Word: gangstas
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...Aftermath Records, Eminem's success is vital to the future of the label. And as a white rapper, with the discredited image of Vanilla Ice still looming in the background, he very much needs to score points in the credibility column. So forging beyond the familiar drive-bys of gangsta realism, Eminem mixes comedy and mayhem into jarring scenarios that are made-to-order for jaded young record buyers. There's one catch: next time around fans will expect something even more outrageous, or Eminem will be yesterday's news...
...District Court last week aired a few Richard Nixon recordings that could use a parental-advisory label. Was Tricky Dick, not N.W.A.'s Ice Cube, the original gangsta? You decide...
...touch me 'cause I'm close to the edge." Then there was Run-D.M.C. rocking the house, and the Beastie Boys hollering, "You gotta fight for your right--to party!" and Public Enemy saying, "Don't believe the hype," and Hammer's harem-style balloon pants. Then gangsta rap: N.W.A. rapping "F____ tha police"; Snoop drawling "187 on an undercover cop"; and Tupac crying, "Even as a crack fiend, mama/ You always was a black queen, mama." Then Mary J. Blige singing hip-hop soul; Guru and Digable Planets mixing rap with bebop; the Fugees "Killing me softly with...
...speakers. Only then does Puffy enter, in a light-colored three-piece suit. Forget being street. He's Wall Street, he's Madison Avenue, he's le Champs Elysees. Donald Trump is at his side. It's Puffy's moment. His album No Way Out played on some familiar gangsta themes, but it's a smash hit. Puffy is a household name, a brand name. In fact his name comes up again and again, in gossip columns and other people's rap songs. He has transformed himself into a human sample. He is swallowed by the crowd...
Just as important to Combs' popularity is the high-style, fun-loving, money-making persona he cultivates. After the murders of B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, many music fans soured on gangsta rap's verbal gunslinging. Combs' videos portrayed a stylish, monied crowd more concerned with the good life than living out gangster fantasies--"ghetto high fashion," he calls it. Offstage too Combs cuts a swashbuckling figure. In white-on-white suits and a black bowler, he is chauffeured around in a Bentley, and hangs his hat in a cavernous $14 million Manhattan mansion that he shares with his girlfriend...