Southern hip hop

Southern hip hop, is a form of American hip hop music that emerged from a late-1990s club-oriented vibe in southern U.S. cities, including Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Charlotte, Richmond, Norfolk, Miami, Orlando, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Baton Rouge.^[1]

The music was a reaction to the 1980s flow of hip hop culture from New York City and California, and can be considered a fourth major American hip hop genre, after East Coast hip hop, West Coast hip hop, and Midwest hip hop.^[2]

History

Many early Southern rap artists released their music independently or on mixtapes after encountering difficulty securing record-label contracts because unlike the East Coast or West Coast, the South did not have a metropolitan area large enough to exert influence on the national scale. ^[3]

The first rap from the Southern United States to gain national notoriety was Bass music from Miami, Florida. This genre of music was primarily designed for dance clubs and focused on hard bass to get the party going, rather than intricate lyricism with most artists focusing on comedic verses that were sexually charged. The 2 Live Crew were the most famous Miami Bass group. They released their debut album, 2 Live Crew Is What We Are in 1986. Their third album, 1989's As Nasty As They Wanna Be garnered national attention for the attempts of some conservative politicians to censor its sales for its extremely explicit sexual content (some record store clerks were arrested for selling the album). It also contained the hit single "Me So Horny". Miami Bass would continue to have some national success through the 1990s, with artists from Florida such as 95 South, Tag Team, 69 Boyz and the Quad City DJ's all scoring some hit singles. However, success was usually short lived and Miami Bass never truly got much exposure outside of the Southern United States.

Around the same time the 2 Live Crew were causing controversy for their sexually explicit lyrics, a group from Houston, Texas, was also stirring up politicians for their explicit content of violence and other morbid subjects. The Geto Boys released their second album Grip It! On That Other Level in 1989, and it was a landmark release for the south. The Geto Boys, made up originally of rappers Willie D, DJ Ready Red, Prince Johnny C and Sire Jukebox with the lineup changing after Prince Johnny C and Sire Jukebox left adding Akshun (later known as Scarface) and the hype man Little Billy (later known as Bushwick Bill) as a rapper, originally had a style similar to Run D.M.C.. But after the shift in members the musical view changed in tone heavily. The release was highly acclaimed by many hip hop fans and is considered as one of the first classic Southern rap albums. The Geto Boys would continue to release more material throughout the 90's and mid 2000's, with their sights still focused on strong, gory and occasionally cartoonish violence, drug use and sex. Their 1991 single "Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" brought new attention to Southern artists as the song had a serious view on hallucination and delusional images. Geto Boys member Scarface released his debut solo album in 1991 titled Mr. Scarface Is Back, and was well received by hip hop fans and critics.

After the Geto Boys Southern rap started to expand greatly and gained much more national notoriety. Another group, UGK (Underground Kingz) from Port Arthur, Texas, released their debut album Too Hard to Swallow in 1992. Their debut didn't make much of a splash outside the region, but their later releases, such as 1996's Ridin' Dirty was be received well and highly acclaimed by fans from all around the country. 8Ball & MJG debuted with Comin' Out Hard in 1993 which is seen as a Southern classic. These groups would become two of Southern rap's premier acts in the mid 1990s. Perhaps the biggest waves though were made by Atlanta, Georgia group OutKast in 1994 with their debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. This album charted in the top 20 on the Billboard charts and contained high charting singles such as "Player's Ball" and the title track. It went Platinum, and helped make the Southern hip-hop scene a national force. OutKast would go on to become one of the best selling rap groups of all time. The production on the album by Organized Noize got particularly high praise, and it would help to shape the Southern sound for years to come. The production would give Southern rap a signature sound, separating it completely as a sub-genre (as previous Southern rap releases had production reminiscent of Dr. Dre's G Funk or beats produced in the style of Miami Bass). They would also produce other landmark albums such as the Goodie Mob's Soul Food in 1995 and future OutKast releases.

In the late 1990's Southern rap began to be just as popular if not more popular than East Coast and West Coast rap due to widespread attention from it in the mid nineties. Along with OutKast and the Goodie Mob, the record labels Cash Money Records and No Limit Records became extremely popular outside of the South, releasing multiple platinum and gold albums. Both labels were from New Orleans, Louisiana (though No Limit had previously been based in Richmond, California). Cash Money Records and their in-house producer Mannie Fresh (who was originally a member of New York Incorporated, one of the first rap groups in New Orleans which also included Mia X who later joined No Limit, and later the DJ and producer of Gregory D), tended to use a traditional Bounce style, native to New Orleans. No Limit Records used a style influenced by both G-Funk and Bass music with their own stable of beatsmiths called Beats by the Pound (now Medicine Men), their music was similar to what was being released on the West Coast but had a southern twist.

References

External links

• Eyesoda.com [1] Film New Flavors: The Emergence of Southern Hip Hop (2008)
• 'Ya Heard Me': A documentary film about a regional version of hip-hop specific to New Orleans called Bounce.
• News about Southern hip hop artists.
• 08/Jul/2009 Why Is There So Much Hate Towards Southern Hip-Hop The Hip Hop Deal Article