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Gangsta Rap Thesis

2341 Words10 Pages

Adriana Rodriguez
Mrs. Diaz
US II H
5/23/2016
Gangsta Rap and Social Justice

Music is a powerful tool that artists have used since its creation to mold society. From the songs that slaves used to sing in the fields that were their cries for freedom, to today’s girl power anthems that propel the feminist movement forward, music continues to be an incredibly influential force. One recent and well known movement that music propelled was the gangsta rap movement of the late 20th century. In the 1990s, African Americans in the United States faced destructive systematic oppression, which became widely acknowledged due to the creation of “gangsta rap;” this genre of music was critical to African American history because it responded to issues such …show more content…

Dre, MC Ren, and DJ Yella tested the limits of gangsta rap, by discussing the various aspects of life in Compton, California explicitly.

“Celebrated the violence and hedonism of the criminal life, capturing it all in blunt, harsh language... it even provoked the FBI to caution N.W.A.'s record company”(Erlewine).

Tupac, whose career was marked by various lawsuits and a shooting that cut it short, also spoke out about the lifestyles that harmed African Americans in the US.

Tupac Shakur...often portrayed and even glorified the violence that is so much a part of life in urban America...his life began to mirror the swaggering bravado and violence that is so much a part of his art”(Jones).

KRS-One, a man who used his platform to educate African American youth about life in inner cities, and the struggles left untaught in the system, was another pivotal figure in gangsta rap.

“If more creative effort and dedication is not put toward educating the...city's black youth, the city may soon be consumed by the symptoms of racism” (KRS-One and Turkkan)

Schoolly D, who is revered as the first gangsta rapper, began many discussions about life for African Americans, spearheading topics of violence, sex, and city

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