Forget
about everything you think you
know about Southern
rap and open your ears
to the new sound of the A-Town. “
Everything I do is
different from what’s
going on right now,” says
Stat Quo matter-of-factly. And
Shady/
Aftermath’s newest recruit isn’t just
blowing hot air. Although his
name may suggest the average,
Shady/
Aftermath Records’ first southern artist is anything
but. “
A lot of these
artists are just clones of what’s
come before,” says
Stat from under
the brim of his signature Braves
fitted cap. “
But I
don’t sound like anybody,
especially [anyone] out the
south. Period. I’m setting
the new bar. I’m the way
things should be.”
Ain’t that the truth?
If only every new artist could
spit and sound like
Stat - mixing
style and substance into a mean
brew that’ll force you
to rearrange your thinking about
southern rap. And if only every
rapper was blessed with
Stat’s distinctive flow (even folks
in East Atlanta think his accent is unique),
then you might be able to find
folks on posse cuts as easily
as you can hear
Stat shine in any crowd. And if only
everybody had to impress
Eminem and
Dr. Dre just to get a deal. “
Just
being around the two of them,
you can’t buy that experience,” says
Stat. “
Eminem will just give you those little
techniques on putting words
together, and you’ll be
like, damn, I can literally
make orange rhyme with purple.
And then you fuck with Dre…
and Dre, man,
he just takes what you do to
a whole ’nother level.”
Eminem plus
Dr. Dre is
definitely one vicious combo,
just ask
50 Cent,
the only other artist besides
Stat directly
signed to the rap’s reigning
kings. One listen to
Stat
Quo’s impressive
debut,
Statlanta,
and it’ll quickly become
clear why both
Em and
Dre felt
they had to be involved in the
project. From the frenetic thump
of this spring’s hottest
street single, “
Like
Dat,” to the
dark
DJ Toomp produced anthem, “
I’m
Livin’,”
Statlanta is
packed with enough Southern heat to melt the polar cap.
And
Statlanta’s appeal stretches way beyond
the Georgia State.
With appearances by
Scarface,
Devin the Dude,
Young Buck and
Eminem,
plus production by
Scott
Storch,
Eminem and
Dr. Dre.
Stat’s debut is sure to have heads
buzzing from Bankhead to Brooklyn and beyond. “
Motherfuckers
just be making songs, not albums,” says
Stat. “
But an author doesn’t
write a book and chapter one
don’t have shit to do
with chapter 12. An album has
to be a journey, it has to have
a storyline and it all has to
correlate.”
And
Stat Quo definitely got a story to tell. Atlanta born
and bred, he’s seen all
sides of his red hot hometown,
so whether it’s breaking
down the traps ("
song-tk") or
making the girls in the club
get low (“
Like
Dat”),
Stat’s got it covered. But there’s
more to
Stat than stuntin and flossin’.
The college grad (
Stat earned a double major in international
business and economics from
the University of Florida in 2000) can help those with
their money on their mind get
their mind right ("
song-TK"),
and explore emotional depths
that few MCs would touch (“
Thirty
Minutes”). And
with an ear finely tuned by
a vast catalog of rap classic
- “
I grew up on Outkast, 8Ball & MJG, UGK, Scarface,
plus Wu-Tang, Nas and the
whole Death Row movement, back when everybody
was popping on all cylinders,”
he says - and with
Dre and
Em behind
him, the stage is set, not just
for a classic debut, but for
a legendary career. Such versatility
is all part of
Stat
Quo’s master
plan. “
When people
think about lyricists in the
South, I want my name to come
to their head,” he
says. “
And not just
when they think about the South,
but lyricists period. When people
say who the best damn rappers
period, I want motherfuckas
to say my name.”
So, what you really know about
the Dirty South?
