gangsta rap

Also gang·ster rap

[gang-stuh rap]

noun

1. a type of rap music whose lyrics feature violence, sexual exploits, and the like.

gangsta rap

/ ˈɡæŋstə /

noun

1. a style of rap music, usually characterized by lyrics about Black street gangs in the US, often with violent, nihilistic, and misogynistic themes

Other Word Forms

• gangsta rapper noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of gangsta rap¹

First recorded in 1985–90; gangsta ( def. ), rap music ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of gangsta rap¹

C20: phonetic rendering of _gangster

Example Sentences

Her tastes were eclectic - picking Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus as her favourite piece on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs - but also later speaking of her liking for gangsta rap.

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This band was equally shaped by “F**k tha Police”-era gangsta rap and early Beastie Boys; they named themselves for the IRA’s notoriously gruesome punishment tactic: a shotgun blast to the back of the knee.

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And we meet Tupac, who was murdered in 1996 at 25, as a bright, sensitive teenager with a gift for words who would go on to become synonymous with West Coast gangsta rap.

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But let’s not forget: She was down with hip-hop when Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was a tot and others decried the music as earworm “gangsta rap” that would kill and destroy, not galvanize, the coming generation for whom he — like she — is a folk hero.

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But Snoop Dogg the MC, the laconic voice who defined West Coast gangsta rap in the ’90s, never left us.

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