The East is going to always be on the outside because a lot of the peoples of African descent in the East especially New York come from the Caribbean Islands so there is a lack of respect for the social context of the "south" and Afro-American southern descent New Yorkers have adopted that mentality. New York is like one of the few places where being "latin" is seen as being "cooler" than being "African American" of southern slave roots. In every other hiphop city you go "African Americans" are considered the "coolest" most copied ethnic group and dominate the hiphop scene. Even most of their radio stations Hot97 ie have more Afro Caribbean's there than African Americans working there. Power 105 will throw one token like Charlemagne on as the "Afro-American" host. There is no other city where latinos are more followed and copied than afro-americans, it is always reverse everywhere. It's to the extent that African Americans in NYC with southern roots barely rep their roots and show more love to Afro Carribeans from DR, PR, Haiti, etc than the south.
Prime example, remember when raggaeton hit, every Afro-America in NY was latin and was rapping in Spanish, you never seen a movement of love like that by NY artists towards the south NEVER more than they show love to their own southern descent black . Nas "Bridging the Gap" is one of the few NY tracks that took it back to the south but there was no "lets take it back to the south" movement there similar to the size and scope of the raggaeton "lets take it back to the islands" vibe. It took a dude from Morocco (French Montana) to move to NY to bring Southern style twang to New York rap. Whereas the actual southern descent Afro-Americans living there had been shytting on the south for decades prior. That's insane, an immigrant brought NY rap "back to the southern roots" before the natives. There is no other region in the US where African Americans rep the south less than the East so they will forever be on the outside until they start loving the south just as hard as they ride for those islands. The irony though is that music like reggae that the East latch to so much actually started as a "copy" version of Southern black rhythm and blues which was introduced to the islands then mixed with calypso. All that singing reggae shyt originated as Jamaicans emulating Southern r&b that had reached the islands. Southern music changed the whole sound and style that Island nyggas have so if anything the East owe the South more than anybody else because even the Afro Islanders they look up to got half their style from the south.
