The year is 1987 and the streets of south central Los Angeles are infested with street gangs and crack cocaine, the LAPD in turn began taking an aggressive approach towards law enforcement. This sort of environment produced a group called NWA meaning N****s With Attitude. The group had five members; Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella. The group was started from Eazy’s drug money and Dr. Dre’s producing skills. Together they started looking for local talent. Ice Cube was the first artist/songwriter to enter the group. His association with the Rolling 60s Crips made him a perfect fit for the group. The group needed another rapper who could rhyme as fast as Cube so MC Ren was added, as well as DJ Yella as a co-producer. This controversial rap group NWA came from an environment surrounded by gang violence and police brutality, which caused the group to create social turmoil.
The Early to mid 1980s saw a rapid growth in the use of crack cocaine, which in turn saw a rise in gang violence. South central gangs had become entrepreneurial and were expanding their trafficking operations. As the influence of gangs spiraled out of control with the trafficking of drugs, the early 1990s saw some of the highest homicide rates ever (Boucher). The gang shooting at Manual arts high school in 1990 left 18-year-old Lorenzo dead. The altercation started with Lorenzo throwing up a gang sign when a rival gang member shot him three times. At least seventeen men died at the hands of Orange County gang members in 1987 the oldest was 31, the youngest 15. Homicide statistics are an imperfect measure of gang activity. Dozens of people have also been shot or stabbed by suspected gang members. For example a 8 year old watchin...
... middle of paper ...
...t. In chicago a young group of rappers called 3hunna writes music about their experiences in the hood. This group claims to have been influenced by NWA so who knows what kind of turmoil they can create.
Work Cited
Boucher, Geoff. “Mark of tha Gangsta.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times , 16 Aug. 1988. 20 Feb. 2014
Freed, David. “ Police Brutality Claims are Rarely Prosecuted.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times., 07 July 1991. 25 Feb. 2014
Giovacchini, Anthony M. “The Negative Influence of Gangster Rap and what can be done about it.” Negative Influence of Gangster Rap. Stanford University, 20 Feb. 2014
Pumperup75. “Documentary-NWA: The World Most dangerous Group.” Online Video Clip. Youtube., 4 March 2013. 22 February 2014.
Renfro, James. “ Brief History of Rap-NWA.” Brief history of rap-NWA. University of Texas, 20 Feb 2014.
During the 80s a controversial group of rappers came together and changed the game of Hip Hop for generations to come. Niggas with Attitude, otherwise known as N.W.A, was comprised of the rappers; Ice Cube, MC Ren, Easy E, Yella, and Dr. Dre. Theses rappers spoke the truth about life in the streets; the hustling, the trapping, the sexual encounters, the gang life, and the most important, the racism. They shined a light on these issues in a violent, sexually explicit, yet intelligent and revolutionary way. The Facebook page, *N.W.A* creates an environment that connects people of all races, backgrounds, and ages; with the goal of immortalizing, and spreading the original message of the group.
Surprisingly, little has been written about the historical significance of black gangs in Los Angeles (LA). Literature and firsthand interviews with Los Angeles residents seem to point to three significant periods relevant to the development of the contemporary black gangs. The first period, which followed WWII and significant black migrations from the South, is when the first major black clubs formed. After the Watts rebellion of 1965, the second period gave way to the civil rights period of Los Angeles where blacks, including those who where former club members who became politically active for the remainder of the 1960s. By the early 1970s black street gangs began to reemerge. By 1972, the Crips were firmly established and the Bloods were beginning to organize. This period saw the rise of LA’s newest gangs, which continued to grow during the 1970s, and later formed in several other cities throughout the United States by the 1990s. While black gangs do not make up the largest or most active gang population in Los Angeles today, their influence on street gang culture nationally has been profound.
South, David. The History of Organized Crime: Secrets of The World’s Most Notorious Gangs. New York: Metro Books, 2013. Print.
Egley, A., Howell, J., & Moore, J. (2010). Highlights of the 2008 National Youth Gang
Citation: Gary Brown. (1994). Los Angeles gangs: The bloods and the Crips. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from Socialist Alternative, http://www.socialistalternative.org/panther-black-rebellion/los-angeles-gangs-bloods-crips/
George covers much familiar ground: how B-beats became hip hop; how technology changed popular music, which helped to create new technologies; how professional basketball was influenced by hip hop styles; how gangsta rap emerged out of the crack epidemic of the 1980s; how many elements of hip hop culture managed to celebrate, and/or condemn black-on-black violence; how that black-on-black violence was somewhat encouraged by white people scheming on black males to show their foolishness, which often created a huge mess; and finally, how hip hop used and continues to use its art to express black frustration and ambition to blacks while, at the same time, refering that frustration and ambition to millions of whites.
“Teen Gangs”. (2009, Apr. 9). Issues & Controversies On File. Retrieved Mar. 29, 2014, from Issues & Controversies database.
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.
4. Foreman, (2002). The Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip hop. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
5. Dimon, Laura. “Crip Walk: The Pop Culture Sensation That Came From Violent Gangsters.” Policy Mic. 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 May 2014.
Dixon, Travis L., TaKeshia Brooks. “Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance.” Perspectives. 7 April 2009. .
...Giovacchini, Anthony M. “The Negative Influence of Gangster Rap and What Can Be Done About It.” The Negative Influence of Gangster Rap And What Can Be Done About It. EDGE, 4 June 1999. Web. 02 May 2014.
Originating from the harsh streets of Los Angeles in 1986 - It was tough times in the city of the Queen of Angels: with drugs on the rise and crime rates in addition to significant excessive force by the LAPD, NWA was a determined, motivated group of Hip Hop artists who against all the odds of financial statuses or difficulties and discrimination at the time made it to be written in history books as arguably some of the best in the field.
Although music can help for delighting moods, some music communicates harmful health messages. Today’s music and lyrical content have undergone dramatic changes after the music industry has shaken up with the new music introduction of gangster rap, which portrays images of gangs, guns, violence, and sexism. For example, N.W.A has widely considered one of the greatest American hip hop groups in the history and sold over ten million units in the United States. However, majority of their lyrics glorifies violence, expresses deep hatred towards police officers, imply how the violence and races of police officers, and mock at the process of the judicial system. Studies