The main rappers running the game in 2010 - 2012 were Drake, Rocky, Kendrick, and Cole. Outside of Cole, all these guys owe a debt to Houston

Drake's connection to Houston is well known. Jas Prince found Drake on MySpace and flew Drake to Houston to meet Wayne. Drake hopped on the Young Money tour bus and the rest is history. Drake's sound is pretty Houston-influenced, and the city has inspired several songs (Houstatlantavegas, November 18th, etc.)

A$AP Rocky blew up off his debut mixtape, Live.Love.A$AP. His image (the gold grill), his sound (woozy, slowed down), song titles ("Houston Old Head"), and d**** of choice (lean) are all Houston influenced. A rapper from Harlem borrowed Houston sounds to rise to the top.

Kendrick didn't really have a ton of Houston influence, but on "Backseat Freestyle," he did say "25 Lighters on my dresser, yessir," which is a famous line from a classic Houston song

As you can see, Houston is the most influential rap city, aside from (arguably) New York.

When Drake dropped Houstatlantavegas, rap as we knew it changed forever.

houston went sicko mode

OP came correct and with facts

And then Marvins Room came along and that traditional singing shirtless w an s curl r&b died that day.

Memphis and ATL like

Good point tbh

Didn't know there were only 4 rappers in the 2010s

The correct answer is memphis

J Cole is more of a Dallas influence

and that two of them admittedly had no influence from houston but uhhh one of them interpolated a song from there once

OP Houston birthed all off 2010's hiphop

also OP: Kendrick didn't really have a ton of Houston influence, but on "Backseat Freestyle," he did say "25 Lighters on my dresser, yessir," which is a famous line from a classic Houston song

Correct, Kendrick Is just a bougie devin the dude

Kendrick is more so a Wayne/Outkast hybrid with a dash of Tupac and Nas.

Travis Scott is also from Houston and he’s one of the 5 biggest rappers. Post Malone is from Dallas and he’s one of the 2 biggest rappers. So if you broaden it to Texas, Houston (the only important city in Texas), really birthed everything

Kendrick don't owe s*** to anyone except God for making him the best at his craft.

all of these guys stan Kanye