Which cities have had moderately popular rappers hail from them? (It counts if the rapper is from the suburbs). *Some of the names I’m going to supply stretch the definition of “rap,” but they’re the best I can do for now.
Los Angeles: Coolio, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, countless others
New York: Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, countless others
Detroit: Eminem
Seattle: Sir Mixalot
Atlanta: Outkast
Dallas: Vanilla Ice (though he’s considered a joke now, before he became famous he was well-respected in the Dallas rap community Cite)
Oakland: MC Hammer
St. Louis: Nelly
Houston: Chamillionaire
Philadelphia: DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince/Will Smith
Toronto: Snow
Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco: ???
San Francisco doesn’t have any famous rappers of its own that I know of. Tupac Shakur was from Marin County, which is just north of the bridge, and the wealthiest county in the US. I actually don’t know much about his life, but I always thought it was kind of funny that someone from Marin would grow up to be a rapper.
It’s actually quite ‘well to do’, give and take certain spots. Also considered slightly stuck up in some aspects. I know when I was living down in the Bay Area, the residents of the county were known to try and stop fast food places from springing up. Annoying as hell I tell you. Nothing like driving down 101 and having a hankering for a McDonalds and none to be found anywhere. Not sure how true it is but I had heard they were refusing to let BART (local subway transit) into the county because they wanted to keep the riff raff out. If you couldn’t make it to Marin County without BART they didn’t want you there anyway
Dude, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Torontonian that would accept Snow as a) worthy of the label “popular” or b) the first name that should come to mind when talking about Toronto MCs. Ouch.
May I respectfully suggest Maestro, k-os, or Kardinall Offishall, all of which are far more representative of the Toronto scene and have far more cred than Snow.
Hell, I’d even take Kish before I’d accept Snow as the face of Toronto hip hop.
Other CanCon entries:
Vancouver: Swollen Members, Rascalz, Sweatshop Union
Halifax: Buck 65, Classified
ETA: As far as I’m concerned, no list of NYC MCs is complete without a shout-out to the Beastie Boys.
