By Paul Glanting

A college professor once told me that starting from the era of Mark Twain, literature presented two types of characters that were constantly at-odds with one-another. His theory was that these two opposing figures have never been represented better then by the two main characters on Cheers. That is, there’s big-mouthed urbanite, Sam and conversely, there’s the small-townie, underdog, Woody. Ironically, while the general population roots for Woody, the competitive nature of the world nudges our aspirations to become Sam because we believe that his intelligence and his career path is more in-line with the prototype of success. Our sympathy for Woody is essentially an act of charity. However, perhaps the Woody’s of the world don’t need our charity; as underdogs constantly sipping their milk through the short end of the stick, perhaps they’ve been forced to develop a new intelligentsia that arrogant city-slickers aren’t aware of; Maybe unbeknownst  to us, Woody is smarter than Sam.

Even before I interview Huntsville, Alabama rappers Paper Route Gangstaz, I injected each of my questions with a serum that seemed to be an apology sung to the tune of “sorry that the hip-hop world is powered by a bias and a powerful Los Angeles/New York/ Atlanta-monopoly resulting in poor little Alabama not even resembling a bloop on the radar.” But plain and simply put, the crew doesn’t seem worried. “There’s not too many dudes coming out of Alabama so we labeled underdogs” claims Dawgy Baggz, CEO of Paper Route Records and 1/4 of Paper Route Gangstaz. “But, just because of how hard that label makes us work, that’s an advantage to me.” The Southern pronunciation of Dawgy’s words twists like a pretzel as two of his Paper Route Ganstaz-chronies, Mata and Jhi-Ali, laugh in approval.

About two summers ago, Paper Route’s infectious cut “Woodgrain” fluttered across the internet; its angelic nuances subtly hoisted chubby microcosms out of the celebrated-interior of bulky -yet- nostalgic American cars. “Growing up, everyone wanted that woodgrain steering-wheel and woodgrain interior,”says Mata.”And, you had to have it in them ‘Lacs and Prices. Up north, you people get down with Benzes and Bimmers; we like them too, but we got to have those old school lacs! where we from, that’s what the hoodstars had so that’s what we wanted to get into.” Like lots of Southern hip-hop, “Woodgrain” was a window into a region most people knew nothing about. And, in a hip-hop galaxy whose wet-automotive dreams are covered in the tire-tracks of sleek and docile German whips, the Paper Route Gangstaz’ roaring lionization of clunky two-and-a-half-ton classics, was indicative of a subscription to the nostalgic value system Outkast help create and implement, a value system where tradition trumps innovation. Of course, as any good microcosm should, the depth of “Woodgrain”’s nostalgia goes deeper than automobiles. “Everything about Southern tradition plays into our music: church, jazz, blues loyalty to family.” says Dawgy.

And as tightly as Paper Route clung to rural southern convention, the group linked up with Diplo, the Philly producer who can perhaps be dubbed the crusher of traditions, whose audio concoctions have captured thumping beats from around the world and let them roam among stateside wildlife. With Diplo’s glowing-neon audience most definitely different than Paper Route’s typical demographic, the marriage between the two may have have appeared risky. “it was a gamble,” says Mata  “Dawg said ‘I wanna fuck with it’ so we did and when the music came together it was perfect. We aint scared to try new shit. You got people who wanna be so real, they’re scared to try anything new but us, that’s what makes us so real, we’re not afraid to try anything.” The collision of zeitgeists on Fear and Loathing Hunts Vegas suggests that Diplo seemingly suited up the PRGz in spacesuits but certainly left enough air-room for their thick southern drawls to rumble and flow with ease. Consequently, Paper Route- along with a sizable roster of other Hunstville rappers in tow- slid their Southern lexicon over thumping space-age beats. Diplo’s remix of the crew’s melodic “Bama Gettin’ Money”, sped up the tempo on the the slizzed-out tune into an aggressive anthem, championing a monetary flow for the Yellowhammer state. However, this juxtaposition of genres didn’t seem to faze the Route’s fan-base. “This stepping out the box is nothing new,” explain Jhi-Ali. “At this point, I think unexpected is what people expect from us.”

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