Represent Your Block Biatches!

A minute ago I explained to y’all that the state of Texas is part of the Midwest region of America and some of y’all had a shit fit. Understandably so, because without the artistry from Texas to fall back on the Southern region is populated by mostly trap happy finger-snapping ringtone rappers. The trifecta of Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wang and T.I. aren’t as valuable or diverse as say a Scarface, Devin The Dude, and a D.O.C. That isn’t to say that there are no artists that reside in the Southern region because the Dungeon Family collective has done a yeomans job of keeping god Hip-Hop alive below the Mason Dixon line.

But there are tons of people living in the South ho don’t hail from the South. Almost no one living in Atlanta now has been raised there. Shouldn’t an artist have to represent the place they were raised and not the place they moved to in order to secure a record deal? I’ve said to people previously that I spend a lot of time in my mother’s basement in Marietta, but that doesn’t make me an Atlanta-based blogger. I believe if you spent your formative years someplace then that is where you are from, no matter how well you’ve acclimated yourself to your new surroundings. Kanghey Tudda does not rep Hollywood, New York or Tokyo even though you can find him in those places a lot more than he is in Chicago. So what if Ludacris lives in Atlanta? Everyone knows that dude is from Chicago, er, CHAMPAIGNE!

I figured I’d give you kids a handy list so that you could make sense of where your town falls in these regional brackets. Like Wu Tang, Billy Sunday is for the children.

West region
California
Oregon
Washington
Nevada
Colorado
New Mexico
Utah

Southern region
The Carolinas
Georgia
Florida
Alabama
Louisiana
Missisippi
Tennessee
Kentucky
Puerto Rico

Midwest region
Illinois
Texas
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Kansas
Missouri
Wisconsin
Indiana
Idaho
Arizona

Northeast region
New York
New Jersey
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Ohio
Virginia
West Virginia
Maryland
Washington D.C.
Rhode Island
Maine
Vermont
Connecticut

By virtue of this chart the Northeast region stays winning because we have the most big city ghettos like Detroit, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark and the entire state of Ohio. Also the Northeast region has had the biggest mass homicide in the country’s history, not considering the native Americans of course, in West Virginia. What’s more Hip-Hop than murdaaaaaahhhhh?

For those of you scoring at home, adjust your regional brackets accordingly.

UPDATE: What time zone does Ohio and Michigan wake up to? Eastern Standard Time, not Central. Tha D and all of broke ass Ohio belongs to the Northeast.

Puerto Rico goes to the South region because Fat Joe stay reppin' for P.R. and Miami.

Arizona is extra hardbody as a state that incarcerates one out of every three of it's Black residents. Even Texas can't match those numbers. Arizona is way to hardbody to be part of the California/Oregon Western region.

The fact that New Orleans has skyrocketed in murders although their Black population is still way smaller than it was pre-Katrina says to me that Louisiana is the home of southern rap music.