The five rappers who popularised trap music
For many years, the sound and aesthetic of hip-hop was controlled entirely by New York City. As the genre’s epicentre, MCs and DJs from the city were quite protective of hip-hop and, for a while, acted as gatekeepers.
However, this changed with the arrival of West Coast artists like Ice-T and Eazy-E. That said, although New York was forced to acknowledge the fantastic rap music coming out of California, the South was shown little respect and consistently ignored.
The South produced gems in the 1990s, but it was after the turn of the millennium that the region began setting trends and steering the culture. With the emergence of crunk in the early 2000s, an electronification process that began in hip-hop, and as the years went by, more and more people began looking to the South for their rhymes.
Sampling had become less common in hip-hop as funk’s popularity began to decline, and by the early 2000s, G-funk and boom-bap hip-hop were basically dead. This left a vacuum, and when an off-shoot of crunk music known as trap came out of Atlanta, the South began to hold the torch for hip-hop.
In 2024, one would be hard-pressed to find a song on the radio or at the club that’s neither from or influenced by the South, especially with the prevalence of the dark, grimy, electric, heavy bass-filled sub-genre we know as trap.
Although it has now become the de facto sonic of hip-hop, many Southern acts, such as UGK, Three 6 Mafia, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Eightball & MJG, Project Pat, Yo Gotti, DJ Screw and the S.U.C., Goodie Mob and, Outkast contributed to its rapid rise in popularity. But only six figures undoubtedly made it commercially viable.
The five MCs who popularised trap music:
5. Master P
Louisiana mogul and No Limit founder Master P is known as a powerhouse in hip-hop and is renowned as one of the first figures to make large amounts of money as a record executive. He has a deep knowledge of Southern hip-hop and has previously explained how he took the beginnings of trap to Atlanta.
Speaking to XXL about his 1996 album, Ice Cream Man, Miller explained, “To me, I feel like it was the blueprint for trap music! Nobody wasn’t talking about hustling like I was talking about it. Nobody was really a boss in the music industry. Everybody had a boss, everybody had someone putting their music out. So when I talk about hustling and trapping, I think it opened the doors for the Gucci Manes and the Young Jeezys!”
4. UGK
Comprised of Bun B and Pimp C, UGK was associated with one thing. Houston. One of the city’s most prided groups, UGK, was among the first wave of rappers from the South to start turning heads. Along with the Geto Boys, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were quite literally the only act from the South who were known outside of the region.
Although they did not push trap music exclusively. They got eyes on the South and moved the needle when no one else could. Bun B, along with Pimp C (the other member of UGK), are the forefathers of Texas rap, and although they were not record-breaking, platinum-selling artists, they were the first glimmer of hope that the South had and proved that it was possible to reach beyond the Dixies. As such, trap would not have been possible without UGK turning heads.
3. Boosie Badazz
Louisiana legend Boosie Badazz grew up on music from the South and West Coast and has revealed in interviews that, for the majority of his childhood only listened to artists from New Orleans, Memphis, Houston and Atlanta. As such, it is unsurprising that when he entered the game in the late 1990s and signed a deal with the Memphis-based record label Trill Entertainment, he brought the South to life in his music.
Songs like ‘Wipe Me Down’ and ‘Set It Off’ were hits when they were released and are still loved to this day, especially by those in the South. With an abundance of crunk and trap, Boosie’s third project, Bad Azz, is a must-listen for any fan of rap music and undoubtedly pushed both subgenres to the forefront.
2. Gucci Mane
Although the infamous “Guwop” may not have been the founder of trap music, he is undoubtedly the emcee that did the most to popularise it. Alongside his producer, Zaytoven, Gucci Mane released an unfathomable amount of mixtapes that were unapologetically Atlanta.
With smash hits like ‘Bricks,’ ‘Lemonade,’ and ‘My Kitchen’ featuring the former Brick Squad member Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane was moving a lot of units, and his mixtapes were travelling further than he could have imagined. As well as making high-quality music himself, Guwop surrounded himself with young talents, such as Nicki Minaj, Metro Boomin’, Young Thug, and Future before they saw fame. As such, he exposed the youth to the sound, giving it a new lease of life.
1. Jeezy
Atlanta rapper Jeezy also known as Young Jeezy, was a big name in Southern hip-hop during the 2000s. His independent projects, like his double-disc album, Come Shop Wit Me, and his debut LP Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 did exceptionally well in the South and boosted the rapper into stardom.
That said, his unique beats, with thumping 808s and simplistic piano and synth riffs, were very different from the instrumentals coming out of New York, and he quickly garnered attention with them. That said, his legendary Trap or Die mixtape series put a name and lifestyle to the kind of music he made, which was Atlanta at its core. Whether he was talking about the iconic Magic City strip club in downtown Atlanta or the kids of Bankhead, it was a language that would make its way to the forefront of the culture with the Migos, Playboi Carti and others.