"Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" was also a significant release during the burgeoning Hotlanta music scene. The scene started as a black music revival in Atlanta during the late 1980s, and developed with the success of LaFace Records and the national attention received by Atlanta-based recording artists and producers such as Toni Braxton, Kris Kross, Jermaine Dupri, and Babyface. The album offered realistic depictions of the city and veered from the Afrocentric themes of Arrested Development and Dupri's mainstream stylings. It was named the third best album of 1994 in "ego trip"s list of "Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year 1980–98". "Vibe" included it as one of the "150 Essential Albums of the Vibe Era (1992–2007)". The magazine also included the album on their 2004 list of "51 Essential Albums" that represent "a generation, a sound, and in many cases, a movement", writing that " determined the South had something to say, and after emerging form the Dungeon production lab, they said it all, sometimes sang it all—pointedly, funkdafied, and putting on absolutely no East Coast pretense. Classic."