How the West Coast Won the Rap Game

In 1994, DJ Warren G released his debut album “Regulate… G Funk Era,” a triple platinum album that put the genre G Funk on the map, it was heavily “funked out with a gangsta twist” as one of the West Coast’s homies Nate Dogg said it.

Once Tupac Shakur was murdered the West Coast was presented with a different funk: minimum airplay.

During the new millennium, it seemed like the East Coast or the rest of America didn’t have love for the West Coast. They pulled a jack move-stole the majority elements of West Coast’s rap scene from the “hella” catchy slang, gangsta dress code, and way of life.

The South ganked the Hyphy movement-which was a cultural movement of the Bay Area, partying or dancing in an overhyped manner, and passed it off as getting Crunk. Everyone loved Crunk music/artists, hated rappers like E-40 and Keak Da Sneak, isn’t that backwards?

Think about it, like Crunk, Hyphy is dance music; and like Crunk, it’s loud and gaudy, with lots of banging bass-heavy beats and blaring synthesizers. But Crunk could be called post-rap, with crazy chants replacing traditional verses; Hyphy is wildly rambling, and goes dumb.

The East Coast were the biggest thieves of them all, taking the West’ “gangstaness,” using slang such as “blood” and “cuz” which are gang slang for bloods and crips gangs originated in California in the 1960’s, riding in low riders and hitting switches. Let’s not forget that period where everyone was using the phrases such as “fo’ shizzle”-meaning for sure.

East Coast rappers also stole from many rappers that came from the west, such as Snoop Dogg, Too $hort, Tupac, N.W.A, saying things like “F- tha police,” “I’ma pimp,” “smoking chronic.”

Jay-Z even took Tupac’s “Me & My Girlfriend” song, and had Beyoncé Knowles simply replying to him, without changing one thing, not giving Tupac credit.

So does that make rappers like Jay-Z a rap god, if they’re stealing dead rappers’ songs?

No that doesn’t make those rappers rap gods, they are sound biting, getting away with it. The least these rappers can do is pay the other rappers that they ripped off.

After years of being dissed and dismissed, West Coast rappers finally barged their way back into the rap scene, and rightfully taking back what’s theirs.

Just last year, South Central’s drug loving, party animal Schoolboy Q went No. 1 with his hair raising tales of the hood, and his pill popping adventures in the album entitled Oxymoron. He is still being played on the radio, selling out shows on both coasts.

Everyone serenaded the new faith of Kendrick Lamar. In 2013, his proclamation of being a rap king seemed a bit premature, but in 2014 it was almost impossible to argue against those claims. With his hell-breaking Control verse, Lamar claimed to be the “king of New York,” rappers like Jay-Z, and Nas didn’t respond.

Looks like Lamar is rap king, if not the king of rap during the 2000s.

When Compton rapper, YG released his debut rap album entitled My Krazy Life, proved to America that West Coast rappers aren’t just gangsta rappers, they can tell vivid stories just like East Coast rappers. This album is more versatile, because it places you in shootouts; break-ins, love triangles, and L.A. jail cells that YG was in, making you feel like one of the homies.

The Bay Area is just as critical to West Coast Rap as well.

The biggest thing, since Mac Dre – rapper from Vallejo, Ca. Iamsu, Sage the Gemini hailing from the Bay Area have slapping-a Bay Area slang for playing on the radio, since 2012. Both Iamsu, and Sage the Gemini were ranked highly on the Billboard’s R&B/ Hip-Hop and Hot 100 charts, getting co-signs from Bay Area legends such as E-40, Too $hort, and Keak Da Sneak.

YG, Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, Iamsu, and Sage the Gemini have reclaimed the airtime on the radio, putting the West on top again.