Didn't Even Scrape the Bottom of the Goodie Bag!: Review of VH1 Hip Hop Honors: The Dirty South

Just finished watching the VH1 Hip Hop Honors: The Dirty South. While some of the tributes took me back to those great ride-or-die days as a Down South Georgia Girl, VH1 missed the mark. Instead of using this show as a venue to show the depth and appreciation for the richness and tenacity of the southern rap experience, the show presented southern Hip Hop like the South didn’t get dirty until 2000-ish.

That was painfully obvious with audience participation during the tribute to Atlanta based Organize Noize. Goodie Mob’s Khujo Goodie, Cool Breeze, Sleepy Brown, and others who were/are part of the the Dungeon Family got little to no applause or reaction. Why? Because the songs that they performed were (gasp!) in the early 1990s and, arguably, regional classics that did not cross over into national (read: East/West Coast) Hip Hop Culture. With that being said, the show did not honor southern rap culture. It displayed and exploited those few acts that were acceptable representations of southernness. A few quick thoughts and questions, VH1:

--I appreciated the interviews, especially Organized Noize and J. Prince.


--Where the Legends at?!?! A GAPING hole in the honoree lineup was the lack of key pioneers in southern Hip Hop. While legendary acts like OutKast and Scarface declined being honored, other acts like Goodie Mob, Bun B, and 8Ball and MJG, who SHOULD have been honored, were performing for other honorees. Where they do that at?

--You're talking about the “Dirty South” and fail to acknowledge the term’s origins? C’mon, son. Goodie Mob, Track #4 “Dirty South,” Soul Food, 1995.


--You mean to tell me that of all the southern rappers available, you had to recycle performers and borrow from other coasts (and countries)? Kid Rock is the most southern, eastern, western, Midwest, rock-rapper alive. He's been at EVERY Hip Hop Honors. Man must work cheap. Asher Roth performed for Luda. Luda shoulda kicked him in the thoat (yes, no typo, THOAT).


--The intermission segments of “you know you’re southern” re-emphasized those same stereotypes that hinder the south’s progression. Granted, grills, rims, and “scrippers” are part of the culture, but they are not the culture in its entirety.


--The song selection(s) bothered me. The majority of the playlist consisted of songs that were current, not what put these artists on the map. There should have been a better blend to show both history and current day catalogs.


--In similar fashion to Hip Hop discourse, only specific cities represented the entire south: Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Houston. Umm, okay. No shade, no shade but the beauty of regionalism is to be able to include the multidimensional, rounded experience of the dirty south. We got you next time Mississippi and Memphis Tenne-kee.


--Cash Money didn’t even get a glisten off a tooth of a grill during the New Orleans tribute, but you're playing the instrumental of “Lollipop.”

--Jermaine Dupri’s automatic fail with that suggestion that southern rap didn’t arrive until Dem Franchize Boy’s “White Tee.” Taking a cue from Big Boi… “Booooooooooooy stooooop.” That should have been prefaced with “southern rap in the 2000s.” Southern Hip Hop was popping off way before yo patna ‘nem.


--This shoulda been the Jermaine Dupri honors. He had the longest tribute.


--Another automatic fail: Diddy talking about repping New York. Right.


--These tributes were underdeveloped. Less commercials! More music!


--Tribute part 2: How you give a No Limit tribute and not invite Mama Mia X?!??!


--Drake was an EPIC fail for trying to rap Pimp C. Seriously, folk.


-- Saddest part of the show: Trina’s bedazzled granny panties.


If there is ever a round two of Dirty South Hip Hop Honors, please do some research and don’t take the easy route. Deuces.