II Tone

Lost in the oozing gutters of South Memphis, Tennessee, there’s an incarcerated collection of tapes that still gleam like the bejeweled pimps and adolescent thugs that have become the historians of Memphis rap. They’re the pistol-packing progenitors of modern trap, ultra-violent MCs who were the first to blend Stax samples with horror and triplet flows about hoods like Magnolia, aka “Da Crime Click.” Crackling tapes by Lord Infamous, DJ Squeeky, and Tommy Wright III reveal a few chapters of Memphis rap’s story. 2 Tone is still telling it.