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East Coast: The East Coast, most notably New York City, was the genesis for rap music hitting the mainstream. Run-D.M.C. led the pack, with Rakim and Big Daddy Kane also breaking through to make rap emerge as a national phenomenon.

West Coast: While HipHop was cooking in the East, West Coast rap music gained national recognition in the mid-1980s with performers like Ice T and Too $hort.

Dirty South: While most of the music world's attention focused on rap coming from New York and Los Angeles, HipHop artists in the South were turning to independent music labels to release their work. Geographically, the Dirty South genre encompassed places as diverse as Houston, Birmingham, and Miami, and was greatly influenced by Ghetto Mafia in the mid-1990s. Musically, Dirty South rap is known for is danceabilty and rhythmic delivery.

Gangsta Rap: Some say Gangsta Rap first emerged on the West Coast with N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" release, while others credit Ice T with taking Gangsta Rap to national acclaim. Characterized by lyrics glamorizing elements of a criminal lifestyle, violence, promiscuity, misogyny, and materialism, Gangsta Rap's controversy came to a head with the murder of the West Coast Tupcac Shakur in 1996, and the subsequent murder of the East Coast's The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997.