 | | Z-Ro has embraced his inclusion in the Screwed Up Click, a loose collective of Houston rappers associated with the famous DJ Screw, and even proclaimed so brashly on one of his albums, Screwed Up Click Representa (2002). |
 | | The career of prolific south Houston-based MC Trae began with a guest appearance on Z-Ro's Look What You Did to Me and took root in Guerilla Maab, a group that released several albums during the late '90s and early 2000s. |
 | | ABN is a collaboration between Houston rappers Z-Ro and Trae, both of whom are solo recording artists well established within the underground Texas rap scene. |
 | | A member of the loosely organized Houston-based rap collective known as the Screwed Up Click, Lil' Keke quickly proved himself to be one of the collective's strongest artists, debuting in 1997 with Don't Mess wit Texas. |
 | | With partner Bun B, rapper Pimp C (born Chad Butler) formed UGK and helped put hardcore Houston, TX hip-hop in the spotlight, but he's also known for being at the center of a street-level campaign that sold nearly as many T-shirts as the "Yayo's Home" and "Frankie Say Relax" phenomena. |
 | | After spending most of the 1990s as an infamous local phenomenon in Houston, TX, DJ Screw suddenly found himself gaining sudden notoriety before his unfortunate death in late 2000. |
 | | Houston bred a growing scene of homegrown rap artists throughout the mid- to late '90s, and Big Moe became one of the first to break out of Texas and go national. |
 | | One of the more accomplished members of the Screwed Up Click, Big Pokey hooked up with DJ Screw in the early '90s and started dropping rhymes on the DJ's many mix tapes. |
 | | |
 | | Southern gangsta rappers Pimp C and Bun B formed UGK (aka Underground Kingz) in the late '80s and signed to Jive Records for their major-label debut album, 1992's Too Hard to Swallow. |
 | | An imposing figure with a voice to match, Slim Thug had been dropping in for guest verses -- on mixtapes and other artists' albums -- for several years before making his full-length debut through the Neptunes' Star Trak label. |
 | | |
 | | Devin Copeland, aka Devin the Dude, was born in St. Petersburg, FL, and moved to Texas while in the fourth grade. |
 | | |
 | | Centering on the efforts of the infamous DJ Screw, the Screwed Up Click loosely comprises a wide-ranging roster of Houston, TX, rappers, of which Lil' Keke and Yungstar are the most well-known. |
 | | 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. |
 | | |
 | | |
 | | Dirty South pioneer E.S.G. trailblazed through the late-'90s movement and helped popularize the "chopped and screwed" style associated with his onetime home, Wreckshop Records. |
 | | Chalie Boy is a Southern rapper and singer from Central Texas who made his major-label debut in 2009 with the breakout hit single "I Look Good. |
 | | |
 | | |
 | | MC and DJ Paul Wall (born Paul Slayton) grew up as a hardcore disciple of fellow Houstonian DJ Screw and became so familiar with the pioneering DJ's woozy, slowed-down style of remixing that he had to adjust to hearing hip-hop at any other tempo. |
 | | |
 | | One of the pioneers of Southern rap, Eightball & MJG, emerged from Memphis, Tennessee in the early '90s and, aligned with the Houston, Texas-based independent label Suave Records, quickly garnering a tremendous regional following while proving highly influential to a generation of aspiring, independent-minded rap artists and entrepreneurs. |
 | | b. Ronald Pierre Carey, Oakland, California, USA. Rapper Carey moved to Dallas at the age of 17. However, by the spring of 1990 he anticipated gangsta’s rap’s flirtation with unlawfulness by being convicted of ‘Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent’, ensuring an unseemly hiatus in his recording career. |
 | | MJG, half of the pioneering Southern rap duo 8Ball & MJG, rarely branched out for solo albums (e.g., No More Glory, 1997), yet his work with 8Ball proved influential, earning him a reputation as a living legend. |
 | | Amid the flourishing underground rap scene of Houston, Lil' Flip rose to quick and prosperous fame after his independently released 2000 album The Leprechaun broke through to a national audience, prompting the young rapper's signing to Universal Records soon after. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Scarface quickly became the South's most admired rapper and remained so throughout the '90s after breaking away from the Geto Boys to launch his solo career in 1991. |
 | | The first artists brought to Rap-a-Lot Records after the infamous Geto Boys, 5th Ward Boyz originally comprised Andre "007" Barnes and Eric "E-Rock" Taylor. |
 | | S.P.M., or South Park Mexican, AKA Carlos Coy, grew up in the Hispanic South Park neighborhood of Houston and, by his own admission, spent five years selling drugs in his teens and early twenties. |
 | | Yungstar grew up on the west side of Houston and began rapping at age ten. In the early '90s, he began working with DenDen, CEO of Straight Profit Records. |
 | | 8Ball, half of the pioneering Southern rap duo 8Ball & MJG, branched out occasionally for solo albums, beginning with the double-disc Lost in 1998, and was an active collaborator, appearing as a featured guest on countless rap songs over the years. |
 | | Dubbed "the Mixtape Messiah," Houston's Chamillionaire arrived late as a major-label artist during his city's 2005 takeover of mainstream rap -- the Top Ten Sound of Revenge, released during November that year, followed albums from Mike Jones, Slim Thug, and former Color Changin' Click partner Paul Wall -- but he had already built a loyal following outside the South and received significant print coverage. |
 | | 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. |
 | | |
 | | B.G. was among the first rappers on Cash Money Records, and though he eventually departed from the label and forged his own path through the rap industry, he remains associated with Cash Money, with which he enjoyed his greatest success, most notably the epochal 1999 hit "Bling Bling. |
 | | Originating in the Southern rap mecca Houston, South Park Mexican (SPM) slowly built up his own personally run record label, Dope House Records, for years before eventually signing a distribution deal with Universal Records. |
 | | |
 | | Of the many hardcore rappers to emerge from Memphis during the late '90s, Project Pat stood tall amid his peers. |
 | | Lil' Troy broke out of Houston's thriving rap scene in the late '90s with "Wanna Be a Baller," one of the few Houston-based songs to reach national audiences at the time. |
 | | Atlanta-based Young Jeezy originally planned on having a background role in the music industry -- as a businessman, not as a rapper. |
 | | Chicago's Do or Die gained a hit with their first single, Po Pimp. Released on a tiny Chicago label, the track became a local hit and sparked the group's signing by Houston's Rap-A-Lot Records. |
 | | Born and raised in Houston, TX, rapper Curtis Davis debuted as Big Mello in 1992 with the album Bone Hard Zaggin on the Rap-a-Lot label. |
 | | |
 | | Hip-hopper Tela came busting out of Memphis in 1996 with a contract for the Suave House label (Eightball & MJG). |
 | | |
 | | Originally a member of Houston horror-rappers the Geto Boys, Willie D (born William Dennis) released his first solo album, Controversy, in 1989. |
 | | Yo Gotti is among the many hardcore rappers who came out of hip-hop's Dirty South school in the late '90s. |
