Gangsta Rap

Gangsta rap is a term originated by the mainstream media to describe a certain subgenre of hip-hop music which developed during the late 1980s. It is a genre of hip-hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of some inner-city youths. Gangsta is a corruption of the word gangster. The genre was pioneered around 1983 by Ice T with songs like “Cold Winter Madness” and “Body Rock/Killers”, and was popularised by groups like N.W.A in the late 1980s.

Before the late 1990s, gangsta rap and hip-hop in general, while being extremely popular, had always been seen as a fringe genre that remained firmly outside the pop mainstream. However, the rise of Bad Boy Records signalled a major stylistic change in gangsta rap as it morphed into a new subgenre of hip-hop which would become even more commercially successful. Ice Cube is seen to have contributed to gangsta rap's move towards conquering the pop charts, as his albums included both gritty gangsta narratives and polished, catchy, danceable pop music entirely aimed at clubs and mainstream pop charts.

Many of the artists who achieved such mainstream success, such as G-Unit and Jay-Z, originated from the gritty East Coast rap scene and were influenced by hardcore artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. Nas. Mase, Jay-Z and Cam'ron are also typical of the more relaxed, casual flow that became the pop-gangsta norm. Pop-inflected gangsta rap continues to be successful in the 21st century, with many artists deftly straddling the divide between their hip-hop and pop audience, such as Remy Ma, Papoose and G Unit.

In Gangsta rap lyrics, the "er" at the end of a word is usually replaced with an "a"; for example “gangster” becomes “gangsta”, “player” becomes “playa” and “sister” becomes “sista”.

This description is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses materials from the Wikipedia article "Gangsta rap".