Is gangsta rap almost dead? If so, I'm sorta just noticing

I am by no means hugely into rap. Quite the opposite, really, but in certain cases I can respect the...intensity a good rap song can bring.

But I was talking to a friend recently about how all the new rappers I can think of seem super soft, and my friend pointed out "That's pretty much rap now". Most of the original gangsta rappers are retired, or producers, or dead, and there don't seem to be many people filling in that gangsta rap void.

Are all the big rappers really just Drake from here on out, because pop and silly love songs always sell? I know there's the occasional Kanye or M.I.A. to keep things interesting, but most of the big name rappers I can think of lately just seem lame.

@bisonhero: It may just be a phase. They could all soften up and then up-and-comers react by bringing it back.

I'm not really sure what you consider "gangsta rap." If you're just talking about songs that "go hard", so to speak, then no, it most certainly is not dead.

Baggy pants and shirts and bling have given way to well fitted leather jackets and tasteful jewelry. And in worst case scenarios, snap backs and brightly colored clothing and sagging skinny jeans.

So yes.

"Trap" rap is still pretty gangsta. There are still some with the "gangsta" image, like Gucci Mane and Chief Keef.

@milkman: Well, those strippers should really consider a more well balanced diet. But yes, that was a sufficient amount of "going hard".

I suppose it depends on the definition of gangsta rap. You can include artists like T.I., Rick Ross, Chief Keef, Pusha T, etc.

It's definitely not as popular as it was, but it's still around.

@punkxblaze said:

So everybody is now a hip hop metrosexual?

Anyway, look at how baller these dudes are:

Also, I was reminded to make this topic because I really like this Lonely Island video:

@bisonhero:

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

OBSERVE.

If you listened to Radio Los Santos in GTA V you might have heard this gem which I'm actually starting to like more and more. It as the kids say "goes hard"

No. Get yourself a livemixtapes or datpiff account and lick as many shots as you please.

I'd argue gangster rap is probably more prolific than it's ever been, even if that doesn't necessarily register on the radio anymore.

For example, Nipsey Hussle (whom you may recognize from Radio Los Santos in GTA V) just sold 1,000 copies of a mixtape you could get freely available on livemixtapes for $100 a copy just to prove that he could.

Now that I'm back home I figured I'd do you a favor and pull up my lists (shameless plug: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/blew_up_the_spot_with_that_new_bop__hip_hop_2013/ ) and throw some suggestions your way from the past two years.

Keep in mind that anything over a 6 in my system is generally pretty fun, IMO.

*** denotes freely available

***Action Bronson & Alchemist - Rare Chandeliers: 8.85

Ace Hood - Trials and Tribulations: 8.32

Prodigy x Alchemist - Albert Einstein: 8.30

ScHoolboy Q - Habits & Contradictions: 8.18

Gucci Mane - Trap House 3: 8.16

A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord: 7.86

Wu-Block - Wu-Block: 7.72

Ghostface Killah - 12 Reasons to Die: 7.54 (I prefer the Brown Tape in some ways but never reviewed it)

***Freddie Gibbs - ESGN: 7.56

***Pusha T - The Wrath of Caine: 7.42 (his new album is excellent but I haven't reviewed it...it'd be up in the top 3 though)

***Freddie Gibbs - Baby Face Killa: 7.35

***Young Jeezy - It's tha World (Es el Mundo): 7.33

Gangrene - Vodka & Ayahuasca: 7.29

***Deniro Farrar - The Patriarch: 7.24

***Young Buck - Live Loyal, Die Rich: 7.21

***Alley Boy - Nigganati: 7.20

Sean Price - Mic Tyson: 7.14

***Gucci Mane - Trap God 2: 7.09

***Gucci Mane - Trap Back 2: 7.07

***Ace Hood - Starvation: 7.03

2 Chainz - Based on a TRU Story: 6.99 (at first I hated his new one but it might be even better...Feds Watching!)

***Saigon - Warning Shots 3: 6.99

***Raekwon - Lost Jewlry: 6.96

***Gucci Mane - I'm Up: 6.48

***Gucci Mane - Trap Back: 6.48

***Tony Yayo - El Chapo 2: 6.48

***Master P - Al Capone: 6.45

***Ace Hood - Starvation 2: 6.38

***Wooh da Kid - Strap-a-Holics 2.0 (Reloaded): 6.33

***Young Scooter - Street Lottery: 6.14

Meek Mill - Dreams & Nightmares: 6.10

***T.I. Fuck da City Up: 6.08

"gangsta rap" as you are calling it is still pretty big, it's just not as obvious in mainstream culture anymore. The best thing about this day and age is that there is a huge variety of music available for public consumption. For every Lil Wayne and Drake there's a Killer Mike and a Meek Mill.

No but I wish there was more modern funkiness to grab bootsy-esque soul.

Kanye was ever gangsta?

it has everything to do with the success of kanye. drake, j cole, big sean all the soft rappers reflect him. gangsta rap still exists and is still very popular just not on a national/global scale. here in l.a. yg is popular. meek mill, french montana, waka flocka, chief keef, ace hood have all had pretty big success in the last 2-3 years. and 2 chainz/pusha have been around forever but have had solo success recently. and kendrick/future/rocky(kind of) aren't primarily street/gangsta but aren't soft at all. i would say rap being soft was at it's worst in like 2009. it's gotten and continues to get better. hopefully drake can fall off, him being the most popular rapper really sucks.

@nodima: damn trap back that low?? that might be my favorite out of all of those. cool seeing someone who listens to tree. here are some albums this year that i would recommend and didn't see on your list thing

young thug - 1017 thug

future - f.b.g. the movie

zmoney - rich b4 rap

zmoney - heroin muzik

starlito - cold turkey

starlito, don trip - step brothers 2

kevin gates - luca brasi story

kevin gates - stranger than fiction

teecee 4800/reem riches - mid-town money

shady nate - mobb marley 2

ty dolla $ign - beach house 2

cam'ron - ghetto heaven

ampichino - da krazies 2

lil durk - signed to the streets

danny brown - old

rocko - gift of gab 2

gucci mane - world war 3 mixtapes

Gangsta rap is dead, for the most part. If by Gangsta rap you are talking about what Ice Cube, Raekwon, N.W.A. etc did in the 90s and what 50 Cent and his G-Unit 'brought' back in the early 00s.

Thank you Lord Yeezus for killing that shitty sub-genre off

Fixed

Anyone who fronts on Get Rich or Die Trying is just as big an asshole as 50 Cent.

@nodima said:

That album is a classic. Too bad 50 never quite made anything as consistently good. Still, without him Game's debut wouldn't be nearly as huge as it was back in the day.

Tupac was never a real hustler or gang banger but he became a symbol for one and people like to forget that. Then you have that fat fuck Rick Ross who never sold drugs in his life and stole the identity of an actual drug kingpin. Meek Mill lifted his late father's gang-banging past and his core fanbase probably has no idea. Rap is entertainment and every rapper has a character, but I totally get why people who actually risked their asses selling crack on the street like T.I. and 50 Cent get pissed when rappers like Tyga claim they came up in Compton when his parents owned a mansion and drove him to private school in a Range Rover.

Such a fantastic video of a fantastic song off of a fantastic album.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

I feel it died a few years ago. What we have now is a dead horse being kicked.

Although, I feel that way about most music these days. It's just a money factory that exploits stupid people. There's no real actual talent, anymore. None of these people have anything to say that's real or relatable in any way.

To be fair, I am getting old and I am very cynical when it comes to music.

It's kind of sad that the only funky-ass production in this entire thread is a Lonely Island song. What happened to real fuckin' gangsta funk?

I hope so, because gangster rap mostly just glorified the dumbest aspects of masculinity, regardless of the talent behind it.

@nodima: Mentioning Freddie Gibbs on GiantBomb automatically places you into my 'favourite people on the Internet' list.

I don't know if it glorified it so much as made it all incredibly easy to laugh at it. All the rampant misoginy (misogyny? Fuck knows how to spell that word..) on NWA - Efil4zaggin actually leaves me feeling pretty ill but all the Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G... It's just a comedy goldmine! Plus the music was funky as fuck.

G-Rap kinda morphed rather than died. Into a more benign form like most of Lil' Wayne's stuff (most).

nope, like other people have said you just have to find it cause its not as mainstream as it used to be.

Case and point, this was released like 10 days ago.

The beats were good, I'm just glad that rap is moving on to material that's less lame in a lot of cases.

too be fair, quite a lot of gangster rap is decidedly unfunky. g-funk was only the majority for a brief moment.

@little_socrates said:

Man why the FUCK is that not in GTA 5?

As someone who is not hugely into rap, but is still a casual fan I'm kind of glad gangsta rap fucked off for a bit and let some creativity into the genre. Yeah we have to put up with a drake here or there but we get death grips and kendrick and pusha and asap others who might not be gangsta (well pusha is, wasn't he a drug dealer?) but bring a lot of intensity. Gimme the sick beats and great lyrics, and fucking leave the spinnin rims at the door.

As a fan of rap... in my opinion the genre is just dumb now. It's just a lame circle-jerk now. Hip-hop been dead.Gangsta Rap was always a fad.

MC Eiht is still around. Thus all is well.

Killer Mike R.A.P. Music is an amazing album.

And I'm not sure how to classify certain types of rappers/ rap music, but there are totally still plenty of good rappers out there, most of them just not on the radio. Deltron just released event 2, Astronautilis is an amazing rapper who doesn't get the attention he deserves, Killer Mike is still great, Kendrik Lamar's good kid mad city is an amazing album, and pretty much anything by The Roots is always great.

Its dead because they keep killing each other!

Gangsta rap is probably still around and kickin', doesn't mean it'll reach main stream success though. I mean, there are plenty of genres of music that isn't in the spot light as much as it used to be and it still around.

Schoolboy Q is really still gangsta rap. Freddie Gibbs is too.

It's not the most popular kind of rap at the moment, but now, even guys like Rick Ross, Pusha T, and Lil Wayne have stuff about guns and drugs in their songs... it kind of just made it's way into all hip-hop.

Gangsta rap pretty much represents a style of rap from the mid 90's to maybe the mid/early 2000's. It's splintered into a lot of other genre's now, mainly trap music but i don't know if i've heard anybody call anything gangsta rap since back in the day. The kids took over now, they got so many styles of rap these days. A lot of hipster rap, pop music with rapping on it, troll rap(what i call it), and rap that only would sound right in a strip club.

@nodima said:

A brotha just wants "Money On The Floor" made into an entire album nah mean?