There are few songs in underground rap and even less in American popular music that are lyrically and harmonically bring the person listening to the song to really have to hold back the depth of the song. John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, 2pac, Outkast, Eminem, and Atlanta’s own Pastor Troy did just that with Vice Versa. I first met Troy when I was an engineer intern at WHTA FM or better know as Hot 97.5 at the time in 1999, from a dj named Chris Lova Lova on 6-10pm show on the station. Pastor Troy had a classic single, No More Play in GA, in which in he called out Master P and it gained national exposure and it’s a song that I and more djs can still play in any hip hop club after midnight if I wanna get the crowd to go nuts. Versa Vice, was different though. Unlike so many of the popular and somewhat real hip hop songs doing the 90’s, this one challenged the fans to question why exactly we accept our religion and our morality. The video does the same, and too many listeners how like to just assume it’s just another pop-gangster-movie-like-pre-package hip hop single getting played on their favorite radio station. For you younger fans, hip hop radio stations had these special shows where they would actually play a mixture of new and familiar songs that were selected by a dj which mixed them live because the dj had a good understanding of what their local fans really liked and were trusted to select songs on the merit of making a good show. Now, too many radio djs just play what they’re paid to play or what they think the more popular djs are playing on social media in hip hop while they losing their fans to media companies like us. SORRY WE’RE NOT SORRY.
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