Big Country

THE KENTUCKY-FRIED RAP OF NAPPY ROOTS

A world away from Jay-Z's big pimpin' New York and Dr. Dre's gangsta-glam Los Angeles, the six self-described country boys of Nappy Roots have carved a new destination onto America's hip-hop map. "Our music music is is cornin' from Kentucky," says group member Skinny Skinny C DeVille, "a place you only know for fried chicken chicken ai and Muhammad Ali and basketball." It's It's a a plac place where land is cheap, meals are big, and the the culture cultural vanguard can be found on the nearest state-colle; state-college campus. Nappy Roots formed in the mid-90s, mid-90s, v when five of them were students at Western Kentucky Kentucky University in Bowling Green (Big V attended Eastern Eastern Kentucky), and their first collaboration was a record record store, sto ET's Music, where they recorded demos i the the back back r room and sold them up front. Atlantic Records signed signed the the group in 1998 but waited until early this year to to release release Watermelon, Chicken, & Gritz, an unabashed celebratio celebration of earthy pleasures that gives new meaning to to the the phn phrase Dirty South. ("Pull up, dead horns on the hood hood of of IT my truck / Kentucky Mud on my shoes and my socks," socks," B. B. Stille drawls on "Ballin' on a Budget.'') This summer, summer, a as the album, propelled by the bouncy single "Awnaw" "Awnaw" (roughly translated as "Oh, no"), climbed toward platinum, platinum, i the group joined Sprite's Liquid Mix Tour, sharing a a bill with Jay-Z, N.E.R.D., Talib Kweli, and others. "We gonna gonna ge get back in the studio probably after Thanksgiving, after after we we e eat real good and get our stomachs real full for the winter," winter," pi promises DeVille. But will success affect Nappy Roots' Roots' commitment cor to discount delights? "Hellll no," DeVille insists. insists. "It'; "It's still the same, for real. We're saving our money and and investing invest it before we go out flossing or flashing. Right Right now now it's still a hustle. It's still a grind."

MICHAEL HOGAN