RAP CAPITAL: AN ATLANTA STORY - JOE COSCARELLI

As you might be able to tell looking back over this blog, I read a lot of books about hip-hop. Just this year I’ve read 2 books about J Dilla and one about DJ Screw (as well as a Eshun book that was partial about rap music). As anyone who listens to rap knows, Atlanta’s got something to say. Arguably the most important rap city of the last 2 decades, the music that is made out of Atlanta is consistently the most popular, interesting and influential music in the genre. Coscarelli, an NYT reporter (which I’ll try not to hold against him), embedded in Atlanta for the last couple of years, riding around with rappers, talking to the people behind the scenes, learning the history and thinking about the music itself and came away with a book that is trying to be many things at once. Firstly, it’s a history of Atlanta rap music and the ways that this music intersects with the history of the city itself. It’s also a chronicle of QC music, the group he spends the most time with. He also tries to put on his cultural critic hat and discuss the trends and meanings woven throughout the music. In that first part, he brings up some interesting tidbits and brings in some fascinating history. I was pretty surprised he begins the book talking about the Atlanta Child Murders, one of the strangest serial-killing incidents in American history that positively radiates with sus vibes (if anyone wants to talk ACM, hit me up, it’s such a weird rabbit-hole), he finds an amazing quote of W.E.B. Debois calling Atliens, “vulgar money-getters”, he briefly explains the history of Freaknik, and outlines, in board sketches, the history of Atlanta music before this current era. Outkast is my favorite group of all time and the history of Atlanta is fascinating (like I said, can never get enough ACM content, Coscarelli doesn’t even bring up the weird Biggie line that alludes to the murders) so I wish this section went on longer. The second major aspect of the book, the one that centers around his time riding around with actual rappers and behind-the-scenes music people (like Coach and P of QC) seems closest to what he does as his day job, ie profiles of musicians. He manages to find a pretty fascinating trio of folks to cover for a few years. I embeds with Lil’ Baby, right as his star is rising, chronicling him going from a relatively unknown local rapper to a total A-lister pop-star who reaches outside of the genre. He also follows Lil’ Marlo, a friend of Lil’ Baby’s, and Lil’ Reek, both of whom try for years to break in a major way and never quite make it. Lil’ Reek seems somewhat locally popular but never really gets the hit he needs to really jumpstart his career. We see him sign record deals, get dropped, work independently, hustle his way into studio time and opportunities and it just sort of fizzles out for him. Lil’ Marlo has a more dramatic story. He, like so many Atlanta rappers, has actual street credentials, so much of this book is about the intersection of street culture and the rap industry, and tries rap as a way to make legal money that will better his family’s predicament and keep him out of jail. But, while his friend Lil’ Baby, who he was friends with during their mutual hustling days, takes off and makes millions and is, by all accounts, able to leave the streets alone and focus on music, Marlo doesn’t really pop like that and his constantly tempted back to the streets, where he can make a ton of fast money, even with the risks involved. The Marlo story is heartbreaking, Coscarelli follows his back-and-forth struggles over the years before Covid really shuts the industry down, especially for someone at Marlo’s level, which sends him back to trapping and ultimately leads to his murder. Coscarelli doesn’t try to really explain the ends and outs of his killing, tho there are countless videos and interviews online that seek to do just that, however he does relay a scene where Marlo confesses to his dad that he killed someone and is worried about the repercussions. There is no discussion about the morality of including this moment. The last part, the more high-minded discussions of the music and culture could also have used more fleshing out to me. Rap, during the years covered by this book, took a very street turn. Because of Youtube and podcasts and instagram live, it became de rigor and necessary for rappers to flaunt their street ties and casual fans were able to really dig into actual crimes that these people were associated with. This had lead to an unprecedented number of violent deaths and prisons sentences of rappers in the last few years (2 major figures from the book, Young Thug and the Migos, are currently on trial facing life and have had one of their members murdered in the last year, for example) and I wish Coscarelli had spent more time thinking and offering theories about why that is. Is this a label thing, are they pushing this sort of content? Is this due to streaming predominating, giving listeners more of a choice in what they want to hear? If that’s the case, why is this sort of content so appealing right now? This sort of music isn’t new but it’s hold and ubiquity certainly is. Anyway, overall it was a well-written and engaging book. I wish it had gone deeper into a handful of aspects but I appreciate how much ground Coscarelli was trying to cover.