Southern hip-hop, also called southern rap, is a form of American hip-hop music that emerged from a late-1990s club-oriented vibe in southern U.S. cities, including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, Alabama, New Orleans, Miami, and Baton Rouge. The music was a reaction to the 1980s flow of hip hop culture from New York City and California, and can be considered a third major American hip hop genre, after East Coast hip-hop and West Coast hip-hop. Many early Southern rap artists released their music independently or on mixtapes after encountering difficulty securing record-label contracts.

REGIONAL SCENES

Miami, Florida has been an important influence in American hip hop since New school hip hop. Miami bass is a popular style of music from the Miami area of South Florida and is the first style of southern rap music started in the south.

In Miami, the distinctive bass-heavy scene of Miami bass evolved out of electro hop and similar hip hop-influenced dance scenes in Miami, including Luther Campbell and his group, 2 Live Crew. 2 Live Crew became infamous after their album, Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), was banned in a Florida town and the group was subsequently arrested on obscenity charges after performing; the charges were eventually dismissed.

Towards the late 1990s Atlanta emerged as a major city in the hip hop musical scene, and is one of the most popular cities in the hip hop world. Snap music is a type of music that emerged from Atlanta.