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'The South Got Something To Say' Is A Celebratory Canon Of Southern Rap

Joelle Avelino for NPR

This week, NPR Music launched The South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap. The project is centered around a canon of 130 greatest releases by Southern rappers; it was assembled by a team, led by critic Briana Younger, of Southern critics, scholars and writers representing the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Virginia.

Younger and NPR Music hip-hop critic Rodney Carmichael spoke to All Things Considered about the inspiration for the project, the sound of Southern hip-hop and the future of the genre.

Below, you can stream the songs and selected tracks from the albums and mixtapes that comprise our list via Spotify and Apple Music.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. An Atlanta-bred cultural critic, he helped document the city's rise as rap's reigning capital for a decade while serving on staff as music editor, culture writer and senior writer for the defunct alt-weekly Creative Loafing.

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