PAPER PROPOSAL

The theme of my work are the basic elements of gangsta rap. In my work, I will concentrate on
the work of the Los Angeles rap artists from the late 20th century, from the so-called Golden
Era of gangster rap. this is a period of significant popularization of hip-hop culture and music.
Also among white youth in the US and in the world. Will try to show the most characteristic
elements of gangsta-rap in the context of social realities and history of criminal gangs in Los
Angeles.

Breakup of the Black Panther Party and Black Power - gangster prehistory

An important role in the history of the African American community was played by
organizations focused on self-defense and respecting the rights of the black minority. One of
the leading organizations was the Black Panter Party. It concentrate black students and
intellectuals but also other representatives of the African-American community. It focused
mainly on respecting the rights of black people in the US, but also had revolutionary aspirations.
Apart from self-defense, and the fight against police brutality, the organization also ran
charitable activities.

The organization was very popular and its magazine was published in 250,000 copies. The FBI,
fearing the Panther Party's activities, carried out numerous provocations aimed at disrupting the
Panther Party with criminal gangs and other organizations including the Karnegas US
Organization. As a result of these activities, the FBI came to brutal incidents between rival
Black Panter Party and Karenga's US Organization. On the morning of January 17, 1969, the
leader Panter, Bunchy Carter and his deputy met during the Black Student Union meeting (Can
not Stop Want 'Stop, p. 312). Police brutality and arrest as well as internal disputes in the Black
Panther Party led to a significant weakening of the organization. Another powerful blow to the
intellectual activity of the black community was the destruction by the double agent of the FBI
Watt Writers Workshop. It was an organization created after the Watts Riots riots in Los
Angeles in 1965.

The formation of gangs in Los Angeles was the result of social changes in the 1980s. They were
the result of the transition from the industrial economy towards the services economy. As a
result of economic changes, there has been a significant reduction in the living standards of
numerous factory employees. The demand for unskilled manual laborers dropped significantly,
which was associated with a drop in wages and unemployment. This led to an increase in crime
(Nuthin 'but a "G" Thang. P. 42).

The role of the Black Panther Party was taken over by street gangs. They provided their
members with a sense of solidarity and defense both by the brutality of the police and by
competitive criminal groups. One such gang was Baby Avenu, a local group from the Watts
district in Los Angeles. During Bunha Carter's assassination of the Baby Avenues gang, which
by wearing black costumes expressed solidarity with the Panther Party. One of the members of
this group was Raymond Washington, a teenager with criminal deductions and numerous
conflicts with the law. After leaving Avenues, together with a group of teenagers, he founded
the most important black gang in Los Angeles: Crips gang (Can not Stop Want 'Stop, p. 312).
Gangs such as Crips or competitive Bloods quickly grew to large proportions in the poor ghetto
of Los Angeles.

Gangsta Rap

Hip-hop music is an important element of gangster culture, and rap gang creators are often or
have been associated with local gangs. In their creation they emphasize their relationship with
street crime groups. They represent themselves as the voice of the community from which they
originate or the commentators of the brutal reality in which they were brought up, and which is
their home. An example may be Ice-T who admits to being familiar with members of the Crips
gang and forbids them in interviews. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlIYfaGuJQ).
Snoop Dog was associated with the same gang
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8LbbeUWxXg).

Because of the connection with the criminal world, gangsta rap artists make some controversy.
There are allegations of glorifying the gangster lifestyle and related crime. Particularly big
controversy aroused the song Fuck The Police from N. W. A. He was accused of calling to
commit murders on policemen

Subject matter of texts and attributes of artistic creation of gangsta rappers.

In the work of gangsta rappers, there are constant motifs and constant attributes in their artistic
creation. These are the basic elements of gangster culture that define it. This is well illustrated
by a fragment of the text from "Gangsta Rap" by Ice - T:

“This is not R & B this is Gangsta Rap

Bitches get smacked, busters get jacked
Front if you want, you'll get laid on your back
It's about guns and drugs and ho's”
This is a chorus of songs that sums up the genre well. Speech is primarily about weapons,
violence, drugs and sex. As I write Cheryl L. Keyes: "The West Coasters lyrics conveyed the
gritty and dengerous aspects of hustling (drug dealing), gang-banging and drive-by shootings,
and police repression." (Rap Music and Street Consciousness, p. 90). Gangster's attributes are
primarily guns, exclusive cars women's and money. These elements appear in words, in the
video layer, or in both of them in rap film.

Violence

It is an element present in the rap culture of gangs from its prehistory. The theme that often
appears in the texts of rappers is police violence against black citizens. In the initial period of
the Golden Era gangster rap is a period of violent civil war for equal rights and brutal
suppression of these efforts by the US government.

Brutalism and aggression are an element of gangster life. The very names of some gangs
emphasize the brutal and belligerent nature of organizations such as Gladiators or Sex Money
Morder. Among gangsters, violence is a way to gain respect and a high position in the gang.
Among the biggest gangs in Losa Angeles Crips, robberies and robberies are a prerequisite for
joining an organization . Gangster culture is the culture of warriors. The fight for the dominance
of the gang in its area is a basic element of this culture. This culture has created a gangster hero
- an aggressive mole faithful above all to its gang and its principles. Gangsters see themselves
as people who have nothing to lose, outcasts of society without a chance for a normal prosperity
and education and normal work. This caused a certain nihilism and disturbance of their value
system (Nutin 'but a "G" Thang, p.19). The dream lost its value in it, both the own and the life
of someone else. The willingness and readiness to violence, regardless of the consequences, has
become one of the highest values in the gangster world. Murder, even pointless, may be a
chance to win an estimate. About this disturbed value system says Ice-T in one of the interviews
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlIYfaGuJQ)

Violence and brutality are expressed in gangsta lyrics in both form and content. These texts
abound in vulgarisms that emphasize the aggressive pronunciation of the text. Examples can be
found in titles just like in Fuck The Police.

The gangsta rap lyrics also abound in descriptions of violent events. In 6 in the morning from
Ice-T in the second stanza there is a description of the beating:
As we walked over to her, ho continued to speak
So we beat the bitch down in the goddamn street
But just living in the city is a serious task
Bitch did not know what hit her, did not have time to ask

He comes to him because the somebody did not show respect to the gangsters. This incident is
not presented as something special, rather as everyday life. This description is a break in the
subject's long story. In the next verse, the heroes make arrested and become victims of police
brutality:

Threw us in the county high power block, no freaks to see no beats to rock
Sucker, shucked em in the eye
But just living in the county is a serious task
Nigga did not know what to do, did not have time to ask

The similarity of both situations is emphasized by the same ending "did not have time to ask".

Rebellion

Hip-hop culture is a culture of rebellion. From the very beginning, there was a rebellion against
the system, power and domination of whites. Gangsta rap is particularly radical in this respect.
A frequent topic in this work is reluctance and sometimes hatred for the police. An example
may be Fuck The Police from N. W. A. Members of the formation group, Ice Cube, Mc Ren,
Eazy E, Yella and Dr Dre, play parody of the court over the policeman. This is an opportunity
to show extreme dislike of the police and accusations of racism and violence. The chorus of the
song is eloquent "Fuck The Police". Fuck the Police from NWA (1989) can be seen as an
expression of the increase in social unrest that led to riots in 1992 (Rap Music and Street
Conciousness, p. 94).

Los Angelest is a city where racial riots have happened twice. Many rappers got involved in
these activities. Predator by Ice Cube was created in 1992 during the riots. The lyrics of the
songs are about brutality and injustice. They refer to events that led to the escalation of the
conflict - the beating of Rodney King and the lack of adequate punishment for its perpetrators.
There are also comparisons of the black population's situation with the situation of Jews during
the Holocaust in the Third Reich. A definite position on the Los Angeles scene in 1992 was
also adopted by rapper Ice-T, however, he expressed his anger in the metal track Fuck the
Police.

Conflict with the law and the police opens the first verse of the first song gangster rap that
defined the genre - 6 in the morning by Ice T:

6'n the morning 'police at my door

Fresh adidas squerk across the bathroom floor
Out the back window I make a escape
Do not even get a chance to grab my old school tape
In the same text, police officers are referred to as "pigs":

Fucking blue lights: L.A.P.D

Pigs searched our car, their day was made ...
Rebellion and rebellion also appear in another dimension in rapper's work. It is a rebellion to
make teenagers against their parents. He is present in the works of Snoop Dog, for example in
the songs: Who Am I.

Gangster Atributes

"Gotta knot in my pocket weighin 'at least a grand

Gold on my neck my pistols close at hand "
Ice-T 6 in the Morning ...

As already mentioned, the creators of gangster rap create their artistic creations modeled on
members of street crime groups. In this creation, there are certain permanent elements, attributes
of the gangster.

Guns

Gun is one of the basic attributes of a gangster, appears already in the song 6 in the morning.
Although initially gangster violence was limited to fist fights, the gun soon became an
inseparable attribute of the gangster. The pistol in the already mentioned song Ice T Gangsta
Rap appears both in the layer of lyrics, in the chorus, but also as the sound of the shot in the
weapon is here a symbol of both readiness to use violence. For gang members it is not only a
tool in their unusual work but also a certain security guarantee and a symbol of freedom
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlIYfaGuJQ).
In the song of O. G. Original Gangster, the sound of a shot from a firearm appears twice, this
time combined with the suggestion of shooting a hero from the video. The weapon also appears
in the text of the song Fuck The Police from N.W. And, in this song, the weapon is also a
guarantee of freedom and a tool to fight police brutality.

Drugs

Drugs and drug dealing are essential elements of gangster style of living. The appearance of
Crack has revolutionized the gangster's life. Trade in this drug has become a wasteful source of
income for gangsters. It was a drug more easily available from elite cocaine, and at the same
time very addictive. Trading it did not require large financial outlays, which made this business
very attractive for small groups of street criminals (Eithne Quinn, Nuthin 'bat and' G 'Thang p.
50). Profits were very attractive, many times they exceeded what in the "normal" work could
earn poorly educated gangsters. Drug trafficking was also sometimes the choice of people who
already had problems with the law serving prison sentences. In addition to high earnings, the
attractiveness of such "work" raised the problem of finding employment with a criminal past.
Drug trafficking is a simple way for gangsters to break free from poverty and gain a
considerable fortune. The approach to the subject was not uniform, but drugs are present as a
positive or negative element of gangsta rap.

One of the first texts where the figure of a drug dealer is a central figure is the Panic Zone
album from 1987. The song Dope Man, mentioned in this album, talks about the dangers of
drug and addiction, but also about the power, income and sex flowing from that (Eithne Quinn,
Nuthin 'bat a "G" Thang p. 50p. 58).

In the 90s, gangsta rap distinguished a positive approach to drugs, especially marijuana
(https://www.drugrehab.com/featured/substance-use-and-rap-music/). In a positive context, it
refers to Snoop Dog in the song Who I am:

... So we're gonna smoke a ounce to this

G's up, hoes down, while you motherfuckers bounce to this ...

The Chronic album from Dr Dre takes its name from the slang term for cannabis, and the cover
is a reference to the Zig-Zag paper cover. For marijuana smoking also include lyrics contained
in the album as well as 6 in the morning from Ice-T (Eithne Quinn, Nuthin 'bat a' G 'Thang p.
59).
Critically to hard drugs comes Ice-T in the song I'm Your Pusher. He plays the dealer selling
the music as a substitute for drugs. The harmfulness to the health of the management of narcotic
substances is underlined several times. At the same time, the music video is made in the gangsta
convention, the sale of music is similar to the illegal drug chandelier, the hero is being
prosecuted by the police. The video, however, is unambiguous, it's just a convention of the
genre, in the restraining scene, the person probably drawing a real drug is thrown out of the
premises. At the same time, in my opinion, Ice-T used conventions in which drugs are
something positive to strengthen their anti-drug message.

Despite the different approach to the subject of drugs, they are present in gangster culture and
in gangsta rap as a elment surrounding its members of reality.

Sex and womens

Emphasizing sexualuality and erotic connections is one of the elements constantly appearing in
the lyrics and in gangsta rap music videos. Women, usually anonymous, are treated objectively,
playing the role of a gadget or a background for the male heroes in the foreground. They
complement their creations of alpha. Already in the text six in the morning from Ice-T, the hero
describes the erotic encounters of the past night. Often erotic scenes described in a vulgar
manner became a permanent element of the texts. Danger and violence accompanying the
ghettoing of the ghetto favors male warriors. That's why gangsta rap 90s is the hipermusculinum
period of hip-hop. The phenomenon manifests itself in the escalation of such topics as violence
and misogyny. For example, the Hood of the ghetto, 6 in the morning, N.W.S. Dope Men
(Listening to rap, an introduction, p.122). The role of women in the video layer is to act as an
attractive, anonymous and passive background for events. A woman is not the subject in this
work. As an example, they can use music videos for such songs as Gin And Juice by Snoop
Dog, or Still D.R.E.

An exception to the approach to women are family relationships. The mother is especially
respected, she is asexual, she symbolizes the family, and respect is due to her mother's role in
the family (Listening to rap, an introduction, p.130).

Cars

Cars are often the emerging attribute of a gangster. This element often appears in music videos.
An example is Still D. R. E. Dre and Snoop Dogg. It is an element that appears so often that an
interesting solution is to give up this attribute. In the music video for Juice and Gin from Snoop
Doog, the hero moves with a bicycle companion. In my opinion, this is an expression of some
distance from Snoop Dogg to the stereotypical creation of a gangster.

Summary.

Afroican-American society associated in gangs has created an interesting and complex

subculture. The gangster subculture is not only the promotion of a brutal system of values in
which the respect and brotherhood of members is particularly important. It includes many
elements of the gang member's life, such as the way of dressing, the way of speaking, Crips
even invented their own dance: C-walking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8LbbeUWxXg).
However, one can not forget that the basic elements of gangster hunting are brutality and
violence.

In my opinion, the gangster culture is the pathology that filled the emptiness of such
organizations Black Party Panter. In the place of a community with intellectual ambitions and
struggling for the rights of minorities, where black-haired youth could find role models,
criminal orchestrations appeared. Gangs created an attractive pattern for a rebellious and
frustrated minority of the black model of a rich influential and respected warrior. Fighting with
tough political activists, the US government has led to the spread of violence and crime.

Despite their pathological nature, the gangsters created an interesting culture, the elements of
which penetrated pop culture.