Hip hop became a very popular music genre in the twenty-first century, with songs and albums topping the charts all over the world. Local hip-hop cultures arose in several countries, including prominent musicians such as Dizzee Rascal from the United Kingdom and Drake from Canada. Missy Elliott, Lil’ Kim, Lauren Hill, and Nicki Minaj are just a few of the successful female rappers. Hip hop has had a significant impact on contemporary pop music, with many pop songs incorporating hip-hop elements. Pop singers and rappers frequently cooperate to create songs with appealing pop choruses and rap lyrics.
Most big musicians in the 1990s were from New York or Los Angeles, but after 2000, artists from the South became famous. Outkast was one of them, combining Southern soul beats and riffs with intelligent, engaging raps. Southern performers such as Future and Young Thug have been generating fascinating new forms of alternative hip hop in recent years. We can’t forget about Lil Wayne.
During the same period, performers from the Midwest grew popular. Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, grew up in a disadvantaged Detroit neighborhood surrounded by hip-hop culture. He was one of the first white rappers to win local rapping competitions as a youngster. His natural flow and the honesty and humor of his raps wowed the crowds, but he couldn’t obtain a record deal since he wasn’t a gangsta rapper. He eventually landed a record contract after years of struggle. His albums have nearly all topped the charts throughout the world, and he is currently one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
WHICH ONE ARE YOU CHOOSING ???
Another major artist from the Midwest is Chicago’s Kanye West. In 2004 he released The College Dropout, the first of a series of chart-topping alternative hip hop albums that helped change the direction of hip hop music. Kanye and Eminem proved that rappers didn’t have to make gangsta rap records to succeed, and alternative hip hop soon replaced gangsta rap as the genre’s most popular style. Since 2010, young musicians have been creating fascinating new forms of alternative hip hop and underground rap by distributing free mixtapes and leveraging social media to cultivate a following and attract music industry offers.