Credit: Nelly

Situated at the point where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet, the city of St Louis is a vital part of Missouri and the Midwest region more broadly. With more than 2.8 million people spread across its wider metropolitan area, it’s home to lots of people and the distinct culture they’ve cultivated.

St Louis has, through the years, been home to musical legends of the highest calibre. Chuck Berry, without whom rock ’n’ roll would never have been the same, was born and raised there, while the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll, Tina Turner, moved to the city as a kid and later began her career there. Miles Davis, one of the great jazz musicians of the 20th century, grew up in East St Louis, a sort of offshoot city sitting just across the Mississippi River from St Louis proper.

St Louis musicians such as Berry, Turner and Davis were true innovators who reached the pinnacle of their respective scenes. In this same spirit, the city has also fostered many rappers, who, while perhaps not being among the most influential hip-hop artists of all time, nonetheless have left a distinct mark upon the culture.

St Louis’ rap music, while by no means a uniform thing, does tend to exhibit a certain instinct for melody. There’s a catchiness to a lot of St Louis’ rap music, which has helped to place the city on the hip-hop map. Be they globally recognised superstars or more locally loved performers, here’s a look at the city’s best.

The five best St Louis rappers of all time

5. J-Kwon

J-Kwon arrived on the American rap scene with a bang. Emerging from St Louis, he became an overnight national success with the release of his debut single ‘Tipsy’ in 2004, securing a number-two place on the Billboard 200. The track, which didn’t feature any bass, also did well around the world, especially in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. As debut singles go, you can’t reasonably expect to do much better.

There’s no question that, after this red-hot start, J-Kwon’s career tailed off. Following his debut album Hood Hop, which contained ‘Tipsy’ and reached number seven on the Billboard 200, only three more albums followed, with the most recent coming out a long time ago now in 2010. A mixtape was released in 2015, but there’s no question that J-Kwon. But, still. Not everyone can claim to have reached as high as he once did.

4. Murphy Lee

The hip-hop group St Lunatics came together in 1993, and, in the years that followed, they proved themselves to be an especially important force for the St Louis rap scene. They found success as a band, and, when its members broke off to pursue solo careers, several of them did really well in their own right. Murphy Lee was among them.

His debut album, which bore the rather obvious title of Murphy’s Law, was released in 2003, debuting at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart and later being certified gold. Featuring several members of his St Lunatics group, the album was also notable for containing appearances from the likes of Lil Jon, Lil Wayne and Diddy. Murphy’s Law produced the song ‘Shake Ya Tailfeather,’ which, thanks to its use on the Bad Boys II soundtrack, proved extremely popular and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

3. Sexyy Red

A relative newcomer to the scene, Sexyy Red announced herself to the world in 2023 with her song ‘Pound Town,’ which went viral on TikTok and later received a further boost by being remixed by Nicki Minaj. She didn’t let that surge in popularity go to waste, releasing follow-up single ‘SkeeYee’ and, ultimately, her mixtape Hood Hottest Princess within a matter of months. She ensured her name was burnt into people’s minds further by jumping onto songs by DaBaby, Young Nudy and Drake.

That breakthrough year of 2023 was huge for Sexyy Red, but she didn’t rest on her laurels. Her In Sexyy We Trust mixtape dropped in 2024, while she also appeared on Tyler, the Creator’s song ‘Sticky’ with GloRilla and Lil Wayne. That secured Sexyy Red with her first Grammy nomination, while her 2025 single with GloRilla, ‘Whatchu Kno About Me,’ has now been certified double platinum. She is, in no uncertain terms, a star nowadays, carrying the torch for her city.

2. Chingy

Chingy started young. Growing up in the Walnut Park East neighborhood of St Louis, a place he would come to refer to as the “Bad Blocks,” he started coming up with rhymes from the age of nine and, by the next the year, he was recording little demos. He built up a reputation for himself locally as he got a little older, and, eventually, he caught the attention of some of the big hitters. Ludacris learned of Chingy and signed him to his Disturbing tha Peace label in the early 2000s.

Chingy released his debut album, Jackpot, in 2003, and it boasted a great roster of guest stars including Luda himself, fellow St Louis rapper Murphy Lee, and Snoop Dogg. It debuted at number two in America and, within a year, it had been certified double platinum. It was huge, with follow-up albums Powerballin’ and Hoodstar all doing well and entering the top ten of the Billboard 200. Things started to dip with his fourth album Hate It or Love It, while his fifth was an outright commercial dud. His heyday is long behind him now, but there was a time when he was a major star.

1. Nelly

There’s no question as to who St Louis’ biggest ever rapper is. Nelly, Murphy Lee’s St Lunatics bandmate, was a defining artist of the 2000s, releasing his debut solo album Country Grammar in the year 2000 and sparking a period of dominance for the man who’d been born in Texas but had moved to St Louis as a teenager. He put St Louis and the Midwest on the map, in terms of rap music, as the hip-hop scene had been dominated by the Dirty South and the East and West Coasts until he showed up.

Nelly’s initial spate of releases were astonishingly successful. That first album, Country Grammar, reached number one on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified diamond, while it also produced two hit singles in ‘Country Grammar (Hot Shit)’ and ‘Ride wit Me.’ His follow-up album, Nellyville, was another smash in 2002, with singles ‘Hot in Herre’ and ‘Dilemma’ both reaching number one. ‘Hot in Herre,’ especially, is an iconic song of the era, and, while he has never released a song of quite that stature since, his commercial appeal endured for years before tailing off in the mid-2010s.