Credit:http://willblogforhiphop.files.wordpress.com
The south has always had a chip on its shoulder unfortunately both musical and geographical. For a long time no one outside of the south wanted to hear what they had to say due to streotypes of southern folks simply being “country” or “slow”. Its funny how the south would go on to dominate the hip hop industry in the 2000s/2010s, even though the music quality decreased tremendously. From day one the south had to fight hard for their seat in hip hop, a fight that lasted all throughout the 90s. With the exception of 2 Live Crew and the comedic bass music, the south had some serious soldiers down to fight for their home.
While the Geto Boys were essentially the south’s answer to N.W.A., they were from Texas which is the southwest but not the deep south. Outkast was the first group out of the deep south to truly represent for their homewtown of Atlanta. They wern’t the first emcees out of the A Town, as artists like MC Shy D and Sucess N Effect predate them, but they were certainly the most influential and endearing. Outkast was the antidote, the antithesis of the streotypes that had plagued the south for so long. With their help, the south finally was beginning to get their due.
1994 in many ways could have been the south’s most important year of hip hop during the 90s. For too long they had been ignored and trampled upon and once Outkast hit with the breathtakingly unique Southernplaylisticadillacmuzik (What a title!), the south was really ready to kick some ass. As stated earlier, Outkast may not have been the first southern rap collective, but they were definitely one of the first to truly capture the attention and minds of the rest of the country. This is the south and this what we have to say. With Outkast leading the way in ’94, other talented southern emcees followed suit. Such examples are Big Mike and his truly under appreciated classic Somethin’ Serious. 
UGK’s spectacular sophomore album Super Tight which established the group’s style and flair and of course The Diary by Scarface who is arguably the greatest southern emcee of all time.
If you listen to all of the albums I have suggested during this series, you will see just how much variety and flavors there were too choose from! Now a days everybody sounds so similar and to make things worse,most don’t even CARE to sound any different. This is the what made the 90s beautiful. EVERYBODY had their own style, and eve when there were groups and artists that shared strong similarities, they STILL managed to be distinctive from one another.
