Credit: Nelly

St Louis has always been an outlier in terms of hip-hop. Akin to other cities in middle America like Kansas City and Louisville, although it has a large Black American population, it hasn’t produced a fantastic number of rappers. Although St Louis has produced a range of MCs, it hasn’t been well-represented in the musical landscape since hip-hop‘s inception.

Unlike cities such as Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles, St. Louis’ population isn’t expansive enough for it to have a large and thriving music scene. As such, it hasn’t really developed its own sound. The city has always tapped into different sounds from across the US and managed to find its place. Still, concerning rap music, unlike the country’s bigger cities, A&Rs aren’t paying much attention to the St. Louis scene.

As such, historically, it has taken a lot for an aspiring emcee to make it out of St Louis as a successful rapper, but it has happened on several occasions, and although not all of the city’s rhymers have had long-lasting careers, they have certainly had an impact on hip-hop culture. Some of them even charted globally.

In contemporary hip-hop, the single most recognisable emcee from St Louis is Sexyy Red. Although, at the moment, it is unclear how long or illustrious her career will be, she is (for now) the most relevant. Still, there is little representation, but we have compiled a list of the top five rap songs to come out of St Louis.

St Louis’ five best rap songs:

5. Huey – ‘Pop, Lock & Drop It’, Notebook Paper, (2006)

The late Huey was a St. Louis rapper who, like many MCs, found his route to fame by having one of his songs featured on a mixtape. Huey appeared on a series of mixtapes, one of which was the popular 2000s mixtape series Unsigned Hype. As such, his talent caught the attention of one particular producer who not only got him a record deal but also produced his one and only hit, ‘Pop, Lock & Drop It’.

During this mid-2000s era, acts such as Soulja Boy and Lil Mama were finding success in making songs with accompanying dance routines, and Huey saw the same with this formula. ‘Pop, Lock & Drop It’ became extremely popular with the youth and began to enter the Black American vernacular. It saw a boost of success when a remix was made in 2007 featuring Bow Wow and T-Pain.

4. Chingy – ‘Right Thurr’, Jackpot, (2003)

Chingy was a St Louis native who caught the attention of Ludacris in the early 2000s after rising to fame alongside Nelly. Chingy was a member of the St Lunatics, a St Louis-based rap collective that appeared heavily on Nelly’s debut project, Country Grammar, and partially on his sophomore album, Nellyville. Due to the exposure Nelly gave him, Chingy managed to sign a record deal with Ludacris’ Disturbing Tha Peace label in 2002 and quickly brought out a body of work based on the prominent sound of the South.

In 2003, he delivered Jackpot, with his debut single being the iconic ‘Right Thurr’. With the money and marketing now at his disposal, Chingy was able to enter the mainstream, and his lead single hit the Billboard Hot 100 at number two, where it remained for five weeks. It is most definitely one of the biggest hip-hop songs from St Louis and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

3. J-Kwon – ‘Tipsy’, Hood Hop, (2004)

J-Kwon is widely considered a one-hit wonder, and there are many theories as to why he fell off so quickly in his career. In 2018, during an interview with BET, the emcee unveiled that the reason he disappeared after his 2004 debut, Hood Hop, was that Arista Records shut down. Following this, he was transferred to Jive Records, where they didn’t know how to market his music.

Still, his 2004 track ‘Tipsy’ was a smash hit. The beat for the song is iconic, and it is known the world over as a classic 2000s hip-hop track. Produced by the St. Louis production team Trackboyz, it seemed to come out of nowhere and shot to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the blink of an eye and brought a lot of eyes to the city and its talent. To this day, it is popular and still brings back memories for many rap fans.

2. Nelly – ‘Air Force Ones’, Nellyville, (2002)

Nelly is one of St Louis’ biggest and most successful exports concerning rap music. As the frontman of the St Louis-based collective St. Lunatics, Nelly was a highly visible figure in his city, and the renowned DJ Kut would heavily play the group on the radio. Nelly’s talent was too much to contain, and before long, record labels were beginning to notice the traction he had across the Midwest and more widely.

In the early-2000s, one of Nelly’s biggest hits was ‘Air Force Ones’, which featured on his seven-times platinum sophomore album, Nellyville. The song was released as the third single after ‘Hot In Herre’ and ‘Dilemma’ and debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

1. Nelly – ‘Hot In Herre’, Nellyvile, (2002)

Nelly is by far the most successful rappers to ever come out of St Louis. He is a renowned name in hip-hop and will always be known as one of the kingpins of 2000s rap music. He was truly one of the first artists from his city to crossover into the mainstream and achieve vast amounts of success. Moreover he put the city on the map in many ways.

‘Hot In Herre’ is one of Nelly’s biggest tracks and is undoubtedly his most popular track ever. Released as the lead single of his groundbreaking album Nellyville, the Neptunes-produced song has been played on the radio and spun in clubs for over twenty years. ‘Hot In Herre’ debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since become a double-platinum hit known to every hip-hop fan.