Even by the standards of rock and roll, hip-hop belongs to its youth. There's no shortage of big records by teenagers that have come out of Atlanta—Kriss Kross, Crime Mob, Soulja Boy... Soulja Boy was 16 and just blowing up when I started the project, so that really reinforced this notion that youth plays a huge role in Atlanta music. I guess it's fair to say that most people have a pretty good idea of what mainstream hip-hop looks like, so I was really interested in seeing what hip-hop looks like just before it gets big—the moment before things happen. We' re used to seeing a bit of the underground side of rock music and indie rock, but we don' t get to see as much of it in visual depictions of hip-hop. I ended up gravitating towards people that were making music on their own, mostly out of their homes. Lots of them were just out of high school, making their first mixtapes, demos. There' s a raw, do-it-yourself immediacy to the music that I really love. - Michael Schmelling
This Thursday November 4, 2010 @ Family Bookstore will be the release party and book signing of Michael Schmelling's "Atlanta". 7-9 pm. Schmelling will conduct an artist slide show and discussion, and present a short video.
Family Los Angeles
436 N. Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles CA 90036
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