Huntsville International

Being both literate and from Alabama is an interesting experience. Once outside of the south, admitting your heritage will draw quizzical looks if you’re not carrying a pitchfork and wearing overalls, but eventually most people are willing to accept it. Even despite your best efforts, you can never really escape it.  When ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ comes on the radio, you’ll know exactly where to insert “Roll Tide Roll” in the chorus. Despite a long, storied tradition of embarrassment, there are many times when being from Alabama is a point of pride. Cue G-Side.

G-Side has been a part of the Alabama hip-hop scene that has included such talent as 6 Tre Gangsta (of “Fresh” fame), Jackie Chain (did a remix with Kid CuDi), Paper Route Gangstaz (Mixtape with Diplo), and Yelawolf (Featured with Juelz Santana), which has been blowing up on the internet over the past year. From a solid p4k rating and “Best New Music” designation to mentions in Fader and the New York Times, Huntsville’s rap scene has been getting a ton of attention online, but has been unable to convert this into mainstream success thus far.

For Huntsville natives, this transformation has been particularly interesting. For most of us, Huntsville is the home of Wikipedia’s founder and a recession-proof economy, not a place that would give anyone something to rap about. Let’s just say it would tend to look more like this than like this. Despite these hang-ups, G-Side does a great job of putting down these spaced-out, drugged-up tracks with help from the soul-heavy samples of Block Beattaz/Slow Motion Sounds, in an attempt to push Huntsville Rap through to a more significant place in the mainstream Rap scene.

Here are a few highlights with links…

So Gone (mp3)

What It’s All About (mp3)

And some full mixtapes:

Fear and Loathing in Huntsvegas

Huntsville International

P.S.

ROLL FUCKIN’ TIDE!

Tags: g-side, hip hop, huntsville, slow motion soundz