gangsta rap
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- rap
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gangsta rap, form ofhip-hopmusic that became thegenre’s dominant style in the 1990s, a reflection and product of the often violent lifestyle ofAmerican inner cities afflicted withpoverty and the dangers ofdrug use and drug dealing. The romanticization of the outlaw at the center of much of gangstarap appealed to rebellious suburbanites as well as to those who had firsthand experience of the harsh realities ofblighted inner cities.
Origin
Gangsta (“gangster”) rap first came to prominence on the East Coast. Schoolly D, ofPhiladelphia, presented graphic tales ofgangs andviolence such as “PSK—What Does It Mean?” (1985). Boogie Down Productions, formed inNew York City by DJ Scott LaRock (Scott Sterling) and KRS-One (Lawrence Krisna Parker), offered hard-hitting depictions ofcrack-cocaine-relatedcrime onCriminal Minded (1987). InHouston, the Geto Boys’ sex- and violence-dominated music was the subject of outrage in some corners. But gangsta rap became a national phenomenon inCalifornia, where a distinct school of West Coast hip-hop began with Eazy E’sLos Angeles groupN.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude).
N.W.A.
InOakland, Too $hort had become a major regional force, and his profane and sexually explicit style influenced N.W.A. memberIce Cube’s early writing. It was N.W.A.’s controversial albumStraight Outta Compton, however, that shifted hip-hop’s geographic center. The most distinguishing characteristic of N.W.A.’s approach was the very plain way that violence was essayed: as plainly as it occurred in the streets of South-Central Los Angeles and neighboringCompton, argued the group. Hyperrealism was oftenconflated withmyth and declarations of immortality; exaggeration became a kind of self-protective delusional device for listeners who were actually involved in the dangerous lifestyle N.W.A. was chronicling.
In the mainstream press and amongAfrican Americans nationwide, N.W.A., by virtue of their name, single-handedly reignited a debate about the wordnigger. Its appropriation by Black youth transformed it into a positive appellation, argued Ice Cube. For many, the persistentmisogyny in N.W.A.’s work, which was alternately cartoonish and savage in its offensiveness, was less defensible.
Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Doggy Dogg
As N.W.A. splintered, the group’s importance multiplied with each solo album. Ice Cube’sAmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990) employedPublic Enemy’s production team, the BombSquad, and introduced New York City listeners to the West Coast sound, known by this point as gangsta rap. In 1992 N.W.A. producer and sometime rapperDr. Dre released the California rap scene’s most influential and definitive record,The Chronic; its marriage of languid beats and murderous gangsta mentality resulted in phenomenal sales. Most significantly, it launched and the career ofSnoop Doggy Dogg.
Ice-T, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest
As early as 1988, other important artists from California began making an impression. Like Too $hort,Ice-T relied on his self-styled image as a pimp to propel sales; though his lyrics were well-respected, his single “Cop Killer” (1992), like gangsta rap in general, raised controversy. N.W.A.’s influence could be heard in groups like Compton’s Most Wanted, DJ Quik, Above the Law, and countless other gangsta groups, but by the early 1990s groups had surfaced whose approach was theantithesis of N.W.A.’s violence andmisogyny. The jazzily virtuosic improvisers Freestyle Fellowship and the Pharcyde, of Los Angeles, and Souls of Mischief, of Oakland, owed more to East Coast abstractionistsDe La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest than to gangs.
The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur
Nevertheless, by the mid-1990sDeath Row Records and Bad Boy Records were engaged in a “coastal battle.” Life imitated art imitating life; the violence that had been confined to songs began to spill over into the world, culminating in the tragic murders of theNotorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), a rapper from New York City, andTupac Shakur (2Pac), a California rapper.
