Gangsta rap. The music wars
The word Gangsta comes from the mispronunciation of gangster, many of the artists that represent this genre are know for having ties with street gangs (reinforcing the name of the genre and the type of music it represents). It originated as a sub-genre of hip hop music and is the evolution of what was know as Hardcore hip hop. This type of Hip hop started on the East coast scene in the early 1980's. The first song to be consider as gangsta music was an Ice-T's song called 6 in the morning.
Gangsta music is know for it's confrontational lyricism and the representation of the violent ways of the inner city youth. It is related to negative topics such as hustling drugs, murder and pimping. Often criticize for been associated with promoting homophobia, profanity, violence, sex and racism, which gives the the genre a bad reputation instead of presenting it as it was meant to be on the first place: a critic to the inner city violence, that the youth has to suffer.
Ice -T is was the first to be considered a gangsta artist and he open a road for rapers like N.W.A. and Cypress Hill. The first blockbuster gangsta rap album was Straight outta Compton by gangsta artist N.W.A. This album was truly relevant for their music and culture in general since it gave a place and a name in the world to the west coast Hip hop and gangsta rap. It declared Los Angeles the new capital of the Hip Hop - Gangsta rap empire. After N.W.A 's huge success the gangsta wars began. For a long time the east coast hip hop and rap labels like Death row records master the music charts, so when the west coast labels like Bad boy start fighting to obtain a piece of the action, resentment between rappers of both coasts began to grow. For more information in this topic please visit our gangsta wars section.
Although often criticize by the left and right parties, and religious leaders this musical genre became one of the most commercial hip hop sub-genres in history. Artists and fans firmly believe that although very commercial, gangsta rap shouldn't be mistaken with pop, because it represents the inner city violence experience by many young people and shouldn't be sell out for the pop charts.