A few years ago, I met a 17 year old that swore hip hop originated in the South. And I’m not talking about just what you hear on the radio today. I’m talking about the whole genre and culture of hip hop music. Now just like me, you have to be like “wait a second, this kid is on crack!”. But no, he my friend is not on crack. He is just highly misinformed and uneducated.

Like many youngins’, he simply lacks the education that we got. The education that the real creators of hip hop are people like DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5, Run DMC, Boogie Down Production, James Brown, Grandmaster Kaz, Busy Bee, and several more just like them. But I won’t blame the kid for his ignorance.

Instead, I want to educate all the Down South crunk music fans that what they consider good music “cuz the beat is good” doesn’t really work or make logical sense. The beat is a beat and nothing else. It doesn’t make the songs good, and its actually some of the simplest drum machine beats you can find tweaked in a way that it pops in your club speakers. It takes little skill to make and produce and it lacks creativity. And the lyrical content of the songs lack story telling, lack metaphors, and lack smartness that rap has come to honor.

I have to blatantly admit that I have been one of the biggest Haters of down south hip hop since its evolution into popular music. I have stopped dancing all together when its played at clubs, I quickly change the song if I hear it playing in a car or friend’s house without consent, and I’ve been known to scorn it out loud in front of several people. To me, the genre of music is what I consider the equivalent of the Plague. It spreads quickly, people not educated or conscious will get infected with it, and it has the ability to destroy the mind. That’s how bad I considered it and that’s how much I hated it.

Then I took a step back and asked, is it really all down south hip hop or is it just radio-popular crunk music? The answer is obvious and I want to highlight and credit the artists from “down south” that really have made a solid contribution to the art and music of hip hop. Their names are not Lil Jon, Young Jock, Soulja Boy, or whatever other wack ass name you can think of. Their names are:

The Dungeon Family. Consisting of groups and members like Outkast (Big Boi and Andre 3000 solo as well), Goodie Mob, Cee-lo, Sleepy Brown - the collective has brought ingenuity through a combination of funk and soul. Their more popular songs like “Hey Ya”, “Bombs Over Baghdad”, “Ms. Jackson” hit the top of billboard chats. But its songs like “Player’s Ball” from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) and “ATLiens” from ATLiens (1996) that got me to become a huge fan.

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Little Brother. This duo consisting of Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh has graced the underground hip hop scene for over 5 years now. They came up with their group’s name because, “”Tribe, De La, P.E….were like our big brothers in the game so now we are the little brothers of that movement…carrying on the tradition of good music.” This track below includes another amazing down south artist by the name of Median.

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9th Wonder. Once apart of Little Brother, 9th Wonder is one of the most talented hip hop producers in the game. He’s produced for everyone from Jay-Z to Mary J. Blige to De La Soul to my favorite Mos Def. His beats are always simple, well thought up, and soulful. Check out Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition (2004) to see some real expertise.

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Arrested Development. One of the earliest down south hip hoppers to grace the radio waves, they are the group that brought us songs like “Tennessee”, “Mr. Wendel”, and “People Everyday”. They are still putting out quality music too!

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