"Shine Blockers": Big Boi and Gucci Mane Recording at Stankonia

"Veeeeeedy interesting" (c) Arte Johnson. Big Boi recruited Gucci Mane and Project Pat to hop on a song called "Shine Blockers" for his Lucious Leftfoot: Son of Chico Dusty album. In typing that just now, I kinda realized that Project Pat '99 = Gucci Mane '09. I don't know ya'll but I was jamming to some Pat pretty damn hard back then. I guess that's what my slight disinterest in Guccimania stems from. Feels like I've heard it before. Same way I felt about Jeezy at times. I came up listening to Top Authority. So when I hear something years later that's either a direct byproduct or mimic of it, I just be like...I've heard this before, and better...

*steps away from soapbox*

But yeah, I'm posting this video because I found it interesting to see how Big Boi is attempting to bridge a gap of sorts by enlisting Gucci on his album. Only other time I can remember a DF member doing something like this was when, hell, Gucci featured Khujo on "Corner Cuttin'" on his first album.

Big Boi's been doing this for a while now though. Him hopping on remixes to Gorilla Zoe's "Hood Nigga" and DJ Unk's "Walk It Out" are proof. I'm also posting it because it shows that as much as Atlanta Hip Hop seems to be segregated at times, there's still some sort of unity. Which brings me to something else...

Not gonna be doing any name dropping but, I had a talk with two friends about the same subject. It was about a year and some change ago when Atlanta's "Otherground" was really popping with Proton, Hollyweerd, etc doing shows every weekend. One friend was saying that the Outkast's of the world should reach back and give these groups a much-needed co-sign. While my other friend was saying they're not going to co-sign them because hell, they probably don't relate to what they are doing. I saw both sides of the coin and they both made equally valid points. I tended to lean more in the direction of the latter though.

Mainly because, some of our elder statesmen in Hip Hop prove to us again and again that while they may be fans of the groups that seem to be inspired by them, that don't always mean that they are going to or are even supposed to co-sign them. Being so close to what's come before you, could actually backfire at the end of the day.

Example, there used to be this group called Da Wascals. When they came out, folks immediately called them the baby Pharcyde, because they had the same producer (J-Swift) and they was signed to the same label. Aside from the fact that the group wound up breaking up, folks wasn't messing with them as much as they might have if they didn't look and sound so much like Pharcyde. Did all of that make sense?

Plus, 'Kast over the years have always co-signed what is probably considered the polar opposite of what they had going on at the time. Ya'll remember Aquemini Records? Killer Mike, Slim Calhoun, TCP and Konkrete. Them niggas was raising hell back then. So much to the point they started calling them "AquemiTHUGS." That's not really what comes to mind when you think of the Stankonia-era 'Kast, now is it? Plus, up until recently, Atlanta was always a slum-type place. And, in the late-90s/early 2000s the DF was setting things up to catch that impending wave of Atlanta street shit that Pastor Troy was kicking off, T.I. picked up and Jeezy ran with.

Like me and some friends were saying on twitter yesterday. Cool Breeze was T.I. before T.I. and Backbone was Jeezy before Jeezy. Plus, if ya'll go back and listen to that Slimm Calhoun The Skinny album, you'll hear that he was doing everything that is cool now, back in '01. So, that being said, seeing Big Boi gravitate more towards Gucci Mane instead of the stuff he may be expected to co-sign, doesn't really come off as much of a surprise.

But yeah, as far as the "Shine Blockers" song itself? Judging from the clips of the song that's playing in the video, its probably not going to be my cup of tea. But, its interesting to see and hear nonetheless.

Shouts out to Zach Wolfe (and his super camera) and SnortThis.com