 | | The year 2005 was like yin and yang for Atlanta bling rapper Gucci Mane. He enjoyed success entering the charts with his first national hit, "Icy," became involved in a quarrel with that song's collaborator, Young Jeezy, and found himself facing murder charges in the Georgia courts. |
 | | Signed to Slip-N-Slide in 2004 after recording his first track, "Tell Dem Krackers Dat," the Ft. Myers, FL-based Plies built anticipation for his official debut album with a couple mixtape releases, along with an appearance on Trina's "So Fresh. |
 | | Atlanta-based Young Jeezy originally planned on having a background role in the music industry -- as a businessman, not as a rapper. |
 | | Rapper Yung Joc (born Jasiel Robinson) learned about running his own business from his father, who owned a hair-care products company. |
 | | Yo Gotti is among the many hardcore rappers who came out of hip-hop's Dirty South school in the late '90s. |
 | | Rapper Lil' Boosie's hard Southern style comes from growing up in one of Baton Rouge, LA's more notorious neighborhoods, one that was known for drugs and gunplay. |
 | | Tattooed with pictures of AK-47s, Miami's six-foot, 300-pound rap figure known as Rick Ross embraced his city's reputation for drug trafficking on his debut single, "Hustlin'," in 2006. |
 | | Waka Flocka, also known as Waka Flocka Flame, is a Southern rapper associated with Gucci Mane and his So Icey Entertainment enterprise. |
 | | When he's doing business, Cash Money Records CEO Bryan Williams uses his real name, but when he grabs the mike to spit Dirty South raps, Williams goes by the names Birdman or Baby. |
 | | Born Antoine McColister in Port St. Lucie, Florida, Ace Hood was raised by his mother in Deerfield Beach, twenty miles north of Miami. |
 | | Atlanta rapper and T.I. protégé Young Dro decided to pursue a career in rap music in order to break the cycle of tribulations from hustling and inner-city life. |
 | | Crunk practitioner Lil Scrappy was born Darryl Richards in the ATL. Discovered by BME Recordings and Lil Jon, Scrap built his rep throughout the Southeast before breaking nationally in 2003 with the hit "Head Bussa. |
 | | One half of the rap duo Crooked Lettaz, David Banner helped put Mississippi on the map in 1999. In 2000, he released his first solo album in Them Firewater Boyz, Vol. |
 | | Young Money are a rap group affiliated with Lil Wayne and the Cash Money record label who made their commercial debut in 2009 after years of mixtape appearances. |
 | | Once dubbed "the Jay-Z of the South" by Pharrell Williams, T.I. gradually came into his own and established himself as one of rap's most successful MCs during the early 2000s. |
 | | Atlanta-born and bred trap rapper Shawty Lo, aka Carlos Walker, did not reach national prominence with his street-hustling raps, but by ushering in the "snap dance" craze with the Billboard-topping "Laffy Taffy" as part of his four-man crew, D4L, in 2005. |
 | | Miami-based DJ/producer DJ Khaled -- a Palestinian-American born Khaled Khaled -- is a member of Fat Joe's Terror Squad and released Listennn: The Album on Koch in June 2006. |
 | | Southern rap group Dem Franchize Boyz includes members Gerald "Buddie" Tiller, Bernard "Jizzal Man" Leverette, Maurice "Parlae" Gleaton, and Jamall "Pimpin" Willingham. |
 | | Along with fellow Harlem-based player Cam'ron, Jim Jones founded the Diplomat label, home to the Diplomats/Dipset and many of that crew's prolific solo activities. |
 | | Chicago rapper Twista made his recording debut on "Po Pimp," a platinum single by his fellow Windy City rappers Do or Die. |
 | | Based in Mobile, AL, rapper Rich Boy (born Maurice Richards) didn't enter the music industry until after he enrolled as a mechanical engineering major at Tuskegee University. |
 | | Baton Rouge native Webster "Webbie" Gradney, Jr.'s brash and street-smart style was influenced by the early No Limit and Cash Money releases that were creeping out of nearby New Orleans and the classic West Coast sound of Snoop Dogg and Eazy-E. |
 | | Mixing the party rap sound of his hometown Atlanta with more of an indie attitude, Roscoe Dash came on the scene in 2009 with the club track “All the Way Turnt Up!” Dash was originally called ATL, a moniker he used when he became friendly with the local hip-hop crew Travis Porter. |
 | | Born LaRon James in Harlem, the energetic Juelz Santana cut his teeth as an MC with the duo Draft Pick. |
 | | The Cash Money Millionaires included whatever rappers happened to rap for Cash Money Records at the given moment. |
 | | Evolving slowly but steadily over the years, Three 6 Mafia began as an exploitative, horror-themed underground hardcore rap sensation ("666 Mafia," get it?) yet went on to enjoy relatively mainstream success years later, eventually winning an Oscar and scoring some major hits. |
 | | With a series of hits that bundled gangster rhymes, weed talk, pop hooks, and slick production, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania rapper Wiz Khalifa went from breakthrough single ("Black and Yellow") to feature film star (Mac and Devin Go to High School) in the short span of two years. |
 | | Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, born Robert Williams, began releasing mixtapes in 2006, debuting with The Real Me. |
 | | Compton's own Game (aka the Game and Hurricane Game) issued his debut LP, The Documentary, in 2004 through Aftermath/G-Unit/Universal. |
 | | Lloyd Banks was raised in Jamaica, Queens, by his Puerto Rican mother; his father spent much of his son's childhood behind bars. |
 | | Fabolous scored a bit hit, "Can't Deny It," right out of the gate in 2001, instantly establishing himself as a rising East Coast rap star, the song's combination of street-savvy toughness and pop crossover appeal representative of the rapper himself. |
 | | A game-changing artist and an impervious celebrity, Lil Wayne began as his career as a near-novelty -- a preteen delivering hardcore hip-hop -- but through years of maturation and reinventing the mixtape game, he developed into a million-selling rapper with a massive body of work, one so inventive and cunning that it makes his famous claim of being the "best rapper alive" worth considering. |
 | | With a rangy set of friends from Fall Out Boy to Lil Wayne, it was obvious from the start that Tyga was not your everyday rapper from Compton. |
 | | Originally formed in 2006 as the Hard Hitters, the trio officially switched to the enigmatic moniker Travis Porter in 2008. |
 | | At Atlanta's Miller Grove Middle School, two young wannabe rappers met up with each other, left their individual rap crews, and joined forces to become YoungBloodZ. |
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 | | Having come up in the Hot Boys group alongside superstar Lil Wayne, New Orleans rapper Juvenile is a Southern hip-hop veteran, and a chart-topping one as well, having climbed the U. |
 | | The self-proclaimed "Ambassador of Rap for the Capital," Wale (pronounced "wah-lay") was able to transcend his local sensation status and become a national rap contender using go-go-inspired hip-hop as the vehicle for his clever wordplay and music. |
 | | Exuberant, loud-mouthed, and regularly adorned with a bejeweled pimp chalice at hand, Lil Jon was the charismatic figurehead of the Dirty South crunk movement that arose from the Atlanta area around the turn of the century. |
 | | Atlanta DJ and rapper Unk entered the spotlight in 2006 with the hit single "Walk It Out." Under the guidance of Atlanta underground impresario Big Oomp, he turned the local Atlanta hit into a national one, enjoying rotation on MTV2 and BET as well as some radio outlets around the country. |
 | | Rapper Bun B (born Bernard Freeman) rose to fame in the duo UGK. Bun B and Pimp C formed UGK in the late '80s when their former crew, Four Black Ministers, fell apart. |
 | | Prior to gaining mainstream exposure during late 2004 and early 2005 with his single "Still Tippin'," Houston-based MC and self-promoter extraordinaire Mike Jones had long been a stalwart of the Swishahouse label, with a handful of releases under his belt. |
 | | When the Dirty South movement broke nationwide at the turn of the century, Ludacris rode it to immediate widespread popularity, becoming arguably the most commercially successful Southern rapper of the time. |
 | | Born in California but raised in Detroit, rapper Big Sean made big news in 2007 when he signed with Kanye West’s recently formed label, G. |
 | | Known as Tity Boi in the Atlanta-based Playaz Circle, rapper 2 Chainz launched his solo career while he was still a member of the crew, in 2007, with the mixtape Me Against the World. |
 | | After sending their homeboy Lil Scrappy up the charts, the Atlanta-based label/management team Crunk Incorporated turned to the six-member Crime Mob for their next big hit. |
 | | One of the most thuggish rappers ever embraced by the mainstream, Trick Daddy broke out of the South in 2001 with "I'm a Thug" and established himself as an unlikely national superstar. |
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 | | A favorite on the New York mixtape circuit, Brooklyn rapper Maino, born Jermaine Coleman, grew up in the borough's Bedford-Stuyvesant section in a household with two drug-addicted parents. |
 | | Atlanta's party rap duo Ying Yang Twins scored a hit with the single "Whistle While You Twurk," which received nationwide airplay on urban and crossover radio stations. |
