Atlanta rap veteran Bone Crusher spoke to VladTV about the past and present of ATL hip-hop, and the “Never Scared” rapper revealed that he is disappointed with how the Atlanta scene and sound have changed. Bone Crusher also explained that he feels, while OutKast laid the foundation in the ’90s, Atlanta didn’t really start to boom until the early 2000s.
“I don’t think it’s going in the right direction,” Bone Crusher said in regard to Atlanta hip-hop. “I think it’s garbage, really. … When we did it, [there] was no Atlanta scene. It wasn’t none [sic] of that. We had OutKast and Organized [Noize]. They were great, man. They did wonderful things for this city. But it wasn’t a movement until Tip and me and Jon and Ying Yang. And we came in and made it of the street. Where OutKast and Organized made you at a higher level, which is amazing. And we needed that. We brought the street, the real gritty, gritty street to it. And that made everybody go crazy.”
Bone Crusher went to say that too many young hip-hop artists in the city have no idea how much work had to happen for it to be where it is.
“Now the hole is so big it’s sort of like how your mama and daddy they so rich,” he said. “You don’t know why they so rich and you don’t care. All you know is you got a car. You got a house. You got a pool in the back. And now you don’t respect it as much. You ever heard the old saying ‘Momma’s babies, daddy’s maybe?’ And that’s what it is…I remember when there was no rap on the radio in Atlanta. No rap, period. … At the end of the day, these cats — I don’t like it. I think that they should go back and study more. I think they should learn basic principles of how to make a record. And I think they should enjoy music more. Because music is what it’s all about. It ain’t about money. If you enjoy your craft, money will come in abundance.”
