New Orleans hip hop

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New Orleans, Louisiana, usually renowned as a center for musical creativity and influence, has been said to have an underdeveloped hip-hop scene compared to larger cities like New York and Los Angeles. New Orleans Rap, however, distinct from mainstream hip-hop or even other styles of hardcore rap, is yet another creation of the Crescent City that has arguably been more influential nationally than it is often given credit for.

Rooted deeply in the city's own bounce music, much of New Orleans rap has remained underground. Often laced with brass band beats, the city's status as the birth place of jazz is not lost in this more modern genre. There are a variety of artists continuing the legacy of New Orleans music as a cultural medium of expression and community. The most vivid manifestation of these local hip-hop artists is seen in the annual "Hip-Hop for Hope Benefit Concert and Block-Party", [1] held at the legendary venue, Tipitina's. In 2006, a number of local hip-hop acts including Baby Boy Da Prince, the Soul Rebel Brass Band and Outlaw Nation headlined the event, which raised over $5,500 for a local school in the 9th Ward. The 2nd Annual Hip-Hop for Hope Benefit Concert hopes to expand this year with three unique events, taking place November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The events include a benefit concert to raise money for a rebuilding project for musician's homes, a community forum at Ashé Cultural Arts Center [2] to address a number of important issues in New Orleans Hip-Hop culture, and a final benefit concert to raise money once again for the Dr. King Charter School [3] in the 9th Ward. Notable 2007 participants include Raw Dizzy, Partners-n-Crime, DJ Jubilee, DJ Soul Sister, Nutt the Kid, Know One, Impulss, Wild Wayne of Q93, DJ EF Cuttin, Truth Universal, and 2-Cent Entertainment [4].

It would be an unforgivable fallacy to claim that all of New Orleans Rap has remained underground. Often touted as the commercial center of rap (at least in the south), New Orleans is home to No Limit Records, founded by Master P, and Cash Money Records. These labels have spawned incredibly notable artists, such as Master P, Juvenile, Lil Wayne, C-Murder, Mystikal, and B. Gizzle aka B.G.. Two of the most important producers of this style of music have been Mannie Fresh, often credited as an early pioneer of the Bounce genre, and KLC of the Medicine Men (formerly Beats By the Pound).

Something worth mentioning about New Orleans' rap scene is that much like the rest of New Orleans' musicians, many have found new homes in other cities, at least temporarily, since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area. The trend as of February 2006, however, has been for many of the city's most successful rappers to return in significant capacities to either give concert tours in the city they call home or even return completely despite the ostensible financial sacrifice of doing so. Juvenile, for instance, has repeatedly given performances in recent months to sell-out crowds in the city in much smaller venues than he usually fills in other places.

Similar to jazz New Orleans Rap/Hip-hop musicians rarely get the credit they deserves. New Orleans native underground influence can be heard in much of the music that has been produced in today's musical mainstream. From Lil Jons' "crunk" style of music to Oscar award winning group Three 6 Mafia's "aright aright aright" Cheeky Blakk sample in chicken heads performed by Project Pat. Luke Skywalker formerly of 2 live crew signed one of New Orleans' west bank rappers "Bustdown" who appeared nationwide on the Luke label in the early 90's.

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