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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 and D4L, as well as producer Mr. Collipark, claiming to be the creators.

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 prime example of snap music is the recent hit single "Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy Tell 'em. ^[1]

Snap music has been targeted 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!" ^[2]

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.

1. ^ Snap dance video
2. ^ http://sohh.com/articles/article.php/9219

• 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."