The two first cousins — Marcus “Big Marc” Thomas, 24, and James “Sho-Nuff” Redding, 26 — grew up in Decatur, east of Atlanta, listening to their pops’ Sly & the Family Stone, Al Green, and Reverend James Cleveland records. Sho-Nuff’s and Big Marc’s fathers were brothers who played in what Redding calls the “family choir.” Their uncles played keys and guitar.
All that musicality comes through on Da Back Wudz’ first single, “You Gonna Luv Me,” which has been getting heavy burn in the South since late 2004. The song’s melodic piano loop and well-crafted rhyme schemes impressed local power exec Dallas Austin, who signed the group to his Rowdy imprint, besting majors such as Capitol, which also showed interest. “A lot of Southern acts can be kind of linear with their topics,” says Austin, who helped clear the hyperspeed Jennifer Holliday sample for “You Gonna Luv Me.” “But these guys have a whole span of things they rap about.” Goodie Mob’s Big Gipp agrees: “You can tell they study hip hop. They stand out in the midst of a scene that is dominated by crunk.”
Now don’t start assuming that Da Back Wudz are on a mission to decrunkify Southern hip hop. “Crunk will never die in the South because crunk is the South,” says Big Marc as he and his partner go over their routine before the MTV cameras. “But I do think hip hop is going back to that feel-good music, to real substance and concepts,” adds Sho-Nuff. “We want to be a part of that movement.”
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