T.I. calls himself “king of the South” with some justification. Much like Jay-Z, he takes commercial rap to its zenith. On each of four albums, the native Atlantan assembles glittery, infectious beats as a canvas for smooth and effortless flows, resulting in inescapably accessible hits. After its spring release, his latest album, King, dominated Atlanta’s urban radio and nightclubs by drawing together a cavalcade of sharply defined bangers like “What You Know” and “Why You Wanna.”
www.trapmuzik.com.

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Any given performance from BLAME GAME offers a glimpse of a group driving toward complex, tonal perfection. Along with bassist Chris Ware, guitarists/vocalists George Asimakos and Andrew Wiggins construct a grid of gigantic arches that are pounded into place by drummer Alex Lambert’s swagger from rapid-fire precision to loose improvisation. On stage, Lambert and Ware are stationed front and center while the rest of the group follows their extravagant hybrid of jazz and hardcore. Stage presence, wardrobe and personality are secondary to the shimmering and ever-thickening sounds of a group that relies on the chemistry of intellect.
www.sunrevolver.org/blamegame/.

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In the past "CL" has deemed OUTKAST "visionaries," "geniuses," "ambitious" and "sophisticated." We think they're pretty damn funkalicious, too. We knew this before they gave the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards the pimp hand with the way they move and before the world gave a "Hell yeah!" to "Hey Ya!" This election year, a decade into the duo's career, there's only one candidate for the future ghetto music of the world prototype. An enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in cornmeal and deep-fried, OutKast gives us the fever for tha flava, no matter which double-dipped flavas they throw the world next. Don't like it? Sit on a speakerboxxx and spin, stank you very much. "www.outkast.com" less...

The Alabama-bred, Athens-born DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS may not own Escalades or flash ice, but the band's five members know plenty about the dirty South. Having already released two hard-livin' / hard-charging country rock albums, a live recording and an ambitious two-disc Lynyrd Skynyrd-inspired "Southern Rock Opera", DBT continued their study of "the duality of the Southern thing" with 2003's "Deliverance Day", a marriage of the band's increasing strength in delivering both twang and pang. A collection of strong concepts without being overtly conceptual, "Deliverance Day" confirms DBT as impassioned, empathetic players in the vein of any of their idols. They deftly navigate the field between raucous and restrained, mixing the kind of subtlety into a stomp that, like Neil Young, will keep them truckin' for years to come. The Drive-By Truckers are proof good ol' boys can learn ya new (South) tricks. "www.drivebytruckers.com" less...

A churning maelstrom of sonic pain, Atlanta's MASTODON collapses traditional heavy music boundaries to breed dirty Southern sludge with mind-bending technical metal and innovative grindcore grooves that will humble nearly any drummer who listens. With the addition of sinister guitar harmonies and the occasional deviation into classic rock riffage, Mastodon craft a jagged, filthy metal machine that manages to gleam with modernism while still embracing the tried-and-true formulas that were birthed in the days of Sabbath. A brutal marriage of tradition and innovation.

"www.relapse.com/mastodon."

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