(Photo: Bobby Doherty)

Since the century turned, New York has slowly been supplanted as rap’s epicenter. First southern trap music, then Chicago drill, among other regional forms, rendered our hip-hop marginal. Turns out, though, the margins are a great place to be.

Take Bobby Shmurda. The 20-year-old whirlwind from East Flatbush posted a clip for his gonzo, lyrically violent �Hot Nigga� to YouTube in March. Not long after, Vines featuring his accompanying �Shmoney dance��which mimics the flailing of those inflatable air dancers at used-car lots�went viral. The song’s video has been viewed more than 77 million times, and, retitled �Hot Boy,� it went all the way to the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the kind of hit no A&R executive could’ve conjured, and it’s East Flatbush to the core. �My music is straight facts,� says Shmurda. �There are a lot of gangsters in my hood.�

Shmurda isn’t the only example of rap resurgence: Bushwick’s Ratking trio draws on CBGB hard-core blare and the sonic grit of Staten Island’s Wu-Tang Clan (and the odd lyric decrying NYU’s Greenwich Village fiefdom) in their April debut, So It Goes. Bed-Stuy’s 19-year-old Joey Bada$$, who blends questing verses and a barking delivery, turned down a deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation, and Coney Island’s Your Old Droog, 25, picks up where Nas left off back in the ’90s�all sharp reportage and sly delivery. (Before photos got out, some listeners speculated YOD was Nas.)

All these rappers are fiercely idiosyncratic and proudly local. �New York City is back,� says Shmurda. �We rapping that real shit that people can relate to.� And he now has a rumored $2 million record deal to prove it.