Surprisingly, it all began with Vanilla Ice. In 1990, an Atlanta DJ accidentally played the song "Ice Ice Baby." It was a fortunate mistake because it sparked a thirst for new beats throughout the South.
Chris "Mack Daddy" Kelly and Chris "Daddy Mack" Smith were discovered in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1992. Jermaine Dupri, then 18, picked them out after noticing their fashion sense. Their first single, "Jump," became the fastest-growing single in 15 years and Dupri went on to create Atlanta's So So Def Recordings.
Dupri's father, Michael Mauldin, discovered Arrested Development. In March 1992, they won a Grammy for "Best New Artist." Another Atlanta rap group, Tag Team, created the biggest-selling rap single in 1993: "Whoomp! (There it Is)."
Native Atlanta rap group OutKast debuted in 1994 and has gone above and beyond the usual bar set for hip-hop acts. As of 2009, they have sold 2.5 million copies of their albums and won six Grammy Awards.
In July 1995, Atlanta created its first hip-hop radio station, WHTA-FM. This station began its broadcasting from a trailer in the middle of a field. Before WHTA-FM's existence, rap was a challenging genre to find on the radio.
By 1996, Atlanta's hip-hop scene was exploding with new artists each year such as Ludacris, Lil Jon, East Side Boyz and T.I. In 2005, an MTV2 documentary, "My Block: Atlanta," described how Atlanta had impacted the national hip-hop scene.