Erica Johnson
HIST 341 The American Experience: Space and Place in American Music
Spring 2015 – Assignment 2
05-10-2015
The videos produced during the late 80s and early 90s from the ‘Gangsta Rap
Music’ genre were once that showed a state of unrest and ciaos coming from Los
Angeles; similar, to the current state of Baltimore in 2015. The African American
popular was frustrated with the treatment they were receiving from the judicial
system on all fronts. The way they were being treated on a simple interactions
occurring on the street corners to the treatment they were receiving in the
courtroom my judges and lawyers. So of course the art and music that was being
created by the African American community of Los Angeles was one of frustration
and anger with the police system. The creative timeline lines up with such incidents
as the Rodney King riots, the south central riots, and the 1992 Los Angels civil
disturbance.
You have songs coming out during this time like ‘Fuck the Police’ by N.W.A; ‘6
in the Mornin’ by Ice T, and ‘Growin’ Up in The Hood’ by Compton’s Most Wanted.
There was often talk about the “realness” of the artists that were rapping about this
content, where in fact living this life or a glamorous one? However that didn’t matter
for sales because the reality of it was that people who were listening to the music
and buying the music lived these lives and were entertained by all of this back and
forth fighting of artists. People like Dr. Dre, Easy-E, and Nate Dogg were just smart
enough to figure out how to capitalize off of it. Many people have criticized this
music from outside perspectives as well because it was heard across the nation and
portrayed a life style of violence, unrest, and discontent with the police; which intern
made younger people who had no reason to but upset with the police distrusting of
the system. When in actuality, in Los Angeles there were reasons for discontent.
There were cases of police brutality against the African American community all of
the time but nothing was being done about them.
During this time you didn’t just have music coming out you had the music
videos, which were being played on MTV when they actually showed music videos
and played songs. You have videos like N.W.A.’s ‘Straight Outta Compton”. A video
featuring Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, The D.O.C., Arabian Price, and Antonie
Carraby all of witch were major icons in the gangster rap genre of music. Their video
for ‘Straight Outta Compton’ showed a complete distrust and disrespect for the
police. All of the members are arrested for no reason, except for Easy-E who appears
