Browse
Regions
Hip-hop started in one place, the Bronx, in 1973. But as it spread, it never sounded the same twice. Every region built its own version out of local slang, local clubs, local radio and local heroes. That's why a Compton record, an Atlanta record and a London record can all be hip-hop and still sound like different worlds.
The six regions
East Coast hip-hop is where it all began. New York, Long Island and New Jersey gave the culture its foundations and its golden age: sample-based boom-bap, hard drums and lyricism above everything, from Rakim and KRS-One to Nas, The Notorious B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan.
West Coast hip-hop answered with gangsta rap from Compton and Los Angeles, and with the laid-back funk of G-funk. N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac defined the '90s; Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator and Vince Staples carried it into a new golden age.
Southern hip-hop grew from an underdog into the most influential region in rap. Houston, Miami, New Orleans, Memphis and above all Atlanta gave the world bounce, crunk, chopped and screwed and trap, from OutKast and T.I. to Migos and 21 Savage.
Midwest hip-hop has no single sound, but it has some of rap's biggest names: Eminem and J Dilla from Detroit, Kanye West, Common and Chief Keef's drill from Chicago, and Nelly from St. Louis.
UK hip-hop found its own voice in London with grime in the early 2000s, and later with UK rap and UK drill. Skepta, Stormzy, Dave, Little Simz and Central Cee made British rap a global force, in their own accents.
Canadian hip-hop went from a small scene to one of the biggest exports in modern music, thanks above all to Drake and the moody "Toronto sound".
Cities
Why region matters
For most of hip-hop's history, where you came from shaped how you sounded. In the mid-'90s the rivalry between the East and West Coast dominated the headlines, and when OutKast won at the 1995 Source Awards, André 3000 famously told a New York crowd that "the South got something to say". Streaming has blurred the borders since then, and sounds like trap and drill now travel the world in weeks. But the accents, the slang and the local pride are still there.
Explore each region above, or go straight to a city: from the Bronx and Brooklyn to Atlanta, Compton, Chicago and London. Want the whole story in order? Read the history of hip-hop.