Atlanta Hip-Hop Deconstructed by Michael Schmelling

3 minute read

“The first thing you do when you get to town is turn on the radio” say’s Michael Schmelling in the notes to his latest book Atlanta. It all started with the music. During his frequent assignments on the hip-hop scene there, Schmelling began to formulate an idea for a book. One, he says, that “reflected both the content of an album and the context in which the record was made.” Keeping an ear out for an album or artist whose work he wanted to capture , he hit upon OutKast’s 1998 record Aquemini. “It’s an album packed with imagery, characters and narratives,” says Schmelling. “It plays like a map of Altanta, gives you the lay of the land, the accents, and even tells you what the weather is like”.

Over three years, collaborating with writers Kelefa Sanneh and Will Welch, Schmelling explored all facets of the album and searched to find out how it influenced the local scene. The trio soon realized that the music there was evolving so quickly that links to OutKast’s album were hard to find. “We found kids who were the same age as Andre and Big Boi were when they were first making records—sixteen, seventeen, or just out of high school,” says Schmelling. “But there wasn’t a trace of the sound of Aquemini–no live music at all, not much of an emphasis in lyrics. Still the music and the spirit were just as good. Maybe even more fun and immediate.”

Often, the hip-hop is seen through a narrow lens in the mass media. It’s image is heavy on poses: arms crossed, flaunting wealth, beautiful women and a defiant attitude. But in Michael Schmelling’s Atlanta, another side to the genre appears. The visual cues here are not the ones we see on MTV, or in Sean Jean ads. They’re straight-forward observations, in a real city, revealing the details of a distinct–more authentic-feeling–hip-hop culture.

Schmelling’s work breaks the Atlanta hip-hop scene down to its roots in a lose chonicle of people, places, cars and food. There are tons of details—signs in nightclubs, tags on phone booths, pitbulls, hubcaps, tattoo’s, home studios, little notes with rapper’s lyrics scribbled on them. One photograph of handwritten lyrics tacked to a wall captures a young rappers aspirations of money and success–“moneys been da only subject, and nothing comes b4 it.” The lyrics make you wonder where this vibrant scene will go next. But at least in Schmelling’s photographs, this moment in the Atlanta music scene stands still forever in its place.

Atlanta is published by Chronicle Books, and Schmelling continues to expand the project on his site atlbook.com. There you’ll find a free mix-tape to go with the book, photo outtakes, posts about hip hop in Atlanta, short video clips, links to some of the artists’s myspace pages, unguided tours of the city, maps, tattoos and more…Michael Schmelling is also the author of Shut Up Truth and The Plan. You can see more of his work here.

A sign outside of a club reads: Exclusive Saturdays, Two Dollar Tuesdays, Magic City Mondays, Bitch Slap Thursdays, Thirsty Thursdays, Pin Up Sundays.Michael Schmelling
Various sets, 2008. Michael Schmelling
Fusion, 2009.Michael Schmelling
The Rich Kids showed up with two new Camaros and lots of brand-new tattoos. Juney's neck was tattooed like a Gucci bag. He was sixteen.
Pit bull puppy, 2008.Michael Schmelling
Left: Bola, a.k.a. the Black Betty Boop, signed a deal with Grand Hustle when she was fifteen. West side, summer 2009. Right: Young Dro, 2009. Michael Schmelling
KB, Kawan, and Midnight formed 3rd Degree in high school in 2007. Midnight makes most of his beats using Adobe Audition; they record in his bedroom at his sisters place. Michael Schmelling
Almost every one of the home studios I went to had a closet lined with yellow foam that worked like a sound booth. It seemed like their were three steps to making music at home: get a PC, get a mic, get some foam. Michael Schmelling
Rims from left: University Avenue, Atlanta, 2008. Jonesboro, Georgia, 2007. Michael Schmelling
Club Lights, 2009Michael Schmelling
Kissinger Lonestar, 2009.Michael Schmelling
Lions Den was the name of one of the VIP rooms at the Body Tap. There's a picture of another neon sign from the club that says "Platinum Level". Michael Schmelling
Star worked at the Body Tap in 2008 and then at Magic city in 2009. Michael Schmelling
Lonestar, 2009. Michael Schmelling
Prada, Magic City, 2009.Michael Schmelling
T-Pain had a red room in his new house. Red couches and a red piano so new you could smell the paint. Michael Schmelling
The tattoo artist said the biggest tattoos in the last couple of years were musical notes, stars, money bags and of course, the Atlanta Braves A. Michael Schmelling
They were flown out from Atlanta. They shot the video on a sound stage in LA. The crew painted everything green. A circus crew was hired—tumblers, contortionists, a woman on stilts and a juggling clown. Michael Schmelling
From left to right: Car Collage #1, 2010. Car Collage #2, 2010. Michael Schmelling
There was a barbeque stand near the corner of Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW. A speaker leaned against the outside wall. Saturday afternoon, fall 2007.Michael Schmelling
Fusion, 2009.Michael Schmelling
Lonestar, VIP Room, 2009.Michael Schmelling

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com