How did NY lose it's regional sound?

M4T

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I also think everybody's obession with "Sounding like New York", they just try to use the old NY sound instead of evolving it. New York Drill and Pop Smoke was probably the closest I heard to New York sounding unique again
Troy Ave had the ball but dropped it. French Montana still makes new York music in-between his trap and pop songs. Griselda is fairly successful for the type of music they make. Boom bap just needs a rapper that doesn't suck at hooks and song writing to make a comeback.
 

Flawdaboi

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Hating on the South...

While their major artist sought out that same sound and the artists from the south to collaborate with. shyt became unauthentic.
 

Flawdaboi

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I have a traditional answer about NWA and then the South appealing more to Black folks outside of the tri-state, but the real answer is Clear Channel and the Telecom Act of 1996, and later on Youtube/SoundCloud/Blog Raps and the algorithm.

A$AP Rocky was the first big AND NEW artist out of NYC for quite some time - and he said he grew up on the South. HE GREW UP ON THE SOUTH, steady living in Harlem. He didn't say Dipset, Wu Tang, Rakim..he said UGK.

How the music is marketed, advertised, and distributed is the real reason why young east coasters listen to the South and Chicago, and then make Drill/Southern hip hop.

When you destroy the connection between youth and their elders, this is what you get.

I mean how many folks still bumping Stevie Wonder and Al Green and they're under 25?
It couldn't have been because those cities/States were making the better more appealing music st the time??
 

FukkaPaidEmail

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Midwest lost it's sound too , they weren't known for making remedial raps until Chief Keef popped up
You can’t lump Midwest as one group

Detroit sound been the same for 25 years now .

nikkas still spitting in weird ass pockets

Beats still sped the fukk up


outside of Detroit ppl think of Dilla and Slum village ..when the nikkas who got love in the city have been the same archetype since forever.

From Eastside Chedda Boyz to Babyface Ray
 

WIA20XX

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It couldn't have been because those cities/States were making the better more appealing music st the time??

No, because that's not how the business of music works. (any business really)

The South been making hits well before they took over, but NYC establishment and Radio stations all around the country were not playing Southern Records.

It's only through exposure that people outside of the South started to love the South.

And that exposure happened through RADIO, not because the South suddenly started making music that people wanted to hear.

These were the hits in 96.

Do you see UNLV's Drag Em N Tha River here?

Meanwhile Kriss Kross and the Fugees is on this list.


I don't expect folks that weren't in radio, weren't in the industry to get it. Cats that don't make rent on playing music for other people don't understand the audience at all. I remember before I got on, I asked the club DJ to play some Showbiz and AG. I didn't get it. Didn't take me long to figure out the Alkaholiks and Souls of Mischief would clear a dance floor. I digress.

At no point has The South or The West been lacking when it comes to making rap music. Too $hort been making jams since 1986. Once cats got the blueprint (shout out to the founders), they was killing it.

What's always been lacking has been national exposure. Clear Channel changed that.

And since we're talking about how young kids in BK started sounding like trap rappers instead of Wu Tang or Tribe Clones - it's because that's what NYC radio (and the rest of the culture) was playing the South (and the West, and the East Coast as long as it sounded like the South and the West). It's not like folks wasn't trying to push the east coast. The east coast just stopped dominating.

So they changed.

Even the biggest acts out of NYC since the transition have traded heavily on the South and the West.
  • 50 Cent over Primo, Ski, Pete Rock, whoever - nobody cared. 50 Cent with Dre, 10x plat
  • Nicki Minaj doing some BS with bum east coast rappers? No one gave AF. Put her with Weezy, and she becomes a star.
It is what it is.

East Coast Superiority complex, not giving any radio love or industry love to the South and the West, meant their own demise. But that's a different discussion than the clear channel one.
 

Supa

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The sound isn't lost it's just not mainstream and it's not connected to younger artists.

Gangs are a major reason things changed. It made drill the go to sound of the youth. It also lowered the standard since anyone could just start rapping, upload anything going at the opps, and go viral.

Drill music is too insular and separated the generations. No one old or not gang banging is really going to connect to it and the kids who rap over those beats aren't interested in a more traditional NY sound. Pop Smoke figured out how to reach a wider audience but his death stopped that momentum.

If it wasn't drill they copied A Boogie. These new "artists" just want to get on quickly. There's no taking time to develop a sound or building a name. It's ride the latest wave and go straight to YouTube with a video.
 
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Still Benefited

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No, because that's not how the business of music works. (any business really)

The South been making hits well before they took over, but NYC establishment and Radio stations all around the country were not playing Southern Records.

It's only through exposure that people outside of the South started to love the South.

And that exposure happened through RADIO, not because the South suddenly started making music that people wanted to hear.

These were the hits in 96.

Do you see UNLV's Drag Em N Tha River here?

Meanwhile Kriss Kross and the Fugees is on this list.


I don't expect folks that weren't in radio, weren't in the industry to get it. Cats that don't make rent on playing music for other people don't understand the audience at all. I remember before I got on, I asked the club DJ to play some Showbiz and AG. I didn't get it. Didn't take me long to figure out the Alkaholiks and Souls of Mischief would clear a dance floor. I digress.

At no point has The South or The West been lacking when it comes to making rap music. Too $hort been making jams since 1986. Once cats got the blueprint (shout out to the founders), they was killing it.

What's always been lacking has been national exposure. Clear Channel changed that.

And since we're talking about how young kids in BK started sounding like trap rappers instead of Wu Tang or Tribe Clones - it's because that's what NYC radio (and the rest of the culture) was playing the South (and the West, and the East Coast as long as it sounded like the South and the West). It's not like folks wasn't trying to push the east coast. The east coast just stopped dominating.

So they changed.

Even the biggest acts out of NYC since the transition have traded heavily on the South and the West.
  • 50 Cent over Primo, Ski, Pete Rock, whoever - nobody cared. 50 Cent with Dre, 10x plat
  • Nicki Minaj doing some BS with bum east coast rappers? No one gave AF. Put her with Weezy, and she becomes a star.
It is what it is.

East Coast Superiority complex, not giving any radio love or industry love to the South and the West, meant their own demise. But that's a different discussion than the clear channel one.



If radio mattered,then everyone would have had the same taste,that taste being a more diverse palette. Radio just put new people or the next big hype on your radar. But it didn't completely override the taste and preferences built locally over time. Sure,I might give a listen to somebody who made a hit that I like and hear all the time. But my everyday music still consisted of shyt like E40,Brotha Lynch Hung,C-bo. People who y'all wouldn't understand were pretty popular in places you might not expect. There's no reason I should've moved to Kansas City,Mo from the bay area,and they have almost identical taste in music. Other than familial connections and word of mouth. Certain places just are more connected due to migration habits I assume.


Also y'all aren't accounting car culture. Im willing to say in MOST of the country. nikkas preferences were strongly based around what sounded good in the car coming out of your speakers. East coast music never sounded good in the car,and I think folks are overstating the hold New York had outside of the East. There are just fans of lyrical rap sprinkled EVERYWHERE. That hasn't changed at all. It just needs to be acknowledged New York lyricism peaked already and the content is still the same as it was 20 years ago:mjlol:.


So if I wanna hear elite lyricism I'll just throw in some Jay,Nas and Fab rather than listen to rehashed poor man's versions.


So the East lacks

1)sound(that drill sound is garbage)
2)content(same tired mafiaso,I been hustling in the same clothes for weeks hymns)
3)Personas(image,identity)
4)Originality


Sound will be important,because I doubt the lyricism will top lyricism we've heard already. Content is what we've always said matters more outside the East. It's not how technical you say something. It's what you say and how you say it. You should never sacrifice whats being said,to say it more technical. It might hit harder if you say it a certain way,even if that bar is simple.
 

Still Benefited

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And I don't agree that people's everyday listens changed all that much from 20-30 years ago. I bet the same type of music they were listening to in Memphis,Ohio,Oklahoma is the same style/type of music they were listening to decades ago locally. If that brand of music still exist. Even if it's some sort of variation of it. If New York is still listening to New York,not much has probably changed. Ney Yorks national impact was just overstated by print media in the 90's,2000's
 

Redwing80

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Labels and radio wasn't playing their shyt

They had the producers too. Cardiak, Araab, Harry Fraud etc just never made any hits with local artists
 

surv2syn

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How does that lead to loss of regional sound?

By keeping others out or ostracizing them you:

a) build resentment for a contingency of followers b) force those to jump sides to other emerging regions and sounds
c) fail to promote your own sound and expand it BEYOND your region

Keep in mind NYC sound was prevalent worldwide while NYC was in top. Look at Maestro Fresh Wes then later Choclair, Kardinal, of course because of their island backgrounds they started to blend in those influences

Look at the UK when it was emerging. NYC provided a soundscape to other regions even Cali. You know how many hip hop pioneers and groups migrated from NYC or NY period to Cali? Remember 7A3? It was a while before Cali established their own sound. They were dabbling with a lot of NY and that Miami bass.

Yall are talking about drill as if this didn’t start waaaay before that. When artists below the Mason-Dixon even started to break through, Mad Skillz case in point, they still had NY sound. Running around with Tribe n shyt.

NY sound was still hitting heavy when Clue was selling bootleg CD’s in retail stores. Dipset isn’t even part of the blame. Flex has way more blame. Once the south radio and dj’s formed that solidarity and that paper started to amass quickly NY quickly jumped ship and tried to align themselves with whatever sound was hot while trying to appease for all the shyt-talking that led to its decline.

By that time you just had too many artists from the West and South popping. The Midwest to me never had a true definitive sound of their own until you bring up to more current times. Before then they could widely range in sound because they were still heavily influenced by the later an the former.
 
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