Word: gangstas
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...effect on the rap world. In the wake of his death, it seemed that the East Coast-West Coast beef might be squashed. When Quincy Jones addressed Prof. Dwight Andrews' class on black music several weeks ago, he claimed that Tupac's death was forcing a critical reexamination of gangsta posturing in rap music. Reports from the recent Soul Train Music Awards claimed that a new harmony had reigned. The next night, a drive-by shooting ended Biggie's life...
...lyrics merely reflect violence and vendettas, or can they intensify feuds and provoke retaliation? The question of whether art imitates life or life imitates art becomes hopelessly confused. Both Tupac and Biggie presented a glorified caricature of the gangsta lifestyle, boasting of slaying opponents in a hail of gunfire. Yet, their criminal bravado was not merely an act; they each accumulated long rap sheets and spent time in prison...
...lifeblood of any hip-hop gathering. From the party anthem "Big Poppa" to the menacing "Who Shot Ya?" his music was always a crowd pleaser. But listening to Biggie's catchy rhymes about violence, money, blunts, women and designer clothes frequently leads to gloomy retrospection. Listening to so-called gangsta rap music now not only evokes memories of the recent slayings of rappers but also provokes a more significant contemplation of the thousands of young black men who are cut down in their prime every year...
Bono: It's a wasp thing. It really is. It's Anglo-Saxon. It's Teutonic. Crashing into each other is just not as evolved as real dancing. I mean as angry as people in hip-hop can get, even in gangsta rap, they still have hips. [Rock] has fallen behind...
Jones--whose daughter, Kidada Jones, had been engaged to Shakur and came close to being in the car in which the rap artist was killed--said the "gangsta" element in rap music was more theatrical than political and should be abandoned...