Ali Hazma

Popular music in America

Michael Kuhn
3/12/2015

West Coast Rap

The influence of rap of music can be traced back to Africa, and the Griots
way of telling stories where they used drums and sparse instrumentation to
get a rhythm that accompanies the story. Rap is also rooted to the slavery
days were African-America salves used to sing while working using the
technique "call and response. It was used between the leader of the working
group and the works, and in rap you can see it in live performance between
the rapper and the audience. Funk music which was founded in the 1960s
has a big influence on rap music. The funk drum beat is mostly used as a
rhythm in rap music. In 1979, a woman named Sylvia Robinson who was a
singer and a record producer assembled the group Sugarhill Gang in New
York. They took the bass from song "Good Times" by Chic and recorded over
it a freestyle and made the song Rapper's Delight which is known to be the
first rap song.
Later, West Coast rap evolved in the late 1980s with Ice T, and the rap
group N.W.A, and in the early1990s with Death Row records, and Tupac. The
five elements of hip-hop B-boying, beatboxing, DJing, graffiti art, and MCing
existed in the west coast and mixed with the violence, drugs, and police
brutality that was happening in that area gave birth to gangsta rap. 6 in the

Mornin' a song by Ice T was released in 1986, this song is considered one of
the defining songs of gangsta rap. The song tells a story of an escape from
the LAPD, when the police arrived at Ice Ts house 6 in the morning. N.W.A
the rap group from Compton, California is considered to be the most
important rap group in the history of rap. The group was formed in 1986, the
original members of the group were Ice cube, Dre. Dre, Eazy-E, Arabian
Prince, and DJ Yella. Their album Straight Outta Compton had a huge impact
on the evolution of West Coast Rap, this album was recorded in 1988 in EazyEs record label Ruthless Records and it reached double platinum sales
status. The lyrics on the album were written by Ice Cube and MC Ren, and
the theme of the songs is gangs, sex, and crimes in the black community in
California. They are blamed that their lyrics is glamorizing gang violence, but
Ice cube respond to that by saying that they are only telling stories from
their lives, and they oppression they faced when they were teenagers just for
being black. Fuck tha police was the most controversial song from that
album, and it was banned from being performed in many venues, and also it
is responsible for the fame of N.W.A.
A good example of this style of music is Gin and Juice by Snoop Dogg
from the album Doggystyle. The song was produced by Dr. Dre it contains a
sample from George McCrae's "I Get Lifted" as the songs bassline, and an
interpolation from Slave's "Watching You" . This song has one of the most
famous rap hooks of all time:

Rollin' down the street smokin' indo

Sippin' on gin and juice
Laid back (with my mind on my money and my money on my mind)
The songs lyrics is obviously about a party at snoops houses that involves a
lot good weed, drinking, and sex. Also he makes reference to Ice Ts song
they ain't leavin till six in the morning.
The difference between West coast and East side rap is not noticeable now
but in the in the 1990s you distinguish between the two styles, West coast
uses funk samples and a laid back/chill vibe, tells about LA and the city of
Compton and mostly known for being gangsta rap. In the east coast they
used jazz samples and the sound was more aggressive, and they are
respected for their lyrical abilities. Most famous rappers from the East Side
are, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G, and Public Enemy.
After N.W.A broke up, Dr. Dre started his solo career with the album the
Chronic, it was reordered in 1992 in Death Row Records. This album
introduced Snoop Dogg to the rap audience, and with this album Dre took a
more pop orientation. It have some gangster elements in it but it wasnt as
violent as the N.W.A records, it was more about partying and smoking weed,
which is a big change for Dr. Dre since he said I don't smoke weed or a sess.
Cause its known to give a brother brain damage in Express yourself by
N.W.A. Rappers like MC Hammer, Tyga, Macklemore are the definition of Pop-

Rap, mostly they just release a single with a catchy hook, and nobody is sure
what they are talking about. Other famous pop-rapper is Eminem some
people consider him to be the Rap God. His songs usually talk about social
issues and his family problems.
Rap music has always been a controversial subject because of songs like
Fuck tha police, and recently CoCo and that they encourage violence and
drug use. However these songs we written because of the negativity that
was already happening in black communities and they were only expressing
their feelings about the situation. The problem with now days rappers living
in good cities and good neighborhoods is that they just try to make
problems, or exaggerate the problems they have just for getting material to
write about.
The group 2 Live Crew faced an obscenity trail because of the sexual
material their songs had. People at that time were shocked from the lyrics of
their songs, where the singer usually brags about his sexual powers and
referring to women by the term bitch, which is something we hear in most
popular songs today but at that time it wasnt accepted at all. The band
leader Luther Campbell, and two band members, Christopher Wongwon and
Mark Ross were facing obscenity charges because of the album As Nasty as
They Wanna Be. The judge ruled the album to be illegal to sell, and the
three members and everyone who was selling the album got arrested. Then
they got support from freedom of speech advocates, and the obscenity

ruling was overturned by the judge. Therefore, what these conservative did
was basically just giving the album publicity, and making it reach over 2
million copies in sells.

Works Citied
Hip Hop Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMLQsS6DvDo
2 Live Crew
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/17/us/obscenity-or-art-trial-on-rap-lyricsopens.html?pagewanted=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Live_Crew

Gangsta rap
http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/gangsta-rap-ma0000002611
http://www.laweekly.com/music/10-best-videos-from-the-gangsta-rap-era5100686
Ice T
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ice-t-mn0000072003
Gin and Juice
http://genius.com/Snoop-dogg-gin-and-juice-lyrics
Pop-Rap
http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/pop-rap-ma0000005012
"Rapper's Delight"
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/tajjk5/drunk-history-sylvia-robinson-creates-arap-group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper%27s_Delight
West Coast rap
http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/west-coast-rap-ma0000002932