Snap music

Snap music
Stylistic origins	Southern rap, Crunk, Popping, Disco
Cultural origins	Early 2000s in Atlanta, Georgia
Typical instruments	Drum machine, bass, fingers, Synthesizers, Vocals

Snap music is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged from Atlanta, Georgia. The genre of music soon became popular and artists from other southern states began to emerge. Tracks commonly consist of only a hi-hat, bass, snapping, a main groove, and a vocal track. Invented for use at nightclubs, it is unusually languid for normal dance music, with a slow tempo. There is some debate over the true origin of Snap, with rap outfits Dem Franchize Boyz, K-Rab, D4L, and producer Mr. Collipark, claiming to be the creators.

Snap dance

Snap dance is a subcategory of pop dance that started in Atlanta, Georgia. The basic idea is that dancers snap their fingers to the snap sound to musical accents while doing various basic dance moves in between. The original creators of the snap dance were the Atlanta based dance group named Flo Mastas. Though they are rarely credited for their involvement in the snap movement, they have appeared in the videos which condones snap dancing, such as DJ Unk's Walk It Out, BHI's Do It, Do It (Poole Palace), and Lil' Jon's Snap Yo Fingers. As seen to be the more skilled dancers, the Flo Mastas employ more footwork to stylize it. Another example of snap music is the single "Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy.

Criticism

Snap music has been widely criticized by rap artists as garbage, most notably as a target by the "Hip Hop is Dead" movement. Ghostface Killah used D4L's song "Laffy Taffy" as symbolic of inauthentic, cheap hip-hop in his song "The Champ," (from his album Fishscale) in which he raps, "Y'all stuck on Laffy Taffy/Wonderin': how'd y'all niggas get past me?" Nas suspects it killed hip hop in his song "Hip Hop Is Dead" (from his album of the same name), where he raps "'Oh I think they like me, in my white tee'/You can't ice me, we here for life, B". Even rapper Smoke of southern group Field Mob said, when asked if he thought hip hop was dead, "Hell yeah, hip-hop is dead...I'mma tell you who killed hip-hop... D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz...Hip-hop is wordplay, saying something, metaphors. I love Hip-Hop. I fell in love with Mobb Deep [and] Nas -- these are the people that influenced me." He then went on to praise UGK as well as 8Ball & MJG and then closed by saying, "The old south is Hip-Hop, the new south...naaahh!" After the release of the monster hit song, Crank That Soulja Boy, snap music is considered being a thing of the past. R&B artists such as Chris Brown and Mariah Carey are starting to feature the snap beat in R&B music.

While D4L stated they would not reply to these "disses", Dem Franchize Boyz made a song called "We Fuckin' Up Hip Hop," dissing Nas, Field Mob, and the "hip hop is dead" movement.

Notable Artists

• K-Rab (Producer noted for producing D4L Hit Single "Laffy Taffy" and featuring in songs like "Do The Poole Palace" and "Bubblegum".)

• Ben Hill Squad

• Ying Yang Twins (Noted for their single "Wait")

• Dem Franchize Boyz (Noted for the single "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It")

• Mr. Collipark (producer of snap music)

• Soulja Boy (Noted for Crank Dat Soulja Boy)

• Arab (Soulja Boy protege. Fellow snap artist with solo album coming soon)

• BHI (Noted for songs "Do The Poole Palace" and Bubblegum.)

• Yung Joc (Noted for It's Goin Down)

• Riri Dazzel (Snap around Dat chick)

• One Chance (Noted For Look At Her)

• D4L (Noted for Laffy Taffy)

• Pop It Off Boyz (Noted for Crank Dat Batman)

• Crank Squad (Noted for Crank Dat Spider Man)

• Flo Mastaz - Watch Me Do It

• Cherish - Do It To It

Notable Snap Producers

• K-Rab (Produced Laffy Taffy and Do The Poole Palace)

• Mr. Collipark (produced "Wait" The Whisper Song)

• Soulja Boy (Produced Crank Dat Soulja Boy)

• DJ Pooh (Produced D4L's "Betcha Can't Do It Like Me")

• Jermaine Dupri (Produced "Shawty Like Mine")

• Nitti (produced "It's Going Down")

• Lil Jon (produced "Snap Yo Fingers")

• Lil' J (member and main producer of hip hop group Crime Mob. Noted for producing "Knuck If You Buck".)

• Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford

Further reading

• MTV News "The groups D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz are ushering in the "snap music" sound, which incorporates very simplistic beats and finger snaps. There's a dance to go along with this music as well. "The freshest movement going on right now is the finger-snap movement," Mr. Collipark says."