DanjLovesThe90s!

I don’t think anyone coulda called it. When Andre and rest of the Dungeon Family stood onstage and made that proclamation at the ’95 Source Awards in New York City, the crowd couldn’t have possibly taken it all that seriously. On that night, it was all about the East Coast and the West Coast, not to mention the lil’ coastal tension that grew from the event. Andre’s announcement mighta been no big deal then, but here we are 14 years later. At this point, I’m damn near expecting someone from NY or Cali to step up at an awards show and express the same views about their hometown.

One thing about being doubted or denied is that in many cases, it can fuel determination. In the ’90s, while the East and West were comfortable, the South was trying hard to break through nationally. Sure, they had the Miami Bass type shit kicking off, and artists like Arrested Development and Kris Kross were popular for a minute. But with the exception of the Geto Boys, no one from the South who made “that real shit” was getting that shot to break through. The big roadblock for anyone from other parts of the U.S. was that “you gotta be in New York or LA” to make it in the biz. Atlanta became a third outlet, mostly due to L.A. Reid and Babyface‘s label, LaFace Records… but they only did R&B.

And then, they gave hip-hop a chance with OutKast, who scored a platinum album with Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. That opened the door for the Dungeon Family’s Goodie MOB to come out the following year with Soul Food. Around the same time, independent labels like Rap-A-Lot and Suave House started trying to expand. Most of the Southern groups weren’t getting heavy MTV play, but they did start getting some rotation on other video outlets. And unlike the East and West, who had all their chips relying on one state, the South had groups coming from all over: Atlanta, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, etc.

I would see some of these acts as they were starting to emerge, and for lack of a better expression, I thought that shit was strange. Their videos always looked extra-low budget, their ads in the magazines were comically bad (shoutout to Pen & Pixel), and their names were even weird to me. They weren’t West Coast-ish enough to be categorized with them, and they definitely weren’t East Coast-ish at all. Some of them were laidback and soulful, and then others were loud and violent. Most of the groups were very regional-sounding, and even though I liked some of the songs, I didn’t think they were breaking nationwide with it.

But outta nowhere, the same videos I (and fukkit, a LOT of people) had been laughing at started to pick up attention. The video for TRU’s “Bout It, Bout It” used to have me in stitches, and damn if not a year later, Master P wasn’t getting played all over the place. The same happened for groups like UGK and Three Six Mafia, whose ads I recalled seeing a couple years prior and thinkin’ “the hell?” Before I knew it, the ’90s were coming to a close with Cash Money and No Limit being two of the top hip-hop labels, and OutKast as arguably the most popular group. Even artists from the East and West coasts were making records that appealed to the Southern sound.

There’s a million theories that could be thrown around, but I feel that the rise of the South in hip-hop was through perseverance and refusing to follow what everyone else was doing. They didn’t try to be like Wu-Tang, they didn’t try to emulate Snoop… they talked about where they were from and spoke the same way in their songs that they did in real life. It’s the same way the West got heavy in the game when it was still 90% East Coast. The South became hip-hop’s Third Coast by making their shit the way they wanted to and believing in it enough to push it until everyone took notice.

And ironically, that’s something that BOTH NY and Cali could prob’ly stand to do right now.

OutKast “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” (1994)

Eightball & MJG “Mr. Big” (1993)

Geto Boys “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta” (1993)

Big Mike “Havin’ Thangs” (1994)

Ghetto Mafia “Straight From The Dec” (1997)

Three Six Mafia “Tear Da Club Up ’97″ (1997)

UGK “It’s Supposed To Bubble” (1994)

Goodie MOB “Dirty South” (1995)

Lil’ Keke “Southside” (1997)

TRU “I’m Bout It, Bout It” (1995)

Tela feat. Eightball & MJG “Sho Nuff” (1997)

DJ DMD feat. Lil’ Keke & Fat Pat “25 Lighters” (1998)

Lil’ Troy feat. Yungstar, Lil’ Will & Fat Pat “Wanna Be A Baller” (1998)

Hot Boys “We On Fire” (1999)

-D!