Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, is a subgenre of rap music that conveys the culture and values typical of urban gangs, reality of the world and street hustlers.[1][2][3] Emerging in the late 1980s, gangsta rap's pioneers include Schoolly D of Philadelphia and Ice-T of Los Angeles, later expanding in California with artists such as N.W.A and Tupac Shakur.[4] In 1992, via record producer and rapper Dr. Dre, rapper Snoop Dogg, and their G-funk sound, gangster rap broadened to mainstream popularity.
Gangsta rap has been recurrently accused of promoting disorderly conduct and broad criminality, especially assault, homicide, and drug dealing, as well as misogyny, homophobia, promiscuity, and materialism.[5][6][7] Gangsta rap's defenders have variously characterized it as artistic depictions but not literal endorsements of real life in American ghettos, or suggested that some lyrics voice rage against social oppression or police brutality, and have often accused critics of hypocrisy and racial bias.[5][8] Still, gangsta rap has been assailed even by some black public figures, including Spike Lee,[9] pastor Calvin Butts and activist C. Delores Tucker.