The Geography of Hip-Hop
“Rap has different feels and different vibes in different parts of the country. For example, people in New York city don’t drive very often, so New York used to be about walking around with your radio. But that doesn’t really exist anymore. It became unfashionable because some people were losing their lives over them, and also people don’t want to carry them, so now it’s more like “Hey, I’ve got my Walkman.” For that reason, there’s a treble type of thing going on; they’re not getting much of the bass. So rap music in New York City is a headphone type of thing, whereas in Long Island or Philadelphia... it’s more of a bass type thing.”
- Chuck D
Hip-hop according to the Oxford Language is “a style of popular music of United States Black and Hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing” but it is so much more than that. Hip-hop is not just a musical genre, but a way of life, a vibe - an essence. Though this culture was pioneered in the South Bronx, New York, it wasn’t until 6 years later with the release of “Rapper’s Delight” that the culture ventured beyond the five burrows of New York. As the musical style moved across the country, many cities started to develop their own way.
The East Coast
The pioneering sound, that eventually becomes what we know as hip-hop, came from the quick-mixing style found in Jamaican dancehall music. This technique allowed disc jockeys to isolate & prolong the break section of a track between two record players, as they spoke rhymes over the track. The earliest form of East Coast rap could be considered somewhat of a disco-hip hop fusion. This can be heard best in the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang. There is just something about that alternating bass and snare that just makes you move and groove. Throughout the years, hip-hop has grown and aged, just like its listeners, allowing for more artists to develop their own interpretations and styles of the legendary genre.
When it comes to East Coast Rap these are the key elements:
The Rhyme
The Sample
The greatest thing to consider that make up the East Coast and every other region’s sound, whether Old School or New school is the environment these artists grow in. For example, many New York rappers aren’t making songs to bump while you’re driving in your car because that wasn’t their experience growing up. Some of the best backpack rap* artists come from the East Coast like Black Moon and Mos Def.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are many examples of East Coast rappers moving to other rap regions, and gaining a huge following (2Pac being a great example), but just like the ink on your birth certificate - you can’t change where you were born. If you were to look at the 325 songs (not including remixes) released by Tupac Shakur, you would see that 2Pac sampled 518 songs. Although, he’s credited heavily as a West Coast rapper, in an interview with Sway he credits not just the West Coast but also the East Coast for shaping and molding him into the person he grew to be.
(Also, I know I’ve not mentioned other East Coast hip-hop fusions (like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul), Latin Rap and Trap artists (like Bad Bunny or even Cardi B), and even the Rock Rappers (like the Beastie Boys), but for this intro we’re going to be focused mostly on boom bap*.)
The West Coast
The fastest growing style of hip-hop to branch off the originators was the West Coast style of rap, pioneered by Alonzo Williams. Unlike its East Coast counterpart, early West Coast hip-hop focused more on the DJ than the rhyme. In the 80’s this changed with the introduction of harmonized rap (later to be defined as gangsta rap) by such artists like Mixmaster Spade. For those that thought the musicians of the East Coast held back, then the early West Coast musicians were right up their alley. Alonzo “Lonzo” Williams was once quoted saying, “The lyrics came from the heart and from the streets. That is why “PARENTAL ADVISORY” had to be put on albums and CDs. Then came the beat. The West Coast had beats that were crazy , but people were loving it !”
When it comes to West Coast Rap these are the key elements:
The “Gangsta”
The “Flow”
When I use the word flow in regards to West Coast Rap I don’t mean the rhyme, as most people would think. I’m talking about the actual wave like pattern of each cadence. Similar to the way that a person’s voice pitches upwards when asking a question and resolves downwards when responding; West Coast Rap has a similar internal question and answer. A really great example of this can be found in the song “Streiht Up Menace” by Compton’s Most Wanted.
Similarly to East Coast Rap, the means of transportation can be heard in West Coast Rap music. In the song “Boyz-N-The-Hood” by Eazy-E, there’s a major key in the first line, “Cruisin’ down the street in my ‘64…” That key being the word cruisin’. The act of cruising is one major experience that distinguishes an East Coast rapper from a West Coast rapper. Whether you’re driving down the street in a coupe or a single-speed Schwinn, the one thing for sure is that you’re cruising - or at least thinking about it.
The Midwest
As broad as the accents are amongst the people of the Midwest, so are the influences of rap. Taking a look at 4 different cities that some of the most popular Midwest rappers have come out of (Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Cleveland), each of these have a very distinct sound to them, even though they are all from the same region. Though hip-hop didn’t originate in the Midwest, rappers from the Midwest have definitely become the favored region amongst The Recording Academy. Since 1996, the year the first Grammy for Best Rap Album was rewarded, the recipient has been a Midwestern rapper 12 times of the 25 (50% of that being Eminem alone).
When it comes to Midwestern Rap these are the key elements:
Coded Language
More White Artists
Though rap is mostly spoken in the African-American Vernacular, each region uses coded language* Similarly to how in the East Coast and Southwest region you’ll find more Latin Rap, in the Midwestern region you’ll find more white rappers. With that though, you’ll also find more rappers that go against the “traditional” ideas of what hip-hop/ rap culture means. On one side of the spectrum you’ll find rappers like Eminem whom challenge the bounds of rap and rhyme, and on the other end you’ll find rappers like Lil Dicky whom equally challenge bounds of rap, but through the lens of a white male acknowledging their white privilege.
The South
I was born in the South but raised in the Midwest, so I’m not as hip to Southern rappers, but there’s a reason for that! Prior to the 90’s, most Southern rap stayed popular in the South and didn’t move to these other regions. It wasn’t until the late 90’s that Southern rap become a mainstream sound and that is greatly due to Master P. He was the first Southern rap artists to really gain national recognition with No Limit label that extended beyond music and ventured into merchandise. I speak heavily of New Orleans’s influence in Southern rap, but don’t get it twisted Atlanta definitely developed and popularized the genre of *trap music with artists like Outkast and T.I. which allowed for New School artists like Waka Flocka Flame and The Migos to develop the Southern Trap sound that we know so well now. (so many triplets…)
When it comes to Southern Rap these are the key elements:
The Twang
[Either] The Bounce or The Groove
As Lil Troy said, "It’s a laid-back vibe that we like down here. That way you can understand what people sayin’ real slow and stuff. When you’re smoking that weed everyday and drinking that codeine syrup, your brain is slow already so you on time with it.” Similar to the West Coast flow, some Southern rappers have a laid-back groove in their rap style. You can hear an example of this in the song “Wanna Be A Baller” by Lil Troy. The extended synth notes at a fairly slow 92 beats per minute, help keep the energy in this song at a casual walking pace. If the groove is the head’s side of the coin, then the bounce is definitely the tail. Southern bounce music just sounds hot & sweaty (temperature-wise). To quote Big Freedia, “If ya booty ain’t movin’, you ain’t doin’ it right. The more twerkin’ the betta.” A popular Bounce example comes from New Orleans-native Choppa with the song “Choppa Style”.
Dictionary
*Backpack rap refers to music that is listened to by backpackers. Backpackers: People who only listen to underground or conscious rap"
*Boom bap is an onomatopoeia that represents the sounds used for the bass (kick) drum and snare drum, respectively.
*Coded language describes phrases that are targeted so often at a specific group of people or idea that eventually the circumstances of a phrase's use are blended into the phrase's meaning.
*Trap music is a subgenre of hip hop music that originated in the Southern United States during the early 1990s. The genre gets its name from the Atlanta slang word "trap," which refers to a place in which drugs are sold illegally.
Here are all the songs mentioned for your listening pleasure
I would like to thank Katya Deve for providing me with a collection of literature by hip-hop scholars. You were a tremendous help.
