Crunk: Hip-Hop's Got a New Accent

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As for crunk, it has become the hottest brand in rap. And quite apart from the business, its artists have a voice. They "created something that doesn't sound like [it was made by] a guy from New York or somebody from L.A. It's specific to the South," says U.S.C. professor Todd Boyd, author of The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop. "A big part of hip-hop is about representing, and they want to rep their culture." The Sundance hit Hustle & Flow, about a Memphis, Tenn., pimp who wants to be a rapper, will introduce the sound to an even wider audience and ought to boost collaborators like Memphians Al Kapone and Three 6 Mafia, not to mention Ludacris, who has a pivotal role as a rapper from the streets made good known as Skinny Black. Performers on the sound track--including T.I., Mike Jones (from Houston) and Juvenile (from New Orleans)--will be playing Hustle & Flow concerts in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and New Orleans this summer. Hustle, says co-producer John Singleton proudly, is "the first crunk movie."

The South is still rising. MTV has ordered a reality show called Crunkville. Meanwhile, competition for Lil Jon and company is emerging out of Houston, via a hip-hop twist called screw, a smoother, less frenetic rap that slow-danced its way out of Texas last year when Lil' Flip's Sunshine became a Top 10 pop hit.

Of course, Southern rap didn't just crop up overnight. America got a taste of what the down-home base could deliver in 1989, when Miami's Luther Campbell and his 2 Live Crew rampaged with the hit Me So Horny. But that era's strip-club-and-gospel sensibility was a little too jarring for mainstream tastes, and Campbell ended up retreating to Florida. That didn't daunt innovators like Speech of Arrested Development, Missy Elliott and the Neptunes--all from the South.

The difference now is that Southerners are finally dominating the only American music that didn't originate in their backyard. And that's a reason to get crunk. By Desa Philadelphia