The Return of Regional Rap

“City is back up, it’s a must we outside.” - Kendrick Lamar, Not Like Us

Let’s rewind to 2024 for a brief second.

When Kendrick Lamar dropped ‘Not Like Us,’ it felt like Hip-hop’s tectonic plates had shifted.

Ashes of the battle with Drake floated in the air, and signs of an impending eruption were near. (I just watched La Palma, so a lot of volcano references today).

It was a record that indicated massive movement from a coast that had been relatively quiet since its height in the 1990s and the mid-2000s. If you were listening with a keen ear and a watchful eye, you could see that the coast was starting to experience some movement.

For the better part of a decade, the wave had definitively belonged to Atlanta, but Not Like Us was a catalyst for something that had been missing in Hip-hop for some time:

REGIONALITY.

One problem plaguing the genre for years is that everyone sounded like everyone else. New York artists were rapping like Future, and Atlanta artists were doing their best Lil Baby impressions.

Everybody became a copy of someone else who made it. It was almost impossible to know where someone was from without them saying it.

Moreover, in recent years, Atlanta’s music scene has lost key players, while in other areas like Baltimore, Detroit, and Memphis, the rise of their respective sounds has finally taken hold.

The aforementioned cities were already solidifying their place prior to this year, but something just had to ignite the fire to let everyone nationally know it was okay to represent where they were from.

The conclusion I’ve reached is that we’ll see a lot more regionality in 2025, and I love it.

So, for today, let’s focus on regionality on the East Coast and the West Coast (and, more specifically, Los Angeles and New York).

THE WEST COAST

While ‘Not Like Us’ provided people with the regional Cali sound that the game had been missing for some time, Dot really drove the point home with GNX.

A. KENDRICK LAMAR - GNX

More than a new collection of songs, it plays like a love letter to the city, with moments from artists many of us haven’t heard of yet, and artists who cross cultural boundaries—singer Deyra Barrera is the very first voice you hear on the project, and other Hispanic LA rappers are featured throughout.

Songs like ‘Hey Now’ have an unmistakably West Coast sound, and songs like ‘Squabble Up’ show an allegiance to an earlier era of dance music that only natives would be intensely familiar with.

While the debate rages on as to whether GNX is a precursor to another full-length Kendrick album or if this is all fans will receive ahead of the Super Bowl, one thing that can be definitively said is that GNX is a tribute to the West Coast.

From the Grand National to the talent included in the project, it’s showing Gen Z California culture with a level of specificity that mainstream media can’t cover. In turn, it’s bringing a new light to the entire coast.

B. LARUSSELL - WHAT WE DOIN!?

You can’t mention the new West Coast, or The Bay Area for that matter, without talking about LaRussell.

He’s been paving a new way for independence, including the OGs in his mission and putting on artists of all backgrounds in the process.

His business model is also as innovative as they come, incorporating the same Proud 2 Pay model that fellow West Coast Alum Nipsey Hussle (RIH) used for a few of his projects.

And the best thing about his music?

As soon as you press play, or look at the features, you know that LaRussell is taking you straight to The Bay. He isn’t trying to sound like anyone else and he leans into his roots in a way that makes him connect with a larger audience — those who’ve never been (or may never go) to The Bay can get a taste of what living there is like just by checking out his work.

The video below is one of his most recent joints that’s captured the internet’s attention (and for good reason). Check it out, peep the vibes — you won’t hear them from any other coast but the West.

C. DRE & SNOOP - MISSIONARY

The West Coast OGs are also going out of their way to show that they still have it and Snoop and Dre are leading the pack with the release of “Missionary,” their first full-length project together in years, and the official sequel to Snoop Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle.

The production and overall direction of the project showed a strong commitment to maintaining the West Coast sound that made Dr. Dre & Snoop’s careers, and it does so without compromise.

You won’t find a lot of the G-funk synths on here as Dre’s production has evolved since then, but the sound puts you in the same vibe as 2001, or Compton — the drums, the visuals etc. It’s definitively California. Definitively Dre.

The iconic duo even created a 12 min short film supporting the album, which can be seen below.

THE EAST COAST

A. JOEY BADA$$ - The Ruler’s Back

To kick off 2025, Joey Bada$$ put out a new song entitled ‘The Ruler’s Back.’ — a 2:30min freestyle of Joey spitting bars over a Conductor Williams beat.

What immediately made the song stand out on social media is an interpolated line from Jay Z’s 22 Two’s on Reasonable Doubt. A line he said at a time where The West Coast was also receiving a lot of shine because of the Rise of N.W.A., Death Row, etc.

“Too much Westcoast d***licking” - Jay Z, 22' Two’s

One can infer that Joey’s reference to that line is a very light jab at all of the fanfare the West Coast has been receiving over the past few months and it’s the first time in a while that a notable NY rapper has decided to put a stake in the ground or throw a regional jab to keep things competitive.

We may not know what Joey has up his sleeves in 2025 but whatever he drops you can bet that he intends for it to have a distinct New York vibe to it.

B. CASH COBAIN

Rewinding to 2024 once more, we also saw the rise of the producer Cash Cobain and along with that came the rise of NY Drill — a sound that had been catching buzz locally but has now made its way to the mainstream.

The rise of the NY Drill sound further solidifies that with Hip-hop and the world by extension, becoming more global, that each coast is looking for a way to carve out its own identity and sound again.

Moreover, the Cash Cobain produced “Attitude” from Don Toliver helped to define NY’s new direction, and in the process put this flavor of Drill on the map as a product of New York; continuing a legacy started by artists like Pop Smoke.

Take a listen below for context:

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BRANDS?

If you read any amount of research on Gen Z you’ll see some kind of platitude about how they’re a generation searching for identity blah blah blah.

That’s a human thing in general and it doesn’t change by generation. Fundamentally we all search for ways to identify with others and ourselves and music a big part of that.

But here’s the thing…

As the world becomes increasingly more connected, regional identity cues are gonna be a way for people to connect (or stand out), find the things that appeal to them, and carve out communities to thrive with.

For brands, that means it might be worth shifting your 2025 strategy to consider a regional approach to partnerships and activations; If the West Coast is a popular region for your product, consider going super regional with your approach for the year — even if it’s a national campaign.

Lastly consider tapping into trends in a more nuanced way. Yes, dance trends are big on TikTok. Yes every brand and their CMO's was saying “Mustaaaaard” on social media, but challenge yourself to know about the larger themes of that song, or even the history of the sound that made albums like GNX and the others that you may not understand on a cultural level. Understanding those things is where the gold is.

Once you figure out the play, rinse and repeat.

Congrats you’ve just a won a Cannes Lion.

You’re welcome.

One.