Crunk Music Guide: A Brief History of Crunk Music

Crunk music, or crunk, is a type of hip-hop music that originated in the Southern United States during the late 1990s. Insistent, jarring synths, club beats generated by drum machines, and shouted call-and-response vocals anchor this Southern hip-hop subgenre. Crunk rose from the Dirty South hip-hop scenes in Atlanta and Memphis to national prominence thanks to hit tracks by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, the Ying Yang Twins, and Three 6 Mafia.

Its popularity was undone by many of the hip-hop subgenres it helped to spawn, like trap music, in the mid-2000s.

The history of crunk music began in the American South during the late 1980s:

• Origins: Crunk emerged from Southern nightclubs as part of the Miami bass scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and shared many of its defining elements: a rhythm section driven by drum machines and booming bass, electronic dance music beats, and synth lines.
• Etymology: The etymology of the word “crunk” is convoluted, but its most common definition is the past participle form of a Black American slang term spawned from “crank,” which refers to highly excited people or situations. However, it may also be a contraction of “crazy drunk.” Its first use in the music industry appears to be the 1993 Outkast track “Player’s Ball.” Three years later, the seminal crunk artists Three 6 Mafia and Memphis-based rapper Tommy Wright III used the term for their singles “Get ‘Em Crunk” and “Getting Crunk,” respectively.
• First crunk songs: The Memphis, Tennessee–based Three 6 Mafia and Lil Jon from Atlanta, Georgia, released what most critics describe as the first crunk songs. Three 6 Mafia laid the subgenre’s foundations with tracks like 1992’s “Tear da Club Up,” first released on Lord Infamous and DJ Paul’s sophomore effort, Come With Me 2 Hell, which featured crunk’s signature synth lines and shouted choruses. That same year, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz released their debut album, Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album. Though only a modest hit, its lead singles—“Get Crunk” and “Shawty Freak a Lil Sumtin,” which reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart—paved the way for subsequent crunk artists and releases.
• First wave: The success of Three 6 Mafia and Lil Jon opened the floodgates for a host of other Southern hip-hop artists to parlay crunk into stardom. Atlanta generated most of these performers, including the Ying Yang Twins, Bone Crusher, and Trillville, though others, like David Banner and Pastor Troy, hailed from Tennessee. Tracks like Bone Crusher’s “Never Scared” and Lil Scrappy’s “No Problem” broke into the Top 10 on the Billboard rap charts, giving crunk its first taste of national attention.
• Crunk hits: The early 2000s saw crunk step into the hip-hop mainstream. Major artists like Usher and Ciara embraced the style with hit singles like “Yeah!” and “Goodies,” respectively, while newer artists like Petey Pablo rode interest in crunk to stardom with tracks like “Freek-A-Leek.” The chief architect behind many of these singles was Lil Jon, who served as producer and writer on many of these tracks and a guest performer on “Yeah!” with Ludacris.
• Lil Jon’s solo hits: Lil Jon also scored hits with his own releases, most notably the archetypal crunk track, “Get Low,” a 2003 collaboration with the Ying Yang Twins that reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 and generated remixes with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and Pitbull.
• Peak and decline: By the mid-2000s, crunk was among the dominant forms of not only hip-hop but also R&B, thanks to artists like Houston and the vocal group Cherish, who earned sizable hits by folding crunk into the soul-influenced sounds. New artists, like Crime Mob, continued to ride interest in crunk to fame: the Atlanta group scored a platinum hit with 2004’s “Knuck If You Buck.”
• Subgenres: The popularity of crunk also led to a slew of offshoot subgenres, including crunk&B, the electronic music subgenre aquacrunk, or wonky, and trap music, which shared crunk’s spare production and heavy drum machine use. By the end of the 2000s, trap’s darker tones and harder lyrical content had supplanted crunk on the hip-hop charts.

Several distinctive characteristics define the sound of crunk music, including:

1. 1. Lyrics: Crunk is party music intended to animate listeners and get them into the proper mood. Crunk lyrics are more part of the sonic makeup of a crunk song rather than its driving force; rappers will shout phrases for audiences to repeat or make bold but straightforward statements (like “Get Low” and “Yeah!”).
2. 2. Production: Hard, stripped-down drum machine beats and slower club tempos define the sound of crunk music. Synths deliver the melody in simple but emphatic riffs backed by heavy, danceable bass lines. Unlike many subgenres of hip-hop, crunk rarely uses samples.
3. 3. Vocals: Delivery in crunk music is aggressive and boastful, though without the menace that defines trap music. Lil Jon’s throaty growl, as heard on tracks like the Youngbloodz’ 2003 hit “Damn!” is the vocal style most closely associated with crunk, and rappers ranging from the youthful Trillville to veterans like Three 6 Mafia offered a variation on that energetic, go-for-broke style.

There are several notable crunk artists in the subgenre’s history. Among them are:

1. 1. Lil Jon: Grammy-winning artist, producer, and DJ Lil Jon (born Jonathan H. Smith) is a foundational figure in crunk music and the primary force behind some of its biggest hits. Lil Jon scored three chart-topping albums with the East Side Boyz, including 2004’s Crunk Juice, and three No. 1 singles on the US Rap charts. He’s also a busy featured artist and producer, most notably on the Grammy-winning “Yeah!” which topped the Hot 100 and charts in multiple countries.
2. 2. Lil Scrappy: Discovered by Lil Jon in their mutual hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Lil Scrappy (born Darryl Richardson III) was part of the first wave of crunk artists in the early 2000s. His first album, The King of Crunk & BME Recordings Present: Trillville and Lil Scrappy (2004) was a split release with the eponymous crunk trio; it reached No. 12 on the Billboard charts, and his first official solo release, the Lil Jon-produced Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live (2006), fared even better, generating three Top 30 singles. A second solo LP, Prince of the South, topped the indie album charts in 2008, but subsequent releases failed to maintain an audience. He found subsequent fame as a star of the reality series Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.
3. 3. Three 6 Mafia: Juicy J and DJ Paul anchored Three 6 Mafia, one of the most successful groups in crunk history. With a quartet of MCS, including the late Lord Infamous, and a rotating list of guest rappers like Project Pat, Three 6 Mafia rose from cult favorites on the Atlanta hip-hop circuit to two-time platinum artists and Academy Award winners with “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from the 2005 film Hustle & Flow. Crunk’s declining fortunes in the late 2000s spurred the group to split up and reconfigure in various combinations before they announced a full-fledged reunion in 2019.
4. 4. Ying Yang Twins: Atlanta’s Ying Yang Twins—Kaine and D-Roc—scored one of the earliest crunk hits with the No. 1 rap single “Whistle While You Twurk” in 2000. They later enjoyed an extraordinary run of successes as both lead and guest performers; the former included the No 2. singles “Salt Shaker” (with Lil Jon) in 2003 and “Wait” in 2005, while the latter had the No 2. Hot 100 single “Get Low” with Lil Jon and collaborations with Britney Spears, Pharrell Williams, Trick Daddy, Juvenile, and Trick Daddy.

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