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The famous saying “The south has something to say” by André 3000 at the 1995 Source Awards, while OutKast accepted the New Artist Of The Year Award over a chorus of boos from a less than happy audience, has become something of a mantra for southern rappers and those who love it.
It is hard to imagine a world where a powerful hip-hop duo would be met with such disdain from any self-proclaimed hip-hop head. To understand the famous statement is to also understand the roots of how in the early years of hip-hop, its newness wasn’t quite accepted yet. The subgenre of Southern rap was completely ostracized as a whole. The Southern hip-hop sound had just been born around the late 1980s, during a time when rappers of the East and West Coast dominated. By the mid-1990s, Atlanta had become a hub for the Southern rap scene, and by the early 2000s, artists in the South began to develop mainstream popularity.
Despite its popularity in recent years in the genre, southern rap is hardly recognized during celebrations of Hip-Hop. Though several artists of today are dominating the rap scene, like Megan Thee Stallion, Big K.R.I.T., GloRilla, BigXthePlug, Doechii, just to name a few, rappers in the dirty south still don’t get the credit that they deserve.
But, as 3 Stacks said with a fire in his belly during a pivotal moment in OutKast’s career, the south will and still has something to say.
For Hip-Hop’s 52nd anniversary today, we have compiled an ultimate Southern rap playlist. Because, despite the erasure of the Dirty South in Hip-Hop celebrations, the South will always be a staple in the past, present and future of hip-hop.
