B'ham Love Pt 2/28: Red Light District - I Know

1996. Outkast had already dropped Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in '94 and if you were from Bham you were hooked! This was one of the first groups from the South that I could actually identify with; they werent too hard, too gangsta or too East or West Coast. Two years later they came back with a new single from their coming album Atliens and I was equally pleased with their output.

Scene: (Me on the cash register at Food World talking to a sacker)

DJ Rahdu: That new Outkast Elevators is dope. I cant wait to get the album when it drops! I know it's gonna be fly (having no clue it would not sound anything like Southernplayalistic)
Sacker: Yeah, yeah. But yo man, check it out, it's these cats outta Birmingham that's seeing Outkast man...
DJ Rahdu: Seeing them like what, on TV, on Rap City (Rahdu and the sacker laugh)
Sacker: Nah man, fa real though, they song be coming on every night on 95.7. If you turn on your radio when you get off work, I bet it'll be on
DJ Rahdu: Alright man, I'll check 'em out
Sacker: They name Red Light District...

I get in my ride, I think it was a burgundy Oldsmobile I was hell on cars and sure enough by the time I get home I hear the "DJ" announce this new song by this camp outta Birmingham, Red Light District.

When the bass line hits it's something special, right before S-Fly comes in with the voice that commands your attention. By the time it get to the chorus you're hooked. Everyone KNEW they were gonna be the rap group out of Birmingham to get signed. At this time my pilgrimages to Music N More were slowing down, but everytime I went in I'd ask Akil had they been signed yet. Although that never came to pass, they went on to open for groups such as Mary J Blige, Run DMC and Outkast. Various members of the group are still performing: S-Fly has some new tracks which you've heard here and has an upcoming album and Vic The Truth is still producing. This is one song when played in the club wall cause copious amounts of mass hysteria...


Red Light District - I Know