Home > Gangsta rap
1.1 Hip hop moves west and gangsta hip hop appears
Until the very late 1980s, hip hop had been dominated by the East Coast (essentially New York City, though Philadelphia and New Jersey also had vital scenes), with West Coast hip hop a curiosity dominated by dance-heavy and critically reviled electro hop artists like Egyptian Lover and World Class Wreckin' Cru. The latter crew included Dr. Dre before he joined N.W.A.
Aside from electro hop, early pioneer hardcore hip hop artists, including most notably Ice-T, gained underground fame in the Los Angeles area during the early 1980s. Ice-T is often considered the earliest gangsta rapper, though paradoxically, he is not often associated with the modern form of the genre; many listeners associate him primarily with hardcore and rapcore music, especially after the controversy regarding "Cop Killer", a song from his heavy metal-hip hop band Body Count's debut album, Body Count . Aside from N.W.A. and Ice-T, early West Coast gangsta rappers include Too $hort (from Oakland, California) and others from Compton and Watts, Los Angeles, as well as Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego.
By the late 1980s, gangsta rap began to dominate hip hop. The first blockbuster hip hop album was the West Coast gangsta rap album Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. in 1989 (see 1989 in music). Straight Outta Compton also established West Coast hip hop as a vital genre, and a rival of hip hop's long-time capital, New York City. Straight Outta Compton sparked the first major controversy regarding hip hop lyrics when their song "Fuck Tha Police" earned a letter from the FBI strongly expressing law enforcement's resentment of the song.
1.2 G funk and Death Row Records
In 1992 (see 1992 in music) former N.W.A. member Dr. Dre released The Chronic, which further established the dominance of West Coast gangsta rap and Death Row Records, and is also the beginning of G funk, a slow, drawled form of hip hop that dominated the charts for some time. Extensively sampling funk bands, especially Parliament and Funkadelic, G funk was multi-layered, yet simple and easy to dance to, with anti-authoritarian lyrics that helped endear it to young listeners of all races and classes. One of the genre's biggest crossover stars was Snoop Doggy Dogg ( Doggystyle, 1993), whose party-oriented themes made songs like "Gin and Juice" party anthems and top hits nationwide. Originally East Coast rapper Tupac Shakur ( Me Against the World, 1995) has endured as perhaps the greatest West Coast performer of the time. Death Row Records was led by Suge Knight, whose manic, violent ways quickly became the constant fodder for industry gossip.
He is supposed to have forced business rivals to drink their own urine, become obsessed with Mafia movies like Scarface, continued previous associations with street gang the Bloods and dangled Vanilla Ice ( To the Extreme, 1990) off a very high hotel balcony, among other acts. Other DeathRow Records affiliates, like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, had troubles with the law, with Snoop's eventual acquittal for murder occurring just as his superstardom was peaking. Other artists like Warren G ( Regulate... G Funk Era , 1995) and Lady of Rage ( Necessary Roughness , 1997) eventually accused Knight of earning millions while they remained unpaid for songwriting and performing on albums including The Chronic and Doggystyle.
