Dawgy Baggz
If you haven’t heard of Paper Route Gangstaz yet, you obviously have been ignoring the independent music press as well as the content on [cardboard living] over the last eight months. As a collection of four guys from the streets of Huntsville, Alabama, Paper Route Gangstaz are emphatic about the deep-south lifestyle that they lead, which is one reliant (if not dependent) on money, drugs, alcohol, women and whips. Seeing that Atlanta, Georgia is currently the hip-hop capital of the country, it’s easy to understand how PRGz have flown under the radar for over eight years now.
The flight path changed once Diplo and Benzi, two producers that the music industry have become acquainted with through their work on M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, decided to remix original PRGz tracks in 2008 for a mixtape called Fear and Loathing in Huntsvegas. The mixtape received critical attention from Pitchfork in addition to other music publications, both physical and digital. So, when I sat down at home to call Dawgy Baggz, the de facto leader of the Paper Route clan, I could hardly stop the questions concerning the formation and direction of the group from rolling off my tongue.
Amp Dawkins has gone by Dawgy Baggz ever since he can remember. As is what usually occurs, Dawkins can’t remember where the nickname came from but what he can remember is that it is a street name. Huntsville is a city most notable for a notoriously high crime rate, strings of fast food establishments and a horizon that features rocket launches on almost a bi-weekly basis. Those who live in Huntsville are aware that the city has a culture unto itself, one not notable for its musical identity. Thus, one must wonder how Baggz ended up generating enough buzz for his label and his group to be featured onPitchfork, a site that caters to the ears of thousands of ‘indie kids’. Dawgy’s explanation of the group’s name made the answer clear:
Its something that I earned the right to do. Paper Route is just like that paper route that the paper boy take every morning, throwing out them newspapers to come back and collect his money. I took that exact same route throwing out my inventory to collect my money. Gangsta is just a lifestyle…its fighting for what you believe in and never…Never…backing down. Its willing to take those life altering chances in order to support you and yours and always making your own way in any…Any…situation. I earned my right to be called a Paper Route Gangsta.
As for the Diplo and Benzi collaboration, Dawgy insists that luck had more to do with that collaboration than anything. However, talent knows no boundaries and the Major Lazer team certainly holds that concept close to heart. Baggz insists that Diplo is a “genius in the studio” and that opinion shines through as truthful in the Huntsvegas mixtape as Diplo samples George Michael on “Bama Gettin Money”, Underworld on “Stuntastic” and Weezer for “Grind Baby”. Dawgy just wishes “they weren’t so damn expensive”. However, the Diplo ‘collabos’ caught the ears of both rap fanatics and hipsters across the country as they saw the genius behind mixing ‘country boy’ hip-hop with highly intelligent production.
Clockwise from top left: Mata, Gunt, Dawgy Baggz, Jhi-Ali
The mixtape features all four members of the group: Mata, Jhi-Ali, Gunt and Dawgy Baggz himself as well as associates of the group X.O., Mali Boi (the main producer for PRGz), Amp G, Wale, Blaqstarr and Jackie Chain (an Asian dude who has served time for drug trafficking and a fantastic lyricist). Most of those featured on Fear and Loathing in Huntsvegas are from Huntsvegas and have known either Dawgy or one of the other PRGz members for quite some time, a factor that gives the mixtape Southern legitimacy that will attract fans drawn to Southern hip-hop.
PRGz have untainted street credibility that should help them attract a loyal Southern fan base that will include fans of harder hip-hop from the region. Dawgy mentioned to me that at the start of Paper Route Recordz a couple of the members caught murder and drug cases and were sentenced to fifteen years to life sentences, amounting to a series of setbacks in the development of the brand.
The upcoming EP Rocket Fuel will be released on iTunes soon, a deal helped along by the addition of PRGz to the Elite Taste roster, a small agency that also reps Mike Posner and Wale. “Keyshia Cole“, the lead-off single, is a song about ganja, called “‘Keyshia Cole’ because you don’t wanna be talkin’ reckless on the phone”, according to Dawgy. We’re sure to hear much, much more about PRGz in the coming months, make sure to check [cl] if that interests you.
Notables:
Bama Gettin Money (Dipo Remix)
9.2/10. This Diplo remix is the best on the mixtape as we find PRGz at their best.
7.5/10. Another indie-oriented remix that features a sample from a hair-care product and a looping violin riff. One of the more genius samples that we’ve heard in a while.
7.4/10. A PRGz original track (one of the few on the mixtape) that features the incredible point that “Alabama” backwards sounds like “I’m-A-Balla”.
8.8/10. A very druggy remix of a song that is even more hallucinogenic.
7.2/10. “Grind Baby” features a sample of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So.” More Diplo genius.
9.0/10. The truest Southern anthem on the PRGz’s CV.
Lewis Corson
