Gangster rap, or hardcore rap, is mostly considered a sub genre of the larger class of rap music, which itself is a subcategory of hip-hop. Gangster rap is differentiable from other rap music in that it makes use of images of urban life associated with crime (Haugen, 2). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of gangster rap, the top four images associated with the genre are violence, drugs, materialism and sexual promiscuity.
angster Rappers as Defining the Hip-Hop Social Group
As the hip-hop movement has gained recognition throughout the United States, it has constituted itself as one of the quickest growing social groups anywhere. In the recent 1990s immediately following the murders of both Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, two nationally known gangster rappers, a propaganda campaign escalated against rap music and the hip-hop culture (Slaughter). Although gangster rap only represented a low portion of the hip-hop culture at the time, all hip-hop and rap music was instantly stereotyped negatively as being "gangter-like". Why? Well, this gangster version of hip-hop was the highest selling and most accepted form of hip-hop music among the majority class. And many critics have set that this is because America is in love with sex, drugs and violence (Whaley).
Hip-Hop`s Rejection of Inferior Social Group Status
Henri Tajfel, a social psychologist who developed a hypothesis of inter-group relations and social change, argues that members of a social group deemed inferior by a majority class can either accept or eliminate their inferior place in society. If a group refuses to have its inferior place in order as just, it will try as a group to switch things (Coates, 8-9). A large number of hip-hop artists have used their musical lyrics to resist the inferior social status placed upon them by the majority class.The Reconstruction of the Gangster Identity
I have found that hip-hop artists use lyrics, both melodic and poetic, to redefine the negatives characteristics given to their civilization by the majority class, and in the process, reconstruct the gangster identity. By examining these hip-hop and gangster rap lyrics as text, I will show ways in which the lyrics attempt to restore the stereotyped gangster rap identity by examining different views of violence, drugs, materialism and sexual promiscuity. In the end, one tends to wonder: Who exactly are the real gangsters?
Violence
That the hip-hop culture represents gangster-like violence is possibly the biggest disputed claim amongst hip-hop artists. In place to confute this claim, many hip-hop artists have pointed to the force that exists inside the majority social group, and how it leads to force all over the world.
In "Violence", 2 Pac demonstrates his opinion that force was prevalent long before gangster rap existed:
I told em fight back, attack on society
If this is violence, then violent`s what I gotta be
If you investigate you`ll see out where it`s comin` from
Look through our history, America`s the red one
Here, the poet points to American society as "the red one" and that he has to be red in society to "push back."
In "Who Knew", Eminem showed a similar viewpoint by expressing his opinion that force is a usual happening in American society, yet not challenged in genres outside of the urban environment:
So who`s bringin` the guns in this country?
I couldn`t slip a plastic pellet gun through customs over in London
And last week, I seen a Schwarzaneggar movie
Where he`s shootin` all sorts of these bad guys with an Uzi
Here, the poet questions the creation of force in a nation that allows firearms and violent movies.
In "Casualties of War", Rakim blames the United States government, specifically its Point of State, as the group causing the force in company with their war-like ways:
I`ma get support to New York in one piece
But I`m bent in the backbone that is hot as the city streets
Sky lights up like fireworks blind me
Bullets, whistlin` over my head remind me_
President Bush said attack
Flashback to Nam, I might not name it back
In this text, the poet refers to our country`s decision to go to war as an instance of the force that exists amongst the majority social class.
In "The Watcher", Dr. Dre redefines the negative feature of force by pointing to the police force as the root of violence, and therefore, referring to them as "gangster-like":
Things just ain`t the like for gangstas
Cops is dying to put people in handcuffs
They wanna hang us, see us dead or enslave us
Keep us trapped in the sami home we raised in
Then they question why we act so outrageous
Run around stressed out and pulling out gauges
Cause everytime you let the creature out cages
It`s dangerous, to people who feel like strangers
Here, the poet accuses the majority class of holding them "trapped in the sami home we raised in" and that the perceived violence is entirely due to the foundation of "people who look like strangers."
These are examples of how hip-hop artists redefine the trope of force by showing how it exists or was created inside the majority social group.
Drugs
Another common disputed stereotype of hip-hop artists is their use and dispersion of illegal drugs. In attempts to redefine this negative characteristic, many hip-hop artists have pointed at the majority social group as the facilitator of drug abuse.
In "Justify My Thug", Jay-Z speaks straight to members of government, raising questions about who has made the accessibility and use of these drugs possible:
Mr. President, there`s drugs in our residence
Tell me what you wish me to do, come break bread with us
Mr. Governor, I swear there`s a back up
Every other corner there`s a liquor store - what is up?
In this example, the poet inquires as to why there is a liquor store in "every other tree" of his community.
In "I Want to Talk to You", Nas uses the same access to dispute the opinion of drug distribution by asking his representatives what they would do in his situation:
Why y`all made it so hard, damn
People gotta go create their own job
Mr. Mayo,r imagine if this was your backyard
Mr. Governo,r imagine if it was your kids that starved
Imagine your kids gotta sling crack to survive. Here, the poet claims that the dispersion of drugs is not just an impression of the poverty that exists in his environment, but likewise a means of survival.In "Manifesto", Talib Kweli actually accuses the administration of existence the trunk which allows drugs into the country:
Like the C.I.A. be bringin` in crack cocaine bailin` out of planes
With the George Bush connections, I push Reflection
Like I`m sellin` izm, like a dealer buildin` the system
Supply and the demand it`s all capitalism
People don`t sell crack cause they wish to see blacks smoke
People sell crack cause they broke
In this example, the poet accuses the C.I.A. of flying drugs into the country, and again reiterates the place that it is a way of survival due to the "issue and requirement" of a capitalist society.
In "Damn It Feels Right to be a Gangster", the Geto Boys fully redefine the negative feature of drug distribution by accusing the Chair of being a drug dealer, and therefore, a gangster:And now, a phrase from the President!
Damn it feels safe to be a gangsta
Getting` voted into the White House
Everything lookin` good to the multitude of the world
But the Mafia family is my boss
So every now and so I owe a favor gettin` down
Like lettin` a big drug shipment through
And send `em to the poor community
So we can wear you love who
These examples show how hip-hop artists redefine the epitome of being drug dealers and users by again pointing to the majority class as the maker of the drug problem in this country.
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