Midwest Hip Hop

Midwest hip-hop
Stylistic origins	Hip hop, Motown
Cultural origins	Early 1990s, Midwestern United States
Typical instruments	Prominent drum machine, turntable, rapping, sampler, synthesizer
Regional scenes
Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area – Omaha metropolitan area – Kansas City metropolitan area – Topeka metropolitan area – Milwaukee metropolitan area – Chicago metropolitan area – St. Louis metropolitan area – Indianapolis metropolitan area – Louisville metropolitan area – Detroit metropolitan area – Toledo metropolitan area – Cleveland metropolitan area – Columbus metropolitan area – Dayton metropolitan area – Cincinnati metropolitan area – Lexington metropolitan area – Rochester metropolitan area – Buffalo metropolitan area – Erie metropolitan area – Youngstown metropolitan area –Chi-Pitts Megalopolis
Local scenes
Minneapolis – Saint Paul – Omaha – Kansas City – Topeka – Milwaukee – Chicago – Hammond – Gary – St. Louis – East St. Louis – Indianapolis –South Bend- Louisville – Detroit – Toledo – Cleveland – Columbus – Dayton – Cincinnati – Covington – Newport – Lexington – Richmond – Rochester – Buffalo – Erie – Youngstown – Chi-Pitts Megalopolis

Midwest hip-hop is hip-hop music performed by artists from the Midwestern United States. In contrast with its East Coast, West Coast and Southern counterparts, Midwest hip hop has very few constants. Its first dose of national popularity came in the mid-90s with the extremely fast-paced rappers known as Choppers, such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (Cleveland), Twista (Chicago), Tech N9ne (Kansas City), Atmosphere (Minneapolis), and Eminem (Detroit).

However, while the artists mentioned above became the first to introduce Midwest hip hop that rivaled the popularity of West and East Coast styles, subsequent acts have since risen to national prominence such as Nelly, D12, Common, Chief Keef, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Chance the Rapper but they share very few similarities. Other notable midwest rappers and producers include: Brother Ali, Lupe Fiasco, Royce Da 5'9, J Dilla, Mac Lethal, Elzhi, Obie Trice, and up and comers Freddie Gibbs and Manny Phesto. It is because these lack of constants between acts from different cities (and sometimes even between artists from the same city) that it can be extremely difficult to define a "typical" Midwest sound. One characteristic of Midwest hip hop is that beat tempos can range from 90 to about 180, while East Coast's beat tempo is 90–120, West Coast is 100–120, and Southern rap is 80–180.

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