Southern hip hop facts for kids

Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, is a style of hip hop music. It started in the Southern United States. Key cities for this music include Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphis, and Miami. These cities are often called the "Southern Network" in rap music.

This music style grew as a response to the hip hop culture coming from New York City and Los Angeles in the 1980s. Southern hip hop is seen as the third main American hip hop scene. The other two are East Coast hip hop and West Coast hip hop.

Many early Southern rap artists released their music on their own. They often used mixtapes. This was because it was hard for them to get record deals in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, many Southern artists became very successful. As the decade continued, Southern hip hop became one of the most popular and important types of hip hop music. This was true for both mainstream and underground artists.

The Rise of Southern Hip Hop

Southern hip hop became very popular between 2002 and 2004. In 2002, Southern hip hop artists created a large part of the songs on hip hop music charts. They made up about 50 to 60 percent of the singles.

By December 2003, Southern artists, labels, and producers had six of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. These included OutKast, Ludacris, Kelis, Beyoncé, and Chingy. From October 2003 to December 2004, a Southern artist had the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for 58 out of 62 weeks. This showed how much Southern hip hop had grown.

In December 2004, seven of the top ten songs on the chart were by or featured Southern artists. A magazine called Vibe reported in 2004 that Southern artists received a lot of airplay on urban radio stations. They accounted for 43.6% of the songs played.

Famous Southern Hip Hop Artists

Many talented musicians have come from the Southern hip hop scene. One very well-known artist is Lil' Wayne.

Other famous Southern hip hop artists include:

• Ludacris
• Gucci Mane
• Birdman
• 2 Chainz
• Vanilla Ice
• T.I.
• Young Buck
• Three Six Mafia

Images for kids

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  New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne

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  Hip hop artist Z-Ro from Houston, Texas

See also

In Spanish: Southern rap para niños