What is Gangsta rap?
A: Gangsta rap or gangster rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a
controversial hip hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values
typical of American street gangs and street hustlers.
Many gangsta rappers flaunt associations with what?
A: Real street gangs, like the Crips and the Bloods.
Who were Gangsta rap's pioneers?
A: They were Schoolly D of Philadelphia in 1985, Ice-T of Los Angeles in
1986, and especially N.W.A in 1988.
In 1993, via record producer Dr. Dre, rapper
Snoop Dogg,
and their G-funk sound, gangsta rap took the rap genre's lead and became
what?
A: Mainstream, popular music.
Gangsta rap has been recurrently accused of promoting
what?
A: 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 what?
A: Real life in American ghettos.
Still, gangsta rap has been assailed even by some black
public figures, including whom?
A: Spike Lee, but first by pastor Calvin Butts and especially by activist
C. Delores Tucker.
Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D is generally considered
what?
A: The first “gangsta rapper” or one of the first “gangsta rappers”.
Where was Ice-T born?
A: In Newark, New Jersey, in 1958.
As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles where he did
what?
A: He rose to prominence in the West Coast hip hop scene.
In 1986, Ice-T released "6 in the Mornin'", which is
regarded as one of the first what?
A: Gangsta rap songs.
Ice-T had been MCing since the early '80s, but first
turned to gangsta rap themes after being influenced by who?
A: Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D and his 1985 album Schoolly D.
In 2011, Ice-T repeated what in his autobiography?
A: That Schoolly D was his inspiration for gangsta rap.
Ice-T continued to release gangsta albums for the
remainder of what?
A: 1980s.
Ice-T's lyrics also contained strong what?
A: Political commentary, and often played the line between glorifying the
gangsta lifestyle and criticizing it as a no-win situation.
Schoolly D's debut album, Schoolly D, and especially
the song "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?", would heavily influence not only
Ice-T, but also who?
A: 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).
When did Boogie Down Productions release their first
single, "Say No Brother (Crack Attack Don't Do It)"?
A: In 1986.
It was followed by what?
A: "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 what?
A: 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 what on its cover?
A: Firearms.
Shortly after the release of this album, BDP's DJ,
Scott LaRock was what?
A: Shot and killed.
Rakim and Eric B & Rakim would further influence
gangsta rap with aggressive, street-oriented raps, especially on what album?
A: The 1987 album Paid In Full.
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 what?
A: A rap group.
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 what?
A: A gangsta-rap cornerstone."
What was the first blockbuster gangsta rap album?
A: It was N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988.
Straight Outta Compton would establish West Coast hip
hop as a vital genre and establish Los Angeles as a legitimate rival to
what?
A: To hip hop's long-time capital, New York City.
Straight Outta Compton sparked the first major
controversy regarding hip hop lyrics when their song "F**k tha Police"
earned a letter from who?
A: FBI Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, strongly expressing law
enforcement's resentment of the song.