Hip-Hop: 1990s 4
Neighborhood community centers also worked to control and dissipate negative energies within hip-hop culture by creating organizations. These include Project Blowed in the Leimert Park area of the Los Angeles Crenshaw district (founded in 1999) and J.U.i.C.E. (Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy) in the Pico-Union District of Los Angeles (founded in 2001). More national-based organizations include Representing Education Activism and Community through hip-hop (R.E.A.C. hip-hop, founded in 2005, formerly known as the Hip-Hop Coalition) and KRS-One's Temple of Hip-Hop (founded circa 1996). Each of these aims to empower youth with a more holistic and, at times, spiritual approach to hip-hop. Additionally, Russell Simmons and cultural critic Bikari Kitwana started organizations such as the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) (2001) and National Hip-Hop Political Convention (2003), respectively, to enlighten hip-hop youth about political action and economic awareness. Such platforms served as important renewal sites for hip-hop when it seemed to have lost its way to violence, misogyny, and materialism.
As hip-hop approached the turn of the twenty-first century, it continued to diversify. For example, in New Orleans, DJ Jubilee is credited with ushering in a substyle known as "Dirty South" or "bounce," via a remix of Juvenile's " Back that Azz Up" (1998), which appeared on 400 Degreez (1998). The bounce style consists of a sparse musical track emphasizing a pulsing snare drum with a booming kick drum (re)produced on a drum machine. It was exploited in the music of New Orleans by hip-hop artists Master P and his collective, Juvenile, Lil Wayne of the Hot Boys, with Lil Wayne eclipsing the popularity of the Hot Boys as he pursued a solo career.
Other artists categorized as part of the "Dirty South" style include Goodie MOb, OutKast, Ludacris, Lil' Bow Wow, T.I., DJ Smurf, and Soulja Boy (all of Atlanta), Chamillionaire (Houston, Texas), UGK (Port Arthur, Texas), David Banner (Jackson, Mississippi), Trick Daddy and Trina (Miami), Nelly (St. Louis), and Eightball & MJG, and Three 6 Mafia (Memphis). This last group received an Academy Award for the Best Song in a film in 2006 for the single " It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from the film Hustle & Flow (2005).
Three 6 Mafia were also instrumental in developing another substyle of the "Dirty South" scene called crunk, described as "a fusion of Miami bass and Memphis buck-roughneck chants with 808 beats and humming bass" (Sarig 2007, 286). Atlanta's duo OutKast's first used the term crunk on record in their single " Hootie Hoo " (1994). Three 6 Mafia's single " Gette'm Crunk " (1997) helped cement the style. The sound of crunk eventually exploded onto the Atlanta scene when hip-hop producer Lil Jon, self-proclaimed "King of Crunk," and the East Side Boyz together released the single " Who U Wit " (1996). They released the song on Get Crunk: Who Da Wit: Da Album (1997). Other crunk acts produced by Lil Jon in Atlanta include Rasheeda, YingYang Twins, and YoungBloodz.
