This past weekend at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Nas’ brand Mass Appeal hosted their Hip-Hop 50 Live festival, where several vital emcees from multiple different eras performed to celebrate the genre’s 50th birthday. The lineup for the fest included a large number of acts from New York, hip-hop’s birthplace, as well as others from scattered regions of the U.S. like Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube from California and Lil Wayne from Louisiana.
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With recent celebrations like these, though, Florida native and rap pioneer Uncle Luke, also known as Luther Campbell, noticed that his state was severely under-represented. So, he took to Instagram to vent about this and touch on how the hip-hop community needs to appreciate Florida and Southern rap as a whole much more.
“Hip-hop fans from Florida. Don’t be upset they don’t recognize your favorite Floridian artists as part of hip-hop’s 50th year celebrations,” he wrote Sunday (August 13). “This industry has never considered us as hip-hop from the time I started hip-hop in the south. You can only imagine the names they called us. Country booty music trash, music. I can go on and on the disrespect towards Florida hip-hop. Still to this day, we fight for our respect, and you have stood behind us every step of the way. We will continue fighting. There will be a day this year where we come together and celebrate Florida hip-hop artist from the top of the state to the bottom. We love you Thank You for your support.”
[RELATED: Luther Campbell: Breaking Boundaries]
Florida’s rich history in hip-hop began when acts like Luke and 2 Live Crew began to make vibrant, raunchy music for the clubs in cities like Miami, which Luke recalls being shamed as “Country booty music trash.” As time went on and rap music experienced new eras, many stars began to blossom out of Florida such as Trick Daddy, Trina, T-Pain, Rick Ross, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Denzel Curry, XXXTENTACION, and more.
In the replies to Luke’s post, which garnered many supporters, Snoop Dogg chimed in and agreed, even though he was one of the performers at Hip-Hop 50 Live. Telling Luke that Southern rap does indeed need its recognition, he thanked Luke for his contributions to his career as well as hip-hop as a whole.
“I love and respect what u did for me and my hip hop journey uncle Luke on and off the mic,” Snoop said. “Let’s do a southwest. Hip hop celebration so we can get the flowers to you and the. Other founders who mean so much to this thang called hip hop love and. Respect. O. G. Can’t spell hip hop without the south Or. The west.”
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