
But Atlanta did have its own mixtape history that started
long before Drama settled into his clerk Atlanta dorm, and
soon he'd become a part of this lineage. Before gangster grills,
before Drama's drops echoed through clubs and car speakers, Atlanta's
mixtape foundation was being built by two crews who practically
split the city in half, Oom Camp on the west
(08:41):
side and the J Team on the east side.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I mean, when I got here, Edward J Was running
the game.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
DJ Jelly is from oom Camp.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
He's a Saint Louis transplant turned Atlanta legend who worked
everywhere from teen clubs to Magic City and Hot ninety
seven point five. His tape were full of eight oo
eight's and the sounds of Atlanta based music. Jelly moved
to Atlanta in nineteen eighty nine. He'd stumbled across an
article about Bobby Brown's recording studio in his mother's copy
of Essence magazine. When he touched down here, he got
(09:13):
a short lived internship at the studio and eventually linked
up with MC Assault, a guy with a dream of
making a name for himself through mixtapes.
Speaker 8 (09:25):
Salt sublimely when they hear the tapes, say Cake, you're
hearing my name Jelly, The MC is Salt, so people
would know us.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Together, the pair wanted to build an empire. They crossed
paths with Big Oom and Atlanta hustler and real estate entrepreneur.
With his financial backing, they formed oom Camp, a collective
that would eventually turn into a label and promote artists
like dj Unk, who died earlier this year, but in
two thousand and six, with the help of Andre three
(09:52):
thousand in t Payne. He had the whole world walking
it out, but Boom Camp's rise in the early nineties
hidden an immediate.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
Obstacle with j was like this east Side mix tape Kingpin.
He had like Smurf Yeah, Kizzie Rock, had a bunch
of DJs up under him and they would basically run.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
In the Atlanta King Edward J, as he was known
back then, ran the East Side.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Gonnack.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
He started with the record store in the eighties, but
when sales weren't cutting it, he began making his own
mixes and selling them at his store. His crew, the
J Team, dominated with tapes like Bedroom Boom, Take a
guest to what that sounded like?
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Slow Jam blends that the crew would talk over Boom
Come on Girl with J saying.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
By the nineties, Edward J was a mixtape legend and
oot Camp was ready to challenge him. But instead of
copying the J Team, Jelly built on their blueprint, flipping
slow O, R and B vocals over fast paced beats,
creating a distinctly Atlanta sound that would eventually become the
DNA behind songs like ghost Town DJs My Boo. A rivalry,
(11:18):
or call it healthy competition was brewing, two crews fighting
for the sound of the city. Jelly says oot Camp
came to the west side of Atlanta, but Edward j
was to the East side.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
We would be on the streets Sunday through Sunday, like
we would sell the dope on the West side and
we would just hand the foot We'd take our book
bags and we go sell it. Say hey, we got
this tape we got ed with j looking like a bitch.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You know, that'd be something that was our pits.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
They sold a lot of mixtapes this way, and.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
We would sell thousands and thousands of mixtapes and cassettes.
We were literally supporting all of our families off of
those mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
The East Side to J team had some incredible DJs,
including He's he Goes Why Mister Collie Park These Days.
When Smurf returned from college, oom Camp was revving up
a mixtape.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
War broke out.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
Smurf made a tape called Jelly Going Fishing and it
was basically a light diss on me.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Bum Camp responded with their mixtape one seven.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
We basically had all our rappers rap and talk about
them bad and you.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Know, played the Duzen and then we dissed them. We
just the whole jt.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
This rivalry kept Atlanta fresh with mixtapes, and oom Camp
expanded to physical stores on the West Side and eventually beyond.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
They were selling their tapes at the flea market on Old.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
National at Greenbrier Mall, then throughout the South, and when
college students from the AUC went back home, they take
those tapes back with them, spreading Atlanta's sound. By the
time DJ Drama arrived at the AUC, the mixtape war
had cooled. Edward Jay's Rain was winding down.
Speaker 7 (12:58):
I kind of missed their era of domination, but when
I got to Atlanta, it was pretty much oom Camp
like on the streets. Jelly Amante had the mixtape game on.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Smash, and now a kid from Philly with a love
for blends and a hunger to make his mark was
about to take the mixtape to a whole new level.
Gangster Grills didn't start as a grand plan. It started
because Drama needed a Southern mixtape to sell it Hot
ninety seven point five's Birthday Bash one year in the
early two thousands.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
And Jelly and them were probably like four or five
boosts down from US.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Drama was with his business partner Don Cannon, that made
just enough money to pay off their own booths.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
But Oom Camp, I'm watching literally in front of my
eyes these guys like make tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Drama had always loved mixtapes. Now he was seeing firsthand
how they could be a serious business. Around this time,
he and Don Cannon were part of super Friends, a
collective of auc DJs who would go on to have
huge careers. DJ Mars, the group's founder, is currently Usher's
tour DJ. DJ Trauma does shows with Dave Chappelle. Back then,
(14:11):
Drama says the collective's focus was on dominating.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
The clubs, not mixtapes.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
He recalls a time when he attempted to get sponsorship
money for his tapes.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
This particular woman who had a lot of corporate sponsors
at the time, and then we get sponsorships to promote
parties and do things, and we went to her trying
to get her to sponsor our mixtapes. And I remember
literally Mars saying to me, Yo, don't go to her
to waste sponsorship money on mixtapes. Like oom Camp has
(14:43):
that shit on smash, Like there's no competition like let.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Them have that.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
They didn't see eye to eye on this, Drama says
he and Cannon eventually got kicked out of super Friends, but.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
He kept going.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
But in a matter of years, Gangster Grills became the
Southern mixtape the one artist fought to be on. Drama
graduated from Clark, Atlanta. He moved into a duplex in
the old fourth Board on Glenn Irish Drive.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I mean it's this dingy old crib.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
That dingy crib was where Gangster Grills was born. In
the studio, it was in a.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Room where people keep their.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Washer and dryer inside that cramped laundry room. Drama brought
the style of the up North tapes he loved, but
paired it with a reverence for Southern MC's on the Rise.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I was also a very very very huge fan obviously
of what was coming out of Atlanta and what was
coming out of the South musically, because I had now
been down here for five, six, seven years, and you know,
I wanted to put the South on my back in
a sense and to show like yo, the South guy
(15:46):
spinners too.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
People were taking notice.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
One day, Drama says he got a call from a
guy named Jason Jeter, who'd come across one of his
mixtapes in a barber shop and jotted his phone number
down from the back of the CD case. He was
working with a young rapper that he really thought Drama
needed to hear. This was the first time someone had
actually pitched an artist in him. He invited Jeter in.
The rapper, a man who was going by tip to
(16:10):
his duplex on Glen Iris.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
It was very quiet. I remember we had these bi.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Vocals on inside his makeshift studio. The young MC spit
a freestyle.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
He picked this Jay z Rockefeller for the fan beat,
and he wrapped eight or sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Bars, despite not having a single hit record yet. He
ended the rap with a bold statement. He called himself
the King of the South. At this point, Gangster Grills
was more of a compilation tape. It didn't have freestyles,
but Drama kept working with the Young MC would eventually
become known as TI. Soon a Gangster Grills tape would
(16:47):
raise TI's profile. The mixtape included bone Crushers Never Scared
featuring Killer Mike, and a breakout first from the self
proclaimed King of the South kiss.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
No Way to Take Own Man by your supplied.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
It was a hit.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Still, it would be years before others started calling t
I the King of the South.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
By two thousand and.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Four, Gangster Grills had come a long way. Drama had
enlisted Little John to make his iconic.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Stamps Great Zeals, and.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The mixtape was proving to be a vehicle for breaking
and celebrating Southern rappers like Young Giz, who approached Drama
about having a Gangster Grills tape of his own, But
Drama had no idea who he was back then, and
he didn't think the rapper was ready for his own tape.
Jes persisted and offered to pay and well when he talks.
(17:42):
Their first tape, Streets Is Watching, was released in two
thousand and four, and the next year they released Chopper
Die Holding a GZ said he couldn't go to a
gas station without seeing his tapes being sold.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
They were everywhere.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
The tapes helped build hype for Jez's two thousand and
five major label debut Let's Get It Doug Motivation one
oh one, which landed at number two on Billboard's Album Chart.
Then in two thousand and six, they released the Can't
Ban the Snowman mixtape. By this point, GZ was a
bona fide star, expanding the reach of Gangster Grills, but
(18:24):
also using the tapes as an alternative path to showcase
his talents to the industry. But there's one more artist
Gangster Grills turned into a superstar. Lowayne had hits as
a member of the Hot Boys with songs like I
Need a Hot Girl.
Speaker 6 (18:39):
Ya Said a Hot draw bands scoted, but.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
The group disbanded, leaving Wayne and his career in limbo.
Through Wayne's dedication series with Drama, he reinvented himself. Drama
served his host yelling and hyping listeners up Bill Wayne
freestyled over a popular.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
People how did you motherfuck?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Does this?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Weezza be Niggaspichen.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And Wayne's dedication series under the Gangster Grills brand the
fine mixtape culture in the mid odds, mixtape Wheezy, as
he was known, was a force. Other artists were either
upset that he hopped on their records, effectively making it his,
or they were tapped into his marketing powers. Sometimes a
(19:26):
Wayne freestyle would end up on an official remix of
the original song. By this time, Drama wasn't just a
staple for the rap underground. The music industry was starting
to see gangster grills as a legitimate marketing tool.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
When record labels are planning an artist's rollout, it was like,
all right, you gotta go on one of six a park,
you gotta be on double XL, and you gotta have
a gangster grills.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Drama wasn't just breaking stars, he was becoming one himself.
He was getting calls from the biggest and best in
the business and got a record deal at Atlantic. Things
could been going better. The morning of January sixteenth, two
thousand and seven, promised to be more of the same
for the DJ. He was at his Walker Street studio
with his business partner Don Cannon, plus a few of
(20:12):
the college students stayed hired as interns from the AUC
and some other folks.
Speaker 7 (20:16):
We were working on my album at the time, trying
to make sure all the records for the album were
coming together.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But then Drama got a call from someone at Grand
Hustle TI's company. The callers said they'd gotten a tip
from a family member who'd worked with local police.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
They told me, like, yo, it just got word that
they're about to come rage on. I still didn't fathom it.
I come raid us, Like for what.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Raid why would police want to raid the office of
a DJ? The tip was right. Drama says he stepped
outside and immediately heard helicopters swirling overhead. Police cars surrounded him,
and officers approached, guns drawn. Drum and Cannon were arrested
for selling quote unquote illegal The Recording Industry Association of America,
(21:04):
a trade group representing Drama's colleagues at labels and music.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Companies, were somehow involved.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Drama says he was out on bond before he even
began to realize the gravity of what was happening.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
Tip was one of the first calls I made when
I got back to my house. He asked me if
I checked my bank account and I was like, what
you mean? And he was like, bro, they hit you
with the RICO. You know, at the time, I didn't
know shit about what RICO was, and he was like,
go check your bank account.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That was what.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
I logged on the back of america dot com and saw.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
My shit said zero point zero zero.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Drama and Cannon were being charged under Georgia's Racketeer, Influence
and Corrupt Organizations law. This was a charge usually reserved
her mobsters, not DJs. Sure these quote unquote illegal CDs
had been unauthorized compilation tapes, and they featured copyrighted material
when an artist what freestyle over an existing song?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
But rico.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It turns out not everyone in the music industry saw
Drama as a marketing genius. Being hit with that kind
of charge is usually the worst thing that can happen
to a person, but this is show biz, and all
publicity is good publicity.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
Maybe a day or two later, I got a phone
call from Atlantic and they were damn there, like head
over heels with excitement, like yo, you can't pay for
this type of publicity, Like how soon can you get
the album out?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Drama was widely known before he'd been arrested, but he
set the raid to get celebrity status to new heights.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I was like, oh, yeah, this shit is the best
thing that ever happened in my career.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Gangster Grills survived, Drama survived, and the legacy of Atlanta
mixtapes didn't just continue, it expanded.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
It's incredible to think about today, but.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
In the chaotic aftermath of the two thousand and seven raid,
Drama probably couldn't imagine Gangster Grills extending into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Nothing came of the rico charges.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Authorities never officially dismissed the case, but they stopped pursuing it.
In the irony, the attention only made Gangster Grills bigger.
Suddenly the brand wasn't just influential, it was now infamous,
a symbol of how the music industry the establishment benefited
from what the underground created, but never fully embraced or
respected it.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Requests kept coming.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
The twenty tens brought artists like two Chains, Meek Mill,
Chris Brown, and Kevin Gates all lining up for a
Gangster Grill's tape, and Drama and Cannon launched their own
record label, Generation Now, signing rappers like lul luzi Vert
and Jack Carlow. And then in twenty twenty La rappers
Tyler the Creator enlisted Drama and paid homage to Gangster
(23:43):
Grills with the album call Me If You Get Lost, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
To the Disc, Golf and Willie's and Shit if You
Lost per feew Moments Again.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It won Tyler a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
First off, I'm hyped.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Thank you to J Drama.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
You are fucking so important rap music.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Back in two thousand and seven, while Drama was navigating
raids and Rico charges. A nine year old girl in
South Atlanta was attending a Christian school. She wasn't thinking
about mixtapes, but one day she'd become an artist who
played a role in pushing gangster grills to a new,
younger generation.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Her name is Ansia.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
The other day I was actually scrat y'all talking to
chat GBT, and you know it's bad when that bitch
tell you she like, I don't think basically, in my words,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Think you take that shit serious.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Like you really the first lady to have a Gangster
Girls take in Atlanta, George, you have a whole guess girl,
so like that is a part of history, Like that's
what separates you from a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I was like, oh, what bitch you wright.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Anitia is the latest braggadocious rapper out of Atlanta, and
she's hilarious from the moment you meet her. Her aura
is luminous, her voice booms, filling up any space she
occupies or is drama puts it.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Her energy becomes the energy of the room in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Her twenty twenty five Gangster Girls project Grady Baby isn't
just a mixtape but a portal back to a bygone
era before the grief of the last few years settled over.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
Atlanta, get your money, it's your Daminds are our flawless niggas.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I called her up to talk about the mixtape and
what she represents in this era of Atlanta music. When
we speak virtually, she's lounging in her living room wearing
a baggy T shirt with her face on it. She
I said she can smoke a blunt.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
I certainly if you smoke, your blink.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
And then motions as if she's handing it to me
through the screen. I don't smoke, but I'm not about
to admit that out loud and blow this bonding moment.
I want us to have a good time.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
I want us to talk. We had a great time.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Anisia grew up around strong, opinionated women. Her mom was
a hairstylist, which gave her a ton of access to
listen and learn from adults about what fascinated them but
also what gave them stress and next time with.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
My Barbie Dolls all business.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
She wasn't just at work with her mom, she was
outside with her aunties too.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
That's how it started with Shirley Temples because it made
me feel like I had a drink, so like I've been.
When I think about it, I really think about like
the fact that I was, really I've been outside.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
She remembers her mom getting bootleg mixes they called them
mixtapes back then at the gas station with a full
tank and a new soundtrack full of two thousands R
and B. They'd ride around town with a top down
and they're white convertible. This feeling, this era is the
inspiration behind her mixtape, Grady Baby.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Even the title was her mom's idea.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Grady Baby is a popular phrase here and a nod
to the hospital where Anisia was born. Having Grady Memorial
Hospital on your birth certificate is like having a stamp
that cements just how Atlanta you are.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
And that's like how you know, like, Okay, oh you're
from Atlanta. For I ain't gotta say too much. I'm
a Grady Baby, shut up.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Grady is located in the center of downtown Atlanta. Big
names like Spike Lee and Killer Mike were born there,
so we're a bunch of regular folks like my mom
and grandma. My granny used to call it the Gradys.
Because when she was born in the twenties, there were
two wings, one for black residents and one for whites.
Over the years, as newer hospitals open, Grady picked up
(27:18):
the reputation that many public downtown hospitals often curate this
stigma that is the place you go if you're low
income or don't have insurance.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
But one thing they cannot ever play with Gretdy about
Gretty is number one for trauma response. Baby. They would
save your mother's fucking life.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Anisia wanted to wear the badge of being a Grady
baby with the honor and pride so many folks here feel.
The mixtape is built around popular samples from the two thousands,
most of them from Atlanta artists, where some samples transformed
the original sound into something completely new and unrecognizable. An
easiest version of sampling says true to its source material.
(27:54):
She wants you to hear the direct link between her
and the local artists who have inspired her work. Like Nivea,
you can hear her two thousand and four songs Okay
Slipped into Peekaboo, Cute Cute, and Little John and the
East Side Boys two thousand and one song Nothing's free.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
It's turned into so fine.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Really fine.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I ain't worry about a nigga. I'm Chris about she.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
These simples have one thing in common. They come from
the era when Atlanta was making R and B crunk.
The idea was simple, what if we could take the
energy of the music folks for throwing bowse to in
the clubs like the five five nine in Southwest Atlanta
in the mid nineties, and blended with the emotions and
melodies of contemporary soul for the new millennium. That's how
(28:43):
you get a song like Sierra's Goodies, which launched crunk
and be to the masses. Anisia wasn't even born when
DJs first started mixing the smooth voices of R and
B singers with high energy Atlanta bass and crunk music,
and she was still in elementary school during the peak
of frunk and B, the subgenre that upgraded the nineties
(29:04):
mixtape sound. But these eras clearly made a lasting impression.
When Anisia first approached Drama to host Grady Baby and
bring it under his brand, he saw the connection to
He says, the project embodies what hip hop has always
meant to him.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
She words to me.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
When I think about hip hop and culture are nostalgia, evolution,
and reinvention, and in a lot of ways, it's almost
like bringing those three things together.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
By the time Drama signed on for Grady Baby, Anisia
only had one request, talk your shit and make it
as Atlanta as possible. He does exactly that on those scrubs,
weaving in nods to old clubs like Figure eight and
then nearly abandoned.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Greenbrier Mark.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Somebody Tacos.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
For Drama.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Anisia doesn't just represent nostalgia for past hip hop eras
she represents the future too.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
She's a part of the Atlanta legacy where I'm talking
about how every couple of years, like this new breed
of MC of artists bursts onto the scene and creates
this whole new cultural dominance for the city.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
After years of darkness in Atlanta, he says, folks are
finally recognizing the city's successors. Anisia's Grady Baby reminded Atlanta
that our past is worth holding on to and building on.
Her mixtape brought back the joy of the two thousands
and the intimacy of those bootleg CDs you burn with
your friends. It proved but drama has always known mixtapes
(30:43):
or where Atlanta discovers who it is, and Ansia isn't
the only one reaching back to move the city forward.
Because while Grady Baby reintroduced Crankinbee to a new generation,
another mixtape was bubbling up when that tapped into a
different era of Atlanta, into nostalgia, a reminder of the
years when the city felt light, loud, and unshakeably fun.
(31:07):
That mixtape was metro Boomin's A Futuristic Summer.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
So I loved it so much, I was like, why
the fuck am I out on this? Like, what the
hell did we mean? What is wrong with y'all?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Anisi is talking about a futuristic summer? Another mixtape released
this year, when that has been taking over clubs and
strip clubs for months.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
I told him if they could put it on a
tip and get that motherfucker punctured inside of my brain
and I could just play them or about had.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Some theme music.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
But metro Booman announced the project, it rang out like
a bad signal for my people, and by my people,
I mean anyone who was a teenager or young adult
in Atlanta during the late two thousands and early twenty
tens the title alone, nods to the local futuristic era
were swagged out artists like Rich Kids and Roscoe Dash.
Sported polos and delivered melodic rhymes that blended the legacies
(32:07):
of Atlanta rap.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And white Boy prepe.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Before I ever heard a single song, I had an
expectation of what it should sound like. The trackless promised
collaborations with Rosco Dash, Schooly of Ridge Kid, Travis Porter,
and Young Drug Waenside. Thank you Yeah, sign me up immediately.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Anisia's yelling is appropriate.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
In my opinion, Metro absolutely nailed the concept, even if
folks who aren't familiar with Atlanta culture from this era
didn't immediately understand it. Metro didn't rely on samples for
this one. The beats are brand new, but he explicitly
tapped into the late two thousands of Atlanta. This is
(32:54):
for the folks who partied in Atlanta during that time,
and by partying, I don't mean sitting in a second
looking cute, I mean full body dancing. Hosted by DJ Spins,
a futuristic Samma plays like a love letter to locals
who feel like the city has morphed into something unrecognizable
and maybe that's why Metro released it as a mixtape
(33:15):
and not a traditional album. It's playful and intentionally communal.
Metro was having fun making music with his friends, like
the legacy trap producer is Atoven.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
I knew it was something special as soon as I've
seen all the familiar faces that was in the room.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
The process felt nostalgic for Zetoven too.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
It's similar how I used to have my mama's basement,
which is all the artists just over all the time,
just that it was that fun party energy.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
In that basement.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Setoven produced a series of projects, some of the mixtapes
as Drama worked to introduce the masses to artists like Jeez.
Stoven introduced us to Gucci Man, O j De, Juice
Man and Migos. They wrapped about the trap, yes, but
they were also playful and fun this time around. Along
with bringing back Gucci and Quavo, Zay and Metro brought
(34:03):
in two new female acts, Yknice and Bunnabe Hits Shit.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
He liked the way y'all know, we're using the old
keyboards and old drum machines from back then, So I
was like, oh, this is right up my alley. I
Know It's gonna be something special.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
It's a true mashup of old Atlanta, pulling from the
city's different party scenes, sometimes reaching back to the nineties
when Booty Shake bass and Call and Responds club music
set the tone. That energy comes through on the track Butterflies.
And then there's day Want to Have Fun, which brings
together a twenty tens Avenger style lineup Travis Porter, Young Droe,
(34:43):
and Gucci May. By the time the beat morphs from
a strip club opus to a trap anthem Saytoven's churchy
Organs are already nestled into the production, teasing what's to come.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Scootam Man World, shots to your earl, and girls having Fun,
Girls Kiss.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
But a futuristic summa isn't just nostalgia. It's a reminder
of how Atlanta's veterans and newcomers have always been in
conversation with one another. My favorite track, take Me Through There,
feels like Quevo passing the baton to Yk Nice, both
of them determined to remind folks of the city's culture
and energy. It's crazy to see how one summer has
(35:30):
shifted the vibe here in Atlanta. It's reminded our legendary
artists of who they are and their impact.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
And it's shown our new.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Acts how we always come together to push our culture
into the future. Because when Atlanta wins, we all win.
This summer Betoven didn't just get a boost from A
Futuristic Summa. Pluto and yk Nie is when Whemmy, a
true song of the Summer contender, revived a deep cut
(35:58):
he produced in twenty twelve for OJ Juice Man. This
revival has made him revisit his catalog because he knows
folks are still listening.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
That's all I'm doing is going in, pulling up the
old beasts and maybe making the drumshit a little harder maybe,
and an organ riff in it that I didn't have
in it. Nothing a lot is just real minute stuff
that I feel like, okay now the beat is all
the way complete.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The way of Futuristic Summer helped Atlanta find itself again.
It's the same idea Anitia used on Grady Baby, and
it's the same philosophy behind Gangster Girls too. Drummas as
mixtapes like A Futuristic Summer are keeping the legacy of
mixtapes alive in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
Mixtape as an art form could have been eradicated or
non existent if it wasn't for new artists embracing that
nostalgia or continuing to keep these legacies alive.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
This process is keeping nostalgia. Ala reminds me a lot
of Atlanta, an imperfect city that's always influx and always
in conversation with its past and future.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Atlanta ain't just the city, It's a living embodiment of
rising to the occasion, from the church fuse to the
trap house, from the barbershop to the films that we
don't watch this city reinvent itself time and time again,
every block, every beat. We don'et seeing preachers become influences,
(37:33):
students turn heartbreaking the resurrection. We done see dreamers bring
Hollywood to the South. We've seen artists billed stages from
nothing but concrete and courage, and the next generation carry
that sound, that attitude, and that soul forward at Loanta
don't just change. It evolves with every rise, in every fall,
(37:54):
in every club that close. So wherever you find yourself
in the future, keep it Lona in yard, remember its
spirit of reinvention, that Southern shine, and that faith it
was to come next. Because Atlanta isn't done telling this story.
It's just writing the next verse. In the Song of
Its Legacy. This episode was written, reported, and produced by
(38:23):
Juel Wicker, with additional production from Maurice Garland and Christina Lee.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Our.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Supervising producer and editor is Shiva Bayatt. Our Managing producers
are Rose Through Liney bacon O, Mary Graham, and Shamara Rochester.
Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin. Original theme
music by aman Soota. Sound designed by Siva Bayatt and
aman Soot, mixed and master by a mind Sohota. Fact
(38:52):
checking done by Sean Setero. Clearance counsel Donnison Khalif Perez,
Lisa Khalif.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And Jacqueline Sweat.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Executive producers for will Packer Media a Will Packer and
Alex Bowden. Co producer for will pack Of Media is
Nimmi Mohan. Executive producers for Complex are Jack Irwin and
Norah Callahan Beller, Head of talent relations for Complex. It's
Anthony Already Special thanks to Tyler Klan, Tyre Harrison, Chris Senator,
(39:25):
Noams Griffin, and Candice Howard.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I'm Big Rude peacet
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