Guns are recurring characters in American life. They sit front and center in some versions of rap music, whether to be glorified or denounced (Nas’ “I Gave You Power” comes to mind). They play key ...

Gangster rap is caricatured on a regular basis, and not just by Fox News. Everyone from mainstream media to the music press to hip-hop fans themselves draw stark, unbending lines between different ...

For fans and critics who intellectualize it, gangsta rap, or “reality rap,” is serious business. For them, the defining genre of West Coast hip-hop represents true stories from the ’hood as told by ...

Just-Ice didn’t do rap beef. He would shoot people. In the 80s. Watch the exclusive convo with The Bronx emcee that says he invented Gangster Rap. Things get really interesting when Just-Ice travels ...

Texas rapper BeatKing’s Gangsta Stripper Music 2 is in-your-face, crude, lowbrow rap music. He is, in essence, a Houston punchline rapper making crunk records, but he's one of the biggest rappers in ...