Just like Long Beach in the early 90's and the Bay in the mid 90's, The South is the hottest region in Hip-Hop music right now. The difference is these boys are taking advantage of the spotlight by signing big deals, making big money and producing hits.
Though The Geto Boys, 2 Live Crew and Outkast put their respective spots below the Mason-Dixon on the map, there is a new movement in southern music, one that cannot be denied. Over the next few paragraphs I will spotlight whets really crackin in the dirty and what's about to be crackin in the very near future.
The Southeast (Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama): Everybody has seen and/or heard Bonecrusher's "never scared- and David Banner's "Like A Pimp- but these dudes are not new jacks. Bonecrusher has been putting it down in the ATL for years as a member of Lyrical Giants before signing with JD's So So Def/Arista label. Banner on the other hand has seen his fair share of major label drama before finally hitting it big his current single. He was a member of Crooked Lettaz; he along with Kamikaze released the critically acclaimed Grey Skies CD on the now defunct Penalty Records.
Crusher and Banner are just the tip of the Iceberg, T.I. (Tip) is another artist making big noise out of the A, and he recently shot a video for "24's- and is getting crazy spins down here in the South. He was signed to Arista a couple years ago but due to disagreements with LA he was dropped, turns out that's the best thing that could have happened he took it back to the streets doing features and releasing underground CD's with his Pimp Squad Click crew which led to classics like "Dope Boys In the Trap."" Tip recently signed a big deal with Atlantic and is set to drop Trap Music later this summer. And to top it all off he's still lacing the streets with the In Da Streets Mix CD's.
In the DJ element of Hip-Hop the collective known as Superfriends are making a lot of noise down under on the club/party front as well as in the boardroom, members, Trauma, Doc and Mars recently inked a deal with So So Def for their Black Vinyl label.
