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.”

This rap song is representative of a style of rapping prominent in the 90s, called Gangsta (gangster) Rap.

Gangsta rap in the 90s was an important component to the integration of rap in mainstream music. In my subculture research paper I discussed: How rap evolved and what did the 90s rappers rap about? In this essay, I will be expanding on insider viewpoints of prominent 90s rappers to explain where hardcore rap styles came from. These prominent rappers are insiders in the rap subculture since they are individuals in the know. They are also gatekeepers because the personal information they publicized granted me access to explore this topic. 

• The Origins of Popular Gangsta Rap

In 1995, west coast rapper Tupac Shakur released an MTV special titled Growing up Poor. Tupac’s early life switching from  “homeless shelter to a project” and dealing with “not enough food on the table” provided a story to draw inspiration from. Dropping out of high school to make ends meet, not being able to live at his mother’s home because she was impoverished, and the constant thought of survival are core elements in his music. In a different interview with BET in 1994, Tupac explained that he strongly believed that his audience “emphasizes with me because I show that raw and uncut emotion. Good and bad.” (Shakur). 

In both interviews, I observed that the hosts brought up the controversy behind gangsta rappers being labeled as only violent people who were outlaws. I was disturbed by this misunderstanding. In the MTV interview Tupac said he used to act in high school, wanted to attend college but didn’t because he didn’t have the money. Tupac compared his hard life to college students who were provided for. Although “this might be presumptuous… I know a lot of people who went to college and they had their lives okay… Someone is paying for them to be there, they have somewhere to live.” His difficult background forced Tupac to find his own path. Harlem rapper Big L in his hit song Street Struck explores this point further. In Music and Culture (a collection of essays about music and culture), Nathan George notes that many raps are a byproduct of the rappers’ lives. “Tupac [and others] were artists who looked at the worst things in the world and reveled in describing their meanest dreams and grossest nightmares… Rap lyrics that describe violence are a natural consequence of a [violent] world.” (George, 142)  succumbing to street life was unavoidable at times. Other authors note the same point: “gangsta rappers… provide key themes of distrust, anger, resistance, and critique of a perceived racist and discriminatory society.” (Popular Culture as Oppositional Culture: Rap as Resistance, Martinez). Harlem rapper Big L, in his hit song Street Struck explores this point too. Big L rhymes, 

 And some of my peeps are still in the game sellin ‘caine,

 If that’s what you gotta do to maintain, go ‘head and do your thang. 

I’ve seen a lot of my peers give up their careers for some fast money..

 Aiyoo They used to be legit kids, now they are corrupt,

 they had dreams but gave em up cause they street struck.

Tupac found his escape from his reality by smoking weed and hanging out with drug dealers and criminals. Tupac clarified that although at certain points he did engage in illegal activity, when he stopped, the people he knew from that life looked out for him. They gave him money which led to Tupac becoming more independent. Tupac said the people he knew wanted him to stay out of their lifestyle and, “get out there and do your dreams, they were like my sponsors,” Tupac recalled. Tupac said he got lucky because people recognized his talent.

Snoop Dogg, another famous rapper from the 90s, pointed out in a 1994 interview that it it’s almost “a ritual to be from the streets — to come from gang involvement.” It’s like a pattern. Moreover, because rap music was blamed for worsening the conditions of the hood, Snoop Dogg countered that gangsta rap actually solves the problem by “bringing it to your face.. So it can be understood what rappers go through.” Snoop Dogg even acknowledged his probation officer for keeping him on the right path. Additionally, in the BET interview, Tupac said that he tried with his raps to control violence. The police can’t be the only ones that can control violence. Although he was formerly a gangster, with his raps he could show a more “sensitive side” and because so many people follow him, his reputation as a rapper can “stop a confrontation before it happens.” (Shakur). 

Snoop Dogg explains in a 1994 interview on the Arsenio Hall talk show that the message of gangsta rap was to be real.  “Being real is accepting the type of behaviors rappers had.. It wasn’t nice.” Snoop Dogg wanted fans to learn from his experiences and use it as foresight if they ever intended to copy his former lifestyle. Both Tupac and Snoop Dogg felt that their raps about gangster life did not represent their characters.

Towards the end of the 90s era, hardcore rap began to die out as a central rap style since the rappers who contributed most significantly to it died (as a result of gang violence). 

(This is how the perception of gangsta rap changed. It was a milestone of music making that could never be replicated, only because the artists who were best at it died too soon). This led to an evolution in rap forms with Eminem, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and others inserting themselves as the following generation of rappers heavily influenced by the artists before them. A fresh wave of insiders ( in this case being newly popular artists) changed the perception of gangster rap afterwards because if the hardcore rap from the 90s was the silhoutte that made up gangsta rap, since it was not being produced anymore, that style is now remebered as  “gangsta rap.” Hardcore rap was essentially categorized as a non-fungible style. An effect so serious, these prominent rapper’s deaths are commemorated to this day.  

Tupac’s east coast gangsta rap counterpart, The Notorious Big, also popularized gansta rap music in the 90s, some may say even more than Tupac. In a 2017 film produced by cable company A&E titled Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G….[to be continued].