REGIONZ: The Home Of Hip Hop

With concrete jungles and frigid winters, the East Coast has a certain flair that makes the bars harder, the beats louder, and the aesthetic cooler. As the home of hip hop, the East Coast has all of the qualities that influence the culture today and will continue to be the blueprint for years to come.

What makes the East Coast unique?

Picture this: you’re walking down the streets of New York City. You see a group surrounded by a boombox blaring beats you’ve never heard before. As you get closer, you hear members of the group throwing simplistic rhymes about any and everything back and forth. This is how it all started. The East Coast is the home of hip hop and deserves major respect for this fact alone. Beginning with spoken word poets like Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets set to music, the dawn of hip hop emerged and evolved at rapid speed. From the 70s to the mid-90s, the East Coast dominated the genre. Artists like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaataa, and more opened the door for not only other East Coast legends like Nas, Jay Z, and Jadakiss but also rappers from all corners of the world.

Style is a major part of the appeal behind East Coast rap and hip-hop culture. Those frigid winds and walkable cities influence the fashion of the coast and help artists fully embody the East Coast persona. The style has transformed with every era of hip hop. In the 70s and 80s, Adidas suits and shell-toe sneakers were the pinnacle of streetwear. In the 90s, Coogi sweaters and Kangol hats became synonymous with rappers like The Notorious B.I.G. and LL Cool J. Today, East Coast rappers are viewed as some of the best-dressed stars like the “Fashion Killa” rapper A$AP Rocky, “Pop Out” rapper Lil Tjay or the late Brooklyn star Pop Smoke. Style is an essential component to the East Coast hip hop formula clearly has always been one of the strengths of the coast.

The history and style elements of East Coast hip hop helped the coast shoot to the forefront of the culture, but the East Coast continues to hold on to its position at the top because the bars are just built different on the East Coast. East Coast rappers tend to deliver clever lyrics in a never-ending stream of tongue-twisting words that leave listeners out of breath and amazed at the delivery like Lil Kim’s “Queen B*tch” or Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares.” On the other hand, when the East Coast decides to take its time with the rhymes, they create thought-provoking and genre-bending hits like “You Got Me” by The Roots, “U.N.I.T.Y.” by Queen Latifah, or the Wu-Tang Clan’s timeless track “C.R.E.A.M.” Between these two styles, the common thread is intentional bars that force you to stop, think, and listen again.

Check out the East Coast playlist below and leave your thoughts in the comments!