Midwest Swing

The Midwest had its share of hip-hop trailblazers in the '90s—Cleveland's Bone Thugs-N-Harmony enjoyed multi-platinum success while Chicago's Common and Twista made their mark as respected lyricists—but in the aughts, a wave of new Midwest MCs impacted the mainstream. Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP and St. Louis Nelly's Country Grammar—both released in 2000—sold over 10 and nine million copies, respectively. Common also released his first gold-selling album, Like Water for Chocolate, that same year. Chingy (St. Louis) and Kanye West (Chicago), would both go on to have multi-platinum success in the years that followed. The Midwest was never truly dominant but the number of impactful artists hailing from the region surged in the new century.