The Rap subculture in the 1990s - How did it evolve and what did the 90s rappers rap about? 

I’ll never forget the first time I listened to a rap song. It was Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, and JV. This is a rap song from 1995, and Coolio, a 23 year old rapper from Compton, LA, wrote it. Coolio raps in one verse:

 “I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the street
So I gotta be down with the hood team
Too much television watchin' got me chasin' dreams
I'm a educated fool with money on my mind
Got my ten in my hand and a gleam in my eye
I'm a loc'd out gangsta, set trippin' banger
And my homies is down so don't arouse my anger.”
	
I remember I was in 6th grade when I heard it, and I was intrigued. How can someone have such a violent life and turn that into a song.  I was listening to pop songs before and did not expect to encounter music that depicts so much struggle and violence. 

History/background of rap music in the 90s

Rap is an acronym for rhythm and poetry. More specifically, it is a “music verse composed of rhymes, figurative language, and varying syllables. It’s commonly written using the first-person, with the lyrics directed towards a real or imaginary rival.” 

Rap isn't soft Jazz or catchy pop music. Central to rap music is “the juxtaposition of hardcore rap lyrics centered around crime, drugs, and material wealth” with “smooth, R&B-style 

vocals.” (Duniker, 114). Rap gave musicians a chance to express poetry without having to sing it.  “Like singing, rapping can be about different subjects like love, social issues, and about life as we live it.” However, unlike singing, “rapping does not involve accompanying words with any particular [music] notes.” 
In the 1970s, hip hop began as a movement and party style in the Bronx, NY.  The International Journal of Urban & Regional Research defines hip hop as a “germination of culture, with its initial elements being ‘rapping, DeeJaying, Bboying/Bgirling (also known as breakdancing) and graffiti writing.’” (Lamotte, M. 2014). 
Rap is a subculture/subgroup within hip hop, and rap can be done in many styles/subgenres. Such as conscious rap, a style focused on social activism. This style is about “creating awareness and imparting knowledge. Conscious rappers traditionally have decried violence, discrimination, and other ailments of society…Most conscious rap songs contain positive, uplifting messages, often delivered over smooth, ear-grabbing beats.” Boom bap is another style of the 90 that is focused on rhyming.  It is a subgenre of east coast rap referring to the sound of a beat.  “The ‘boom’ is the kick drum and the ‘bap’ is the snare. Boom bap is a style of music where the drums are highly emphasized.” 
“Gangsta” (gangster) rap, is a form of hip hop music that grew into popularity in the early 1990s and became the rap genre’s “dominant style.”  Rising inflation, unemployment and mortgage rates, as well racism behind arresting African Americans for drug offenses,  were the background for the rise of this rap style. 
“As noted by many hip hop scholars, gangsta rap is often understood as a product of the detrimental economic and social policies affecting Black and Brown working class communities during the Reagan-Bush era…West coast rappers used music as a platform to narrate the lives of those on the margins, depicting the material consequences of institutional racism and state violence.” Although “other forms of rap music addressed similar themes, gangsta rap was particularly rampant with tales of crime” and “gang violence.” 

Rapping developed when music like soul, funk, or disco played, and rap emcees (individuals who would sing with the music) freestyled, which is to make up entertaining interactions with an audience. In the 1980s, popular emcees started to produce music and they were the earliest rappers. These emcees are also referred to as the old school rappers because their style was composed of simpler rhyming and music production techniques. Computer innovation during the 1990s allowed rap music producers to start using software and digital effects to create beat sampling and new rapping styles. In those years, rap transitioned into a mainstream music genre. 

Language and rituals of 90s rappers

In the 1990s, most major rap artists were from poorer areas in New York City and Los Angeles, and they mostly rapped about social issues, the hardships of living in lower income neighborhoods and the gangster lifestyle.  Rap “was the story of ghetto life and the anthem of gangsters.” (McNulty-Finn, 2014). NWA, a young California rap group from the lower class neighborhood of Compton, Los Angeles, whose 1991 album sold one million copies in seven days were symbolic of “gangsta rap.”  N.W.A’s music “expressed the world of police brutality and the discrimination African Americans faced…N.W.A made songs not just as entertainment but to voice their opinions.”  For example, in one of N.W.A’s songs “N.W.A. constructs a subversive narrative in which they get the chance to put the LAPD on trial rather than the other way around. By switching roles with the system, N.W.A. is able to perform an identity that they don’t have access to in reality.” 
Tupac was another influential rapper in the 90s. “To many, he is titled as a rap legend. He has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide and his music was viewed as introspective. He unfiltered the world of growing up black and explaining the deprivation of going through racism and living in the ghettos.” 
With respect to language, typically, rapping uses Ebonics (American black English). “Rap music unapologetically articulates the social, political, cultural and economic issues in Black communities by employing the Black Language… The whole culture revolves around the elaborate Black storytelling that catches audiences' ears, imaginations, and hearts…rappers are speaking to and about their community in their language with particular pronunciations and linguistic features.”
Rap battles and diss tracks are typical rituals in this subculture. Rap battling is a type of rapping in a live event where two rappers freestyle or use pre written verses to  brag why they are better than the other rapper and where they insult each other through rapping. Diss tracks are recorded songs where rappers attack each other in the same way as in a rap battle. Rap battle and diss tracks test a rapper’s lyric flow and delivery against someone else’s. These rituals normally start if a rapper is accused of  “‘biting,’ or in other words… copying, another artist’s style, flow, or beat… Rap battles and diss tracks are an integral part of hip-hop culture, which are largely done either for prize money or respect… It’s competitive, but it’s ultimately about skill.” (Hall 2019).  The rap battling feud between the two biggest rappers of the 90s, The Notorious Big and 2pac, “may be responsible for some of the industry's most iconic diss tracks ("Hit Em Up" and "Who Shot Ya?") are often hailed as the best in history.”
	
Resurgence of 90s style rap today

Although many of  today’s mainstream rap musicians do not represent the 90s style because their songs don’t have a story and they make music “for entertainment only,” there are still established artists who try to embody the bygone rhythmic and poetic lyricism of the 90s. The 90s style that is in resurgence now is more  boom bap and conscious rap, and less of the gangster style one. Artists like Joey Bada$$, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Benny the Butcher are contemporary examples of rappers who model and channel their rap style after the 90s. In one example, Joey Bada$$ met “with legendary producer DJ Premier, Joey, whose sound is very indebted to boom-bap beat makers like Premier was very excited about the collab, calling it a dream come true.” Kendrick Lamar, a top rap artist from today’s generation, is signed to Aftermath records. “Kendrick Lamar is described as Tupac’s reincarnation…He raps about wanting change and most of the songs he raps about do not contain him talking about his ego…” Dr. Dre, the owner of this record label, worked with some of the most prominent 90s rap artists to have ever joined the industry, such as: NWA, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Tupac. As a fan of the 90s style, and someone who likes to rap with his friends, I am glad that there seems to be a “90s-style resurgence, with the best new hip hop songs throwing it back to the beloved era.”  

Reflection
	I intended for readers to understand from my research a type of music that they may or may not have listened to. The purpose of this essay was to discuss how the birth of hip hop led to 90s rap, and then I analyzed what rappers at that time rapped about. Working on this essay required me to think about what I did not know about hip hop’s overall history. I thought I was also going to discuss how today’s rap music is not representative of the 90s style but, with the assistance of my instructor, I instead went over how some modern rap artists now create a similar style in their music. I learned to trust less in the knowledge I might already have about a topic because even if I’m very interested in it, I still need to find sources that substantiate my understanding. This assignment allowed me to research a subject that I already was intrigued by. I think that writing about it was an important process to go through because it strengthened my relationship to rap as a hobby overall. I worked with comments from my instructor since the peer I sent my initial draft to did not respond. This research assignment helped me achieve the course learning outcome of strengthening my source use practices by “evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources.” This assignment also helped enhance my “strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” Further, in the Fieldworking textbook, I learned of a data culminating technique called intersubjectivity, and with the use of footnotes, I triangulated my sources to discuss my findings. I would like to improve on the way I combine sources I find into a paper because this was definitely the hardest assignment so far. I would have liked to have more time to check my quotes and maybe eliminate some of them because I ended up quoting a lot, and maybe it got repetitive.