Does Chicago hip hop have a signature sound?

Chicago is an interesting one.

Devin Lamar is right on one count - the Midwest (and Chicago by extension) has borrowed a lot from east, west and south over the years; usually without asserting many local quirks. However, I'd argue that some rappers and producers have managed to fuse styles of external (and internal) origin into something distinctly Chicagoan more than once...

A lot of the earliest hip-hop acts from the Chi fused rap with house music (naturally) but that **** never really went anywhere in the long-run as far as I'm aware... Dudes like The Legendary Traxster and Twista probably gave the city its first truly distinctive hip-hop sound - basically choppers styling themselves as streetwise pimps laying down rhymes over down-tempo g-funk with a few boom bap overtones. I think a second wind arrived towards the early '00s - when a uniquely soulful, jazzy strand emerged in the city's underground scene (All Natural, Molemen etc.). The chipmunk soul of Kanye's early output, which artists like Lupe more or less inherited from him, and Drill Rap are among more recent styles...

So there is no one signature sound; rather there are two or three quite distinctive ones...

Well the midwest in general never did have a signature sound when it came to Hip Hop.The east coast had boom bap elements, the west coast had g funk elements, and the south had trap elements.The midwest had all of those elements throughout time.Yet if it did have any element it would be the chipmunk soul sound that Kanye West and Just Blaze produced.You know the sqeaky voice on Hip Hop songs.

I think Chicago is more known for 'Drill Rap' like Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Fredo Santana and Lil Reese. But there are a few conscience rappers there too like you mentioned Lupe and Common. I just think its more known for the Drill Rap and probably will for awhile. Thats why they gave Chi the name "Chiraq" haha.

FUKC hip hop.

Chicago is the home of the blues!