This week in the magazine, Kelefa Sanneh writes about Jay-Z’s “Decoded” and other new books about hip-hop. To read more of Sanneh’s thoughts on rap, turn to “Atlanta: Hip Hop and the South,” a new book by the photographer Michael Schmelling. “Less than ten minutes into Outkast’s 1994 debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the rapping stops and a tour guide takes over. ‘I’d like to welcome you to Atlanta,’ he says… But who were they talking to?” Sanneh asks in the introduction. “They knew that hip-hop listeners from out of town, particularly New Yorkers, sometimes didn’t take the South seriously.”
To create the book, Schmelling immersed himself in the Atlanta hip-hop scene, from living rooms to strip clubs, for three years. “These are kids who are secure in the knowledge that Atlanta is the center of the hip-hop universe,” Sanneh writes of Schmelling’s subjects. The book has morphed into a multimedia showcase with outtakes, more outtakes (some of which should have made the cut), videos, and a mixtape featuring unreleased tracks by some of the rappers in the book. Take a look. Captions are Schmelling’s.
