Rock: Los Angeles 1990s Overview

After the buoyancy and optimism of the 1980s, black music in Los Angeles in the early ’90s turned desolate. As economic recession and crack cocaine swept through Watts and East Los Angeles, a generation of artists chose to portray the world of the ghetto with unfettered realism. These were tough guys acting tough, and the sound they created was called gangsta rap. Over grinding electronic samples, they rapped about cops, crack, gangs, and lust (though seldom love).

Ice-T, who had experienced the world of gangs firsthand, introduced his steel-hammer-rhythm braggadocio on albums for Sire Records in the late 1980s, and N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton (initially released on group member Eazy-E’s Ruthless label in 1988) was widely popular with both black and white teenage males reveling in their disaffection. When N.W.A. split, Ice Cube channeled the anger he had learned in south-central Los Angeles into a solo career—prompting outrage with several provocative tracks on AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990). A third member of N.W.A., Dr. Dre (Andre Young), emerged as one of the most creative musical innovators of the decade, designing sublime soundscapes for his own records and those of other rappers, including Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus) for Death Row Records. The outrage of middle America over the violent content of so much rap discouraged most of the major labels, leaving a path clear for Interscope Records to sign some of the most controversial rappers, either directly or through label distribution deals.