Dirty South

UGK

Dirty South Hip-Hop rap southern rap Houston

Dirty south is a form of Southern hip-hop music that emerged in the early to mid-1990s known for it’s explicit lyrics, intense rhythmic flows, and bouncy, dense snare patterns. Often cited as a predecessor to trap music, most classics in the subgenre’s formational years would come out of the cities of Houston, New Orleans, Memphis and Atlanta, however it would go on to spread to most states in the region, being quite popular until the aforementioned trap sound’s era. Labels like Rap-A-Lot, Cash Money and No Limit secured homes for the commonly gangsta rap adjacent beats, as producers like Pimp C, Juicy J, DJ Paul, and Mannie Fresh formulated the sound through their unique ways of sampling and flexible, notably non-sampled drum work. .