When hip-hop was born in the Bronx 50 years ago, it didn’t take long for its influence to spread far beyond the five boroughs. Los Angeles is more than just a train ride away, but the sound and scope of rap music were just too great to be contained to just one city. As songs like “Rapper’s Delight” and “The Message” took over the airwaves nationwide, aspiring artists in LA took a look at the rebellious emerging sound and thought, “We can do that.”
Of course, over the next decade, LA rappers put their own spin on the nascent sound of the future. They put more emphasis on the production side, taking inspiration from the city’s funk and jazz scenes that had put down roots decades prior. LA’s got more of a car culture than New York’s trains and bustling sidewalks, so the beats and the rhymes sprawled out, evoking the wide-open spaces, low-slung buildings, and palm tree-lined main arteries of the ‘hoods adjacent to Tinseltown.
More than anything, though, the West Coast brought a new perspective to hip-hop. It brought G-funk to the world and it highlighted how expansive the nascent culture could truly be. In the years since, it’s only grown, from demonstrating how gangstas roll to transforming the landscape of the burgeoning blog scene and beyond. Here’s how LA formed its own rap scene that wound up changing hip-hop – and the world.
In the 1970s, Los Angeles was home to much of the recording industry, including the funk and R&B bands that have come to define the era. That connection formed the first thread that led to West Coast hip-hop’s later dominance over popular culture, with many of the earliest ripples of influence spreading out from the dance-driven grooves of the Uncle Jamm’s Army parties. Rumor has it that these events inspired one of hip-hop’s earliest forays into film with Breakin’, and that even Michael Jackson would attend looking for new moves to incorporate into his own act.
Another DJ crew that gained notoriety was World Class Wreckin’ Cru, which counted among its number the man who would go on to become the genre-shaking Dr. Dre. These crews and the culture they fostered went in a different direction than the more breakbeat-focused East Coast scene, drawing from electro and big band funk – especially that of Parliament – to create a vibe that more closely reflected the more lush, laid-back, and sprawling landscape around them.
Of course, by the 1980s, rap had become a nationwide phenomenon. LA spawned the first radio station to play hip-hop 24 hours a day, KDAY (all day!), which helped expose the sunny Pacific Coast to the breadth of rap sounds, from “Sucker MCs” and “Rock The Bells” to “Jam On It” and “Planet Rock.” Naturally, a simmering underground scene of aspiring California MCs followed. One such group was Stereo Crew, a trio consisting of K-Dee, Sir Jinx, and a young Ice Cube.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E formed their own independent record labels, along with others like Duffy Hooks’ Rappers Rapp Records. Uncle Jamm’s Army and the World Class Wreckin’ Cru released singles, but the West Coast rap scene truly began to coalesce with the success of Ice-T’s Schoolly D-inspired gangsta rap record, “6 In The Mornin’.” This, of course, kicked in the door for the whirlwind to follow.
In 1988, “Straight Outta Compton” became the phenomenon that officially put the Los Angeles rap scene on the map and permanently shifted the balance of the culture. Where New York had previously been the epicenter of all things hip-hop, now, acts from both coasts were seen as equally viable on the national stage – and of course, those twin influences eventually shaped how nearly every regional rap scene between the two poles functioned until at least the mid-2000s.
But perhaps the greatest seismic shock to come out of Los Angeles was Death Row Records. With a lineup including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Death Row’s influence still reverberates throughout the culture to this day. Tupac’s “Thug Life” ethos and yin-and-yang balance between revolutionary and gangsta stances permeates the oeuvre of rappers like Nipsey Hussle and Kendrick Lamar, and on a wider scale, just about every notable hip-hop act since, from Jay-Z and Nas to Killer Mike and T.I.
When Death Row more or less disbanded in the wake of Tupac’s death in 1996, LA rap underwent both a fracturing and an expansion. Without Death Row as the core that consolidated the LA sound, West Coast rap spun off in a dozen new directions. While Death Row held onto a few artists who would later form the foundations of new movements like Kurupt and Crooked I, the underground flourished thanks to the Good Life regulars who began to gain popular recognition outside of LA. Meanwhile, others spun off the Project Blowed movement, which not only frequently hosted many future members of the coming blog era, but also unexpected progeny such as Doja Cat decades later.
Dr. Dre remained a pillar of LA’s rap community, though, launching his label Aftermath, sparking the careers of future hall-of-famers like Eminem and 50 Cent. And, of course, he kept the longstanding legacy of NWA alive with The Game, the Compton rapper who bridged the gap between the decade of LA’s dominance over rap and the next generation.
We can’t talk about the modern era of rap without talking about 2DopeBoyz, one of the premier blogs of the 2010s, which provided some of the earliest coverage of breakout stars like Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Wale, and many, many more. A large part of this is due to geography; the titular 2DopeBoyz, Shake and Meka, simply wrote about the vibrant scene around them.
At any given open mic night in the city, you stood a reasonable chance of coming across a performance by the nascent Kendrick Lamar, long before the Grammys and Pulitzer. Or Dom Kennedy, who even then was a beacon for the modern independent, DIY model of rap hustle. Nipsey Hussle sold CDs at venues like the now-defunct Key Club, and the rest of Black Hippy would perform at residencies like The Good Hurt. Pac Div, U-N-I, Overdoz, and more formed the foundation of the blog-era moment within rap; they were among the first acts to sign deals with major labels on the strength of their local movements. And they often did it all without the help of radio, which was struggling with the shifting landscape as much as the labels themselves.
By Aaron Williams / Hip-Hop Editor
How
Changed The Course Of
Hip-hop History
LA
The Foundation:
The '70
s
Nipsey Hussle
The Beginning:
The '80
s
World Class Wreckin' Cru
NWA, Ruthless Records, And The Birth Of
G-Funk
The '90
s
By 1991, when Dr. Dre went solo with The Chronic, introducing the world to both Snoop Dogg and G-funk at the same time, gangsta rap had become the de facto standard for any commercial hip-hop act. In fact, just about any rap act that did not embrace the tropes and sonic landscapes of gangsta rap were christened with the dubious titles of “alternative” or “conscious” rap.
Acts who flourished during this time period include Dre’s fellow Comptonite DJ Quik, as well as Long Beach counterparts Warren G and Nate Dogg, whose 1994 song “Regulate” became iconic thanks to its placement on the Above The Rim soundtrack. Spinoffs from NWA included the Cleveland crew Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who were mentored by Eazy-E in the wake of the group’s dissolution, and Ice Cube, who adopted both the outspoken social commentary of groups like Public Enemy and the gangsta poise of WC and Mack-10, with whom he teamed up to form Westside Connection.
Meanwhile, groups that shot off from the more Afrocentric and playful style of New York’s Native Tongues crew included The Pharcyde, Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, and the Black Eyed Peas, fronted by another Eazy-E pupil, Will.I.Am. They offered a counterbalance to the violent and explicit content of their fellow Angelenos, reaching back to the city’s jazz and funk roots to espouse a more upbeat and optimistic outlook. These groups and more were frequent fixtures at the Good Life Cafe open mic nights.
Ice-T
Aftermath:
The ‘90
and 2000
s
s
Tupac Shakur
Tyler The Creator
The Blog Era:
The 2010
s
Snoop DogG & Dr Dre
Thanks to the groundwork laid by the LA rap acts that kept the city’s musical scene flourishing, there are any number of artists today who could very well be the stars of tomorrow. Artists like Blxst, BlueBucksClan, D Smoke, Kalan.FrFr, Roddy Ricch, Tyler The Creator, and Vince Staples proudly represent the Golden State, while streaming and social media make it easier than ever for both new and legacy musicians to stay in contact with fans, release new music, and introduce new listeners to old-school classics.
The diversity that can be found in the city itself can also be found in its music, from modern takes on G-funk to the ratchet/turn-up style pioneered by DJ Mustard throughout the past decade along with rappers like Tyga and YG, who are teaming up for a collaborative mixtape this year, and Roddy Ricch, who brought home a Grammy alongside the late Nipsey Hussle for their 2019 single “Racks In The Middle.” As hip-hop continues to reach outward across the globe, there may not be one central hub anymore, but you can always come back to the West to see where the genre is going next.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Today And
Tomorrow
The 2020 'TIL INFINITY
s
NWA,
Ruthless
Records,
And The
Birth
Of G-Funk
The '90
s
In 1988, “Straight Outta Compton” became the phenomenon that officially put the Los Angeles rap scene on the map and permanently shifted the balance of the culture. Where New York had previously been the epicenter of all things hip-hop, now, acts from both coasts were seen as equally viable on the national stage – and of course, those twin influences eventually shaped how nearly every regional rap scene between the two poles functioned until at least the mid-2000s.
Today And Tomorrow
The 2020 'TIL INFINITY
Writer: aaron williams
design: joe petrolis &
carlos sotelo olivas
writer: aaron williams
design: joe petrolis & carlos sotelo olivas