Gangster Rap
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GANGSTER RAP AS A POPULAR CULTURE PHENOMENON
Introduction
Gangster rap has influenced a lot of individuals since it started. Social media has led to its rise around the world today, giving rise to new artists. Gangster rap is a subgenre of the hip hop music that evolved in 1980s through early pioneers like Los Angeles rapper Ice T and a Philadelphia rapper called Schoolly D (Pope, 2020). The gangster rap lyrics were associated with people who claimed to be American, black street gangs and hustlers. They claimed that the lyrics voiced rage against violence, child abuse, drug abuse, hypocrisy, police brutality and racism. In late 1980s Ice T paved way for rap groups like (N***az Wit Attitude) N.W.A and boogie down productions who influenced a lot of people with their hits “criminal minded” and “Straight outta Compton” between 1987 and 1988. Gangster rap took lead as a popular music genre in 1995 through a rap artist Snoop Dogg and a producer, Dr Dre (Pope, 2020). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pOAvK7SQ.
It is important for one to research and understand the history of gangster rap before being judgmental about the music genre. The lyrics of gangster rap have brought a lot of controversy in that; they promote violent behavior and abuse of drugs among the young people. Due to these controversies Gangster rappers have tried to show people that they have used their music as a way of explaining their personal experiences as black men, and also social, political and economic concerns. According to Minestrelli (2018), gangster rappers have provided a lot of young people with artistic tools globally, for them to produce their own music too.
Aspects of Gangster Rap
Gangster rap has particular core elements that make it to be different from other music genres. One aspect is that, it involves rapping, which is a form of delivering a voice through a rhythmic speech and adding speech vernacular. The rhythmic speech is accompanied by music and barking beats. These beats make the rap to be interesting to listen to, especially to the young people who take the large audience of gangster rap.
Gangster rappers are always lyrics-bragging about wealth, sexual prowess, power and disparaging other gangster rappers and thus making the lyrics to lack the meaning of the rap. This has led a lot of critics about gangster rap from scholars and society at large. It is difficult for an individual to get any positive lesson from the rap. This leads people just enjoying the lyrics without getting any positive impact from them.
The accompaniments in Gangster raps contain 2 to 4 bar segments that are repetitive throughout the song. This makes text-painting to be very difficult. This makes it difficult for scholars to pursue gangster rap as a valid art form.
Gangster raps have created a homophobic mindset, because it’s strongly emphasizes on hyper-masculinity (Kholaric, 2020). Many gangster rappers end up getting scared of pursuing their careers in the music genre because of fear of discrimination. This has also led to many rappers to hiding their sexualities for the fear of losing their careers.
Gangster rap uses different dialects across America to portray a message. Slang is commonly used in rap. Due to this, some people find it hard to understand the raps hence criticizing them. Many people especially adults prefer genres of music that have a dialect that they are familiar with for easy understanding.
Importance of understanding gangster rap
Even though gangster rap has been criticized of promoting violence and drug abuse to people who listen to it, it has also brought positive impacts. It has provided artistic tools to the young individuals who are interested in pursuing gangster rap all over the world. Gangster rap has highly improved since it started hence it has given rise to some of well-known artists globally like “Kendrick Lamar”.
According to Bowser (2020), gangster rap has reduced racism where by it has led white racists to stop the discrimination against color. This has created security among the African Americans and for them to have confidence to live in their country.
Gangster rap has helped the black men in the streets to be heard and be kept safe by the law, in the matters of police brutality and discrimination. By voicing out their struggles, they have been heard and gotten the help.
The indigenous youths have used gangster rap as a tool of self-expression. Whenever youths have a particular problem, they are able to be heard, hence an action is taken. The pioneers of gangster rap had gone through a lot of struggle trying to gain visibility and recognition for them to be heard (Minestrelli, 2018).
Gangster rap is associated with hip hop culture which goes hand in hand with activities like fashion, graffiti, slang and breakdancing. These activities have been able to grow in United States and across the world, while creating job opportunities to the youths around the world.
Through gangster rap, artists have been able to raise the people’s plea on being oppressed by the politicians. People have been facing police brutality and killings that have been able to be reduced through the raps. Gangster raps have helped people express their feelings.
Conclusion
When the early pioneers of gangster raps were introducing it to the world in 1980s, it faced a lot of critics from people. Reactions about the genre brought confusion to the general public, scholars and critics. The western music had won a lot of people’s heart at the time, so it was very difficult for people to embrace gangster rap. As more gangster rap artists and group came along, people began to enjoy and embrace the music genre.
Gangster rap has critics that make it to be among the discriminated music genres. Even it if has some critics, it has really impacted the world in many ways. A lot of problems in the world have been voiced through gangster raps.
In our society today, there is police brutality and discrimination against color (Soares, 2018). Many artists have used their music to fight against these problems and help people around the world. The gangster rappers have also helped to nature many talents in our society today. Many young artists have come to rise today because of motivation from the well-known gangster rappers. The society should embrace and support the gangster rap. On the grounds that gangster rap promotes violence; this is a matter that can be addressed. Gangster rap is being embraced by a lot of youths and its growing at a high rate globally.
References
Bowser, p. (2020). Gangster Rap and its Social Cost. Cambia press
KOLARIC, J. (2020). HOMOPHOBIA IN RAP. Words, Music and Gender, 119.
Minestrelli, C. (2018). ‘I Rep for my Mob’: Blackfellas rappin’from Down-Unda.
Pope, L. (2020). The Gangster Discourse (1981–2000). In Rap and Politics (pp. 171-227). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Soares, M. (2018). The Evolution of White Racism and its Impacts on Black Society in America Today (Master’s thesis, University of Waterloo).