Southern Rap in Houston, Atlanta & Memphis has risen

It was born in New York, then it began to travel across the country to hit California with groups like N.W.A. taking it and making it their own; what we are talking about is hip-hop. It started as just a past time event that young African-American took part in, in the streets of New York. After a couple of years, it began to really take life. With groups like Run DMC on the east coast, N.W.A. on the west coast, MC Breed in the Midwest and Uncle Luke and Ghetto Boys in the south. Hip-hop was no longer a past time or a fad; it had grown into a music genre that would take over as the leading music genre of the country.

By the middle of the 1990’s hip-hop had hit all regions of the country hard and they all began to shape in their own unique ways. In the south hip-hop took some time to really live as a respectable genre. Blues, R & B, Jazz and Country music were the music that the south knew and loved for years. Hip-hop was something new and for some time it was not embraced into the southern culture.

With groups like the Ghetto Boys in Houston, UGK also in Texas, Three 6 Mafia and 8Ball & MJG in Memphis, and Jermaine Dupree and his So So Def camp in Atlanta, hip-hop slowly but surely has reached the point it is today. These groups along with some others were the pioneers of hip-hop in the south. They paved the way for the next generation to be able to make the music that is reshaping hip-hop across the country. Without a leader no one will advance, these pioneers of the south have proven that the south’s version of hip-hop, although different, has become well respected.

— Rodrice