Atlanta: Home of the Crunk

The success of Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz’s 2002 hit “Get Low” thrusted Atlanta’s own recipe of rap known as crunk music into the national scene. Characterized by chants instead of raps, and mixed with the energy and intensity of a club, crunk music has become what Miami Bass was in the late ‘80s, and bounce was in the mid ‘90s; unavoidable.
Big Sam “the Gas Can Man” of the Eastside Boyz was born and raised in Atlanta, and helped pioneer crunk music as we hear it today. Known more for his drinking apparatus than his catch phrases, Big Sam is a crunk historian. To understand crunk we went straight to the source. From his home in Atlanta, with his youngest daughter chiming in every now and then, Big Sam told it the way it was, and still is.

How did you meet up with Lil Jon?
I met up with Lil Jon through a friend named Playa Poncho, who was on So So Def when Lil Jon was the A&R. I had known Poncho for a while, cause he was doing these mixtapes with The J Team DJ’s. One night we were in the club, ‘cause I always go to the club every weekend, I was in a middle of about 15to 20 people screaming, “Who ya Wit? God Damn. Who ya Wit?” While we were doing that Jon came up to me and said we gonna make a record. I was like “ahh whatever, whatever,” but he called me like two days later with a beat, and we made a song over the phone in like 15 minutes. The record company was like, “we need you guys to make an album,” and we just wanted to make a 12-inch, we weren’t thinking about no album. At the time I was DJing, too so I was like cool, I get to play my own record. That was my whole thing, to be a DJ and play my own record.

What was your DJ name back then?
Aww man I had ton of DJ of names. The last one I had DJ 64 Shawt. The boys called me that because I used to drink 64 ounces of Private Stock all the time.

Do they even make those anymore?
Yeah man, I think they do. I used to drink the 64 oz. Private Stock, or a 64 of OE.

What was happening in Atlanta at that time since there wasn’t really anyone putting it down on a major back then?
Basically you were listening to Master P, or UGK, Eightball & MJG, Three 6 Mafia. There were more, but you know that’s what we were getting crunk to. You had your mix CDs whether it be J Team before they went out of business or Big Oomp and DJ Jelly CDs came in. A lot of people who were DJing and trying to come up, now done came up and made names around the city, but like 89 to 96 people were grooming themselves for this time right now. Like everybody in the A-town was getting for their break.

When did the crunk movement really start moving, or when did people in Atlanta start doing shit themselves?
The crunk movement has always been a part of Atlanta and part of the South really. As far as a movement, I guess it started spilling over with the success of “Get Low,” with the success of David Banner, Bone Crusher, Youngbloodz and T.I. As we opened a door, somebody else come in and open another door, and then someone else comes in and opens up another door. That’s how the South really do it. We just take an opportunity and capitalize on it. The South to me is just as big as the East Coast, and the West.

Do you think the unity amongst all the artists in the South has enabled the region to thrive?
There is a lot of unity among Southern artists because we’re not on that fight, shoot, kill all the time. A lot of the people in the South make party music, whether they talking about shooting up the club, or shooting up your Caprice or whatever, it’ll still have a party vibe. It’s just always been like that, like all the back from Luke. When Luke came out with the bass music, that was the party vibe. Girls shaking their asses, guys getting up behind em. Like when you in the club, you wanna hear a Luke record cause you wanna see girl shake her ass. When New Orleans hit the scene with the bounce, it was like a slower version of bass, but girls were still shaking their asses, and everyone was partying to it. Then we came out with the crunk, and the crunk had a slower tempo than the bounce, and people still partied to it. It’s been a party, if you think about it, for a while.

Did you know back then that things would blow up the way they did?
Me, I used to tell Jon, and Bo [Hagon], “hey, give a few more years, crunk is gonna be recognized.” They gonna have category on one of these award shows for crunk, like we don’t consider ourselves rap artists, we consider ourselves crunk artists. We’ll never get an award for best rap video you know what I’m sayin? They gonna make a category for crunk so they understand what it is we do. As far as getting the rewards we have got, it’s real big, coming from guys who don’t rap, and just really chant. It’s overwhelming when people caught on to it, cause we’ve been trying to explain it since like 96’. Even the song we had “Who ya Wit,” people in Atlanta used to be like “what the hell is that?” Even though it was crunk, that’s just how it was. We just kept pushing and pushing, I don’t know, you just gotta listen, and we had to keep explainin’, and it picked up. We took over Atlanta first, then we started spreading through the south taking over city to city, until we got the South on lock. Then we spread to the Midwest, then we got the East and West coasts. “Get Low” opened up the door to national attention because it opened us up to a whole new audience.

What are you guys doing to keep your strangle hold on things, and survive with the times?
We got some projects, but out here we got a motto, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We just stick with what we do, giving the crowd the hot chants, and keeping the Lil Jon Eastside Boyz flow and party groove. Keep it movin’ like that, and hopefully our hardcore fans, and our new fans will still be with us, ‘cause we ain’t changing. Like people thought, “oh they sold a million records, they gonna go commercial now,” which we didn’t. Like the commercial success Jon had with “Yeah,” and Ciara and all that, people were thinking that Lil Jon and Eastside Boyz were gonna come like that, that’s why we came at ‘em with the “What U Gon Do” and “Roll Call.” Every album we did, if you go back through our history, we had something for the thugs in the club, and then something for the ladies.

Do you think your music translates the same as it does in the streets as it does in the suburbs? Or do you think it’s weird that suburban kids who never stepped in a club are beating out your music?
Right right, like at the 2 Dollar Bill concert. I didn’t expect that many people to be there. I thought it was gonna be a club full of black people, but to see the mixture of races together, was overwhelming to me. Like we tapped into a whole new audience, and we still being ourselves, we didn’t change because we crossed over, we didn’t change to cross over, they just came to us. Like artists change to crossover, and then they try to come back, and they can’t come back. Shoot, we can do a song with anybody, and we gonna be ourselves, and still keep it crunk. Like on “Lovers and Friends” you got Usher singing, and Ludacris doing the slow rap, and then Jon comes in and the song gets crunk again. Like you slow dancing for one half the song, like even Ludacris is rapping your still slow dancing, but when Jon comes in with the “shorty” the slow dance is over with.

What if a skinny white dude like myself came out to the clubs in Atlanta would I get merked out?
Nah nah you wouldn’t get merked, but you gotta understand crunk. Like I’d take you to Club Choclate, go to the Bounce, take you to a few clubs like that, and you’ll understand crunk. A lot of people think they might understand, but until you actully experience it, like come to Atlanta, come to the South. When you experience crunk, you’ll be like okay, I see what you’re doing. We take the club vibe, and put it on records.

So crunk is more or less raw energy?
Me, I compare it to punk rock, like how they had the mosh pits. Like in a mosh pit if someone falls down, you pick ‘em up, and keep going. There are people in the club that do get into a fight, but nine times out of 10, they were already gonna fight, like it was already brewing. Like you had a hard day at work, you can put on the Crunk Juice album and just let it play, and let it relieve all your stress.

Shit I play it before I go to work.
Yeah, see a lot of people say that. Rick Rubin told Lil Jon that he would play our album for the heavy metal group Skid Row to get them motivated to do their album. We were like, “you gotta play our album for a speed metal band, I mean they already hardcore.”

When you go out do people show you love, or are people always trying to test you?
I don’t walk around with no bodyguards or nothing like that, I was born here ya know. Sometimes it’s like god damn, I should have kept my ass in the car. I go a lot of places with my family, so people will always say, “I see you’re with your family, I just want to tell you I like your music,” and then they want to take a picture or somethin’.

In the “What U Gon Do” video you got Big Sam the Gas Can Man clone, playing like the hater side.
Yeah anything you do, there’s always gonna be a hater side. You can be working a 9-to-5 as a supervisor, and people are gonna hate you and want your position. There’s always gonna be haters.

If you had a clone that was a hater, would try to handle things diplomatically, or would you off him?
Man, if he was coming at me like he wanna do something, like I might have to. But he came up to me just talking, running his mouth, I leave him right there talking. I got a moto: if you’re talking, you scared, if you’re swinging, you about it.

What’s up with the gas cans? Like what would you think if kids started drinking out of gas cans?
I’d be flattered, you know what I’m sayin’? Like that’d be big, but at the same time you gotta make sure you don’t go downstairs and get your momma’s gas cans, or the gas can you dad uses to cut the grass with. That ain’t the can I use. I bought my own can, and I soak it in hot boiling water at least three of four times before I put it to work. But I got that idea from some guys in Daytona, Florida, for Spring Break a couple years back. Like a couple guys had that, and I was like, “hey, I gotta get one of those.” I kicked it with them guys a little bit, and it stuck with me. I got the pimp cup and all that, but sometimes I just want carry it like that.

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