Before Atlanta trap there was Atlanta-and-Houston-and-Memphis hip-hop — Outkast, Goodie Mob, UGK, Three 6 Mafia, Scarface. The Southern hip-hop tradition is older than trap and somewhat distinct: tempos are slower than East Coast boom-bap (♩=75–85 instead of 88–96), the hi-hat is often sparse rather than continuous, the kick is heavy and frequently 808-style, and the pocket is wider. The "Dirty South" sound from the late 90s and early 2000s is the direct ancestor of trap, but it has its own personality.
Translating it to a kit means thinking about weight. The kick should feel heavier than in boom-bap — pitched lower, played with more force, sometimes paired with a floor-tom 808 stand-in. The snare can crack but often plays cross-stick or rim-clicks instead. The hat is the surprise: instead of straight 8ths, it's often a sparse pattern with quarter-rests inside it, giving the bar more open space.
Outkast as Reference Point
Outkast's drum production across ATLiens, Aquemini, and Stankonia defined what Southern hip-hop drums could be. Programmed but humanized; the kicks displaced from where you'd expect them; the snare often anticipated by a 16th. The exercises here paraphrase that vocabulary on an acoustic kit.