Snap

Snap is a type of Hip Hop that emerged from Crunk that developed in the Bankhead neighborhood of Atlanta in the mid-2000s. It is defined by sparse production, pounding 808 bass, and simple, repetitive melodies reminiscent of ringtones. Its name derives from a novel production technique where Southern Hip Hop’s third-beat claps were replaced by a finger snap instead. The sound was pioneered by the Atlanta group Dem Franchize Boyz, who started out by producing songs in the style for their local venue Poole Palace, like "White Tee's," until they were noticed and signed to So So Def Recordings in 2005 where their single "Oh I Think Dey Like Me" found mainstream success. During the same year, another Atlanta group D4L released "Laffy Taffy," which charted #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped cement snap as a dominant trend. The music coincidentally became popular during the peak profitability of ringtone markets, which gave artists an incentive to make their songs as catchy as possible, resulting in increasingly bare tracks filled in with repetitive choruses and simple melodies. The release of Lil Jon's "Snap Yo Fingers" added a unique bounce to the rhythm by inserting finger snaps, creating an accompanying dance that also involved finger-snapping. This spawned a viral trend of "crank dat" dances, which reached mainstream prominence in 2007 with Soulja Boy's hit single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)."