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New York City, without a doubt. Whoever rules New York City rules hip hop. New York city has had rapper throughout all phases of hip hop. From the old school disco inspired hip hop from the late 70s early 80s, to the Run DMC/Kangol era, to the late 80s/early 90s hippy peace hip hop, to the Hardcore gansta rap of the mid 90s, the glossy post-gangsta music of the late 90s, up until now.
New York City is one of the only city that can say it has had a hip hop artist from every single era of hip hop. No other city can really boast that. NYC is the mecca of hip hop.
I would say 2nd place would be the Bay Area. There are countless independent artist who have came out of the Bay. Mac Dre, E-40, Killy Tay, Tu Pac, Digital Underground, Too Short, Ant Banks, etc. to be honest with you, the Bay Area has never needed mainstream record sales or radio play to keep it's artist relevant. The bottomline, an artist in the Bay can make a ton of money independently. Many of the Bay Area rappers aren't even on most people's radar anymore, but they still put out albums and make good money. The Bay Area has strong markets for it's music in Nebraska, Phoenix, Vegas, Seattle, Kansas City, and even New Orleans. Kansas City has been a unrelenting supporter of Bay Area independent artist, and many of them are just as big in Kansas City as they are in the Bay area.
Atlanta. Sigh. Atlanta has constantly lowered the bar of hip hop. It is always the first city to have the dumbest songs, from the dumbest artist, who easily cash out on catch phrases and stupid lyrics. Atlanta has lowered the bar far too many times with Paster Troy, Gucci Mane, Waka Flaka, and recently Future and 2 Chainz set an even lower standards for hip hop artist. There are occassionally some good artist from Atlanta who pop up underground, I believe Cunninlinguist are from Atlanta, but for the most part Atlanta hip hop sucks. However, Atlanta has a VERY good marketing machine behind it, as many Atlanta artist are very well promoted. Part of what has kept Atlanta relevant is it's ability to push it's rappers and get them exposure. This is something the NYC rap scene has been struggling with for years.
I'll Say LA, just cause of 2pac & Kendrick Lamar (Who in my opinion is the best modern day rapper).
But also: Dr. Dre, Snoop, The Game, Nipsey Hustle, Odd Future, School Boy Q, Tyga, Kid Ink, Will.I.AM, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Cypress Hill, Dilated Peoples, Hopsin, Ice Cube, Y.G and EAZY MOTHER****IN E. whew....I'm done
I'll Say LA, just cause of 2pac & Kendrick Lamar (Who in my opinion is the best modern day rapper).
But also: Dr. Dre, Snoop, The Game, Nipsey Hustle, Odd Future, School Boy Q, Tyga, Kid Ink, Will.I.AM, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Cypress Hill, Dilated Peoples, Hopsin, Ice Cube, Y.G and EAZY MOTHER****IN E. whew....I'm done
My Rankings for hip hop game today:
1.ATL
2.LA
3.CHI
4. NY
5. New Orleans
How the hell is Chicago over NY. There are probably like 3 artist from Chi who have a national name ever. Detroit has more of a hip hop scene than Chicago does by a pretty large margin
chicago music consists of people with speech impedements, stolen "trap" beats, and future-style autotune
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