Hip-Hop in Hickville - A Preview

I know I souldn't do this, but since the magazine it was going to be on closed (Vibe), I want to give you guys a clip of my article that is searching for a home. It is about hiphop in the most un-hiphop of places: Athens, Ohio:

Athens, through all of its rural-ness, has managed to slither in a hip-hop scene different from the major cities in Ohio, and even the major cities in the country. It is arguably a bigger hip-hop scene than A LOT of major cities that hone more projects and drugs than Athens tries to claim. Someone could say hip-hop existed in Athens, but not through it quantity of people; the quality of the music. “When you play some real hip-hop, people are automatically going to raise their ear and want to hear about it,” said Chris “Crispy” Crosby. Crispy is a popular rapper in Athens, although he is a senior English student at OU as well. “People are going to want to hear real hip-hop, forreal-forreal. It’s special to me as an artist when somebody in a four by four is bumping your music after they been mud racing,” he said.

Every other Monday night throughout the fall, winter, and spring quarters at OU is the Hip-Hop Shop at the Union Bar & Grill. It carries an atmosphere that would make you think that’s the bar where all the bikers go, but as you enter comes a different story. You walk in hearing rock music right in front of you, but are gravitated upstairs by the sweet melody of some mellow hip-hop music, like “Passin’ Me By” by Pharcyde. You see people waiting around in booths for the mics to open up. You feel the cool breeze coming from the open door downstairs until someone hops on the stage you can tell is hungry for some hip-hop...