Kinda Like: D-12, Alkaholiks, Freestyle Fellowship

The video for “Aw Naw,” the first single from Nappy Roots, justcame on, and it was refreshing to see that they looked exactly howthey sounded. It’s always annoying when rappers don’t look how theysound, but here it was just what one would expect.

Also refreshing: Nappy Roots sounded pretty much how I’d expected.Hyped as the next Outkast, the obvious worst-case scenario is abastardized Dirty South ass-fest. In fact, the Kentucky sextet’sdebut finely treads the line between Outkast’s gospel shuffle andmainstream’s bling bling.

While the rhymes often stoop to the bitches, Benzes and bulletsbravado of mainstream, complex Underground beats ranging from organand gospel choirs (“Set it Out”) to Atari production (“Sholiz”) giveWatermelon the sound of Outkast and Arrested Development’s spiritualsouth. Like most of today’s mainstream underground, Nappy Rootsincorporates the bells-‘n’-whistles pop of mainstream rap, whileelevating the sounds to levels above the rap template of Juvenile andNelly. The result is one for the Dirty South’s portfolio.

–Sam Miller