The Golden Era of West Coast Hip-Hop | Part One: Straight Outta Compton

Uncovering the legacy of West Coast Rap's Golden Era from party grooves to protest albums. Explore how the 80s shaped the West Coast sound as we know it.

We’re living through the West Coast Rap Renaissance right now. Artists like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, and Schoolboy Q are arguably at the top of their game - each releasing projects in the last twelve months which have dominated our airwaves ever since (or at least my Spotify ‘on repeat’ playlist).

Uniting these (and countless other) artists from California is a uniquely West Coast sound; one that prefers to sample electronic and dance music, offering a more laid-back, funky quality to its melodies, even when its lyrics are sometimes unsavoury (that’s foreshadowing for the rest of the blog, take note!).

I say renaissance because this isn’t the first time the West Coast has been on top. In the 90s you had the OGs, the Dr Dres and Snoop Doggs, the Tupacs and E-40s, each an absolute pioneer and legend in their own right, and part of the biggest sound to come out of their respective era.

But we’re going back even further than that. In my post about Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, I spoke briefly about the rise of East Coast hip-hop and its origins in Bronx block parties – but like Manifest Destiny, rap spread west almost as soon as it was discoved, and, in no time, this side of America was creating its own beats, its own sound.

The history and origins of West Coast hip-hop is a saga in and of itself, and unless you’re into reading thesis-length blog posts (I know my attention span wouldn’t last that long to be honest), we’re going to break this down into parts - starting with the 80s.

You can't leave the West Coast out the picture

Back when your ma was listening to Olivia Newton-John and ABBA, groups like Uncle Jamm’s Army and The World Class Wreckin’ Cru (which a wee Dr Dre was a part of!) were starting the genesis of West Coast hip-hop. DJs like Egyptian Lover were synthesising beats and bars in the early 80s which would provide the blueprint for the rappers who came after them.

It sounds good right? A happy, sunshine-y state creating happy, sunshine-y music - back when you could buy an album for six dollars and The Beach Boys were still touring. WRONG [insert buzzer sound here].

Gang culture was rife on the West Coast in the 80s, particularly in South and South East LA neighbourhoods like Compton. Crack, gun violence, racism, police brutality, and high unemployment rates were signatures of inner-city life, and so became signatures of the music to rise from the streets of Los Angeles. We know it now as Gangsta Rap, but artists at the time called it by another moniker: Reality Rap.

A self made monster of the city streets

One of the first rappers of note to architect this new sub-genre in LA was Ice T, whose 1985 song ‘6 ‘N’ The Mornin’ was a dire reflection of gang life, a reflection on his life. Beginning with a narrow escape from the police at his home in Los Angeles, and ending with a shoot-out in the Bronx, he spends ten verses documenting an existence earmarked by drugs, sex, and violence.

6 ‘N’ The Mornin’ is a cultural marker for not just Reality / Gangsta Rap, but rap as a whole. It wasn’t just portraying life on the street, it was a raw, honest account of Ice T’s own personal experiences, and the experiences of so many other young, mostly black men, like him.

At the same time over in Oakland, Todd Anthony Shaw was working with a friend to create custom mixtapes which he distributed across his neighbourhood by special request, setting a precedent for how hip-hop was consumed on the West Coast.

When he eventually went solo, Shaw - otherwise known as Too $hort - released his first album Don’t Stop Rappin. Along with Ice T, Too $hort secured his contribution to the west’s Golden Age of hip-hop.

Here’s a murder rap to keep you dancin

You don’t have to be a hip-hop head to know who NWA is. Their influence and legacy are inescapable, and at the very least no one can forget the 2015 biopic about their run as a group - no matter how hard you might try.

Formed only a year after 6 ‘N’ The Mornin’s release, NWA was a group from Compton, LA, made up of Dr Dre, Eazy-E, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, MC Ren, and, of course, Ice Cube.

The lyrical revolutionaries of NWA triggered a catalyst in Reality / Gangsta Rap with their 1988 record, Straight Outta Compton. An uncompromising portrayal of life in the neighbourhood, NWA’s debut album was so controversial, so defiant, and so brutal in its honesty, that it’s cemented itself in the annals of music history as one of the most crucial albums in hip-hop.

Their lyrics did nothing to protect the innocence of Straight Outta Compton’s listeners, and the group’s explicit and unfiltered songs about their life experiences came to define Reality / Gangsta Rap as a genre.

NWA’s fall was as swift as its rise. Despite selling over a million copies of Straight Outta Compton within a year of its release, lead songwriter Ice Cube departed from the group in 1989 due to well-documented disputes over royalties.

The remaining members continued to make music, creating new albums and swapping diss tracks with Ice Cube (which I will absolutely be covering in another blog because nothing excites me more than a rap beef, except for maybe a really cold Diet Coke), but eventually more members left and the group disbanded in 1991.

Parental discretion iz advised

By the time the 90s arrived, hip-hop had settled in the West Coast. Not only had they embraced the new sound, but LA rappers were now reshaping it to their own mould.

Although across in the Bronx crimes and gangs also governed the streets, it was in the southern neighbourhoods of Los Angeles where rappers were not just criticising the societies they lived in, but openly protesting it.

NWA’s ‘Fuck Tha Police’, which many radio stations banned, is a shining example of this societal defiance and even prompted an allegedly threatening letter from the FBI who disapproved of the song.

The rise of Reality / Gangsta Rap is the rise of West Coast hip-hop in the 80s, and was only the first act in what would become known as the Golden Era of hip-hop.

Want to expand your West Coast education? Have a look at my West Coast Essentials playlist here.