Even before the days of Eazy-E and Ice T, hip-hop has been deeply affiliated with American gang culture. This relationship has ebbed and flowed from the spot light through the decades, and has recently resurfaced as something colourful and crazy and unlike anything we've seen before.
The music coming out of Compton in the late 80's was very controversial at the time. N.W.A.'s track Fuck The Police caused quite the stir back in the day. explicit, threatening language towards cops about guns and drugs was an outrageous and the masses hadn't seen that kind of thing in music before. It ushered in the "gangsta rap" sound.
Characterized by depictions of gang culture -selling drugs, fights, shootouts, pimping, jail time, the list goes on- this new style polarized the fans and critics. Citizens of these kinds of communities could relate to the songs and loved hearing their struggle in the music they listen to. Furthermore, its aggressive, "fuck you" attitude was very appealing to the youthful, rebellious mindset. But many feared this aggression. News reporters and politicians were reeling at the release of Fuck The Police, convinced it would usher in some kind of anarchy in the streets. The same kind of hysteria occurred with the introduction of Rock n' Roll back in the day. There's always resistance from the Oldheads towards the next big thing. The new and the fresh always seem dangerous to the old and wrinkled. Regardless, the sound was hear to stay. Its impact was so impressive in fact, that when any average citizen thinks of hip-hop these days, they think of an image built from the gangtsa rap scene.
Dre and E and the rest of N.W.A., as well as several other artists at the time, cememnted Compton as the hub for this sound. Death Row Records was founded in 1991 and the empire began to grow. Suge Knight, Snoog Dogg, and Tupac Shakur were just some of the key players that helped Death Row rise to stardom in the 90's. Suge Knight began to fill the company with his homies, and the line between business and gang began to disappear. The true effects of gang culture was all too real for those who came up around it, but for the new fans of the music that only knew gang culture second hand, they hadn't seen the real consequences of this stuff yet.
The famous easy-caost-west-caost beef between Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records started some time in the mid nineties. Suge Knight claimed that P-Diddy, then-current CEO of Bad Boy, was responsible for the death of one of his close friends. This conflict seeped into the music of the labels, with artist's from each camp releasing diss tracks about the other. Death Row signed Tupac, who wrote the song Hit Em Up about Bad Boy artist Biggie Smalls. According to Tupac, Biggie was responsible for him being shot while visiting New York's Times Square. The feud grew into a true gang beef, with west coast rappers cutting all ties with the east coast and threatening violence on site. The media was covering this drama the entire time and the fans got to witness what was happening. This was the glory days of gangsta rap; when the music was a serious part of their grind. It wasn't just some pissing contest about the trap life, it was about standing strong for values in spite of this hard lifestyle. The diss tracks of the time had weight to them because their threats felt real; To this day Hit Em Up is still the best diss track ever written.
In 1997, in the span of a year, Tupac and Biggie were both shot dead. Their music finally caught up with them. Both their murders are unsolved to this day, but its clear that their involvement in gang culture played a large role. The hip-hop scene was hit hard by this; two of its biggest stars swallowed whole by the very beast that made them. The public nature of these events gave hip hop fans their first taste of the consequences of the subject matter in this music; its not just lyrics, its life for these guys.
Suge Knight went to jail on unrelated charges, Dr. Dre left to start his own label, and Death Row kind of collapsed. Bad Boy was quite tumultuous at the time too and it was unclear if either label would survive. The masses were still frothing at the mouth for the gangsta rap sound though; the beef between Tupac and Biggie only seemed to strengthen hip-hop's fanbase.
New stars in the south started to rise during this time, like Three Six Mafia and Project Pat. G-Unit and 50 cent became huge in the early 2000's, keeping New York relevant in the gangsta rap scene. These artist's brought the gangsta rap sound into the new generation, with a more produced sound, and a darker tone than their west coast predecessors. The gang ties were always still their with these new artists, they just seemed to be a little more discrete about it. Perhaps they learned their lesson from the nation wide coverage of the Tupac/Biggie beef, or perhaps they were just moving away from the gang life themselves.
While enticing to an outsider, the gang life is a struggle above all else. Media and music has made it look like a dream land of money and hoes, guns and chronic, a mansion and a 4 car garage, but the reality is selling drugs on the corner to feed your children, fearing for your life every day. It's certainly not an ideal life. Many rappers used their music to get out of this kind of situation. They would transcend their gang lifestyle in the hopes of living a happier, more peaceful life. This left somewhat of a void in the gansta rap scene. The talented artists seemed to leave their gang shit behind in favour of lavish living; songs became more about clothes and cars than guns and drugs. The aggression of gangsta rap still remained, but the subject matter was far skewed; the purity of gangsta rap had been drained out in the name of money and success.
There's always been Diehards to the sound; The Game ,for example, has stayed pretty thug throughout the years, but few songs during this time had the same feel of gang life that you get from Real Muthafuckin G's. Artists like Schoolboy Q would use gang life heavily in his music, but as a means of recollection rather than catharsis; recounting the days he was "thuggin" and appreciating how far he had come. Rappers like Lil Wayne and 50 cent were known to have come from gang life, but their rapper persona overpowered their gangster persona. At this point the "rapper" was enough of a title on its own, and stars began to rise that had never flown a flag before.
The biggest evolutionary steps for hip-hop occurred during this time, when rap wasn't so closely affiliated with the gangster persona. It was as if hip-hop had finally been let off its leash and was free to explore every corner of the musical landscape it wanted.
Eminem took the aggression that started in gangsta rap and brought it the world of angsty suburbia. Artists like Lil Jon took the aggression and channeled it into the party scene. Later artists would experiment further, combining genres like R&B and rock with hip-hop to great success. This was the time of Young Money, of Gucci Mane, and it was the cusp of the Trap sound, a style codified by the Atlanta scene.
Hip-hop fans of today will listen to trap artist's like T.I. and 21 Savage and think that this is what "gangsta rap" is. By many definitions these artists are "gangsters", but their music is not that of the gangster rap sound. The diss track, a staple of gangsta rap, had turned into a mockery of itself at this point. Some artists will attempt them, but they never really hold the same weight as a Death Row Diss. The biggest "beef" in hip-hop in recent times, as far as diss tracks go, was the Drake and Meek Mill beef; a thinly veiled PR stunt at best. This kind of music is amazing, don't get me wrong, Back to Back is one of Drake's best, it just gives fans of today's scene a wrong impression of what gangsta reap really is. With the death of the mumble rappers and the slow decline of trap music, gangsta rap seems to be on the rise once again and fans are eating it up like never before.
6IX9INE now has six gold records on the charts, three of them coming out of 2018 alone. It's clear that whatever ridiculousness this kid is selling, people are buying. He may look like some rainbow-haired punk ,but 6IX9INE's music is gangsta rap through and through. Picking up where his friend Bobby Shmurda left off, 6IX9INE makes every one of his songs an event. His block is overrun by his homies when he shoots a music video, with more red flags in one place than I've ever seen before. 6IX9INE constantly talks about "letting his nuts hang"; a sentiment that lies at the heart of the gangsta rap sound. You can have all the money in the world but if you don't stand behind your words and are willing to die for what you say, then you ain't gangsta rap. That's the difference.
6IX9INE constantly references his ties to the Bloods, and others critique him for being a former Crip; a transition that is not allowed by either gang. West coast Bloods are condoning the rapper due to his controversial assault charges and constant shit posting on social media. 6IX9INe lets none of it phase him though, and keeps talking shit to anyone that will listen. Instead of recording diss tracks, 6IX9INE just records disses, going on snapchat and instagram to call out rappers like Trippie Redd and The Game. 6IX9INE's over-the-top persona is ridiculous in its own right, but he's certainly a gangsta rapper, and someone that is bringing this sound to an audience that has never heard it before, and perhaps isn't' ready for it.
The question is why now? the gangsta rap sound has remained relatively under the surface for some time now, so what is driving this new push towards the lime light? No doubt the internet has a large role in this. Before smartphones, recording a video or a song was a daunting task. Now anyone can do it. With the right viral content, anyone can become a star. 6IX9INE realized this and took advantage of it, showing all the crazy gang shit that went on in his life with all his online followers; the gangsta rapper of 2018 is just as savvy with a computer as he is with a glock. Also, thanks to the internet, this is the first time gangsta rap has gone international.
The german rapper GZUZ has a huge following in Europe. He was basically unknown in North America before this year though. World Star Hip Hop released the video for his song Was Hast Du Gedacht and he became a viral sensation over here. I have no clue what he's rapping about, but it's catchy as fuck. The video includes footage of GZUZ and his homies flaunting all the guns and money and drugs they have; typical trap shit. The difference is GZUZ and his 187 gang are really about that life. GZUZ went to prison for 3 years for armed robbery, and many of his fellow gang members have been in and out of jail their whole lives. The aggression you find in American hip hop is taken to a dark extreme with a German accent underneath it. The goons in GZUZ' videos are some of the scariest to appear in any music video. Still, the fans love it; GZUZ has over 1 million instagram followers and his fanbase is going by the day, with World Star just dropping his new single last week.
These crazy characters of today's new gangsta rap scene are bringing the lifestyle to a generation that has never seen it before. I grew up with Tupac coming from my brother's room, so for me hip-hop has always been deeply rooted in the gang lifestyle. Many young fans began listening to hip-hop through artists like Drake and G-eazy, so explicit talk of gang violence is a new and inticing trend for them.
The media's problem with gangsta rap back in it's inception was the negative effect it would have on the youth of the day. With the internet everywhere and accessibility at an all time high, this paranoia will likely resurface as well. A backlash against the gangsta rappers is imminent, but at the very least these rappers will bring back some truth into a scene so drugged up its forgotten it's roots.