Gangsta-rap songwriting

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Gangsta-rap songwriting analysis

We continue our panorama of narrative cultures, with an analysis of some of the most interesting rap lyrics of the last 30 years, from the US and UK.

Gangsta-rap, gangster rap, refers to a whole body of works and artists from the 1980s and 1990s, from the African-American ghettos in the United States, and linked to delinquency and criminality.

We are going to:

• Discover these often provocative, slang, deliberately vulgar lyrics
• Explain the multiple puns and double or even triple meanings
• Comment them extensively to explain the allusions, identify the effects of style and narration, find the plots and characters when there are any (with the tools exposed in our scenario tutorials)
• Make many detours on particular themes, such as sexism, machismo and feminism, the riots in LA, art as therapy, the relationship between rap and politics, and a few other substantive topics

Our selection is partial and biased of course, but we have tried to retain the particularly striking tracks in the history of gangsta-rap, not necessarily the best, but the most symbolic, founding, or simply the best written, the most rich in meaning, the most exemplary for the authors of song lyrics.

Program

We’ll analyse and explain the meanings of the lyrics of

• N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton (1988)
• N.W.A. – Fuck Tha Police (1988)
• Ice Cube – It was a good day (1992)
• Eazy-E – Real Muthaphuckkin’ G’s (1993)
• Coolio – Gangster’s Paradise (1995)
• Notorious B.I.G. – Who shot ya? (1995)
• Tupac & Dr Dre – California Love (1995)
• Dr Dre feat Snoop Dog – The Next Episode (1999)
• Dr Dre feat Snoop Dog – Still D.R.E. (1999)