Gangsta Rap Music
An immensely popular genre of music nowadays, gangsta derives its
roots from earlier rap music, which started during the late 1970s.
However, in contrast to earlier rap music, which featured themes such as
protest against discrimination and widespread poverty of the
African-American minority, gangsta music focused on violence that
plagued inner-city youths. As performers like Ice-T and NWA mainstreamed
gangsta rap in the late 1980s until the 1990s, the genre became
commercially lucrative, and started to enjoy popularity among Americans.
Gangsta rap nowadays is a very controversial genre of American music, as
its themes of sex, violence, drugs, crime and death have engendered
debate from many critics and defenders. Critics often accuse gangsta rap
of promoting street gangs, profanity, vandalism, substance abuse, among
many others. They often assert that the genre’s explicit lyrics and dark
themes encourage the youth to create unrealistic pictures of the world,
and act in an immoral and socially unacceptable manner. Defenders of the
genre, on the other hand, maintain that gangsta rap is merely a
reflection of American society, where the alienation of the
African-American community amidst the promise of equality, pushes them
to express themselves in a manner that begets attention from the ruling
class. These same defenders often point out as well that blacks – who
mostly perform gangsta rap – often present themselves as caricatures in
order to entertain audiences. At the same time, gangsta rap performers
often present themselves as truthful storytellers of inner city life,
depicting the poverty and life of crime that many African-Americans find
themselves in.
During the early days of gangsta rap music (1984-1990), artists like
Schooly D, Ice-T, Beastie Boys and NWA paved the way for the genre to
mainstream and become popularized. Schooly D was widely credited for
bringing the word “gangster” in his rap songs. He was also considered as
a pioneer in hardcore rap, as well as gangster rap, for the themes that
his songs had.
 Ice-T,
a rapper based in California (Los Angeles), released “6 in the Mornin’”
(1986), considered by many as the first gangsta rap song. He made
subsequent albums like Rhyme Pays (1987), Power (1988), and The
Iceberg/Freedom of Speech… Just Watch What You Say (1989), which often
feature political themes.
On the other hand, the Beastie Boys enjoyed popularity by branding
themselves as “gangsters”, and talked about violence and gun use in
their rap songs in the late 1980s. NWA, which released a single in 1987,
laid the foundations of gangsta rap by introducing more violent and
explicit lyrics. It even earned the ire of the police, when one of the
songs, entitled “F—k tha Police”, lambasted law enforcement officials.
In the 1990s, numerous groups and individuals continued the
development of gangsta rap as a genre. G-Funk and Death Row Records,
bannered by artists like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac
Shakur, furthered the genre by producing more albums, and depicting more
gangsta rap themes such as inner city violence, among others.
Eventually, in reaction to gangsta rap as a West Coast phenomenon, New
York rappers like Kool G. Rap, DJ Polo, Black Moon, Wu Tang Clan, Onyx,
Mobb Deep, Nas, Raekwon, and the Notorious B.I.G. initiated a movement
named “East Coast gangsta rap”. While still retaining the themes by
older, more established artists, their presence in the music industry
helped mainstream gangsta rap and popularize it to a nationwide and even
international audience.
At the present, gangsta rap is now being infused with a pop flavor, with
many artists introducing danceable beats in order to appeal to a wider
audience. With more pop-inflected gangsta rap songs hitting the charts,
such as the songs of artists like Jay-Z, Remy Ma, Papoose, among others,
the genre continues to enjoy immense popularity to a young audience.
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