Playlist [90s Style 5 - Set Trippin (Gangsta Rap)]

This may be somewhat unexpected to people who know me now, but in the early 90s I listened to as much rap as anything else. In fact there was a short period in 91 where most of my clothes were <1> made by Starter, <2> featured Chicago Bulls logos, and <3> would have fit a small hippopotamus.

I owned this pair of shoes. I wore these in public.

 

This may seem unlikely, given that I was a pasty white adolescent from a midwestern suburb. However, at the time it was extremely common. What possessed pale young boys to walk around in Cross Colour Nikes and pants that remained half off at all times? The answer, of course, is Gangsta Rap.

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In the late 80s rap was still new. Run DMC and the Beastie Boys were popular. But most of the rap I remember from then was more funny than threatening.  I had a Fresh Prince cassette and I enjoyed The Fat Boys. The radio stations had started to play Young MC and Tone Loc and Biz Markie.

But that's a whole other story.

Some of the groups were sexually explicit (by 80s standards), which seems to trouble conservative groups far more than any violence ever could. I had older cousins and acquaintances who had dirty rap albums by Too $hort and 2 Live Crew. These records made headlines, but were still mostly underground phenomenon.

Then, at the very end of the 80s, Straight Outta Compton was released.  N.W.A. weren't the first gangsta rappers (the literal OGs are Schoolly D and Ice T), but they were the definitive ones. The sound and lyrical content of that record set the template of rap for at least a decade.

Number 1 in the hood, G.

By '91 N.W.A. had gone their separate ways but the individual members' solo albums were some the most popular records of the year. I don't recall knowing anyone near my age that didn't own a copy of The Chronic. Even LL Cool J was making gangsta tracks by '93.

The merit of this genre is a topic of eternal debate. Are these songs social commentary? (Mostly.) Do they glorify violence and crime? (Possibly.) I try not to over analyze them. They're like film noir or a Scorsese movie; entertaining crime stories. Do they inspire listeners to do the things that their stories depict? They did inspire me to dress like an idiot when I was 14. However, the ripped denim and flannel ensemble I was wearing 2 years later was no less ridiculous (although it was possibly more culturally appropriate)

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This playlist is concentrated on the first half of the 90s. These are violent songs about violent streets. These are songs about guns and drugs and hustlers that use them to get money. These are songs about getting revenge on "The Man" and taking whatever you can grab. This is Set Trippin' and you had better recognize.