Stevie G: Atlanta continues to dominate in 2025

In hip-hop, the days of East and West Coast rivalry are long gone, and cities such as Atlanta, Georgia have for many decades now played as much a part in the development of the music as traditional strongholds such as New York and Los Angeles.

The whole East v West beef in the 90s centred around Biggie and Tupac, and Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy records and Suge Knight’s Death Row. But by early ’97, both of the legendary rappers had been gunned down, and a vacuum appeared in hip-hop.

Puff Daddy, in particular, continued to commercialise the genre, while artists such as Jay Z, 50 Cent, and Eminem took it into the mainstream in an even bigger way.

Nearly 30 years later, both Puffy and Suge are behind bars but hip-hop is more popular than ever and, as I speak, Playboi Carti is enjoying his second week at the top of the American album charts with his eagerly awaited I Am Music. For some people, the music is unrecognisable from the fresh new style that emerged from the boroughs of New York in the late ’70s, but Playboi Carti is just one Atlanta artist who, to me, embodies how rap continues to survive and evolve through the decades.

While the coasts were busy scrapping, Atlanta had already made an impact through the likes of Kriss Kross and Arrested Development, but it was the emergence of the Dungeon Family crew, including Outkast and the Goodie Mob, which really laid the foundations to the dominance that was about to begin.

Organized Noize were major architects of this sound and the sadly departed Rico Wade would have also been instrumental in bringing one of the later generation, Future, to the hip-hop world. By the 2000s Lil Jon, Yong Twins, Ludacris, T.I., and later Souljah Boy and others were huge success stories, and all the while Atlanta had also spawned TLC and Usher and many of the other significant hip-hop influenced R&B stars of the last 30 years too.

Most recently, Atlanta has been one of many southern strongholds whose influence over hip-hop has helped make trap music dominate the mainstream, and Atlanta alone has played a huge part in the story of Future, Migos, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Gunna, Lil Yachty, Lil Baby, and of course trap pioneers T.I., Jeezy, and Gucci Mane. These artists have all had a huge influence on not only hip-hop but pop music over the last 20 years, and trap, a subset of hip-hop, continues to be hugely popular and influential.

Playboi Carti is one of the genre’s biggest stars and his first proper album in five years comes at a time when hip-hop as a whole is still in a state of flux. This time last year, I wrote about the vacuum at its very top level for stars, and Playboi Carti certainly has the star quality and catalogue of music to push him on to the next level. Like That by Metro Boomin changed everything soon after that article, and began the modern chapter of the Kendrick and Drake beef that has dominated the last 12 months. Kendrick has gone from strength to strength in that time but Drake’s popularity has waned a little, though I’m sure he will still continue to do OK as a pop rapper. Kanye has fallen off even further and drifted to the far right, too, and is now struggling to stay relevant as the next few generations dominate the discourse.

Other rappers remain relevant, such as Travis Scott, Tyler the Creator, while the girls continue to do well, such as Latto, GloRilla, and of course, Doechii. But Playboi Carti had a huge opportunity on this album to consolidate his own position up in the top tier, and I Am Music is certainly ambitious.

It’s a 30-track album packed with features and full of his peers. The Weeknd, Travis, Uzi, Future, Kendrick, Young Thug, and many more make multiple appearances, and there are loads of banging tracks on the album.

As I write, two of those tracks, Rather Lie and Evil Jordan, are in the top 10 in the States and the album is doing well.

It’s too early to speak on its legacy but, personally, I think it lacks some of the unified approach that his earlier material had, particularly since Pi’erre Bourne is no longer producing. But Carti is in a bigger league now, and I Am Music has enough for even his new fans, who will ensure that Carti and Atlanta continue to play a big part in the music story of the mid 2020s.