New Orleans like many other major cities in the South is well known for it's drug gangs than street gangs. Yes there are members of bloods/crips in post-Katrina new Orleans but drug cliques still dominate the scene. They probably refer to themselves as crews/cliques/squads than gangs.

"But there are different theories on how the Bloods got so huge in the south these last few years. some would attribute it to the cultural influence of rap artists, but I think the cause is more deeply rooted than that"

I think it's more attention brought to them due to some popular rappers claiming blood of course but an earlier post I showed the gangs growing in the South since the late 70s-90. Southern states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have more L.A based bloods while Maryland, Virginia, NC, and SC have the UBN based sets. Both areas have a little mix of both and in the deep south it's a mix. TX have many bloods due to families in L.A.

But Atlanta have more cliques than traditional street gangs regardless of how much you read about the street gangs. There are bloods, crips, GDs, LKs, Sur-13, MS-13, VLs, then dozens of cliques that collective outnumber the traditional gangs. 30 Deep, Migos, Young Mob, Goodfellas (beefing with bloods now), Buckhead cliques, Bankhead cliques , etc. That's what make the South semi unique is the neighborhood/city cliques.

But as the entire South bloods activity is in specific regions, UBN sets around Maryland, Virginia, Carolinas cities and L.A sets around TX, OK, AK cities. KY not too much news, TN there bloods in Memphis are 4th largest, Nashville have average size , AL have them spread out in major cities but there not the majority, and Mississippi they have a minimal presence in a few cities.