Gangsta rap (also spelled gangster rap), initially called reality rap, is a subgenre of hip-hop that conveys the culture, values, and experiences of urban gangs and street hustlers, frequently discussing unpleasant realities of the world in general through an urban lens.James C. Howell, The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015), pp 82–85.*Gangs and Gang Crime (2008) Michael Newton Gangsters Encyclopedia page 59, (2007) Michael Newton Encyclopedia of gangs page 44, Louis Kontos, David Brotherton Bloods and Crips: The Genesis of a Genocide: page 42 (2009) Donovan Simmons, Terry Moses The Killing of Tupac Shakur Cathy Scott Emerging in the mid-to-late 1980s, gangsta rap's pioneers include Schoolly D and Ice-T, later expanding with artists such as N.W.A. In early-mid 1990s, via record producer and rapper Dr. Dre, rapper Snoop Dogg, and their G-funk sound, gangsta rap broadened to mainstream popularity.
Gangsta rap has been recurrently accused of promoting disorderly conduct and broad criminality, especially assault, homicide, and drug dealing, as well as misogyny, promiscuity, and materialism. Gangsta rap's defenders have variously characterized it as artistic depictions but not literal endorsements of real life in American ghettos, or suggested that some lyrics voice rage against social oppression or police brutality, and have often accused critics of hypocrisy and racial bias. Still, gangsta rap has been assailed even by some black public figures, including Spike Lee,Spike Lee's satirical film Bamboozled likens gangsta rap to minstrel shows and blackface. pastor Calvin Butts and activist C. Delores Tucker.
1985–1988: Early years Schoolly D and Ice-T Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D is generally considered the first "gangsta rapper", significantly influencing the more popular early gangsta rap originator, Ice-T. Ice-T was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1958. As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles where he rose to prominence in the West Coast hip-hop scene. An early case of using "gangsta" as an adjective and a compliment came in his 1984 single Body Rock. In 1986, Ice-T released "6 in the Mornin'", which is regarded as the second gangsta rap song. Ice-T had been MCing since the early 1980s, but first turned to gangsta rap themes after being influenced by Schoolly D's self-titled debut album, and especially the song "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" (1985), which is regarded as the first gangsta rap song. In an interview with PROPS magazine, Ice-T said:
Here's the exact chronological order of what really went down: The first record that came out along those lines was Schoolly D's "P.S.K." Then the syncopation of that rap was used by me when I made "6 in the Mornin'". The vocal delivery was the same: ' ... P.S.K. is makin' that green', ' ... six in the morning, police at my door'. When I heard that record I was like "Oh shit!" and call it a bite or what you will but I dug that record. My record didn't sound like P.S.K., but I liked the way he was flowing with it. P.S.K. was talking about Park Side Killers but it was very vague. That was the only difference, when Schoolly did it, it was "... one by one, I'm knockin' em out." All he did was represent a gang on his record. I took that and wrote a record about guns, beating people down and all that with "6 in the Mornin'". At the same time my single came out, Boogie Down Productions hit with Criminal Minded, which was a gangster-based album. It wasn't about messages or "You Must Learn", it was about gangsterism.
In 2011, Ice-T repeated in his autobiography that Schoolly D was his inspiration for gangsta rap.Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—from South Central to Hollywood, Chapter 8: Six in the Mornin', One World, New York, 2011 Ice-T continued to release gangsta albums for the remainder of the 1980s: Rhyme Pays in 1987, Power in 1988 and The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say in 1989. Ice-T's lyrics also contained strong political commentary, and often played the line between glorifying the gangsta lifestyle and criticizing it as a no-win situation.
Schoolly D's works would heavily influence not only Ice-T, but also Eazy-E and N.W.A (most notably in the song "Boyz-n-the-Hood"), as well as the Beastie Boys on their seminal hardcore hip-hop-inspired album Licensed to Ill (1986). Schoolly D would continue to release hardcore hip-hop with the albums Smoke Some Kill (1988) and Am I Black Enough for You? (1989).
Boogie Down Productions Boogie Down Productions released their first single, "Say No Brother (Crack Attack Don't Do It)", in 1986. It was followed by "South Bronx/P is Free" and "9mm Goes Bang" in the same year. The latter is the most gangsta-themed song of the three; in it, KRS-One boasts about shooting a crack dealer and his posse to death (in self-defense). The album Criminal Minded followed in 1987, and was the first rap album to have firearms on its cover. Shortly after the release of this album, BDP's DJ, Scott LaRock was shot and killed.
Other early influences The New York–based Run-DMC and LL Cool J, though originating prior to the establishment of "gangsta rap" as a cohesive genre, were influential in the formation of gangsta rap, often producing early aggressive hardcore hip-hop songs and being among the first rappers to dress in gang-like street clothing. The seminal Long Island–based group Public Enemy featured aggressive, politically charged lyrics, which had an especially strong influence on gangsta rappers such as Ice Cube. The duo Eric B. & Rakim would further influence gangsta rap with aggressive, street-oriented raps, especially on the 1987 album Paid in Full.
The hip-hop group Beastie Boys also influenced the gangsta rap genre with their 1986 album Licensed to Ill, with an early reference to being a "gangster" mentioned in the song "Slow Ride". In 1986, the Los Angeles–based group C.I.A. (consisting of Ice Cube, K-Dee, Sir Jinx) rapped over the Beastie Boys' tracks for songs such as "My Posse" and "Ill-Legal", and the Beastie Boys' influence can be seen significantly in N.W.A's early albums.Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop, Won't Stop: The History of the Hip Hop Generation The Beastie Boys had started out as a hardcore punk band, but after introduction to producer Rick Rubin and the exit of Kate Schellenbach they became a hip-hop group.Rude Boys , Amos Barshad, New York magazine 2011 5, retr 2012 Oct According to Rolling Stone Magazine, the Beastie Boys' 1986 album Licensed to Ill is "filled with enough references to guns, drugs and empty sex (including the pornographic deployment of a Wiffleball bat in "Paul Revere") to qualify as a gangsta-rap cornerstone."The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Fourth Edition
1989–1997: Golden age N.W.A and Ice Cube The first blockbuster gangsta rap album was N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton (1989). It established West Coast hip-hop as a vital genre and Los Angeles as a legitimate rival to hip-hop's long-time capital, New York City.Kory Grow, "N.W.A's 'Straight Outta Compton': 12 things you didn't know", Rolling Stone website. Retrieved 10 May 2023 Straight Outta Compton sparked the first major controversy regarding hip-hop lyrics when their song "Fuck tha Police" earned a letter from FBI Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, strongly expressing law enforcement's resentment of the song.Deflem, Mathieu. 2020. "Popular Culture and Social Control: The Moral Panic on Music Labeling." American Journal of Criminal Justice 45(1):2–24 (First published online July 24, 2019). Due to the influence of Ice-T, N.W.A, and Ice Cube's early solo career, gangsta rap is often somewhat erroneously credited as being a mostly West Coast phenomenon, despite the contributions of East Coast acts like Boogie Down Productions in shaping the genre and despite Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D being generally regarded as the first gangsta rapper.
In the early 1990s, former N.W.A member Ice Cube would further influence gangsta rap with his hardcore, socio-political solo albums, which suggested the potential of gangsta rap as a political medium to give voice to inner-city youth. Ice Cube's early solo albums and EPs, including AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Death Certificate (1991), the Kill at Will EP (1991) and The Predator (1992) all contributed significantly to the development of gangsta rap. N.W.A's second album, Efil4zaggin (1991) (released after Ice Cube's departure from the group), broke ground as the first gangsta rap album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts.
Aside from N.W.A and Ice-T, Too Short (from Oakland), Kid Frost and the South Gate–based Latino group Cypress Hill were pioneering West Coast rappers with gangsta rap songs and themes. Above the Law also played an important role in the gangsta rap movement, especially with their 1990 debut album Livin' Like Hustlers.
Ice-T's solo career Ice-T released one of the seminal albums of the genre, OG: Original Gangster in 1991. It also contained a song by his new thrash metal group Body Count, who released a self-titled album in 1992. Particular controversy surrounded one of its songs "Cop Killer". The rock song was intended to speak from the viewpoint of a police target seeking revenge on racist, brutal cops. Ice-T's rock song gained controversy, with observers ranging from President George H.W Bush and his Vice President Dan Quayle, the National Rifle Association of America, police organizations across the nation to various police advocacy groups. Consequently, Time Warner Music refused to release Ice-T's upcoming album Home Invasion and dropped Ice-T from the label. Ice-T suggested that the furor over the song was an overreaction, telling journalist Chuck Philips "... they've done movies about nurse killers and teacher killers and student killers. Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining about that." In the same interview, Ice-T suggested to Philips that the misunderstanding of "Cop Killer", the misclassification of it as a rap song (rather than a rock song), and the attempts to censor it had racial overtones: "The Supreme Court says it's OK for a white man to burn a cross in public. But nobody wants a black man to write a record about a cop killer."
Ice-T's next album, Home Invasion, was postponed as a result of the controversy, and was finally released in 1993. While it contained gangsta elements, it was his most political album to date. After a proposed censoring of the Home Invasion album cover art, he left Warner Bros. Records. Ice-T's subsequent releases went back to straightforward gangsta rap, but were not as popular as his earlier releases.
G-funk and Death Row Records
In 1992, former N.W.A member Dr. Dre released The Chronic (1992) include "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang", a massive seller (eventually going triple platinum) which showed that explicit gangsta rap could hold as much mass commercial appeal as the pop-oriented rap styles of MC Hammer, the Fresh Prince and Tone Lōc. The album established the dominance of West Coast gangsta rap and Dre's new post-N.W.A label, Death Row Records (owned by Dr. Dre along with Marion "Suge" Knight), as Dre's album showcased a stable of promising new Death Row rappers. The album also popularized the subgenre of G-funk, a slow, drawled form of hip-hop that dominated the rap charts for some time.
Sampling P-Funk bands, especially Parliament and Funkadelic, G-funk was multi-layered, yet easy to dance to. The message of its lyrics, that life's problems could be overcome by guns, alcohol and marijuana, was endearing to a teenage audience. The single "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" became a crossover big hit, with its humorous, House Party-influenced video becoming an MTV staple despite that network's historic orientation towards rock music.