1. Making and Marketing Gangsta Rap: Politics and Politricks

2. Gangsta Rap Aesthetics
Vivid, explicit STORIES (verbal cinema)
Vulgar language
Tales of murder, robbing, and violence and describing social circumstances
Police brutality and racial profiling
Misogyny, mistreating women, hyper-sexual, homophobia
Drugs and drinking, and drug dealing
Materialism, upward mobility, having paper, street cred
Early on simple 808 beats; later more complex layering and funk/boogie samples

3. What's the difference between gangsta rap and trap music???

4. Genre and Gimmicks Genre is a category
Genre is a way to rationalize music
Genre is a way to guide consumers/consumption
Genre is a way to market music
Branding, portraying, packaging...etc.
Media attention: bad attention is good attention
Is gangsta rap a gimmick? Is trap a gimmick?
Gangsta rap is what made rap mainstream (oddly?)
It was the cinematic part, and the media coverage/controversy
Initially considered unmarketable
In the 1980s, rap was NOT free speech

5. “Spectacular Consumption” Watts
Reality gets magnified through media mass production...the sign > signified
We consume and are consumed by spectacle

6. “P.S.K., What Does it Mean” (1985)
Schoolly D (from Philly)
P.S.K.= Park Side Killas
First rap song to speak about violence, sex, guns, drugs...Schoolly played the 909/rhymed
“6 'N the Mornin'” and “Boyz-in-the-Hood” have similar lyrics and flow

7. “PSK we're making that green/
People always say, 'What the hell does that mean?'”
“Driving in my car down the avenue/
Towing on a j, sipping on some brew/
Turned around, see the fly young lady/
Pull to the curb and park my Mercedes”
Schoolly D “P.S.K., What Does it Mean?”

8. “6 ‘N The Mornin” (1987)
Ice-T; associated with Crips, but not a gang member (did rob banks, etc.)
Inspired by Schoolly D's song, and started the genre on the West Coast
From Rhyme Pays, the first rap album with Explicit Lyrics Parental Advisory label
At time, LA/West Coast hip hop was WAY behind NYC/East Coast

9. “6'n the morning' police at my door/
Fresh adidas squeak across the bathroom floor”
“Looked in the mirror what did we see?/
Fuckin' blue lights L.A. P.D./
Pigs searched our car, their day was made/
Found allmenn uzi, 44 and a handgranade”
Ice-T “6 'N the Mornin'”

10. “Boyz-n-the-Hood” (1987) Eazy-E
His first rap performance (he was not a rapper)
Took 2 days for him to get it right; punch-ins
Written by Ice Cube for HBO

11. Eazy-E “Boyz-n-the-Hood”
“Cruisin down the street in my six-fo'/
Jockin the bitches, slappin the hoes/
Went to the park to get the scoop/
Knuckleheads out there cold shootin some hoop”
“Went to her house to get her out of the pad/ Dumb hoe says something stupid that made me mad/
She said somethin that I couldn't believe/
So I grabbed the stupid bitch by her nappy ass weave/
She started talkin shit, wouldn't you know?/ Reached back like a pimp and slapped the hoe”
Eazy-E “Boyz-n-the-Hood”

12. Straight Outta Compton (1988)
Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy-E, DJ Yella (mgr. Jerry Heller)
Dr. Dre's rich and sonically polished production
Managed by Jerry Heller
Most of the lyrics written by Cube or Ren
On later albums and solo efforts, lyrics written by D.O.C. and Ren
Recorded in 6 weeks for $8k; 3x platinum (1M in sales w/ no tour or promotion)
Changed the direction of rap music to gangsta themes
Negative mainstream media portrayal of group and genre led to its sales in suburbs (80% of sales in the burbs)
Incited moral panic but eventually incorporated to mainstream

13. “Amen, Brother” (1969) The Winstons Classic drum break (see 1:26)
Used in tons of songs
Used in “Straight out of Compton” song; Dre played record at 33rpm and slowed it down drastically from the normal 45 rpm
You can here the original 45rpm tempo (0-:07) and then the 33rpm tempo (see :12)

14. Narrative raps are often CINEMA!
Eazy-E sold weed and other drugs
Eazy and Ren were Crips for a very short time
Nobody else were in gangs; just around that culture by way of where they lived
Gangsta rap is CINEMA!
Narrative raps are often CINEMA!

15. “Fuck the Police” (1988) “World's Most Dangerous Group”
“We’re letting people know that America’s not a bowl of cherries,” Dr. Dre (1989)
N.W.A.'s music was banned from radio, retail, libraries, etc. Made the group more popular, esp. with the white/suburban market
Jay Dee/J Dilla “Fuck the Police” (2001)

16. “And not the other color so police think/
They have the authority to kill a minority/
Fuck that shit, cause I ain't the one/
For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun/
To be beating on, and thrown in jail/
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell/
Fucking with me cause I'm a teenager/
With a little bit of gold and a pager/
Searching my car, looking for the product/
Thinking every nigga is selling narcotics”
Ice Cube in N.W.A.'s “Fuck the Police”

18. Critiques of the Genre C. Delores Tucker
Commodifying violence in African American communities
Inciting violence against authority
Reinforcing and perpetuating negative stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media
A form of minstrelsy

19. Censoring Gangsta Rap
Remember, rap music (specifically gangsta rap and Miami bass rap like 2 Live Crew) tried the First Amendment in court and popular opinion
N.W.A.'s response to censorship was “Express Yourself” (1988)
*Music video, no cuss words, freedom of expression, “Express Yourself” (1970) sample

20. Cinematic Parody
Fear of a Black Hat
CB4... “Straight out of Locash”

21. “Self-Destruction” (1989)
KRS-One/BDP, Chuck D, MC Lyte, Just-Ice, Kool Moe Dee, Heavy D, Stetsasonic, Doug E. Fresh, etc.
Response to murders (BDP's Scott La Rock)
Ironic after “9MM Goes Bang”

22. “Me knew a crack dealer by the name of Peter/
Had to buck him down with my 9 millimeter/
He said I had his girl, I said 'Now what are you? Stupid?'/
But he tried to play me out and KRS-One knew it/
He reached for his pistol but it was just a waste/ Cos my 9 millimeter was up against his face/
He pulled his pistol anyway and I filled him full of lead/
But just before he fell to the ground this is what I said...”
BPD “9mm Goes Bang”

23. “Well, today's topic, self destruction/
It really ain't the rap audience that's bugging/
It's one or two suckers, ignorant brothers/
Trying to rob and steal from one another/
You get caught in the mid/
So to crush the stereotype here's what we did/ We got ourselves together/
So that you could unite and fight for what's right/ Not negative cause the way we live is positive We don't kill our relatives”
KRS-One in “Self Destruction”

24. “Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside)” (1990)
Ice Cube from AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Album produced by The Bomb Squad with Sir Jinx
Cube's first album post-N.W.A.
Album set forth the trend of critiquing racism, the justice system, economic inequity, etc. in West Coast rap
Vince Staples - “Hands Up”

25. “A point scored, they could give a fuck about us/
“A point scored, they could give a fuck about us/ They rather catch us with guns and white powder”
“You wanna free Africa?/
I'll stare at ya/
Cuz we ain't got it too good in America/
I can't fuck with them overseas/
My homeboy died over keys/
Of cocaine, it was plain and simple/
The 9mm went (buck) to the temple”
Ice Cube “Endangered Species”

26. “Sound of da Police” (1993)
“woop woop” evoking the siren is now a classic sound
Prod. Buckwild
MV intercuts police abuse

27. “Watch out! We run New York/
Police man come, we bust him out the park/
I know this for a fact, you don't like how I act/ You claim I'm sellin' crack/
But you be doin' that”
KRS-One “Sound of Da Police”

28. “The overseer rode around the plantation/
The officer is off patrolling all the nation”
The overseer could stop you what you're doing”
The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuing/
The overseer had the right to get ill/
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill/
The officer has the right to arrest/
And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest!/
(Woop!) They both ride horses/
After 400 years, I've got no choices!/
The police them have a little gun/
So when I'm on the streets, I walk around with a bigger one”
KRS-One “Sound of Da Police”