A CRT ORIGINAL · COMING SOON
Country Rap TunesThe Docuseries
The story of the forefathers of country rap tunes — told by the people who built it, documented by Cory Mo. More soon.
Coming soon
THE STORY SO FAR
The forefathers
Before anybody called it Southern hip-hop, these artists made country rap tunes. Cory Mo came up inside this lineage — hype man for the Geto Boys' Big Mike in 1997, UGK's in-house producer from 1999 — and has spent the years since documenting it.
- File 01 Houston · Fifth Ward
Geto Boys
Rap-A-Lot's flagship. Dark, honest, unmistakably Houston — the group that made the whole country listen to Houston.
- First record
- Making Trouble (1988)
- Essential
- “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” (1991)
- File 02 Port Arthur, TX
UGK
Pimp C and Bun B. Live bass, soul samples, slang and twang — and the phrase that named the whole movement: country rap tunes.
- First record
- Too Hard to Swallow (1992)
- Essential
- Ridin' Dirty (1996)
- File 03 Houston · South Side
DJ Screw
Slowed it down and chopped it up. The gray tapes and the Screwed Up Click turned Houston into a sound the world still borrows.
- First record
- Screw tapes, early '90s
- Essential
- “June 27th” (1996)
- File 04 Memphis
Three 6 Mafia
DJ Paul and Juicy J built the Memphis underground — dark, bass-heavy, hypnotic — then produced UGK's biggest single.
- First record
- Mystic Stylez (1995)
- Essential
- “Int'l Players Anthem” (prod., 2007)
- File 05 Memphis → Houston
8Ball & MJG
Player storytelling over smooth, live-sounding funk. Orange Mound natives who made their name on Houston's Suave House.
- First record
- Comin' Out Hard (1993)
- Essential
- On Top of the World (1995)
- File 06 Atlanta · East Point
OutKast
André 3000 and Big Boi told the 1995 Source Awards “the South got something to say” — then spent a decade proving it.
- First record
- Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994)
- Essential
- Aquemini (1998)
- File 07 Atlanta
Goodie Mob
Dungeon Family soul with a conscience — Khujo, T-Mo, Big Gipp and CeeLo, who later sang on Cory Mo's Grammy-winning “Down By Law.”
- First record
- Soul Food (1995)
- Essential
- “Cell Therapy” (1995)
- File 08 Houston
Devin the Dude
Laid-back, funny, painfully honest — the Rap-A-Lot original. Cory Mo produced on his 2004 album To tha X-Treme.
- First record
- The Dude (1998)
- Essential
- Just Tryin' ta Live (2002)
