Southern rap is a map, not one city’s story

Houston is home base for this site, but it isn’t the whole South, and we won’t write like it is. Memphis built a dark, lo-fi tape scene that a lot of later Southern rap borrowed from. New Orleans had bounce and the huge independent runs of No Limit and Cash Money. Atlanta went from OutKast and Organized Noize to the city a lot of rap now runs through. Dallas, Baton Rouge, Jackson and Miami all have their own chapters.

UGK coming out of Port Arthur, Texas, shows how close the lines run: a small Gulf Coast city, deep Houston ties, national reach. We’ll write about regional producers, the independent labels that sold records out of trunks, and the artists keeping regional sound alive now.

If you think we’re missing a city, tell us through the contact page. We’d rather hear it than leave a scene out.