How LA proved hip-hop could go global — by staying thoroughly local

Drake Ruler, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Quick, N. W. A. ​​Collage by Jackie Lay/NPR.

Valick Goshin / Bennett Laglin / Michael Rocha Seno / Theo Vago / Getty Images / AP

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the hi p-hop, we will cover the history on site and introduce more than 12 urban stories related to music and culture. Click here to see all lists.

The primordial essence

If you grew up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, you can teleport in the dawn of the west coast on the west coast just by pressing the switch. For several years until the Telecommunications Law in 1996, when regional radio stations were deregulating and lowering, the "Urban Modern" FM station (Power 106 and 92. 3 The Beat) regularly mixed the ol d-fashioned classic before Big Bang. I was doing it.

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There was no NASA project comparable to the ultr a-speed aerial floating of Zap's "More Bounce to the Ounce". Understanding The Funk to understand the basic elements of Los Angeles hi p-hop. Doctor Dray, DJ Quick, Djkat, Battle Cat, Sir Jinx, Warren G, DJ Mags of Cypress Hill, and Abva The Rowt hatches, and are fascinated by the Hat and Kings Jacket The public who gained intuitively understood.

After all, this era was the "G Funk era". The dray and two packs hired Roger Troutman and sang songs that became a de facto national anthem in California. Ice Cube made George Clinton appeared on a video and remakes "One Nation Under a Groove". Contrary to commercial logic, Snoop Dog has released a single with mature sexy Charlie Wilson. Even the "Pistol Grip Pump", the largest crossover of the underground hi p-hop, PROJECT BLOWED, was a reproduction of extreme funk.

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Funk was a primitive essence in the group's DNA. A few years before Cool Hark held the Back to School Jam in South Bronx, the trend of B-boyism has occurred from the café terrace of the South Central Community College. Don Campbell, who learns commercial art, invented a "rocking" that combines "funky chicken" and "robot". The locomotive genius was in its open design. After Soul Train moved from Chicago to Hollywood in 1971, Campbell became a lead dancer, and the freezes and quick movements that closed his joints spread throughout the United States, which was immediately sympathized by polyester Balicinikov.

A wild style was mutated. In southern California, po p-ups and locks that cramped arms, legs, and chests born in Bay and Fresno were fused. By the late 1970s, both coasts systematized four elements at the same time. In United, Los Angeles County, immigrants from Central California and Long Beach formed an electric arch cult team. Thanks to the innovation of gymnastics imported from New York, Breaking swept inside the city.

DJs and by boys have dominated the world. Recently, Aronzo Williams and Roger Clayton, the founder of the innovative group of Rekkin Crew and Ankle Jams Army, remembers the Night Club that remembers the Twisted Fink, R o-And Am, and Seoul. Was founded. In 1979, Williams dedicated Compton's Eva After Dark to Doctor Dray, a Star of the teenage brake through. However, the West Coast was still one step behind. Park jam required a high permission. Los Angeles's hi p-hop was considered a trend, and there was no Sugar Hill record.

In 1981, the Air Force retirement, Daddy Daddy and Captain Rap, released their first official lap records in Los Angeles after meeting a club welcoming Magic Johnson Lakers. The gigolo rapp was imitated "Ha" Rappers Delight ", and the label (Rappers Rapp) was from a former Sugar Hill Salesman. In addition to the skills, another important difference was seen. However, while the Sugar Hill interpreted the smooth and elegant "GOOD TIMES", Los Angeles' sel f-proclaimed "Terrible Two" rhyme on the crazy slice of "SUPER FREAK". 。

James Brown invented a funk. Most of the second wave geniuses appeared in the deserted factory city in the Midwest. However, it was Los Angeles that they finally established their talents and linkage. Motown in 1972 predicted that the city would be a global capital of black music. By the end of 10 years, Casablanca Records and Takes Colored Rus have moved to the sunset step behind Pallament-Kankaderick. Soul Train created solar (Sound of Los Angeles Records) and opened Whispers, Sharamar, Lake Side and Midnight Star. To clarify the bridge between the times and the times, Solar's c o-founder Dick Griffy eventually became a member of Death Row, along with Souge Knight.

If synth-funk became the vulcanized backbone of Los Angeles hip-hop, it was because rappers, producers, and DJs internalized it as teenagers. By the time of Bill Clinton's second term, terrestrial radio was broadcasting the '82 sound with Tha Dogg Pound and Suga Free. What followed is practically inseparable from its foundations: Parliament's "Flashlight" and "Atomic Dog," Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus" (where Snoop discovered the slang "izzle"), The Dazz's "Let 'It Whip," The Gap's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," One Way's "Cutie Pie," Ronnie Hudson's "West Coast Poplock," anything even remotely resembling Prince's purple color scheme, and Roger Troutman banging on a talk box. Funk reinvigorated the spirit of Los Angeles because it contained a dialectic of "light noir." Gloss and champagne invaded pornographic humidity and bleak reality. The music was solid enough to make the "bloodbaths" and "crips" dance, but also smooth enough and quirky enough to make an appearance on Soul Train and American Bandstand. This was propulsive, driving music made for Crenshaw's dangerous highway chases and Sunday outings. In a Quartz metropolis torn apart by race and class incidents, murderous gang wars, LAPD brutality, and the debilitating effects of the crack epidemic, funk was both brick and substance.

Indeed, it's only fitting that the first region to break the five-region monopoly should be its polar opposite. Neither the impenetrable claustrophobia, the frigid weather, nor the arthritic subways mattered to the level land of abundant sunshine and Alpine subwoofers. While East Coast producers were digging through drawers for soul and jazz gems, 1980s Los Angeles was into hardcore (be it punk or funk). If New York was the peninsula, the rest of the country was more like Los Angeles with its sprawling malls. This natural conflict only fueled their originality, whether it was gangsta rap, bass music, Latin hip-hop, or the triple-time chop that gave birth to "The Good Life." California has always represented the American frontier, the future.

Fault lines rupturing

In 1983, a part of the division broke down. The low-budget documentary "Breakin 'N' ENTERIN '" depicts a fluorescent battle between MC and B-BOYS in Radio, the first symbolic hip-hop club in large cities. KDAY hired Doctor Dray as "Micks Master" and Greg Mac as a music director, and grown the AM1580 into the world's No. 1 hi p-hop radio station. The label finally noticed its potential. Saturn Records released Ice T's first electro funk wrap, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis played the bass and buttons between Prince tours. Macola Record released Ankle Jams Army's first urban bestseller "Dial-A-FREAK".

The Egyptian Villabd, with a vocoder and a turntable, caused an ecstatic freak party, repeating his name like hypnosis, like a mechanized Muejin slogan. He was the first rapper and producer on the west coast in Angelino's club music, comparable to Detroit Techno and Chicago House. And when Luther Campbell, a tw o-live crew, booked Egyptian Lover's performance, the interdolic crossing stimulated the bass of Miami and Atlanta to some extent.

But parties music was just a part of it. In 1950, a fine white supremacist William Parker led the Los Angeles police. Since then, Los Angeles' dark and brown communities have been blamed. In the 1980s, Parker had been spending a long time in hell, but Boss, a former former driver and apprentice, inherited the characteristics of authoritative ruthlessness from his teacher. The booming cocaine trading caused a bloody struggle over land. The murder rate was a record high. In response, the Los Angeles Police led a 6-ton tank trolled, equipped with a 4, 5-mete r-5 -mete r-tall strike stick, and blew off the accused drug trafficking house.

Before Ice T and N. W. A. became a hot topic in the United States, there was Todd T. Along with his partner Micks Master Spade, Compton's man became an underground phenomenon and sold thousands of tapes at the fair. Batterram, an ant i-police song, announced in 1985, has established a tradition of social criticism that has determined many L. A.'s gangster rap. And the song was produced by Dr. Drley by Leon Haywood of Seoul Funk Casanova and Leon Haywood used by Dr. Drley.

That paved the way for Ice-T. In 1986, New Jersey transplants Jimmy Jem and Terry Lewis rejected songs that reflected the chaos of the street, "life or death." Philadelphia's Schoolly D probably released the first song in the style of gangster rep, but the cinematic story "6" N the Mornin'" allowed an entire generation to see the world of opportunity. America's favorite anti-rep archetype has transformed from a Wild West thief to a swinging mobster to now a gangster rapper, somewhere between Iceberg Slim and Al Capone, Billy Kidd and Black Caesar. Trying his luck in film and television, Ice-T wrote a fake screenplay that depicted him fleeing from the police to Adidas Creek at dawn, rubber taps in his hands in his pocket.

You know what's coming: Monolith, raised $200 million, and was nominated for an Oscar. Or at least, you've heard the phrase "f*** tha police." It's hard to overestimate the influence of Dr. Dre and Ice Qube, considering how big they've become more than 35 years after the release of their debut single, "Singela N. W. A. Boyz-N-the-Hood."

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Ice Cube will forever be remembered as one of hip-hop's greatest storytellers. When O'Shea Jackson left for New York to collaborate with Public Enemy's Bomb Squad, the resulting masterpiece, 1990's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, made it clear that the West Coast was not only capable of rivaling its East class, but also of producing the best rappers. No one else captured the rage of black Angelenos against the legacy of racism, police satanism, and socio-economic inequality that led to the '92 uprising. And Cube became a revered Hollywood cult figure, doing more than anyone to bring hip-hop's social critique and cultural relevance to the American mainstream, regardless of Are We There Yet? Dr. Dre solved everything except the common cold. With N. W. A., he created the template for the most commercially successful subgenre of all time. With The Chronic, he rebooted P-Funk hip-hop and transformed it into a staple soundtrack for the American party scene. While it's impossible to avoid misogyny and there's no precedent for relentlessly targeting beautiful women, Asklepios' hip-hop productions undoubtedly helped JJ Fudd become the West Coast's first gold-winning female rapper. Without Dre, there would be no Snoop, Eminem, 50 Cent, or Kendrick Lamar as we know them.

As the global ruler of the multiverse, Dr. Dre often overshadows the depth, variety, and ingenuity of the most innovative but least wanted artists: Quik, Suga Free, Compton's Most Wanted, Low Profile, King T, and others. As a result, the West Coast hip-hop landscape is often conflated with N. W. A., Death Row (including D. O. C., Warren G, Tha Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, and 2Pac), Aftermath, and "the rest." In more one-dimensional terms, gangsta rap has turned into a caricature on steroids and race. Critics have latched onto the "guns, drugs, sex" cliché, and scathing songs like Dre's "Lil' Ghetto Boy," MC Eiht's "Straight Up Menace," and Suga Free's "Dip Da" effectively illuminate inner-city blues as Marvin Gaye-like (and more eloquent than any socialist realist novel). For decades, the criminal element of the East-West struggle has been distracted by the artistic merits of anthems like "Trapped," "So Many Tears," and "Keep Ya Head Up."

West Coast Latin hip hop has suffered similar flattening. Cypress Hill, thanks to their own multiplatinum wealth and multicultural advances, have become collective avatars of Los Angeles Chicano life (a gross oversimplification, given that Sen Dog and Mellow Man Ace are Cuban, B-Real is half Mexican and half Cuban, DJ Muggs is Italian, and percussionist Eric Bobo is a descendant of Latin jazz legend Willie Bobo). If a Simpsons cameo and a vaguely ethereal early '90s vibe launched them as the poster child for Stoned rap, this view doesn't take into account how constructive Muggs' tomahawk funk and B-Real's cornered, neurotic paranoia were on arrival. South Gate's Mellowman Ace, brother of Cypress Hill's Sen Dog, became the first Latino rapper to chart on the Hot 100 with 1990's "Mentirosa." Soon after, listeners were introduced to Los Angeles' Aztlan on Yo! MTV Raps with Kid Frost's "La Raza." It was an old school art lab bursting with Chevy lowriders, revolutionary murals, bubble graffiti, and the chilly omnipresence of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. The triumph of business ushered in a brief but significant golden age of Latin American hip hop on the West Coast, with hits like "A Lighter Shade of Brown," "Delinquent Habits," and "Funkdoobiest." Los Angeles gang life was historically rife with tensions between dark and Latino gangs, but hip hop provided a solution that continues to this day, thanks to followers like OhGeesy, Peysoh, and the late MoneySign $uede. YouTube When considering the situation half a century later, it's worth considering who wrote the original version. Much of the criticism and reporting on hip-hop coming out of Los Angeles was produced by New Yorkers, whose telescopic, narrow prism often determined its merits and importance. (Street gospel singer Suga Free got a couple of mics at The Source, but we won't get into that.) Apart from a short-lived rap page or the occasional feature in LA Weekly or the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles actors never took advantage of the quarterly, more nuanced portrayals of the sameness and contradictions and difficulties as their East Coast counterparts, who had native correspondents stationed in many publications.

Rap sprawls out over the city

As a result, almost every story about rebocentric hip-hop in Los Angeles is filled with reductive norms. In these stories, the underground emerges from the nightly open mics at the Healthy Diet Cafe, a long-established "good life" establishment in South Central's bohemian enclave of Learmer Park. In the early 1990s, the artists who gathered there night after night were often described as "conscious, Afrocentric alternative," "vulgar," and "nihilistic" gangsta rappers who led the charts. This concept was underscored by rules against foul language and the literary and modal legacy of good living left by the What Prophets ur-rappers.

But the reality is more nuanced. The actors associated with The Good Life Plan and its sequels are among the most included in the volume performed at 52nd Street-Yorca on the technical level of virtuoso, virtuoso, and psychedelically creative artists that have been displayed somewhere since the days of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Indeed, if you believe that aliens have been among us for a long time, Mick 9's 1991 "Seventh Seal" Star Command is considered the best confirmation of that. Around this time, the South Central citizen was enjoying immense popularity: he released his debut album N. W. A. and the posse. "To end the substitution, one of Snup Dogg's first concerts was with Inglewood Mac 10 and Jurassic 5's Gangste-Raper (in their proto-form unity committee), and the collection of MICs through the tracklist was done on Good Life.

Open or not, it was a project that blew up in the Los Angeles underground situation. Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody, Nocando (now All City Jimmy), avant-garde Leirpers combining low-end theory, instrumental hip-hop, IDM Warp Records on top of Starry Sky, Flying Lotus, Nosage Thing, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington - they all collaborated with Lamar. The world-famous club night was inspired by Odd Future, which became the debut show, and the 1st They produced the album Radiohead and held after-party with Paradise Garage, Tunnel and Hasireda.

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In the post-Napster frenzy, the Los Angeles underground blossomed. People Under the Stairs, Mars and Living Legend toured the world and sold hundreds of thousands of records. Jurassic 5 and Dilatated Peoples both signed to major labels, and the Kanye West-produced "This Way" hit the Hot 100. The Beverly Hills-raised Alchemist, one of Dilated's original collaborators, transformed himself from one of hip-hop's greatest hitmakers into a true creator, rubbing shoulders with some of its darkest inspirations across generations. The House of Kennedy built a lifestyle brand of spontaneous, silly cruise rap. And, ignoring the meddling of mediocre labels, San Pedro-based Blue balanced convention and futurism as perfectly as any kid in the '80s could.

Dr. Dre cast a long shadow over it all. Paid hip-hop fell victim to Aftermath's virtually unshakeable power at the levers of the machine. The Game joined L. A.'s great 00s hip-hop landscape. His ear for a striking beat and irreverent loyalty to his gangsta rap idols more than made up for any lack of originality.

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Just when gangsta rap seemed dead, the late 00s saw a freakish interest in dance-rap, jerkin' the party go-to, contrasting with the guns and palm trees bravado of the previous two decades. Within a year, huge, distributed teams of vibrant, sex-crazed young people in skinny jeans were forming and posting elaborate dances to Slauson's intergalactic minimal funk on MySpace. For a while, Los Angeles hip-hop created an alternate reality, one where the band went straight from Uncle Gemma's Army to 2009, stopping off in the Bay Area to shave off hi-fis for spare parts.

But everything soon returned to normal. The main survivors of the shock era were Compton's YG and his DJ-producer Mustard, whose rattling rhythms layered ominous house piano over thumping 808s. In the process, the "Rack City" pioneer became LA's first super-producer since Dre. YG built his reputation with street records like "Bitches Ain't S***," a light rendition of a G-Funk original. To the young Los Angeles street, YG and his collaborator Nipsey Hussle became the millennial version of "Pac" and Snoop's "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted."

Breakthroughs on breakthroughs

As long as there is a Los Angeles gang, Los Angeles gangsta laps exist. However, when the su b-genre became old enough to turn, reinvention was needed. Doctor Dray derived the answer again. In the 2012 debut album "Aftermath," Kendrick Lamar broke out of the tradition from the tw o-pack stagnation. Brave Boy, M. A. A. D City "is firmly rooted in the features of the gangsta wrap. The threat of violence, the regio n-specific representation such as Tams Burger and Gonzales Park, Dre and MC Eight cameo. However, it was clearly across generations, such as Beach House's example, alarm bell for alcoholism, and the pain of dreaks to girls posting photos of holidays that are fascinating on Instagram. Of course, the genealogy of the rammer's compton continued to be an essential element for his music. The next album began with George Clinton's funkadelic sermon.

As the last decade has been prolonged, the reality of the street has fundamentally different from the 20th century clause. For children in the 90's, khaki, chucktailer, old Chevrolet, and smoking hydrochronics seemed to be anachronistic from their parents. No one called it Gangsta Rap. The latest generation of spokeswoman is the "Foreign Whip" Draikio the Ruler who breaks the customs. South Central's rapper did not claim that he was a gang member, but spoke of a nervous lifestyle, such as running around with Roll s-Royce Dawn against people trying to kill themselves every time a red light. He boasted that he went shopping at Nehman Marcus, drank actabis, interviewed a murder of a former prosecutor's daughter and became a hot topic. L. A. Draco, which was released from an orthodox orthodox tied to hi p-hop, has become the most creative new stylist since Snoop. His floor, vocabulary, and cadence continue to define California's modern street wrap.

It was not just Drakeo. His evil twin younger brother, Watts, brought in the Baton Rouge's lap pain, Atlanta's radioactive tune, and the spirit of the Jordan Downs Project victory. Greed's "Emo Music for Criminals" was distorted, hurt, and had blood on the truck. Greed broke the tradition of the West Coast and proclaimed love for T-Pain. T-Pain is a Florida singer, and the excitement of the exciting computer generation is closest to Roger Troutman.

For those who are still alive and remember the first time, everything should seem strange. The platform to grow hi p-hop remained in a distant memory. The bulldozer came to Sports Arena, Skateland, and After Dark. ROADIUM-exchange points no longer exist. Los Angeles Station's hi p-hop has no longer playing local music, except for KDAY, which was revived 20 years later as a classic hi p-hop sacred place. The land was too high. The spread of remarks increased asset value and population movement. The dolls and rock moved from a price to shock to understand everything that was happening at Tiktok this month. If Funk remains as part of tradition, it is a music for the gathering of parents, grandparents, and uncle aunt, and the effects of generations are a matter of penetration.

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Even if it has changed, Los Angeles is still Los Angeles. The fatal reality of the Los Angeles police and the sheriff office is an organization that suffers from many murder cases and scandals related to atrocities, but is still widespread. The judicial system is unfortunately known for its corruption. It is rarely difficult to survive everyday. A quarte r-century has passed since Gangsta Rap became the most popular form of hi p-hop, and what is currently recognized in Los Angeles has returned to the underground identity in that area. However, even if the sound changes, the N. W. A theme is still important. But don't quote my words. < SPAN> For those who are still alive and remember the first time, everything should seem strange. The platform to grow hi p-hop remained in a distant memory. The bulldozer came to Sports Arena, Skateland, and After Dark. ROADIUM-exchange points no longer exist. Los Angeles Station's hi p-hop has no longer playing local music, except for KDAY, which was revived 20 years later as a classic hi p-hop sacred place. The land was too high. The spread of remarks increased asset value and population movement. The dolls and rock moved from a price to shock to understand everything that was happening at Tiktok this month. If Funk remains as part of tradition, it is a music for the gathering of parents, grandparents, and uncle aunt, and the effects of generations are a matter of penetration.

Speaking of Los Angeles's hi p-hop, Gangsta Rap would come to mind first, but the price was great. The road became a theory. It was the one who gave this tradition of life or death was that the person who fell in the bubble bath was imprisoned. In recent years, in connection with Nippys Hasul and Draco's murder gangs, the rulers have fallen into the city as if they were not since the 2-Pac murder, and both deaths were composed by no n-priests and local murder of rock PNB. It was done. If Grid was a great hope for the remaining, he was imprisoned in prison for drug trafficking and was deprived of the heyday of five years.

Even if it has changed, Los Angeles is still Los Angeles. The fatal reality of the Los Angeles police and the sheriff office is an organization that suffers from many murder cases and scandals related to atrocities, but is still widespread. The judicial system is unfortunately known for its corruption. It is rarely difficult to survive everyday. A quarte r-century has passed since Gangsta Rap became the most popular form of hi p-hop, and what is currently recognized in Los Angeles has returned to the underground identity in that area. However, even if the sound changes, the N. W. A theme is still important. But don't quote my words. For those who are still alive and remember the first time, everything should seem strange. The platform to grow hi p-hop remained in a distant memory. The bulldozer came to Sports Arena, Skateland, and After Dark. ROADIUM-exchange points no longer exist. Los Angeles Station's hi p-hop has no longer playing local music, except for KDAY, which was revived 20 years later as a classic hi p-hop sacred place. The land was too high. The spread of remarks increased the asset value and populated population movement. The dolls and rock moved from a price to shock to understand everything that was happening at Tiktok this month. If Funk remains as part of tradition, it is a music for the gathering of parents, grandparents, and uncle aunt, and the effects of generations are a matter of penetration.

Speaking of Los Angeles's hi p-hop, Gangsta Rap would come to mind first, but the cost was great. The road became a theory. It was the one who gave this tradition of life or death was that the person who fell in the bubble bath was imprisoned. In recent years, in connection with Nippys Hasul and Draco's murder gangs, rulers have fallen into the city as if they hadn't had been since the 2-Pac murder, and both deaths were complex due to no n-priests and local murder of rock PNB. It was done. If Grid was a great hope for the remaining, he was imprisoned for the imprisonment for drug trafficking, and he was deprived of his fiv e-year heyday.

Even if it has changed, Los Angeles is still Los Angeles. The fatal reality of the Los Angeles police and the sheriff office is an organization that suffers from many murder and atrocities, but is still widespread. The judicial system is unfortunately known for its corruption. It is rarely difficult to survive everyday. A quarte r-century has passed since Gangsta Rap became the most popular form of hi p-hop, and what is currently recognized in Los Angeles has returned to the underground identity in that area. However, even if the sound changes, the N. W. A theme is still important. But don't quote my words.

The beat goes on