Picture this. You are a teenager growing up in Los Angeles. Your mother is driving you to school, and you turn on the radio, “Yo thanks for tuning into the hottest radio station in the streets of LA. Up next we got N.W.A. with their new single Appetite for Destruction!” Gangster rap seized radio stations, causing such trunk-rattling, synthesizing, and minimalistic sounds to become inescapable for young individuals who lived in Los Angeles or those who desired to live there. One was bound to encounter the songs of artists such as Ice-T, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube.
During the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, hip-hop music West of the Mississippi River was dominated by the gruesome realities of gangster rap and g-funk. Rap at the time was intense, authentic, and unbearable, because it served as a reflection of the gang violence, poverty, drug abuse, and police brutality that existed in many underprivileged …show more content…
Dre’s. According to J-Swift: N.W.A. was having such a huge impact on the world, so people thought we were trying to throw a finger up to them, but we loved what they were doing. We just weren’t afraid to represent the other side of West Coast hip-hop. We were B-boys, brought up on A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. I’m thankful we were able to change the stigma out here. They grow up in the mean streets of Los Angeles, but they made music that illustrated the peaceful and typical side of their lives. Mike Ross claims “The Pharcyde were trying to dodge bullets, not shoot them.” What about the kid who didn’t slang dope and pop gats? What about the young man from Crenshaw who wasn’t a Crip or a Blood? The Pharcyde’s music spoke to these individuals in these communities and all throughout the country, because these “other” who did not engage in the gangster lifestyle were actually the
During the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, hip-hop music West of the Mississippi River was dominated by the gruesome realities of gangster rap and g-funk. Rap at the time was intense, authentic, and unbearable, because it served as a reflection of the gang violence, poverty, drug abuse, and police brutality that existed in many underprivileged …show more content…
Dre’s. According to J-Swift: N.W.A. was having such a huge impact on the world, so people thought we were trying to throw a finger up to them, but we loved what they were doing. We just weren’t afraid to represent the other side of West Coast hip-hop. We were B-boys, brought up on A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. I’m thankful we were able to change the stigma out here. They grow up in the mean streets of Los Angeles, but they made music that illustrated the peaceful and typical side of their lives. Mike Ross claims “The Pharcyde were trying to dodge bullets, not shoot them.” What about the kid who didn’t slang dope and pop gats? What about the young man from Crenshaw who wasn’t a Crip or a Blood? The Pharcyde’s music spoke to these individuals in these communities and all throughout the country, because these “other” who did not engage in the gangster lifestyle were actually the