Fans of the music coming out of Atlanta in the mid-2000s are no doubt familiar with Bone Crusher. While known most prominently on the solo tip as the man behind "Never Scared," the emcee was actually a fairly stable act in his prime, appearing on tracks with Ludacris, T.I., Kelis, and even a young Jeezy (no pun intended). He considers himself one of Atlanta's leaders in the crunk movement, a period in southern hip-hop defined by drum machine rhythms, heavy basslines, and shouted-out vocals, frequently in a call and response manner. The movement is often pointed to by critics as a mainstream downfall of lyricism in rap music. According to Crusher, today's music is getting worse.
“I don’t think it’s going in the right direction,” Bone Crusher said. “I think it’s garbage, really. What happened is that the children—It’s like right now it’s a [fine]. When we did it it was no Atlanta scene. It wasn’t none of that. We had OutKast and Organized [Noize]. They were great, man. They did wonderful things for this city. But it wasn’t a movement until Tip and me and Jon and Ying Yang. And we came in and made it of the street. Where OutKast and Organized made you at a higher level, which is amazing. And we needed that. We brought the street, the real gritty, gritty street to it. And that made everybody go crazy.”
Bone Crusher went on to explain that music isn’t about money and is instead about doing something you enjoy.
“Now the hole is so big it’s sort of like how your mama and daddy they so rich,” he said. “You don’t know why they so rich and you don’t care. All you know is you got a car. You got a house. You got a pool in the back. And now you don’t respect it as much. You ever heard the old saying ‘Daddy’s babies, babies maybe?’ And that’s what it is…I remember when there was no rap on the radio in Atlanta. No rap, period…At the end of the day, these cats—I don’t like it. I think that they should go back and study more. I think they should learn basic principles of how to make a record. And I think they should enjoy music more. Because music is what it’s all about. It ain’t about money. If you enjoy your craft, money will come in abundance.”
Bone Crusher appears in VH1’s newly-released documentary, "ATL: The Untold Story Of Atlanta's Rise In The Rap Game." Check that out here. Meanwhile, you can check out Crusher's full interview with Vlad TV here.