The South Got Something to Say

“The South got something to say”

Same night as the East vs West blowup, OutKast won Best New Rap Group. The New York crowd booed. A 20-year-old André 3000 grabbed the mic and said the line above. He wasn't wrong.

Before the takeover

The South had been building for years, mostly ignored by New York and LA:

• Houston: The Geto Boys made dark, paranoid street rap ("Mind Playing Tricks on Me", 1991). DJ Screw invented chopped and screwed, slowing songs way down. UGK (Pimp C and Bun B), from nearby Port Arthur, made Texas rap legendary.
• Miami: 2 Live Crew and Miami bass made party music. In 1990 a federal judge ruled one of their albums obscene, which turned them into a free-speech case. The ruling was later overturned.
• New Orleans: Master P's No Limit and Birdman's Cash Money were independent labels that sold millions without New York's approval.
• Memphis: Three 6 Mafia made dark, lo-fi tapes. In 2006 they became the first rap group to win an Oscar.

OutKast changes everything

OutKast went from booed newcomers to one of the most creative groups ever. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) was basically two solo albums in one, and it won Album of the Year at the 2004 Grammys. Very few rap albums have ever done that.

Lil Wayne and the mixtape run

Cash Money's Lil Wayne spent the mid-2000s dropping mixtape after mixtape and calling himself the best rapper alive. People started believing him. Tha Carter III (2008) sold about a million copies in its first week, during the worst years of piracy, when almost nobody was selling a million of anything.

Trap: the sound that ate the world

Atlanta's next move was trap. A "trap" is a spot where drugs are sold, and trap music was rap about that life. T.I. helped name the genre with his 2003 album Trap Muzik, and Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane helped define it.

The sound: booming 808 bass, rattling hi-hats, dark synths. Producers like Zaytoven, Lex Luger and Metro Boomin built it into a formula. Then Migos made the triplet flow (three quick syllables per beat) the default way to rap. Future, Young Thug, 21 Savage and Lil Baby carried it on.