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Kanye’s referencing the BET Show on which popular rap videos are counted down (and popular rappers are interviewed). 106 and Park was the original location of the studio; now, it is the home of graffiti
Epic drug dealer intersection in Harlem, home base of Jim Jones and the Diplomats
A gentrified condo just got built there (whatchya gonna do?)
This is a notorious Harlem spot for selling weed, coke and heroin. And where there’s drug-dealing, there’s violence, cf. The Wire
Juelz Santana wrote a whole song about the intersection called “45th & Broadway” (the “1” is understood)
Birthplace of hip-hop — where Kool Herc threw the parties that began hip-hop back in 1973, and showed off his then-new technique of extending the breakbeat by using two copies of the same record
Though the Industrial Canal Levee is more famous (having decimated the Lower Ninth Ward), the 17th Street Canal Levee was also breached during Hurricane Katrina, flooding many New Orleans neighborhoods, including Lil Wayne’s Holly Grove
If you were genetically engineering a program that rappers would hate, you’d come up with 1-800-COP-SHOT, a New York hotline that connects snitches with the police. Any snitch (we at Rap Genius refuse to call them “tipsters”, in solidarity with the rap community) receives $10,000 if their tip pans out. If you want to see the right attitude toward snitching, watch Cam'ron school Anderson Cooper on the moral code of the hood
Le 19ème arrondissement de Paris se situe au nord-est de la capitale. Le rappeur Oxmo Puccino en est originaire.
On appelle aussi le 19ème le “20-1”
This intersection is near Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which Snoop, Warren G and Nate Dogg all attended
You know when you go back to your high schools to visit favorite teachers and relive bygone memories? Something tells me that’s not what Warren G was doing here..
Where Sir Mix-a-Lot and Kid Sensation begin gathering the posse that will eventually make its way to Broadway
14 blocks from Broadway
Where a precocious Lil Pac first discovered his love for art and music — a refuge for a sensitive boy growing up fatherless, witnessing his former Black Panther mother degenerate into a crack addict
Sources say Pac was on the mock trial team. What sources? Shut up, that’s what sources
The “three two” is the thug police precinct of Harlem — these aren’t police officers, these are ruthless thugs in uniform!
Are you divorced, lonely — but still handsome? Then head to Chelsea and watch some sports on the big screen! (The only girls here are the ugliest gold-diggers in all of New York — except for the girls at Upper East Side bars..)
This building is where Jay-Z used to stash his drugs back when he was a dealer growing up in Brooklyn. Or so he claims. Some people from his past say that while Jay was a drug dealer for a bit, he was much more low-level than he makes himself out to have been
Ironically, Jay’s stash spot is just blocks away from the site of the new Brooklyn Nets stadium he’s developing. We’ve come full-circle..
This is where many parties take place near the University of Pittsburgh!
Biggie moved his Moms out to this affluent, retirement-homey part of Florida after he made money selling coke (what a good boy!)
There’s a road every mile in Detroit — 7 Mile, 8 Mile, 9 Mile, etc. all the way up to 16 Mile. The famous 8 Mile is the boundary between the wealthier part of Detroit to the north and the ghetto part of Detroit to the south. Being from north of 8 Mile is considered pussy in Detroit rap circles
Good place to buy weed and cocaine in Oakland (if you like that sort of thing..)
97.9 The Box is Houston’s biggest hip-hop station. The Box plays hip-hop from all over, but heavily promotes local rappers like Chamillionaire and Bun B
A notoriously drug- and gang-heavy series of housing projects in West Oakland, where Huey Newton was shot
Brooklyn’s O.G. “ghetto mall” (now that it’s getting gentrified out, Fulton Street is the only ghetto mall left!!)
Now that two of the most popular basketball players among rappers — Dwayne Wade and LeBron James — are playing here for the Miami Heat, expect even more Miami basketball references
The Apollo Theater is famous for its Wednesday Amateur Night, which is televised every weekend as “Showtime at the Apollo”. New York rappers such as Cam'ron and Nas have performed there
The raucous crowd really lets a performer know if they like him, or if they don’t (it’s like training for screaming at the movie screen)
Hometown of Rapper and Weed Lover Asher Roth
This is the best of a series of excellent seafood restaurants along Harlem’s 125th Street. Here you can have your fish fried, or — if you’re a health nut — doused in butter (and served with fries)
Aubervilliers est une ville de Seine-Saint-Denis (93). C'est la ville d'origine du groupe Tandem, composé des rappeurs Mac Tyer et Mac Kregor
Malcom X, civil rights leader and hero to rappers everywhere, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. He was shot by three fellow members of the Nation of Islam. Or so the White Man wants you to think
Visiting Auschwitz — Epicenter of the Holocaust / Mecca of Evil — gave Fabolous a new perspective on the roots of anti-Semitism
So — before you go around judging Fabolous — perhaps you should pay a visit, too
Diddy — then known as Puff Daddy — founded Bad Boy Records and set up shop in these midtown offices in 1993. Soon he had a bona fide star in Biggie Smalls, and the money was rolling like a wave pool
When Biggie was killed during the East Coast/West Coast rap wars with L.A.’s Death Row Records in 1997, Bad Boy was thrown into crisis. Fortunately, Diddy figured out a way to continue to profit off of Biggie even in his death — with “I’ll Be Missing You”. Subsequent Bad Boy Records artists Ma$e and Shyne flamed out, and Diddy decided to focus more on his Sean John clothing collection (but Bad Boy still puts albums out)
Philadelphia nightclub where DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat” was recorded live
Jay-Z sold bags of coke at this intersection in his neighborhood back in the day, after picking them up at his stash spot.. or so he says..
Bakel est une ville située à l'est du Sénégal, quasiment à la frontière avec la Mauritanie, dont est originaire le père de Booba. Les références à l'endroit sont multiples dans ses chansons
This is the west Atlanta neighborhood where T.I. was born and raised, along with “rival” Shawty Lo — have you even heard of Shawty Lo?
The Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn is the future home of the Brooklyn Nets. Jay-Z is a part-owner in the Nets and was instrumental in getting the team to move from New Jersey to his hometown of Brooklyn. This whole plan is just so he can be the Spike Lee of the Nets
Baseline, until it closed in early 2010, was the place where most of the seminal Roc-a-fella recordings of the 2000’s were done. It was owned by producer Justin “Just Blaze” Smith
This shopping center is in a poor part of Detroit near the airport. Apparently Eminem did not feel welcomed there as a teenager
Bellevue Hospital is famous for its psychiatric ward, so New York rappers use “Bellevue” as shorthand for “insane”
Now closed, this dance school was run by Prodigy’s grandmother Bernice Johnson. Jay-Z famously revealed that Prodigy used to dance ballet by putting up a picture of him as a child in ballet gear (see picture at left) at Summer Jam in 2001
Jay showed the picture to embarrass Prodigy, but the school was actually a really positive force in the community, and Prodigy was a great dancer. I mean, uh — what a fuckin' pussy!
This house in the pleasant middle-class neighborhood of Riverside, Texas is where Jay-Z’s wife Beyonce Knowles grew up
Bobigny est la préfecture de Seine-Saint-Denis (93). C'est la ville d'origine de la chanteuse Wallen ou du rappeur Nakk Mendosa
Where the Mysterious Illuminati head to perform cult rituals, listen to Jay-Z, and chillax..
Boulogne-Billancourt est une ville des Hauts-de-Seine (92). C'est la ville d'origine du collectif de rappeurs Beat de Boul (pour Beat de Boulogne) qui regroupait les Sages Poètes de la Rue, Lunatic, Malekal Morte ou encore Mo'vez Lang.
On l'appelle aussi du diminutif “Boulbi”, rendu particulièrement fameux dans la chanson éponyme de Booba
Das Brandenburger Tor markierte die Grenze zwischen Ost- und West-Berlin und damit die Grenze zwischen den Staaten des Warschauer Paktes und der NATO. Es war bis zur Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands Symbol des Kalten Krieges und wurde nach 1990 zum Symbol der Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands und Europas
Great place to get local apples delivered straight from the apple orchard!
And, if you want to buy some weed/crack, Prospect Park is just a hop, skip and a jump away
Old blue-collared neighborhood in East Brooklyn; not too thugged-out
Unlike the less savory parts of Brooklyn, Brownsville is a place where find dependable, trustworthy drug connects who won’t “stick” you (like Biggie’s friend Lil Fame!)
Café Einstein ist ein traditionsreiches Café, welches in den späten 70ern die Wiener Kaffeekultur nach Berlin bringen wollte. Das Stammhaus befindet sich im Stadtteil Tiergarten.
Inzwischen ist das Café aber auch dem Starbucks-Trend hinterhergelaufen
Master P and Silkk The Shocker grew up in this rough-and-tumble low-rise housing project in Central City New Orleans. Calliope, officially called the B. W. Cooper Apartments, was known nationwide as one of the most violent projects in America, along with the nearby Magnolia Projects
The Cooper Apartments are slated to be demolished, but have not been yet (we hear there are vacancies!)
Cam'ron' grew up at 140th and Lenox, in the heart of what he often refers to as “Harlem World”
Harlem’s changed a lot recently; down on 125th Street you’d be as likely to find German tourists as gangbangers — but the part of Harlem where Cam’s from remains straight thug
The forthcoming “Rap Genius Walking Tour of NYC” will visit this spot (during the day, of course..)
Canal Street in Chinatown is a hub for knock-off fashion and accessories, from purses to hats to jewelry — perfect for the up-and-coming rapper who can’t yet afford the real shit for himself (or, um, his girl..)
Cash Money Records was founded in he mid-90s by Birdman and his brother Ron. After some early successes with Juvenile and the Big Tymers, Cash Money hit it big with Lil Wayne
In 2005, Wayne started the Young Money Entertainment imprint within Cash Money, which has put out his own albums as well ones by other young rap superstars like Drake. Young Money’s offices are here too — do you think Wayne and Birdman talk about last night’s Idol at the water cooler like we do?
Em’s best friend and fellow D12 member Proof was shot and killed by a bouncer at this club. The cops claimed Proof got drunk and started the whole fight, but Eminem and an eyewitness say it was the bouncer who started shit, possibly because of a grudge from their days back at Osborn High School
Where movie stars get facials on the daily, the great Notorious breathed his last, and doctors informed Kanye that he had blood clots
Stop your blood-clot crying, Kanye! At least you’re still alive…
Behold, grandeur! A 16th century castle arranged around a series of courtyards: the inspiration for the far-less bougie Fountainblue Hotel in Miami Beach (as well as le Château de Cam'ron)
Checkers is a drive-thru burger joint chain found mostly in the Southeast. Whereas Northern rappers do drug deals in the parking lot of McDonald’s, the Checkers parking lot is the spot in the South. This particular location is Gucci Mane’s favorite because it’s in his neighborhood of East Atlanta
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is an engineering marvel, the world’s longest bridge-tunnel complex at 17.6 miles!
It’s also a great way to transport cocaine if you’re driving along the Atlantic coast
Chevilly-Larue est une ville du Val-de-Marne (94)
The Chicago Sun-Times is the best newspaper in Chicago, although if they were judged on the architecture of their offices, the Chicago Tribune’s neo-gothic masterpiece would push it way past the Sun-Times’s modernist nightmare. But the Sun-Times did launch the career of Roger Ebert, who Drake is apparently a big fan of
Chris Webby has officially put CT on the Rap Map!
This completely atrocious car company, headquartered in the leafy Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, has been bailed out by the government like 9 times. Seriously, do you know anyone who owns a Chrysler?
Thug neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, home to the Watts Riots of the 1960s (aka the O.G. Rodney King riots), which “trailblazed” the technique of setting buildings on fire during race riots in L.A. (the Rodney King riots added “looting” to the repertoire)
Also home of the beautiful Watts Towers, one of Los Angeles' most celebrated architectural monuments
Clinton Correctional Facility is a maximum-security state penitentiary in Upstate New York where 2Pac, Old Dirty Bastard and Shyne have all been incarcerated (at different times)
Back in the late 90s, Club New York was one of the hottest clubs in the city, even though it sounds like some sort of fictional club in the direct-to-DVD Night at the Roxbury 2
Then, one wintry evening in 1999, Diddy, J-Lo, and Shyne were at the club when all hell broke loose. Guns were pulled, women were shot in the face, and when all the dust settled, Shyne and Diddy were on trial at Manhattan Criminal Court
Diddy was acquitted, while Shyne was sent to prison for 9 years. Check out what eyewitness and rap star in his own right Fredro Starr had to say about the night of the shooting at the now-defunct club
This majority-black neighborhood in the shadow of the airport is the home of a number of Atlanta rappers, most famously Ludacris
Collins Avenue, also known as A1A, is one of South Beach’s main drags. Although it’s not as pretty as Ocean Drive, it’s also a great street for some nighttime cruising with the top down. Vanilla Ice was the first rapper to make this street famous, with his refrain of “A1A Beachfront Avenue!” in “Ice Ice Baby”
Of course, it turned out that “Vanilla Ice” from Miami was actually Robert Van Winkle from Dallas, but whatever — Vanilla was ahead of his time, paving the way for Lil Wayne and other big-name rappers to ditch their humdrum hometowns in favor of sultry South Beach
Das Racist’s track is about this Pizza Hut/Taco Bell in Jamaica, Queens. New York has a lot of these fast food chain combos because their shared seating and kitchen areas save space in a real estate market where rents are astronomical. The two companies, along with KFC, partner in this way because they’re all owned by the same company, Yum! Brands.
Lately, I’ve seen a lot of combination Pizza Hut / KFC’s popping up (maybe it’s time for Das Racist to record the sequel?)
Cook County is the largest jail in America, and has some of the country’s most brutal conditions. Cook has at one time or another held all of Chicago’s most notorious criminals, including Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Larry Hoover. Well, except the biggest (war) criminal of them all
The Cotton Club is a jazz club in Harlem. It takes its name from a club of the same name that operated a few blocks north during Prohibition and launched the careers of black musicians such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie
You can still order steak and eggs at Biggie’s favorite diner, just down the street from his boyhood home. “Apparently before he found this place, he used to be called Littlie Smalls,” says Rap Genius’s Dad
Crenshaw est un quartier majoritairement peuplé d'afro-américains à Los Angeles, où Booba aime manifestement bien cruiser
This was a great intersection to pick up hookers until, like, 6 months ago (now you either have to drive to Inglewood — or to the San Fernando Valley..)
Noted West Coast emcee Crooked I had a brief teenage sojourn as an East Coaster, living and gangbanging in this Pennsylvania town of fewer than 50,000 people. A house several blocks down on the same street is pictured here
The Hoti by the Waho
D-Block is what Jadakiss and his fellow LOX members Styles P and Sheek Louch call their rough neighborhood in on the north side of Yonkers, after the toughest cell block in Alcatraz. In 2001, they founded D-Block Records and set up shop near where they grew up
The image of JFK’s head getting blown off here in Dallas is seared in the minds of rappers and non-rappers alike. Ah well, at least he died being able to say he had “the hottest chick in the game wearing [his] chain”
Decatur is a well-heeled suburb of Atlanta with a sizable black population. It’s the boyhood home of B.O.B., and Outkast members Andre 3000 and Big Boi spent some time here in their youth
The Clipse favor this Miami hotel, especially when dealing with butt-naked white girls
La Demi-Lune est le nom donné a un coin situé dans la cité des Saules à Orly. C'est là bas que les membres de la Mafia Africaine faisaient leurs affaires illicites et certains de leurs freestyles d'anthologie
Diamond Shamrock is a low-end gas station/convenience store chain in Texas, and this location on Houston’s Southside was frequented by Southside rappers like Scarface and Chamillionaire when they were growing up. Wonder how much loosies cost here…
If you are rich and wish to flaunt your clout, where better than at an all-night burger stand?
WARNING: if you are visiting Seattle, go for a late night party session, and at the end of the night your girl wants to stop at Dick’s for a burger.. chances are.. BABY got BACK!
The Dixie Homes were a notoriously dangerous, crime-ridden low-rise housing project. Several Memphis rappers in the Three 6 Mafia crew grew up in the Dixie Homes, including Project Pat
But now that the Dixie Homes have been demolished and replaced with middle-income housing, something tells us the location won’t spawn too many rappers any time soon..
E1 Entertainment was formerly known as Koch Records, and is the largest independent record company in the U.S. It releases or distributes records from countless hip-hop artists of the up-and-coming or used-to-be-on-a-major-label variety including Jim Jones, Tha Dogg Pound, Foxy Brown, B Real, and more
One of Dom Kennedy’s favorite places to eat
East Atlanta is a rough neighborhood where Gucci Mane spent his formative years, maybe selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup. There’s a lot of Atlanta beef about which part of the city is hardest, the Eastside, Westside, Southside or Northside
The Eastside of New Orleans is home to the New Orleans Bloods, so it’s sometimes known as the “B-Hive.” Lil Wayne is affiliated with these Bloods, which is why he often wears red and shouts “Soo woo!” and “Da da do!”
The Clipse used to sling coke at this budget motel along Virginia Beach before they made it. Now we understand why there was bulletproof glass at the Econo Lodge the Rap Genius crew stayed at in Atlantic City…
Eddie Plein’s Eddie’s Gold Teeth is THE spot for rappers to get their “grills” done. Eddie started the gold teeth trend back in Queens when he outfitted Flava Flav with a set, and in spite of his newfound competition, Atlanta rappers such as Gucci Mane still swear by Eddie
Where it all went down; Q-Tip got a little bit “Tip"sy and.. wouldn’t you know it? He forgot his wallet in Phife’s booster seat!
It wouldn’t be a big deal that he forgot his wallet, except El Segundo is in Buttfuck Egypt.. (good taquerias tho!)
Epic is a record label under the Sony Music Entertainment umbrella. Cam'ron, dissatisfied with Epic in 2001, decided he wanted to cut his contract short. After a little bit of threatening and physical assault of its employees by Cam, Epic decided it agreed
J. Cole and other locals refer to their hometown of Fayetteville, NC as “Fayetnam” because like ‘Nam, it’s a warzone where you’re likely to get killed — among the Top 25 Most Dangerous Cities in America
OR — maybe it’s because there’s one Vietnamese restaurant in Fayetteville, called “Vietnamese Restaurant”, that gets a 3.5 Star Yelp rating! Not bad! (according to Irwin L. from Newport News, VA, “it is actually managed by Koreans but they are nice”)
(Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base are there too; Bragg is home to the US Army SpecOps Command and the 82nd Airborne.. that might have something to do with the nickname..)
FEMA’s (Federal Emergency Management Agency) New Orleans office was not exactly the most popular place in the wake of its colossal bungling of the response to Hurricane Katrina. Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown ran the operation from this office and victims' claims — many of which were either rejected or underfunded — went through here. Rappers — not big fans of the agency
The Florida Projects was, in bounce music’s early 90’s heyday, one of the most dangerous housing developments in the country. It’s in the Ninth Ward
Where the freaks come out in SF; good place to find a girl who is willing to “lick, lick, lick, lick you” from your head to your toes.. for free..
This federal prison is where T.I. spent a year on weapons charges. T.I. is a good looking dude, and he’s famous — let’s hope he didn’t drop the soap…
Frederick Douglass in Northwest Atlanta is the high school T.I. attended, along with Lil Jon
The bad acoustics in the school’s classrooms made it hard for Lil Jon to hear, hence his catchphrase WHAT?! *
*not true
Fred Gibson is Eminem’s mother’s attorney, and we have no idea if he actually is gay, but Em has a pretty good track record with his Gaydar — Moby, Elton John — we’re just saying…
This is what the song is named after
Farid Bang nutzt hier die Gelegenheit um dem neuen Freund seiner Ex-Freundin auf seinen Anruf zu antworten
If you are a rapper waiting for your stacks to blow up in the home of the chop and screw, your girlfriend undoubtedly pines after this middle-class paradise, this Bonheur des Dames of the South
The Southwest corner of Chicago is where legendary OG Larry Hoover started Gangster Nation back in the 60s. Gangster Nation has since splintered into a number of other gangs, including Gangster Two-Six Nation
Seems like a cautionary tale for the EU..
George Westinghouse Tech is a vocational high school in downtown Brooklyn attended by great rappers such as Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls. Busta Rhymes also went there. When these fledgling MCs were in school in the 80s, hip-hop was exploding in Brooklyn, and they used to have rap battles in the hallways
Ghana Queens are hot as Ghana
Now converted into the Casa Casuarina Hotel, this mansion belonged to fashion icon Gianni Versace until he was gunned down, Biggie/2Pac style by crazed killer Andrew Cunanan in 1997
RIP Versace (if it’s any consolation, he’d probably have died of AIDS by now anyways..)
Giants Stadium (and now the new MetLife Stadium) has been the site of Hot 97’s Summer Jam mega-concert since its inception in 1994. It started out with more of a focus on East Coast rappers, but now features the top names in rap worldwide. Still, Jay-Z is the King of Summer Jam, having premiered “Death of Autotune” there in 2009 and famously sonned Mobb Deep’s Prodigy at the 2001 concert
The Glock-Glock is Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s nickname for the intersection of East 99th Street & St. Clair Avenue, the heart of their East Cleveland ghetto and a major hotspot for drug-dealing. Their favorite gun is the 9mm Glock, hence “Glock-Glock” for 99th Street
In Detroit, when this song was written in the 90s, getting a union job at GM was considered a good move (good health care, retirement, etc.)
Nowadays, with GM in bankruptcy…let’s just say Eminem made the right career move becoming a rapper
Situated in an industrial section of Northwest Atlanta (near T.I.’s boyhood neighborhood of Bankhead), Grand Hustle is T.I.’s record label and home to many other big-name local rappers, including B.O.B. In late 2009, two Molotov cocktails (makeshift bombs) were thrown at Grand Hustle in the early morning, but they didn’t explode so no damage was done… except psychological damage to the security guard on duty at the time
This major east/west thoroughfare in Compton was a popular spot for the Crips to dump bodies during the heyday of West Coast rap (and L.A. gang violence) in the 90’s, in no small part due to the desolate industrial park running along Greenleaf for most of its length. Sounds like not a bad spot for Snoop to light up a late-night joint either
Grove Park is where T.I. went to elementary school, along with Outkast’s Andre 3000, a fellow native of the Bankhead neighborhood of Atlanta
This subway station is the epicenter of the crack dealing that goes on all along Gun Hill Road. Who would have thought that a street with Gun in the name would be a hotbed of drug dealing and violence?
Das Gymnasium Steglitz, das Prinz Pi besucht hat, liegt in der Heesestraße und wird auch oft Heese-Gymnasium genannt
Harold’s Chicken Shack is a Chicago staple. If you’re ever visiting, you MUST stop and get some Mild (on). DELICIOUS. Even Wale mentions it in That Way
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Lil Wayne graciously donated $200,000 to rebuild Harrell Park, where he used to play growing up in Holly Grove. How much did FEMA donate? $0
Harsh Ave. is a small-town Ohio ghetto — a rather harsh place to grow up..
Hotlanta’s gleaming airport is a necessary pit stop for drug connects. It also has a sweet Automatic People Mover that rivals the one in Detroit’s airport, which will be the subject of a T.I. vs. Eminem rap battle some day when all other topics have been exhausted
Les Hauts-de-Seine (92), département le plus riche de France, sont situés à l'ouest de Paris. C'est la terre d'origine de rappeurs tels que Booba, Ali, Dany Dan, Zoxea, Rocca et bien-sûr Bilal
Booba désigne aussi souvent le département par l'expression “100-8 Zoo” car 100-8=92, auquel on accole l'expression “zoo”, qui désigne un territoire dans la culture hip hop américaine
A commercial intersection in Eastpointe near Atlanta, Outkast’s block
In the mid-90s, Proof ran an open mic at the now-defunct Hip Hop Shop that attracted the best rappers from the Detroit area, including Eminem. Em’s victory in a rap battle here gained him a place in the Rap Olympics in L.A., where he caught the attention of Dr. Dre, and the rest is, as the meme goes, history
Holly Grove is Lil Wayne’s neighborhood, a tough area where Wayne grew up in the middle of the violent drug scene. The neighborhood was heavily flooded during Hurricane Katrina when the 17th Street Canal Levee failed, so Wayne now often refers to it as “The Water”
Great place to get a speeding ticket in L.A. (maybe it’s because they are doing “Persian Profiling”, but all my homies get busted here)
Hollywood Courts was a low-rise housing project on the Northside of Atlanta until it was demolished in 2009. Stuntman, part of the Atlanta rap collective D4L, grew up here. And even though Hollywood Courts is gone, its memory lives on… in a Facebook group!
Home Depot parking lots are ideal for picking up drugs, or Illegal immigrant day laborers. And the kids can race around in their bright orange shopping carts — why even bother to go inside?
Home thoroughfare of the Hoover Crips, one of L.A.’s oldest Crip sects
Hoover street runs South from the U.S.C. (“University of Spoiled Children”) campus, which is nice because if you are a Hoover Crip you can carjack the accounting majors and purse-snatch the JAPS up the street!
Hot 97 is New York City’s biggest hip-hop radio station. The entrance to its studio (pictured) has been the site of a number of shootings involving rap’s biggest names — including Lil' Kim, The Game and 50 Cent — earning the station the nickname “Shot 97”
It might be a chain, but Houston’s is still a great place to eat, mingle, and sell yayo
While in Aspen, Cam prefers to stay at the Hyatt Grand (he has a “fractional ownership interest”.. very nice place!)
I-10 bisects the city of Houston, dividing it into the Northside and the Southside (where the rap scene is centered)
I-10 is an interstate that goes from southern california through texas all the way to the florida coast. Most importantly, it passes through Baton Rouge, Louisiana where Lil Boosie is from. He’s got a gold pendant on a chain that has his version of the I-10 sign on it
I-285 is an interstate beltway encircling Atlanta, so there is I-285 Eastside and I-285 Westside, with I-75 running north-south in the middle to separate the two sides. Not surprisingly, there’s beef between the Westside and East Atlanta
I-80 is a cross-country highway connecting drug suppliers from as far as San Francisco and New York to dealers in Chicago. You could also use the highway for a cross-country “last hurrah” trip with your girlfriend who’s moving to California, but unless you break up with her at the end instead of “trying the long-distance thing for a little while,” the drug mule trip would be more thug
I-85 runs north-south through the middle of Atlanta, bisecting I-285 and dividing the city into the Eastside and Westside. It also serves as a major artery for drug traffic, connecting Atlanta’s dealers to suppliers in Montgomery to the south and Charlotte and Richmond to the north (where I-85 connects with I-95 to get to DC, Philly, NYC, Boston, and even Maine — don’t scoff, there’s a whole crazy drug scene in Maine!)
This is the major levee that broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding and decimating the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood on the east side of the levee. The 17th Street Canal Levee also failed on the other side of town. Now we know that not only can you never trust a ho, you can also never trust the Army Corps of Engineers
Lil Wayne hung out and later sold drugs at the intersection of Apple and Eagle streets (could result in very impressive porno names!) when he was growing up in the Holly Grove neighborhood. It was conveniently close to his boyhood home
There are few things rappers like more than flashy cars, and the annual New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center doesn’t disappoint, with concept cars and the newest models from every major car company in the world. When some of the Rap Genius crew went there, we only saw pasty white guys and their pimply-faced kids drooling all over themselves, but the rappers were probably in the section where people actually buy the cars
This is where Cam'ron would eat for the holidays when he was young and poor instead of enjoying a family feast of turkey and trimmings at home.
On the bright side, they have some of the better burgers and grill cooks in New York, and it’s super cheap. The bad part is that health code violations are no stranger to this place
John Jay College is a place where a young rapper might go to find higher class women than the skanks he finds in the projects. Not like Beyonce classy — after all, John Jay still advertises in the subway — but a girl you might take home to Momma
Joinville-le-Pont est une ville du Val-de-Marne (94). Vu son nom, les blagues sont faciles à faire. Aelpeacha, un rappeur de local, l'a ainsi baptisée Splifton (“splif-town” : “joint-ville” en anglais)
If you were a part of Atlanta’s hip-hop club scene in the ’90s and early millennium, Club Kaya was a must. Club Kaya was a smooth after-hours dance club. Every friday rappers and rapfans in Atlanta used hang out there
Die Keupstraße ist weit über Köln hinaus als ein Zentrum des türkischen Geschäftslebens bekannt. Sie befindet sich im rechtsrheinischen Stadtteil Mülheim
The King of Diamonds is the largest “gentlemen’s club” in the world. It’s the club of choice for rappers and other celebri-ballers when in Miami. They have a roster of over 70 girls, 14 Super Skyboxes, 30 Private VIP Suites, a shoe shine station, fashion boutique, beauty salon, tanning salon, full body massages and fine dining menu (cue the chorus of women saying “Eating at a strip club- GROSS!” Hey don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it!)
The Kit-Kat club in Midtown Manhattan is where Jay-Z stabbed record executive Lance “Un” Rivera
So for Jay-Z, being “trapped in the Kit-Kat” is a way of saying he’s getting in trouble — in this case, going to jail and having to spend time with the riff-raff criminal element (yuck!)
If you are in Berlin looking for crank, speed, etc. — TAKE THE SUBWAY TO KOTTBUSSER TOR! (talk to one of the guys with the mohawk and creepy dog..)
The original Kottbusser Tor was a southern city gate of Berlin, but the gate’s been razed — all that’s left is the city’s ghettoest U-Bahn station (endearingly referred to as “Kotti” by many Berliners)
K-Town is a roughly mile-long stretch of Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood where the names of nearly all of the north-south avenues begin with the letter K
Weißensee ist ein Ortsteil im Bezirk Pankow von Berlin, wo sich auch eine Kunsthochschule befindet, an welcher Pi von 2002 bis 2008 Kommunikationsdesign studierte
L'Abbaye est une cité du quartier du Mont-Mesly à Créteil (94)
La Galathée est une cité de Deuil-la-Barre (95). Les membres du groupe Sniper en sont originaires
La Goutte d'Or est un des derniers quartiers populaires de Paris, dans le 18ème arrondissement de la capitale, entre Barbès et La Chapelle.
C'est notamment le quartier d'origine du groupe Scred Connexion
Bougie Minneapolis neighborhood where Slug (aka Sean Daley) grew up
Where Aesop Rock’s parents grew up
La Sorbonne est l'université la plus ancienne et la plus célèbre de PariS
The famous Latin Quarter nightclub was in this location until 1989 (it is now at 511 Lexington). From 1985-89, the club was a hip-hop Mecca, referenced in song by Boogie Down Productions, Ice-T, and others
Le Carbet est un torrent de l'île de la Guadeloupe, remarquable pour ses chutes d'eau
This massive Queens housing complex, home to a mix of working-class blacks, Domicans and Puerto Ricans, is where N.O.R.E. and Prodigy grew up. The rappers sometimes refer to LeFrak as “Iraq” because it’s so dangerous there
Bougie African-American neighborhood with a vibrant arts scene; home to many of the new-school LA baller rappers, including Dom
Le Luth est un quartier de Gennevilliers réputé pour être l'un des plus chauds de France
Le Mont-Pelé est le principal volcan de Martinique
A famous upscale shopping mall. Lenox Square comprises more than 1,545,000 square feet (140,000 m2) of retail space, with 250 stores on four levels
Kanye’s crazy ass party got this L.A. Koreatown club shut down.. THUUUG!
Les Abbesses sont un quartier du 18ème arrondissement de Paris
Les Alouettes est une cité d'Alfortville (94)
Les Bordières est une cité de Créteil (94)
La cité des Hautes-Bergères est un quartier des Ulis (91). C'est de là qu'est originaire le rappeur Sinik
Les Lozaits sont une cité de Villejuif
Les Martinets sont une cité du Kremlin-Bicêtre (94). Le rappeur Kamelancien en est originaire
This is the apartment complex where Lil Wayne grew up. Wayne was shot here when he was 12! Granted he accidentally shot himself, but hey, have you ever been shot? No? Then shut up!
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Lil Wayne decamped to Miami and bought this baller 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath South Beach condo at the Murano Grande. Faced with his not-so-baller new living arrangements on Rikers Island, Wayne is trying to sell this pad, but buyers have balked at the $2.8 million price tag. Hey Wayne, can the Rap Geniuses squat here until you’re out of jail or have found a buyer?
Lil Wayne has been renting this $14 million waterfront mansion on private, gated La Gorce Island for a couple years now — for when his $3 million South Beach condo feels too cramped. This modern masterpiece features 20,000 square feet on 3 floors, 9 Bedrooms, 9 Bathrooms, a 2-story master suite, an elevator, and a giant swimming pool. This place rivals MC Hammer’s old spread
Well, we thought this map could find it, but we seem to have lost the old Weezy cranium somewhere around here..
Eminem attended Lincoln from 1986 to 1989, repeating the ninth grade twice before dropping out
If you find yourself in this rough Tuscaloosa neighborhood, then I suggest that you..
HIDE YOUR KIDS! HIDE YOUR WIFE!
They are raping everybody out there!
So far out in Queens that it’s barely New York City. There’s no subway, only a Long Island Railroad stop. It’s crazy! Just like Hollis (Run-DMC) which is right next to St. Albans, the neighborhood Tribe came up in. Isn’t it weird how these places that are so far out there, but could still produce really active hiphop communities?
Dipset’s J.R. Writer originates from these houses named after jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton
Just as Havana, Cuba is a poor shit-hole, but Haiti is an even poorer, even bigger shit-hole, Miami’s Little Havana is a poor shit-hole, but its Little Haiti is an even poorer, even bigger shit-hole. Such a big shit-hole, in fact, that it’s home to the Haitian Zoe Pound Gang, the most violent gang in Miami
This is Shad K hometown
Main road in Houston, TX.
Even today, you’ll find some Screwed Up Click members pushing their slabs up and down that Long Drive. Fifteen years ago, you might’ve even seen Screw pushing his “Screw blue” Impala with the blades down Long Drive, bumping a grey tape
LADIES: Let Luda take you on a sexual journey through his Magical “Hotlanta”
When Cam’s not in Harlem, he’s “getting it” in the Midwest. This Chicago restaurant merits a mention in his Fourth Coast travelogue “Get It In Ohio”
Madison Avenue is the traditional home of the advertising industry, though today only a handful of agencies still operate in this area. Still, though, “Madison Avenue” is a phrase that has come to mean the ad industry as a whole
Let’s face it — even though Yankee games are chill, there’s something a little too White Bread about baseball. The real thug life New York sporting events — Knicks games and boxing matches — take place at Madison Square Garden (“The World’s Most Famous Arena” according to the MSG Ministry of Propaganda)
And the most baller seats in the house are next to Knicks SuperFan Spike Lee.. no question, meng
Jay-Z is trying to challenge MSG’s sports supremacy with the construction of the Barclays Center for the Nets in Brooklyn, which corporate apparatchiks are sure to hail as “The World’s Most Famous Arena Named After A British Bank”
Magic city is the Atlanta strip club frequented by rappers for its class, ass, and cozy private rooms (useful for, errm, “contract negotiations”)
The Magnolia Projects (officially known as the C.J. Peete Projects) were the most violent projects in all of New Orleans, more violent even than the notoriously dangerous Calliope Projects. These now-demolished low-rise projects, the boyhood home of Jay Electronica and other rappers such as Juvenile (who affectionately referred to his home as the ‘nolia), had more violent crime than some small cities. Take that, Gloucester, MA!
Le 18 août 1998, Booba est incarcéré à la maison d'arrêt de Bois-d'Arcy, dans les Yvelines (78), pour braquage de taxi à main armée
Maison Martin Margiela is a high-end fashion boutique — not exactly what you expect to hear in a rap song. But Kanye, Kid Cudi, and now Jay-Z have ushered in a new breed of fashionable blipster rappers. Between shopping here, eating at Mr. Chow, and living at Trump World Towers, Jay-Z’s living quite the high life — but has it made him go soft? One beta white blogger in Chicago seems to kind of think so but then backtracks
Maisons-Alfort est une ville du Val-de-Marne (94). Le rappeur MC Solaar y a vécu une partie de sa jeunesse
Before anyone gets sent to Rikers Island, he gets to have his Jewish lawyer argue his case at Manhattan Criminal Court. Some of the biggest names in rap have been tried here, including Lil Wayne (sent to prison for 1 year), Jay-Z (received 3 years probation), and Diddy (acquitted — nice!)
If the Feds are involved, the case is tried at the nearby U.S. Court of Appeals — and you are in deep shit
Marcy is the project where Jay-Z grew up. It’s located in the rough Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (near the boyhood home of Biggie Smalls, and was a hotbed of drug-related crime during Jay-Z’s childhood in the 1980s. Memphis Bleek is also from the Marcy Houses, but he never used his boyhood connection to Jay-Z to further his rap career or anything…
The Marriott Marquis is a noted hotel for drug-dealing. It’s near other drug hotspots like the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the blocks surrounding Madison Square Garden. It also has the most efficient elevator system in the world!
Master P lived with his family (including son Lil Romeo) in this mansion next to the exclusive Baton Rouge Country Club while he was running New Orleans-based No Limit Records during the 90s and early 2000s. He’s since moved to LA, but still has strong connections to Louisiana, having been born in the Calliope projects in New Orleans
Before Jay-Z and Kanye were dining at Nobu and Mr. Chow, they were chowing down on Mickey D’s like the other broke up-and-coming rappers. Not sure how New York rappers feel about the bougie McDonald’s redesign that makes it look more like Starbucks — maybe they’ll switch over to Southern transplant Checkers
Jay-Z may have a penchant for Rice Rockets.. but REAL rappers know that only Germany makes true automobiles
The AMG factory is the spot for rappers to get a pimp-ride kitted out; in fact, AMG has discontinued manual models because 50 Cent complained he needs a free hand for smoking blunts..
Where Jay Electronica used to sleep!
Monrovia, capitale du libéria
Thomas “Tony Montana” Mickens was the kind of guy rappers pretend to be — a flashy 1980’s Queens drug dealer who did baller things like buy a $110,000 yacht in cash. He also brazenly started a bunch of businesses under his “Montana” alias, and this was the location of Montana Dry Cleaners, which had its own after-hours activities
50 Cent captured this era of Queens street life in his song “Ghetto Qu'ran”. In the picture are other dons of the era, Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, and James “Wall” Corley
A famous beach in Jamaica, this is where B-Real suggest to go in the “Ganja Bus”
Le Mont-Mesly est un quartier de Créteil (94)
Morehouse is one of the best historically black colleges in the country. Its illustrious alumni include Martin Luther King, Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s also, apparently, like any other college campus, a good place to score blow
Mos Def’s (now hella-gentrified) childhood block — there’s an amazing Asian grocery store like 2 blocks away!
Motown Records, aka “Hitsville, USA”, was headquartered in Detroit from 1960 until it moved to LA in 1972. Motown put out records from some of the greatest black artists of the 60s and 70s, from Marvin Gaye to The Supremes (and the Spinners) to the Jackson Five, and rap producers (we’re looking at you, Kanye and Diddy) have been heavily sampling from these classics ever since
Mr. Chow is a chic Asian fusion restaurant in Tribeca. In addition to Jay-Z, Method Man and Kanye have mentioned it in songs. Going to expensive restaurants is part of the New Baller lifestyle of rappers these days, along with shopping at fancy boutiques and living in sweet condos
Too $hort had, um, business to take care of
Nationwide is one of a series of body shops along Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. New York rappers might bring their Acura to get tricked out up here, or even their high-end Beamer, Benz or Bentley for a touch-up
This is the home of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets, the rival to the nearby Saints in the hearts of New Orleans rappers like Lil Wayne and Birdman. Master P (pictured at left) is solidly in the Hornets' camp, having almost played for the team in the late 90s when they were still in Charlotte. The Hornets have had a streak of great point guards since moving to New Orleans, starting with Baron Davis (BD) and now continuing with Chris Paul (CP3)
Frank Minyard has been the coroner of New Orleans since 1974 — not only that, but he’s one hell of a trumpeter. He’s sometimes used as a shorthand by Lil Wayne and other New Orleans rappers to mean “you’ll be dead”
When the New York rap scene was in its heyday in the 90s, City Hall was occupied by none other than conservative Catholic Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Most of rappers' beef with Giuliani stemmed from his “tough-on-crime” policies, which flooded black neighborhoods with cops who sent many young people to prison for minor crimes and even shot innocent civilian Amadou Diallo in cold blood. Giuliani-haters ranged from gangsta rappers like Biggie and Inspectah Deck to conscious rappers like Talib Kweli and Mos Def. Of course now that Jay-Z has to get his new Nets stadium approved by the city, he’s cozying up to current NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg over English muffins and orange juice
A country in Western Africa. Nas, Wale, and Chamillionaire are some famous rappers from NIgeria
The main thoroughfare of Brooklyn’s notorious Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood — the “Ghettoest Place on Earth”!
Biggie grew up at his mother’s house on Fulton Street, one of the main drags in Bedford-Stuyvesant. His cousin and fellow Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil Cease and Wayne Barrow, the producer of Biggie’s biopic Notorious, were frequent house guests (see picture at left). This was pre-Seamless Web, so young Biggie had to run down the stairs to meet the delivery man when he ordered from Country House Diner
In November 1995, Biggie moved from Brooklyn to a three-story townhouse in Teaneck, NJ in a gated community called the Courts at Glenpointe, which he purchased for $310,000. If moving to a gated community in New Jersey sounds more like the life plan of a middle-aged accountant than a young gangsta rapper, keep in mind that Diddy, Lil Kim and Def Jam founder Russell Simmons all live in upscale New Jersey communities
The New York Daily News is known for its silly headlines
What the hell is Too $hort doing in Vacaville anyway?
Eminem enemies Insane Clown Posse (Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J) are from Oak Park, a middle-class suburb which is only 16.4 miles from Detroit (it’s okay to round up for diss tracks)
Ocean Drive is a palm tree-lined, cafe-filled street across from South Beach. Rappers, and all people in Miami, love to cruise Ocean Drive with the top down when the sun sets. In Scarface, the most-referenced movie in all of rap, the famous “chainsaw shower” scene takes place in a hotel on Ocean Drive
A luxury condominium building where Drake likes to think of rhymes while chilling with rich girls when he’s in his home town
Opa-Locka is a poor community on the outskirts of Miami riddled with gang violence. What’ll turn this situation around? A ban on sagging pants!
If there’s anything notable about this street other than the sheer number of thugs with silly names getting high there, we’ve yet to hear about it
Ah, with its welcoming townsfolk and picturesque canals, I couldn’t imagine a nicer place to have a cup of hot sake and take a country jaunt on a motorcycle..
Eminem attended Osborn for a year before failing out of 9th Grade and dropping out. While there, he met Proof (R.I.P.) and other future members of D12 as part of the school’s rap battle scene. Because he didn’t graduate, he’ll never get to wear the t-shirt pictured at left. That is the only thing that his poor, less successful classmates can lord over him
Site of the “Park Hill Apartments”, one of the original project crack-ghettos in NYC
Le Petit-Pré Sablières est une cité de Créteil (94)
Wale graduated from Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 2001 before moving to Largo, Maryland which is in Prince Georges County, Maryland or P.G. County
This is the site of Birthday Bash, Atlanta hip-hop station Hot 107.9’s big summer concert, the equivalent of New York’s Hot 97’s Summer Jam. Like Summer Jam, Birthday Bash is now big enough to draw the biggest rappers from all over, but it still always has a local flavor, with Atlanta hip-hop legends like Ludacris and Gucci Mane making appearances every year
Philips is also the arena where the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers play
Hier hat Olson Rough Alkohol konsumiert
A large, bourgeois shopping mall — sort of place in St. Louis where upwardly-mobile, girlish rappers would take a girl for a date
Named after a Canadian château
The Plaza is one of the finest historic hotels in the city. In the early 90s crime movie King of New York, drug lord Frank White (Christopher Walken) lives in the Plaza’s Presidential Suite, a fact which he brags about often. Biggie, who sometimes called himself the “Black Frank White”, dropped references to the Plaza in a number of songs
Pont-de-Sèvres est une cité de Boulogne-Billancourt (92)
Port Arthur, Texas (known to locals as PAT) is a majority African-American port city to the east of Houston that serves as a major port for the area. It’s the home of legendary Southern rap duo UGK, made up of Bun B and the late Pimp C
The Port Authority is a major spot for drug dealing. It’s also filled with the dregs of humanity, from homeless prostitutes to drunk suburban teenagers to desperate elderly women pissing away Social Security checks in Atlantic City slot machines. But it does have a bowling alley
The Port of Miami is one of the country’s largest, servicing both cruise ships and cargo ships. That must be why it’s rapped about so often! Oh wait, it’s also where cocaine is shipped into the country by the ton
Privé was the hottest club in South Beach for awhile, a must-go for any rapper or celebrity when in town. But nightclubs get hot and then cold pretty quickly, and now Privé is out of business. Our advice — open a strip club — those never go out of style (lonely, horny men are the world’s most renewable resource!)
The studio where, in November 1994, 2Pac Shakur was robbed and shot. Puff and Biggie were upstairs in the same studio at the time, and Tupac thought they set him up
After the shooting, as he lay in a pool of his own blood, 2Pac asked a friend to roll him a joint while he called his mom and his girlfriend (awww!); the next day he was in court for criminal sentencing (must’ve been a crappy week..)
This shooting, and Pac’s suspicions, began the East Coast-West Coast beef that ended only when Pac and Biggie both got tragically shot dead
The Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens are the largest public housing development in America. They’re also the boyhood home of Nas and the members of rap duo Mobb Deep. Nas lived on the 40th Avenue side of the sprawling complex, and Mobb Deep lived on the 41st Avenue side
In recognition of the inspiration he drew from the drug-dealing, violence, and everyday struggles he saw in Queensbridge, Nas put a picture of the projects on the cover of his breakout album Illmatic (see picture) and later filmed the video for “Nas is Like” there
When LeBron James played for the Cavs, Quicken Loans Arena was a real place to see and be seen for rappers and other celebrities. Now that Bron-Bron’s jumped ship to Miami, the celebs will still come to see Anderson Varejao though, right? Right?
This Radisson is located near Madison Square Garden, a hub of drugs and bad basketball
Rap-A-Lot is the Houston-based label that launched the careers of the Geto Boys (including Scarface) and Devin the Dude, among other local rappers, helping put the South on the hip-hop map (and the Rap Map™)
Rick Ross owns a condo in this building on South Beach. A bunch of other rappers, including New Orleans transplant Lil Wayne, have places nearby. Wonder if Rick ever invites his former Corrections Officer coworkers over for cocktails
Rikers Island is New York’s most notorious prison, a frequent site of violent inmate riots. A number of rappers have been sent to Rikers, most famously Lil Wayne, who’s serving a year on weapons charges
La Rive-Sud de Montréal est la banlieue sud de Montréal. C'est un coin assez ghetto et le territoire de nombreux gang dont des équipes affiliées aux Crip’s et Bloods (les québécois disent “Bleus” et “Rouges”).
Le Roi Heenok en est originaire
Roc-A-Fella Records was founded by Jay-Z and Dame Dash in 1996 when Jay-Z couldn’t get any major labels to release his debut album Reasonable Doubt. Since then, it’s put out albums for the biggest names in rap, including Cam'ron, Kanye West, and Jadakiss. Jay left Roc-a-Fella a few years ago head up Def Jam
This hotel was the meme spot for getting it on in New Orleans bounce lyrics of the early 1990’s (mostly because it rhymed with “What we gonna do”)
Home of Mos Def. Typical Brooklyn slum apartments, inspiring Def’s lyrical content
Roscoe’s is a thug L.A. meme, but the Pico blvd. location has been gentrified down to the cluckers — good place to take your anorexic girlfriend for a “binge night”
Rosenberg’s was a furniture store at 1825 Tulane Ave., made locally famous by a strange commercial featuring a little girl’s voice. It’s a bit of an in-joke among people who grew up in New Orleans in the 80s, including Lil Wayne
The intersection of I-75 and I-696
Located in the north end of Harlem, Rucker Park is the premier streetball court in New York City. The AND1 Mixtape Series was filmed here, and scores of NBA legends, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, got their starts at Rucker. Cam'ron, who grew up just blocks from Rucker, is a frequent “Rucker game attender,” and fellow Dipset member Jim Jones famously got jumped by some Junior M.A.F.I.A. members here in 1999
La plage des Salines se situe en Martinique. Elle est réputée pour être la plus belle plage des Antilles. Elle receverait près de 2 millions de visiteurs par an
In 1999, Mase unexpectedly left a burgeoning rap career on the Bad Boy label to become a preacher at this Atlanta church. Mase claimed he found God, but according to legend, he was fucking another Harlem guy’s wife, and the guy was not exactly pleased when he found out, so Mase up and fled to Atlanta for fear of gettin' got
He now calls himself Dr. Mason Betha and leads the congregation here at S.A.N.E. (Saving A Nation Endangered). And according to some of his parishioners, he’s up to his old ways, going to strip clubs right after giving sermons on the importance of marriage and using the church as a way to make himself rich
Scarface grew up here on the Southside of Houston, in the neighborhood of Sunnyside, an ironic name for one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city
Shady Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, is Eminem’s record label. Em continued to mock Osama in the video for “Without Me” and the lyrics to “Mosh”, which managed the near-impossible feat of exciting college students about John Kerry
The home of New York’s city dump was playfully referred to as the “Island of Shaolin” by the little Wu’s growing up, an imaginative reference to a movie by Hong Kong martial artist Gordon Liu: Shaolin and Wu Tang (which inspired their name)
Trendy area in Tokyo known for its fashion and nightlife
This is the place Kanye’s talkin bout
This is the street that Dwight “Beanie Sigel” Grant grew up on and took his rap alias from
Ironically(?), Kadafi himself was murdered in N E W Jers' less than a year after the release of “Hit ‘em Up”
Thug life?
Slauson Ave. is the cut off point in the Crenshaw, Los Angeles, CA neighborhood in the South West section
S-N double O-P raises his famizzle and chizzle in a suburban, Mediterranean-style Palazzo in the upper middle-class Southland enclave of Diamond Bar (located right next to Chino Hills)
An East Oakland park so renowned for its drug-slanging and gang violence that a ten-year-old was arrested on suspicion of arson last year after the Sobrante Park Elementary School got torched
Kanye West with Dame Dash and Twista at S.O.B.’s
This is presumably where the fabled Slim Fan Club was established (but not really)
So So Def is Jermaine Dupri’s record label, located on the Northside of Atlanta near T.I.’s Grand Hustle Studios
This Florida Department of Corrections facility in Dade County is where Rick Ross was really working in the 90s as a Corrections Officer when he claims he was slinging coke. Sounds pretty bad for Ross, but Ricky’s having the last laugh at his baller condo on South Beach
50 Cent’s hometown, a predominantly African neighborhood; named after it’s position on the Southside of the tracks of the Long Island Railroad
The Southside is the roughest part of Chicago, home to a host of gangs and the site of much of the violence and drug dealing in the city. It’s also the boyhood home of a number of rappers, including M-1 and Common). So Common has really seen some crazy, fucked-up shit in his day that understandably has made him politically conscious — sorry, we still think he’s boring
The Southside (all of Houston south of I-10)is the mecca of Houston rap, where legends from Scarface to Chamillionaire to Fat Pat grew up. Houston’s signature slow-paced “chopped and screwed” hip-hop style was created here by DJ Screw in the 90s. Rappers' love of sippin' on sizzurp also started here with DJ Screw. This is like the Cooperstown of Purple Drank
Zagat’s Restaurant Guide gives Sparks a 25 for Food, a 22 for Service, and a 20 for Decor. Decor?! Fuck Decor, they need a new category for “mentions in a Cam'ron song”!
Spofford Juvenile Center was a juvenile detention centre in the Bronx which 50 Cent claims to have been sent to, and which Mobb Deep dedicated an entire track to in their debut album, Juvenile Hell
Stapleton is a housing project located in the Staten Island neighborhood of the same name. Wu-Tang members RZA and Ghostface Killah lived there in their youth, and the group often hung out at Stapleton in those early days
Saint Clair Avenue is the nexus of drug dealing in Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s East Cleveland neighborhood. From the weed dealers down on 93rd and St. Clair up to the coke dealers on 99th and St. Clair (the Glock-Glock), you can buy something to get you fucked up all along this stretch
St. Joseph is the suburban high school to which inner-city Chicagoans William Gates and Arthur Agee commuted to play basketball in the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams. Neither player made it to the NBA
St. Mary’s Academy is an all-girls school opened in 1867, and its high school remains all-female, though its elementary and middle schools became co-ed in 2006. Its annual homecoming dance was a favorite site for folks to rob people in the 1980’s and 90’s, often by literally jumping out of trees to surprise dance-goers
Big L grew up in central Harlem, just a block away from Cam'ron at 139th Street & Lenox Avenue. While Cam'ron and the Dipset were slinging drugs at 145th and Broadway, Big L was dealing in St. Nicholas Park. As anyone who’s been to Washington “weed weed weed weed” Square Park knows, parks are meccas for New York drug dealers
New Orleans was built on top of a number of now-defunct cemeteries, with the St. Peter Street Cemetery being the most famous. This helps explain the city’s fascination with voodoo, a religion obsessed with death. If you’re interested in the history of New Orleans voodoo and enjoy GeoCities-era text-heavy websites, click here
LeBron James got his start at this small school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Then he moved on to play professionally in Cleveland, until he realized, “Hey, all the rappers are ditching their home cities for Miami, why not me?”
Sun Life Stadium is the current name of the home of the Miami Dolphins and Florida Marlins, though in the last 15 years it’s also been known as Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, and, most recently, Land Shark Stadium (seriously)
Rappers rarely make Marlins references — the team’s fanbase seems to skew toward the World War II Veteran demographic. They sometimes make Dolphins references, although mostly about the heyday of the Dolphins with Dan Marino in the 80s.
These days, the Miami sports references are all about Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and the Heat
The Superdome is the home of the New Orleans Saints, and was for a long time a point of pride for the city and its rappers. But when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the stadium was the site of horrific violence, deprivation, and death, complicating New Orleanians' relationship to it. With the Saints' Super Bowl win in 2010, the city and its rappers have regained some of their love for the Superdome
The restaurant where Sir Mix-a-Lot took his posse and the freaks for Mexican eatin'. Alas, it was not open when they arrived
Based on this picture, one could never tell this place is so dangerous!
Tartane est un bourg martiniquais tourné vers la pêche
Though now closed indefinitely, Tavern on the Green (a restaurant in Central Park) was for years a mecca for relatively well-heeled tourists — and hence a good place to rob a bitch. In the 80s, in a scene straight out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, gang members would sometimes scale the walls of the restaurant and mug patrons dining on the patio
The Queensbridge Houses — Nas' childhood projects — are an all-around unsafe place! They are divided into 2 sections, bordering 40th Avenue on the North (the “40 Houses”) and 41st Avenue on the South (the “??? Houses”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ave
The U-District’s most famous street. The Blue Scholars reference it and actually met at UW. The song “The Ave” is a tribute to it
The Tallest Building in the World! Highly leveraged, so if you have lots of cash you can get some serious bargains on office space
Next to the Dubai Mall, so your girlf can go pick out a Chanel burka while you take in the view..
This is Big L’s neighborhood. Its where he group up, learned to rap, and eventually died. He was shot on the same corner as the album cover of Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous
Washington University date-area of St. Louis, where Nelly and the St. Lunatics head out to hit on college girls! (“I get older, they stay the same age..”)
This is where Fresh Prince’s mom took him shopping for bell-bottom Brady Bunch trousers to wear to school
A famous “stack” interchange near Watts, named after the corrupt-ass federal judge who killed L.A.’s public transportation at the behest of car companies
Rarely a place where you exit the Freeway in L.A., unless you are searching for:
Weed
Prostitutes
Prostitutes smoking weed
Custom rims
Where snobby rappers go on vacation — you can stay at the Ritz and polish your fur game
Bougie-ass hotel in Soho, where Kanye & Jay recorded their latest album, Watch The Throne..
When George Bush was in office, the White House represented all of the ways the White Man oppresses the hood, from letting New Orleans drown during Katrina to punitive drug policies and everything in between
With Obama in office, a lot of rappers have become more positively inclined toward the White House — especially Jay-Z, who sometimes gets personal visits with the Obamas
For rappers, Times Square is the epitome of the “Bright Lights, Big City” aspect of New York, a stage seen by the whole world. And now that there’s a wax scuplture of Diddy at Madame Tussaud’s, rap and Times Square are even more inextricably linked
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided T.I.’s College Park mansion in 2007 and found a stash of machine guns and silencers. Subsequently, T.I. was put under house arrest here and then sent to prison for a year. But now T.I. is BACK
Tompkins is a project just down the street from Jay-Z’s own Marcy Houses. Residents of Tompkins and Marcy are natural rivals, just as guys from Nas’s Queensbridge Houses are rivals with those from nearby Ravenswood Houses
The Toyota Center is the home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, who are popular among rappers for their hot red-and-yellow throwback hats, not for their performance on the court in recent years
Trappes est une ville des Yvelines (78). C'est la ville d'origine des rappeurs La Fouine et Canardo
Where John Forte eats mangoes; hangs with attorneys
Trump International is a high-end hotel on the southwest corner of Central Park, developed by Donald Trump. Jay-Z used to stay there before he bought a condo in Trump World Towers
Trump World Towers is a baller condo along the East River, with sweeping views of Queens and Brooklyn. Jay-Z pays $65,000 a month to live in a 14-room apartment in the building. Rap Genius has a sleeping bag we only slept in once (canoe trip)…
This is home of the Atlanta Braves, who Atlanta rappers often name-drop because being “brave” is hard, and baseball offers a lot of sports metaphors/similes like the one above
A good place to meet sexy interns and enjoy a sashimi (although they don’t allow thugged-out dress codes.. or excessive sampling!)
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won six championships in this hallowed arena. How many can LeBron and Dwayne Wade win in their own arena named after an airline down in Miami?
The building that houses the offices of Universal Music Group and its affiliated labels, including Def Jam (whose Presidential offices, we found out from Jay-Z, are on the 76th floor)
This is the New Orleans home corner of early bounce pioneers U.N.L.V. (no, not the college! It stands for Uptown Niggas Living Violently). They named their debut album after this spot
Though Uptown can refer to a larger swath of New Orleans that includes the ritzy Garden District to the east (boyhood home of Peyton and Eli Manning), when rappers refer to Uptown, they’re talking about this rough neighborhood where Birdman and Soulja Slim (R.I.P.), among other MCs, are from. Uptown didn’t flood during Katrina, but there was a flood of looters (see pic)!
Too $hort isn’t from here, but it’s where he woke up on the day he chooses to narrate in “Just Another Day”
This is where X-to-the-Z spent his first night in California, midway through his odyssey fueled by dope slanging to his sister’s house
Poumon vert de l'est parisien. Son zoo, son lac, son parc floral, ses SDF et ses prostituées, que les X-Men ont vu faire des trucs bien chelous
Waffle House is a restaurant chain popular in the South, including J. Cole’s hometown of Fayetteville, NC. Ludacris is a big fan of the Atlanta-based chain as well
Watch out: people fire guns here! (Or so Jim Jones claims)
This is where T.I. was arrested on federal weapons charges in October 2007, leading to a one-year jail sentence
Eminem grew up in Warren, a mostly-white neighborhood on the overwhelmingly poor East Side of Detroit
This is where Wax used to go to spit his fat bass raps prior to signing with Def Jam
The Gangster Two Six Nation is a notoriously violent Latino gang that was founded and still operates along this stretch of West 26th Street on the Westside of Chicago. They’re an offshoot of the original Gangster Nation, and you can learn more about them by going to their GeoCities-era web page — guys, we’re in the Age of Branding, get your shit together (although big ups for the Jewish Star in the logo)
This Southside neighborhood to the west of Hobby Airport is where DJ Screw grew up and first started experimenting with Houston’s signature “Chopped and Screwed” sound. Unlike most neighborhoods right next to airports, West Airport is really beautiful, safe and wealthy. Not
Chicago’s Westside is the home of Lupe Fiasco, among other rappers. The Westside rivals the Southside in terms of gang violence and crime. The debate over which side is more dangerous rages on among morons on the internet
Great place! (at least, that’s what Yelp tells me)
WJLB is Detroit’s biggest hip-hop station. They didn’t play Eminem back in the day, but when Em got big they jumped on the bandwagon like everyone else
A lot of New York rappers brag about surviving 9/11 as proof of how tough their city is. This is the only thing rappers and Rudy Giuliani agree on
Then again, a lot of rappers idolize the dudes who blew this shit up!
Home of the most-ballinest hip-hop magazine
Technically, Rap Genius has beef with XXL (but we are trying to squash it because we’re scurred..)
It took a horrific murder to get there, but Yale was finally referenced in a rap song. Boola Boola!
Because the areas where most rappers are from — Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn — are Yankee territory rather than Mets, Yankees references are way more common than Mets references. Often the references are brags about how good an MC’s seats are. Also, the dark navy Yankee hat is way more thug than the royal blue Mets hat, so it’s become a hip-hop fashion staple
A bare street-corner of Memphis, featuring a gas station, convenience store, and a row of brick houses (where Yo Gotti lives along with several bricks of cocaine)
Yung Ralph grew up on the Southside, a few miles from his sometime collaborator Gucci Mane up in East Atlanta. Yung Ralph’s house is in Zone 3, along with Zone 6 one of the toughest police districts in the city
Zone 4 is the police designation for the part of the Southside of Atlanta where Usher grew up. The Major in charge of Zone 4 (pictured at left) seems like a nice grandpa, but he’s probably TOTALLY UNCOOL
Zone 6 is the Atlanta Police Department’s designation for Gucci Mane’s ‘hood of East Atlanta
Stay up to date on Zone 6 activities by checking out the most-wanted list (sorry, no Gucci or Waka)
