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Gangsta Rap: A Product of the Post-Industrial Inner-City Life
Written by Kaitlin Zurkammer
In 1967, black riots broke out in Newark killing 26 and injuring more than
1,100. Blacks were shown smashing windows, carrying away stolen items and even
battling police. White Americans were convinced that it was the work of communists.
This prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint Governor Otto Kerner of
Illinois to lead a fact-finding team. Governor Kerner reported, “Our nation is moving
toward two societies: one black, one white, separate, and unequal.” (Jones, Fear of a
Hip-Hop Planet) Close by and near after, in the neighborhood of South Bronx, a new
kind of riot began; a riot known as hip-hop.
The History of Gangsta Rap
As the United States entered into its post-industrial era at the end of the 20th
century, low-skilled jobs started to move overseas as the United States became more
automated and technologically advanced. The inner cities that were once booming
with industrial life, turned into ghettos of joblessness. And as property values
decreased in the inner cities, upper class Americans decided to move elsewhere. This
sparked the beginning of something called suburbanization.
Suburbanization is defined as a broader growth of metropolitan areas, but it
had a much bigger meaning in the social context of the United States. At first, upper
class Americans were the only ones who could afford living in the suburbs, since
commuting to the inner cities for work was far from cheap. But as other forms of

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transportation came along like trains and streetcars, middle class whites and some
middle class blacks started moving further away from the inner cities. All of this, along
with the development of the interstate system and the beginning of metropolitan
sprawl sent the inner cities in a downward spiral.
Life in the inner city at this time was anything but enjoyable, especially for poor
and working class blacks. The urban youth living in these rough conditions decided to
commence a new form of riot. Through rebellion of music, dance and dress they
attempted to challenge cultural order and create a new social identity for themselves.
It was the beginning of a new American art form; hip-hop. (Jones, Fear of a Hip-Hop
Planet)
The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, along with the recession, gave way to
an era of sustained federal budget cuts and an even wider gap between the rich and
the poor. (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race, Place, and the
Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton”) The poor seemed to be
poorer than ever before.
Karl Marx was the one responsible for a concept to characterize a group even
below the working class. He created the word “lumpenproletariat” while analyzing the
social constructions of France at the time. “Lumpen-“ is French for rags and “-
proletariat” is French for working class. Lumpenproletariats are the refuse of all social
classes.
Gunnar Myrdal was the first to apply this concept to the U.S. social structure.
Myrdal was a Swedish economist who wrote an important book on race in the United
States. He felt the need to analyze the United States because he felt like as an outsider,

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he was able to recognize structural issues in the U.S. unlike any U.S. citizen could.
Myrdal described the underclass as an “unprivileged class of unemployed,
unemployable and underemployed who are more and more hopelessly set apart from
the nation at large and do not share in its life, its ambitions and its achievements.
The term was used to great effect by the Republicans during the 1988
presidential elections. According to Jacqueline Jones, “underclass” was shorthand for
“poor blacks in general, and a predatory youth culture in particular.” According to
Quinn, referring to these black communities as “dangerous” and “dependent” “helped
consolidate the white, rightward-realigning political imagination. (Quinn, Nuthin’ but a
“G” Thang)
As life in the inner city became rough, crime became a “source of survival” for
many poor and working class blacks. South Central Los Angeles was one of the most
damaged areas during this time. (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race,
Place, and the Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton”)
The strict policies for reckoning with drugs and gangs in Los Angeles only
made matters worse. Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates became a vocal crusader for
aggressive anti-drug policies. He was known for humiliatingly forcing kids to “kiss the
sidewalk” or spread-eagle against police cars. Most of the time these kids were only
guilty of trivial offenses such as parking tickets or curfew violations. “Gate’s
indiscriminate searches and detentions effectively turned an entire generation of
African American youth into targets for militarized law enforcement apparatus by
inscribing them with the mark of criminality.” (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of
Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta

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Compton”) South Central youth aspired for a new kind of rebellion. The answer?
Gangsta rap.
Gangsta rap was a much more resistant form of rebellion than just regular hip-
hop. Gangsta rap was used to articulate the virtual war zones of the predominantly
black neighborhoods of South Central.
N.W.A. and “Straight Outta Compton”
The first gangsta rap group, N.W.A., portrayed what life in South Central was
like in their 1988 album “Straight Outta Compton”.
In “Fuck the Police”, one of the most popular songs from “Straight Outta
Compton”, N.W.A. mocks the police and fantasizes about violent things they want to do
to them (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative
of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton”):
“Fuck the police comin’ straight from the underground/ A young nigga got it
bad cause I’m brown/ 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 beatin’ on and thrown in jail/ We can go toe to toe in the
middle of a cell/ Fuckin’ with me cause I’m a teenager/ With a little bit of gold and a
pager/ Searchin’ my car, lookin’ for the product/ Thinkin’ every nigga is sellin’
narcotics.”
Cube, a member of N.W.A also threatens to “Beat a police out of shape/ And
when I’m finished bring the yellow tape/ To tape off the scene of the slaughter.” This
signifies a scene of justified vengeance against Police Chief Daryl Gates and the rest of

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the LAPD in response to unwarranted searches and incarcerations of so many black
youth. (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative
of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton”)
In an attempt to de-masculinize expression of state power, Cube accuses police
of being homosexual for the routine of their in-depth search procedures: “I don’t know
if they fags or what/ Search a nigga down, and grabbin’ his nuts. Through the lyrics of
this song, N.W.A. “transformed the noble police officer into a colonizing thug and the
inner city gangsta into a militant trickster.” (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of
Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta
Compton”)
Ironically, gangsta rap like N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton”, exaggerated the
capitalist dynamics that were so detrimental to the poor urban communities. “The
music reproduced heightened place-centered insecurities and territorial barriers
within its own culture and industry, leading to very serious contests over places and
markets…The considerable insecurity within and between places at once produced
gangsta and was reproduced in gangsta.” (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of
Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta
Compton”)
Tension in the industry
Before N.W.A. and other gangsta rappers became successful, there had been a
“Los Angeles bias” that lingered for a long time due to hip-hop media, which were all
based on the East Coast. The East Coast portrayed a sense of subculture elitism and

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did not want to let the West Coast in on their industry. “The very sense of neglect and
exclusion from the New York establishment sowed the seeds of a new rap subgenre-it
enabled non-New York artists to foster a distinctive sound and attitude. Regional place
imagery sprang directly from the sense of New York’s implacable dominance...Without
the help of the East’s more established industrial base, regional artists often drew on
sensational subject matter, materially or symbolically linked to locale in order to carve
out a market niche.” (Quinn, Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang)
Themes found in gangsta rap
The sensational subject matter used during the time of the LA bias continues
today. This sensationalism is probably the most recognized characteristic within the
genre of gangsta rap. Although violence is probably the most prevalent of the
sensationalist subject matters intertwined throughout gangsta rap, it is definitely not
the only one.
The language of gangsta rap is often sexist to the point of misogyny. This is
seen heavily in the song “Straight Out Compton”:
“I find a good piece o’ pussy, I go up in it/ So if you’re at a show in the front
row/ I’m a call you a bitch or a dirty-ass ho/ You’ll probably get mad like a bitch is
supposed to/ But that shows me, slut, you’re composed to/ a crazy muthafucker from
the street.”
Misogynistic lyrics echo the way women are objectified among urban youths. It
is believed that the misogyny in gangsta rap was an effect of how the larger society
views African American women-it did not originally arise within the African American

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society, but instead it arose within the white, patriarchal system. Misogyny is actually
a common theme among many different music genres within the US. The blues and
country music are often also criticized for their depictions of females. (Blake, Rudolph,
Oxford & Boggs, “Making Peace With Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes”)
In her song “Ladies First”, hip-hop’s first lady, Queen Latifah, disputes the idea
of the gangsta bitch:
“The ladies will kick it, the rhyme it is wicked/ Those who don’t know how to
be pros get evicted/ A woman can hear you, break you, take you/ Now it’s time to
rhyme, can you relate to/ A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream?”
Ladies First highlights contributions of women in the history of black struggles
in the US and Africa. The music video for this song shows Latifah as a Third World
military strategist pushing white male figures off of a huge map of Southern African
and replaces them with black fists. It also shows footage of black protests and photos
of politically prominent black women. (Blake, Rudolph, Oxford & Boggs, “Making
Peace With Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes”)
“African American women rappers are in dialogue with one another, black men,
black women and dominant American culture as they struggle to define themselves
against a confining and treacherous social environment.” (Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music
and Black Culture in Contemporary America)
Playfulness and humor is also found throughout the lyrics of gangsta rap. “The
language of gangsta rap has always contained an element of playfulness and humor,
expressed through the use of nicknames, such as Ice-T, Ice Cube, Lil’ Wayne and Queen
Latifah; the boasting of rap artists about their skills compared to the weakness of their

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opponents; and sometimes seemingly nonsensical lyrics. ‘Phone Home’ on the album
Tha Carter 3 playfully refers to Lil’ Wayne’s lyrical skills being so out of this world that
he is ‘a martian’ (Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary
America):
“They don’t make ‘em like me no more/ Matter fact, they never made ‘em like
me before/ I’m rare like Mr. Clean with hair/ No brake lights on my car-eer/ I never
had life and I never had fear/ I rap like I done died and gone to heaven, I swear/ And
yeah I’m a bear, like black and white hair/ So I’m polar/ And they can’t get on my
system ‘cause my system is the solar/ I am so far from the o-thars, I mean others/ I
could eat them for supper/ Get in my spaceship and hover (hover).”
Another theme found in gangsta rap is authenticity. This is emphasized by the
use of the first person. Authenticity is also seen in the stories that gangsta rap tells,
although these stories do not have to imply historical truths or accuracy in the
rappers’ own lives. First-hand and even created stories can be considered authentic.
(Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America)
Authenticity is “necessary to establishing credibility as an artist within hip hop,
which values a discourse of lived experience, and has roots in oral tradition of
testimony and bearing witness.” (Hess, “Metal Faces, Rap Masks: Identity and
Resistance in Hip Hop’s Persona Artist”) This authenticity is accepted by the inner city
urban youth who experience the daily struggles portrayed in the stories of inside
gangsta rap lyrics.
A final theme found in gangsta rap that I would like to explore is the theme of
materialism. This is a newer trend seen in gangsta rap that focuses on obtaining

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material wealth with things like expensive cars and gold chains. (Blake, Rudolph,
Oxford & Boggs, “Making Peace With Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes”) The urban
youth in the inner city, in a way, are living vicariously through their rap lyrics. They
don’t actually have these things, but they wish they did and they like to make it appear
like they do in music videos.
Criticisms of Gangsta Rap
Since the very beginning, the genre of gangsta rap has been criticized by many.
Not just by white suburbanites, but by blacks and people of other racial backgrounds
as well.
In 2007, Rev. Al Sharpton, a distinguished African American social and political
figure, started a campaign to put an end to the use of disrespectful words like “nigga”
and “bitch” from rap music. C. Dolores Tucker, founder of the National Congress of
Black Women, decries gangsta rap as “pornographic filth” that harms impressionable
youth and the society at large. (Blake, Rudolph, Oxford & Boggs, “Making Peace With
Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes”)
In the 2004 film Bamboozled, Spike Lee satirizes gangsta rap as created solely
to entertain whites. He believes that most of the current figures in rap just want to
carry on the negative stereotypes of urban blacks, while others, who are trying to
move the genre in a more uplifting direction, are too few in number. (Blake, Rudolph,
Oxford & Boggs, “Making Peace With Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes”)
Ronin Ro, a former rapper, says the actual threat is young consumers who are
so infatuated with the genre. “The listener- young lacking role models or authority

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figures, and somewhat bored with life- would accept the gangsta rapper’s lyrics as
gospel.” (Green, Rap and Hip Hop: Examining Pop Culture)
However, supporters of gangsta rap, refer to critic’s negative opinions as
uninformed.
Lil’ Wayne expresses this in his song “Dontgetit”: “Baby understand me now/ If
sometimes you see that I’m mad/ Don’t you know no one alive can always be an
angel/ When everything goes wrong, you see some bad/ But I’m just a soul whose
intentions are good/ O lord please don’t let me be misunderstood.”
Many rappers also believe that since they are in the spotlight, they are often
used as scapegoats that are blamed for crime in the inner cities. But in actuality, by
treating rappers this way, it takes away from actual problems within the inner city.
(Blake, Rudolph, Oxford & Boggs, “Making Peace With Gangsta Rap: Themes and
Paradoxes”)
Conclusion
By examining the history of the formation of the inner city and the effects of
suburbanization on the post-industrial society, it is easy to see that urban life within
these inner cities was anything but easy. The question is whether gangsta rap and the
themes portrayed within it are justified. And do they make a positive or negative
impact on society as a whole? It’s hard to say, but what we do know is that gangsta
rap’s origins have a deeper meaning than what most people in our society know of
today.

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Sometimes it’s easy for our society to associate all gangsta rap with criminals
or “hoodlums” because of the way that certain people who listen to the genre idolize it.
These gangsta rap fans dress and act like their favorite rappers in an attempt to be
more like them. But what many of these fans (often white and not from the inner city)
don’t understand is that gangsta rappers rap about the subject matter that they do
because it’s something they have actually experienced. Many people don’t understand
that with the way our justice systems work, crime in the inner cities is often the only
way of survival for urban youth.
It is also important to note that although the “parodic use of the mark of
criminality ultimately reified the fear and incarceration of young African Americans,”
their disruption left the syntax of law and order more disputable and more vulnerable
than ever before. (McCann, “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race, Place, and the
Prerogative of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton”)

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Bibliography
Blake III, Charles C. Rudolph, Nathaniel J. Oxford, Rebecca L. Boggs, Rebecca M.
“Making Peace with Gangsta Rap: Themes and Paradoxes.” Understanding Peace
Cultures (2014): 265-299. Online.
Green, J. Rap and Hip Hop: Examining Pop Culture. Farmington Hills, MI: Green-haven
Press, 2003. Print.
Hess, M. “Metal Faces, Rap Masks: Identity and Resistance in Hip Hop’s persona artist.”
Popular Music and Society, 28.3 (2005): 297-311.
Jones, D. Marvin. Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet: America’s New Dilema. Santa Barbara:
Praeger, 2013. Print.
McCann, Bryan J. “Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Race, Place, and the Prerogative
of Violence in N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton.” Critical Studies in Media
Communication 29.5 (2012): 367-386. Online.
Quinn, Eithne. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Print.
Rose, T. Black Noise, Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.
Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Print.