Southern Hip Hop Culture

The South played a central and defining role in American musical history. The cultural changes can be seen through the types of music created during each generation. The Big Band Era reflected the American Culture of patriotism and era of World War Two. Jazz and Blues represents the flavor of New Orleans and the result of hard economic times. Slave songs encapsulate America's history of slavery, the painful impact on African American families and strong faith in God. The joyful songs of the 1950s reflected the prosperity that the country enjoyed after World War Two. After my birth in 1995, the South introduced a new genre of music to the top of the music charts, Southern Hip Hop.
Southern hip hop, also known as Dirty South hip hop had a distinct sound and brought a broader audience to the original hip hop culture from
Stylistically, southern rap relies on exuberant production and straightforward lyrics incorporating car culture, fashion trends, nightlife, and unique lingo into the songs. Though many early Southern rap artists released their music independently or on mixtapes after having difficulty securing record-label contracts, today Southern Hip Hop has a large following with several Grammy award winning artists to their credit and has crossed the bridge into musical theater. Currently the sold out production of pop culture’s Broadway hit “Hamilton” Terry Teachout of the New York Times claims” Hamilton is the most exciting and significant musical of the decade. Sensationally potent and theatrically vital, it is plugged straight into the wall socket of contemporary music. This show makes me feel hopeful for the future of musical theater.
The South not only developed its own vibrant style of music but is has developed it to a point where mainstream audiences throughout the world are embracing