Down South Bounce (Continuous DJ Mix By DJ Jelly) (Explicit)

Years before the Dirty South scene ever became a national phenomenon capable of moving units, it thrived as primarily club music. Given the nature of the music, this isn't surprising — the tracks are incredibly bass-heavy and employ the sort of rhythms that make listeners wanna get buck; plus, the rhymes take a secondary position to the beats and feature lyrics that rarely depart from the hedonistic vices or represent-yo-hood rhetoric. The music's ghetto nature — and, beyond that, Southern ghetto nature — doesn't exactly cater well to mainstream airplay. It functions better in a club setting or, literally, street setting, where there are subwoofers to accentuate the bass-heavy beats along with some blunts, drinks, and freaks to accompany the hedonistic ideology. So it perhaps goes without saying that the first volume in the Down South Bounce series mixed by DJ Jelly puts the music in its proper context — the sort of DJ mix one would hear at the club or on a radio mix show. Jelly doesn't mess around, either; he goes straight for the anthems: Lil Jon's "Who U Wit," Gangsta Boo's "Where Dem Dollas At," Project Playaz' "Bounce It (Bucked Naked)," and Lil' Keke's "Southside" to name only a few. Since this mix spans time and focuses on the classics rather than hits of the moment, it's an excellent place to begin for anyone unfamiliar with what the Dirty South is all about. Down South Bounce puts the music in its proper context — the way one would hear it cruisin' through Memphis, gettin' their freak on in Atlanta, or sippin' on some sizurp in Houston. Jelly is no Grandmaster Flash, but he does the job, and given the lack of nationally distributed and readily available Dirty South mix albums out at the time of this album's release, this is indeed the album to get. Future volumes stick with the formula but don't feature quite as many classics.