Do All 50 States have a Hip Hop Representative (MC/Group) who Define the State and Culture of music in the genre? Now, what I mean by that is I live in North Carolina so when people think of our state & Hip Hop they generally think of Little Brother/9th Wonder. Cali you think of NWA/Dr.Dre etc. So, do all 50 States have an MC and/or Group that is the Representative for their State and who fans identify that particular Hip Hop/Rap Sound/Culure with? I will start the list and if you agree cool, if not please feel free to add on but I'm curious to see how many states rep or do not have a rep (you know...to send to the Hip Hop Congress..lol..for fun people)What State has no Representation in our culture?

Example: Top 50 States (I'm only going to do a few of course)

1.California: NWA
2.Georgia: Outkast
3.Michigan: Eminem (sorry its not Dilla before you start that)
4.North Carolina: Little Brother
5.Texas: Scarface (or UGK)
6.New York.....MAN I WILL NOT DARE TO PLACE ANYONE HERE! GO FOR IT
7.Virgina: The Clipse/Neptunes


ok....keep it going...so forth and so on...

#peace

Common? Kanye? Twista (not the most popular nationally, but his sounds is prolly more Chicago than the other two, who branched out more)?

I think Bone gets Ohio.
Oh crap...Ross may get Florida...but I'd (probably unfairly) give it to Trick Daddy first.

Kanye get Chicago to me at this point. He started with the soul & backpack (like Common) and now is global but its close

Florida.....man...it might be Rick Ross..lol.....you could say Luke & 2 Live Crew b/c most of the music after them was like that

Kanye, in his ever-so-humble opinion may say the same thing.

if this was about being a superstar I would agree but Common put the Chi on the map and when you match his success with his respect, he has to be the face of the Chi.

Yeah, your right now to think about it. When "I Use to Love Her" dropped Common was the face of the Chi to me at the time. Your right. Common is the representative from Chi town...I stand corrected

Not even close

I reject him as a representative, and go for the option of not participating.
I'll take Josh Boots over Joker any day.
But still, we abstain.

Well, two actually. Intuition is from Alaska but resides in Cali. But Soulcrate Music is from South Dakota and Isiah Toothtaker is from Arizona. Not saying they're big enough to represent the states but they're the only rappers from those states I know of.

isn't Geo of Blue Scholars from Hawaii originally? but he's based in seattle.

Creed Chameleon (now in AZ), Tassho, Prie, Osna, and Broke Mokes are some of my picks from back home, but there's a lot more.





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AR:

Bobby Lopez (Ft. Smith) - wack

Hardaway and the Commoners (Fayetteville) - much MUCH better. live band backing Hardaway (hence the '& the Commoners' bit), songs come complete with trumpet and guitar solos. Hardaway's not the best MC, but he doesn't take anything away (usually). Plus the beats are great, and just as great live.

T. Jay (Fayetteville by way of LR) - best emcee out of the pack ("Got them hands down -- Venus de Milo"), but I would rather listen to Hardaway, owing to the Commoners contributions. But yeah, he's the best rapper out of the group, as well as a cohost of the Concrete Schoolyard, a weekly hip-hop show coming out of the University's radio station.

Bobby Lopez - https://www.facebook.com/commoners?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/mrbobbylopez

Hardaway and the Commoners - https://www.facebook.com/commoners?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/commoners

T. Jay - http://www.tjay501.com/2011/09/tjays-breakfast-biggie-debuts-on.html


Hip-hop is more-commonly found on a saturday night in one of those front porch cyphers.

EDIT: title and because i forgot T. Jay the first time around.

Unless you wanna say The T.C. Rapper from NPG lol.

Or Utah?

Will South Carolina ever have it's nationally recognizable rapper representative or are we going to claim just regionally known kats like yourself, Preach, Spectac, Lil Ru, Dan Johns, Fat Rat Da Czar, Blind Fury, and a few others I can't think of at the moment.

The 106 and park Blind Fury?! Lol!

<----------- Do the KFC dance.

Yeah the same one from the 106 & Park freestyle battles.

That's where my moms grew up. Small world. Whatever happened to Blind Fury?

Sage Francis would get Road Island, Apathy gets Connecticut, Freddie Gibbs gets Indiana.

None of them are on the level of the examples you listed but that's what you get from states not exactly known for their hip-hop scene.

Oh, and I imagine Sir Mix A Lot would represent Washington, although I couldn't say how much he repped the state.

he is the most known product from here, but he hasn't made music in years and his sound is definitely not relevant now.

I'd say the sound right now is best defined by people like Macklemore, The Physics and Grynch.

without a doubt.

but they aren't even a group anymore.

I don't know why Im the only one that loved Tobacco Road.

When did they split?

I knew Ra did a solo but didn't know they weren't making any more music together.

Sabzi moved to NYC and has some kinda thing going w/ a band out there.

i just know at some point they officially decided they weren't gonna make music together as a group.

Sir Mix A lot is unquestionably the biggest rapper to ever come out of the state and that has to count for something. However, there are a lot of current rappers out of Seattle that rep the state a lot harder but none of them really stand out above the pack, you know? Macklemore might be on his way there but he'll never reach the level of success that Sir Mix A Lot had.

what that means? don't really know at this point.

he did just pack 20,000 plus into Key Arena. it was part of a festival which makes it a bit easier, but 20,000 is 20,000.

It would be great to see him on one of the bigger independent labels though, dude deserves more shine than he's getting.

And for the record, wasn't he opening for Wiz Khalifa at Key Arena? I've seen footage and it looks like he got an amazing reaction and I don't doubt that a lot of the people were there to see him but I feel like that's getting blown out of proportion.

for Wiz.

i wasn't there though, so i have to say that. this is based on video and friend's reports.

.

or someone who actually represents the sound?

He's the only emcee probably known outside of washington, but ain't been hitting in decades.

he's Washington right now, like it or not



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Whether you like his rhyme steez or not, you'd have to give Missouri to Nelly over Tech N9ne...

...in terms of who is readily associated w/ the state, tech n9ne probably second

He will always define the 504 style/sound to me, regardless how large Wayne gets.

For Cali, you have to split it in half between the Bay (E-40) and LA (NWA).

For NY, you have to go by borough.

PA, I'm going with Black Thought/The Roots.

Tenn., I'll take 3-6 Mafia

no one embodies the philly aesthetic more than him, in every way.

will smith, eve and the roots are the most successful artists from PA, but none of them are as emblematic of the philly rap universe as beans. his vivid guntalk, dense multisyllabic rhyme patterns and legal fuckery are more indicative of that city than a live band. listen to meek mill, state prop, chic raw, joey jihad, vodka, hollow man, gillie, ab liva, sandman, etc. the roots' sphere of influence is more in neo-soul and r&b (jill scott, jazzies, musiq).

there's no way he's the representative of PA for me. plus, i'd say black thought has repped that philly sound just as well.

I considered Beans. But I figured before I select Beans, I would select Schooly D.

BT's among the top 15 all-time. His longevity and talent coupled with The Roots status as hip-hop emissaries puts them at the top.

I respect you opinion and I respect E-40 but when you think of the Cali or the West Coast in general you think if NWA/Dre/Snoop/Cube first before Anything else

You're right. I just feel like Cali is so large, it deserves to be cut in half. But overall, NWA would be the appropriate representatives.

i'd give michigan to breed

though either one is okay

freddie gibbs - indiana
k.r.i.t. & david banner - mississippi

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"We Ready", indeed.

Since 1976

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.

You pulled that random nigga all out yo ass lmao.

Since 1976

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Ed OG- more so than GURU!

AK for the underground and Mr. Lif for the burbs.


I love Africans, but HATE the N-gger in YOU!!!

Definitely Ed OG. He reps Boston harder than anyone.

Kev Brown/Low Budget - Maryland

Most people in NC don't know about LB...some are familiar with 9th but not LB as a whole (or used to be a whole)...NC is still stuck trying to be a little Atlanta and mostly everybody does trap music. The Justus League and a few other camps really represent true NC hip-hop.

Big up to 9th for at least trying to showcase non-trap NC talent.

Cause I know plenty of people in NC that love that song and will still go wild if it's play in a concert setting.

Right now we practically have to deal J. Cole as the default face of NC rap. Fortunately, more people are learning about Phonte and, by extension, LB. I still say it's a shame though......more people should've rode for LB back in 2003-2007 when they were really blowing up on the Internet.


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myself included.

I live in North Carolina and nobody that I know raps like they are in Atlanta on a grand scale. When you ask people outside of North Carolina who do they associate the state with its 9th Wonder/Little Brother. There is no other big name in NC since Petey Pablo early in the last decade. J. Cole is from NC but really reps New York to a certain degree. He doesnt even live in NC anymore.Most of the rappers in NC rap like they from up north and not the south. There are some small acts but we are talking about if each state has a representative, group, MC etc..Who would be that person. A lot of people here dont know Little Brother but they damn sure dont know anyone else. 9th is pretty much the most popular hip hop cat in North Carolina and its not even close.

and its the same reason why dilla doesn't rep
michigan. everybody heard that petey pablo
joint and associates that with NC. LB made
better music but face it, who is NC associated
with nationwide. Petey Pablo...

would say LB, but we are near Raleigh/Durham.

There are pockets of people who do rap like they are from further down South and there are pockets that rap like they are from up North. NC has always been sort of the midpoint for the East Coast. We have the benefit of hearing both sides. What I've always saw was a hybrid of both...which would make sense. I loved the fact that I had Black Moon and Outkast on my walkman with auto reverse, lol.

Petey Pablo did not represent that hybrid. Sure people were happy that there was a song that North Carolina was being said like 50 times like in a 90s NY song but other than that, eh...

LB did in my opinion. That's from the QC through Gboro to RDU.

has nobody, all this freaking time and nobody has stood out, plenty of local cats that do it big in their area and maybe their own mind, but none.

anchor this post cuz it'll be me lol

I'mma throw out Jake One for Washington, even though he's a producer. Mix-A-Lot should also be up there.

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The list is sorry as hell.

I'd agree with your choice of older generations. I'd also agree with DJ's Trick Daddy for that generation. For my own (presently 23), I think I'd put it between Ross and Plies.

Disclaimer: This is simply picking who defines my state, not necessarily rappers I really care about.

Plies is made fun of pretty frequently by hip-hop heads but he does rep Florida for sure. Most of his thug life songs (especially the deeper ones about poverty and people dying and shit) really remind me of some of the rougher places in Tampa. He truly represents the poor/struggle side of things much more than Ross does.

I really, really hate to include him....but...Pitbull is pretty representative of a Floridian lifestyle too, lol. One the majority of Floridians aren't too proud of. That whole shallow, flashy Miami wannabe-celebrity-clubbin' all night lifestyle. If you've ever lived in Florida (especially South Florida), You've seen this shit in action.

As for who I'm most psyched/proud of from Florida. That would be motherfucking Spaceghostpurrp. Strange to think he's from South Florida 'cause his music is so out there.

I think we just don't have very strong "scenes" anywhere. I don't know anyone that goes to local rap shows or anybody who's actually trying to make it as a rapper.

Hardcore bands, metal bands and bullshit like that gets a lot of attention though lol.

Solillaquists of Sound
Willie Evans, Jr. (Asamov)
2 Live Crew
Trick
69 Boyz
T Pain
"Rick Ross"
Pitbull

hadn't really kept up since like '06 so I may be wrong about who is it now.

lol... I remember Phonte saying something like that on one LB song, too... about how they think everyone from North Carolina waves their shirts around like helicopters

Is that how it's really looked at outside of NC? We are some damn Petey Pablo fans? Or make music/rap like that? No offense to PP because he did say North Carolina all through the song but does that music represent NC...me thinks not

No doubt. I live in NC and from NC & though Petey caught fire for a year....we never wanted NC hip hop to sound like that...

I'm from NC too...born/raised in G'boro and have been living in RDU for the past 13 years.

For me in G'boro,it was like NC has always been sort of the midpoint for the East Coast. We have the benefit of hearing both sides. What I've always saw was a hybrid of both...which would make sense. I loved the fact that I had Black Moon and Outkast on my walkman with auto reverse, lol.

As I said earlier, Petey Pablo did not represent that hybrid...LB does.

we are Petey Pablo fans to the rest of the world. the nigga got the unofficial state anthem.

and MOST niggas here dont know fuck about a Little Brother.

every act from here that actually gets hot is on some southern shit until Cole.

and Cole didnt blow up here first so he doesnt REALLY count for NC if I'm being totally real about it. you can claim an area all you want but if you dont blow up there first, it doesnt count. just my opinion.

When I was in school in Raleigh, we heard about LB fairly quickly. Of course it didn't hurt that 9th was DJing with a couple of my boys from the school (Shout out to the Fantastic 4, lol)

I went to middle/HS with Phonte so that made that shit cray

By the time J.Cole came around, I had already left school and been working for some time. The Listening was already a classic by this point so I am not as familiar with Cole until he dropped that mixtape some years back.

I can give you that. Pablo was the man at first. He had the anthem and the hit. I was more or less talking about when you currently think of a state what artist comes to mind. Or when you overall think of a state who do people think about. When you think of NC now you think of 9th wonder. He is the most relevant act in NC Hip Hop. pablo had the hit but nobody thinks about him. The Hip Hop world respects 9th Wonder more than Pablo at this point.

No doubt. I live in NC and from NC & though Petey caught fire for a year....we never wanted NC hip hop to sound like that...People now associate North Carolina with 9th Wonder & his label/movement here. When I talk to family and friends who live out of state, they say the same thing. Give NC better credit thatn Pete Pablo my G.

peace

I know he was born there but I don't know much time he spent there. He's a weird (though extremely intelligent rapper) and although I know it's highly stereotypical, I always think of Maine as a very strange, secluded, woodsy, outdoorsy kind of state. So to me being a very different kind of rapper fits that atmosphere.

According to Vibe it's this guy lol, but I ain't ever heard a damn thing and didn't read it so I wouldn't know. http://www.vibe.com/content/next-great-white-rapper-hails-wells-maine

People around here seem to love him, though

"I'm Awesome" was catchy and funny but I'm not familiar with him outside of that.

He was born there and reps that mothafucka to the fullest.

Wish he blew up. Thought he was atleast going to blow up in the underground when he got that Def Jux deal but the label folded :(

Him along with Dan Johns (where he at?) are very dope though.

<----------- Do the KFC dance.

I'm in NC but never heard about any South Carolina MC's...i will have to check him out..

A slightly bigger label lol.

Here's his new single: http://donwill.me/2011/09/02/download-danny-i-dont-wanna-hear-that-shit/

<----------- Do the KFC dance.

But thanks y'all, it's much appreciated

closest thing is goodie mob. and they don't sound like outkast.

how do they define the rest of the state?

I'm talking about when you think of a state, what group do you think about. When people think of Georgia, they think of Outkast b/c Atlanta is the city of reference.

embodies the Atlanta feel like no other. Definitely more than that other goofy shit coming out of the city.

firebrand will def school you lol

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.

And as for Tennessee, you could look at either Memphis (Three 6, Ball & G) or Nashville (Young Buck, Count Bass D). I'd probably go with one of the groups out of Memphis.

Yep. That's all we got.

I forgot all about Nappy Roots...they were pretty good at one point

actually, there's this dude named Saint Mike my friend has in his car that sounds really fuckin' nice, but I don't have any of his stuff myself and it's not like his name rings out anywhere, even here.

Hopefully, someday...we've been getting a lot of rappers lately

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Juuuust playin.

we have yet to make a splash on the national scene,but WV has had a good scene releasing stuff on the underground for several years now...

groups like the 304 Reconz and artists like DOCeasar have helped to pave the way for cats in my area (including myself) to make music today...

if anyone ever wants to check out some WV music,you can visit...

www.wvrapscene.com

www.livefromthedub.com

djcoutzalbums.bandcamp.com

peace

I will have to check some WV MC's out...