JonnyRoccIT;c-9824482 said:
I literally love everything, from all regions and genres. But i also think New Yorkers/East Coasters and old niggas tend to discredit other rappers from other regions when it comes to rappers from their own region because of what hip hop Traditionally is.
You hit the nail on the head.
I'm 43 and the only states I've ever lived in are Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. I have family in California and I've visited Cali several times and so I know what the West Coast is like. I've driven around the Bay Area with my cousins listening to Too $hort so I know how his music sounds while driving around Oakland.
@JonnyRoccIT made a good point. He said that NYC/East Coasters, "tend to discredit rappers from other regions...because of what Hip Hop traditionally is"
And he's 100% right. I remember talking to Grandmaster Caz a while back. Somehow the conversation switched to NWA. I told Caz NWA was hot in Massachusetts when I was in high school. He said, "We didn't like them". Basically it took Caz a long time before he could accept rap coming from other regions because he felt that his peers from his generation created Hip Hop and people from other regions were taking a bite out of Hip Hop, changing it around and making something that sounded foreign to the pioneers. And to make it worse, the rappers from other regions were making more money than the original old school rappers from The Bronx because the rappers from other regions all shared a common experience with Hip Hop.
All that is to say, if you grew up listening to a certain sound, then a style/sound from a different region takes a while to get used to.
Most of my collection is East Coast Hip Hop but I have some stuff from Ruthless, Death Row, No Limit, Cash Money. I have some stuff by Ludacris, Missy Elliot and Young Jeezy. I even have a few 2 Live Crew records. Basically my record collection is 90% East Coast Hip Hop with some regional stuff mixed in.
The main reason I prefer East Coast Hip Hop is because of the way New York rappers rap. They don't speak with a Southern drawl which is common amongst Southerners and people from Cali. I like the way New York rappers pronounce their words. And when 50 Cent (and Kanye) started to rap with Southern accents is around the time New York rap fell off.
