Southern rap
Southern rap (or
Dirty South hip-hop) is a type of
hip hop music that emerged in the late-1990s as a popular force from cities such as
New Orleans,
Miami,
Atlanta,
Memphis and
Houston.
In the 1980s, the rise and spread of
hip hop culture from
New York City and
California spurred cities in the
Southern United States to develop and nurture their own respective hip hop scenes. Without large
urban markets like New York City and California, major
record labels largely ignored the south for decades. Southern rap artists were forced to release their music independently. The
mixtape scene has factored largely in the success of many of today's southern rap artists.
Miami Bass
In Miami, a distinctive bass-heavy scene
Miami bass evolved out of
electro hop and similar hip hop-influenced dance scenes in Miami, including
Luther Campbell and his group,
2 Live Crew. 2 Live Crew became infamous after their album,
Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), was banned in a
Florida town and the group was subsequently arrested on obscenity charges after performing; the charges were eventually dismissed. The Miami Bass scene that 2 Live Crew typified is simply one form of southern rap and Miami Bass' club-oriented sound garnered little respect from hip hop fans.
Southern hardcore
The first rap group to gain national notice for southern rap music were the
Geto Boys. The Geto Boys hailed from Houston, and consisted of
Willie D,
Bushwick Bill, and
Scarface. Houston was the first major city outside of New York City and
Los Angeles to attract attention from the rap world; the Geto Boy's 1989 local debut,
Grip It! On That Other Level, garnered the attention of
Def Jam founder
Rick Rubin to executive produce and release their 1990 nationwide debut
The Geto Boys.
However, it was the Geto Boys' 1991 hit,
Mind Playin' Tricks on Me, that began to break down the barrier for southern rap. The raw and unforgiving lyrics about paranoia and losing one's mind were a huge change from what most hip hop fans expected coming from the South. The song would go on to influence several other acts that would popularize the Southern rap scene; for example, while hosting
BET's Top 25 countdown in 2004,
OutKast's
André 3000 remarked that "Mind Playin' Tricks on Me" "put Southern rap on the map." The Geto Boy's
Scarface later launched a successful solo career and is referred to by some as the original "King of the South."
Soon after the Geto Boys' success, Houston became a main center of Southern hip hop. Now-popular groups such as
UGK (from
Port Arthur, Texas) and
8 Ball & MJG (from Memphis, Tennessee) moved to Houston in the late 80s to begin their musical careers. Both groups went on to release influential albums such as UGK's
Too Hard to Swallow (1992) and 8 Ball & MJG's
Comin' Out Hard (1993). Houston was also home to
Rap-A-Lot Records, the first successful Southern rap label, incidentally headed by Scarface.
Spirituality
In Memphis,
Arrested Development released their album five months after "Mind Playin' Tricks on Me." Their brand of lighthearted and spiritual party singles from their debut LP,
3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of..., was a world apart from the sexually explicit, bass heavy party music of Miami and the gangsta rap bravado of Houston, but the group gained both commercial success and critical acclaim. While Arrested Development was not able to keep their momentum going, their success did set the stage for
OutKast and
Goodie Mob.
These two groups, both a part of the collective the
Dungeon Family, debuted in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Their musical basis was alternately heavy-bassed funk over which were party raps, and slow introspective songs about
poverty,
promiscuity and
racism. OutKast and Goodie Mob were the first groups to popularize Atlanta, Georgia in the South and were among the first acts from the South to gain national recognition.
No Limit/Cash Money
By the late 1990s, Atlanta had emerged as a major city in hip hop and the city's success and influence in the rap world continues on today. While OutKast, Goodie Mob, and a number of other Atlanta-based acts (several of them part of
Organized Noize the Dungeon Family collective) balanced critical and commercial success, New Orleans rapper/label mogul
Master P popularized a
bounce-based sound that focused more on commercial appeal than artistry.
The late 1990s also saw the emergence of New Orleans as a hotbed for rap music. Master P's
No Limit Records popularized rappers such as
Mystikal and
Silkk the Shocker and became home to highly popular
West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg; the compteting
Cash Money label presented acts such as
The Hot Boys (
The B.G.,
Juvenile,
Lil Wayne, and
Turk).
The No Limit/Cash Money formula was also successfully co-opted by Miami's
Slip-N-Slide label, which included
Trick Daddy and
Trina. Labels such as these also caused Dirty South music to be associated with "mass produced" albums released in rapid succession. The CD packaging for these releases typically featured brightly-colored, heavily
Photoshopped "
bling bling"-style album covers; and a whole page of the
liner notes for each LP was usually devoted to advertising its follow-ups.
A number of other southern cities were the home base for popular hip hop acts: [
1] The controversial
Three Six Mafia hailed from Memphis,
Nappy Roots from
Bowling Green, Kentucky,
Petey Pablo from
Greenville, North Carolina,
Little Brother from
Durham, North Carolina,
Missy Elliott,
Clipse,
Pharrell,
Timbaland, and
The Neptunes from
Virginia Beach, and
Dru Money from
South CarolinaCrunk
By the early 2000s, Southern rap was arguably becoming the genre's most popular form. This is due to the mainstream acceptance of the
crunk music movement that originated from Memphis. Rap groups such as
Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz,
Eightball & MJG, the
Youngbloodz, and
Three 6 Mafia have had massive mainstream success releasing music focused on the ever-popular club scene.
2005 saw the return of Houston as a leader in Southern rap with Houston artists such as
Mike Jones,
Slim Thug,
Chamillionaire,
Bun B of UGK, and
Paul Wall experienced great commercial success; the genre now pervades the South, leading fans and major figures in hip hop to typify Southern rap as crunk music.
Many East Coast (most notably New York) critics, DJ's, and even a few rappers have frequently expressed their distaste for Southern dominance, the latest being
50 Cent in a recent interview, while East Coast rap is currently struggling for mainstream recognition. Critics of crunk music (such as
Ghostface Killah) have expressed distaste at the fact that some New York artists (such as
Mobb Deep) have recently delved into what they view as a trend or as strictly a Southern phenomenon. Fans of and from both areas also tend to clash on the subject of which type of rap is the better.
Stylistically, Dirty South is notably different from its northern and western counterparts. Whereas
East Coast hip hop has historically been associated with complex lyrics and sparse urban beats, contemporary southern rap is largely characterized by its upbeat, exuberant, club-friendly tunes and simplistic, heavily rhythmic lyrical delivery. Crunk has been criticized by many for its tendency to focus on danceability and to shy away from political, social or spiritual topics, although some artists (such as
David Banner and
Bubba Sparxxx) have tried to embrace these subjects.
The production style of southern rap can veer towards either a
soul-based sound (
Dungeon Family,
Arrested Development) or a grittier sound (
No Limit,
Cash Money,
Mystikal). Where most East Coast rap operates at tempos around 90-120 beats per minute, Southern rap runs rhythms at 140-160, upwards of 180 beats per minute, and then places each snare hit twice as far apart.
This leaves more time to be filled between the kick (on the down beat of the first measure) and the snare (on the downbeat of the second). Sometimes this space is filled with quick trills of hi-hats, a style pioneered by
Three 6 Mafia and Hit Man Sammy Sam's
Big Oomp Records; other times, it is filled with additional snare patterns; for instance,
Pastor Troy's "Ain't No Mo Play in G.A.," or
Miracle's "Bounce." The fastest and slowest rhymers in hip-hop both belong to southern rap, as different talents adapt to the music's distinct tempo.
Sampling, while still used, is less common in Southern hip-hop production.
A mainstay feature of hip-hop has always been giving 'shout-outs' to entire coasts, states, or cities, but a more recent trend that is particularly common in southern rap has been to include much more specific shout-outs to specific neighborhoods or local jurisdictions, such the
wards of New Orleans, for example, and particular
housing projects.
*
SouthBoard.net - Forums devoted to The Dirty South*
DirtySouthRap.com*
MemphisRap.com*
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