Rap Beats And The Explosion Of Southern Rap Music

12/30/2009remixes.  With a small amount of techno savvy, a
�recording artists could create and mix their own
�beats from the comfort of their home recording
The modern marvels of technology have brought thestudio.  Adding vocals and sound effects via
music world many new and interesting gifts.  One ofsoftware editing, the new rapper could create
the most important things that this technology haspopular music that was already preserved in a digital
created is the ability to create beats usingformat that could be easily shared.
software.  This advance is important because itA Long Hard Road
brought us the ability to create new styles of musicUnfortunately, the road to fame was not an easy
including Southern Rap.one.  The big recording company executives were
What is Southern Rap?not inclined to jump on the southern rap
Wikipedia defines Southern Rap as "a form ofbandwagon.  For a large portion of the 1990's,
American hip hop music that emerged from asouther rap artist simply could not find a toe hold in
late-1980s club-oriented vibe in southern U.S. cities." the music industry.
It goes on to describe Southern Rap by proclaiming itThis rejection by the big recording labels brought us
to be "a third major American hip hop genre, afteranother important aspect of the modern music
East Coast hip hop and West Coast hip hop".world.  Many talented rappers were able to break
With this description, it is easy to see that southerninto the music industry by producing and marketing
rap is a very powerful influence in the modern musictheir own recordings via their own Indie labels or on
industry.mix tapes.  This step created a movement towards
How Technology Created Southern Rapindependent recording labels that is still going strong
With programs like Fruity Loops, budding rap artiststoday.
had a new tool for the creation of rap beats and