Memphis Hip-Hop

You're asking about a tape scene, not a record scene. Memphis built its sound on hand-dubbed cassettes sold at clubs and car-stereo shops, which is why so much of the canon has no original vinyl at all.

The sound came from scarcity: a drum machine, a four-track, a slowed horror sample, and a voice pushed into the red.

Late-'80s South Memphis. DJ Spanish Fly is treated as the pioneer, and his residencies at clubs No Name and Expo marked the shift from disco to something harder and more underground.

He sold mixtapes to his own crowd — he recalls pressing around 100 of each — and bootlegs of them spread across the city. He also found The Showboys' "Drag Rap," lifting its 808 section repeatedly and setting off a sampling craze that spread from Memphis to New Orleans bounce.

Camps formed by neighborhood: DJ Squeeky in Orange Mound, with Kingpin Skinny Pimp, 8Ball & MJG and Al Kapone passing through; DJ Paul in North Memphis; Tommy Wright III and Ten Wanted Men in Whitehaven.

Wright founded Street Smart Records and cut Memphis Massacre in 1992. Three 6 Mafia took it national by 2000.

Crunk, trap and phonk all trace back here.

Who: Spanish Fly, DJ Squeeky, DJ Paul and Juicy J, Tommy Wright III, Skinny Pimp, Playa Fly, Gangsta Boo, Al Kapone, La Chat, 8Ball & MJG. Later Hypnotize Minds, Paper Route Empire.

What: 808 kick and cowbell, pitched-down soul and horror-score loops, chanted hooks, tape saturation doing the EQ work. Where the coasts leaned on soul samples for boom-bap, Memphis leaned on the drum machine.

How it works: the record had to be local and it had to knock in a car. Tapes were made in the Spanish Fly mould and often sold through car hi-fi accessory stores.

Distribution was the quality control.