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When "Ice-T" released songs like "I'm Your Pusher" Hip-Hop took a new more dangerous turn in its philosophy. But the West Coast Hip-Hop scene was really immortalised by another hard hitting group, N.W.A or Niggers With Attitude. They had a string of abrasive hits like "Straight Outta Compton" and the infamous "Fuck the Police", which warranted a complaint by the FBI, and set the scene for West Coast rap for the next decade much like Run-D.M.C, Public Enemy and Def Jam had done a few years previously.
With this new tough sound Hip-Hop had gained it seemed as if it would continue in its original direction from the poor inner city projects, unlike other genres of music which would usually be watered down for the white mainstream, but then came a succession of commercial, almost 'pop' rap songs which were hugely successful worldwide. First there was Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" which displayed none of the l anger or political awareness of the other Hip-Hop at the time and was just concerned with the theme of chasing women.
What put the final nail in this watered down raps proverbial coffin was a succession of controversial songs from the west coasts Hip-Hop, now dubbed Gangster Rap together with a fledgling Hip-Hop culture down in Miami which also gained a dubious nickname, Booty Rap, which derived form the fact that they rap about women and that's all. Artists like Sir-Mix-a-Lot and 2 Live Crew, with their hit "Me So Horny ", deeply angered the parents of their fans in white suburbia, ending up with 2Live Crew's album, "As Bad As They Wanna Be" being banned. On the west coast Ice-T managed to create such a furore over a heavy metal song, called "Copkiller", which he had released with a band called Bodycount that then Vice-President of the USA, Dan Quayle, blamed him for starting the Los Angeles riots in 1991. With all the controversy it was almost expected that Hip-Hop songs should be about violence, drugs and sex: then came Death Row Records.
Death Row Records were a record company that specialised in Gangster Rap. Their first release was an album called "The Chronic" by Dr Dre, who was previously in N.W.A.. This album exemplified the new development of Hip-Hop and unsurprisingly went on to sell 3 million copies and stayed in the top 10 of the American pop charts for an amazing 8 months. "The Chronic" also featured a new Death Row rapper who went by the name of Snoop Doggy Dogg. Snoop was a convicted drug dealer who had been to jail 4 times . He immediately gained notoriety when he was charged with murder after a conflict with a rival gang left one member shot dead during the filming of the video of one of his first singles, "Who Am I?" He was acquitted of the murder charge but it still made Gangster Rap more real than ever before and helped Snoop's first album "Doggy Style" go on to sell 5 million copies. By 1995 Death Row Records had another new star in Tupac Shakur, who helped the west coast steal the Hip-Hop market away from the previously dominant east coast.
It was quite clear that Tupac was quite hot-headed and after numerous scrapes with the law, he was accused of rape. In between court hearings Tupac went to visit Biggie at his recording studios. On one such visit Tupac was shot 5 times as he arrived there. Then he was sentenced to 4 years in jail for the rape. During the one year he actually spent in jail, Tupac was furious with Biggie and made various accusations with no real evidence. On his release from jail he immediately released his first album with hits like "California Love", with the ubiquitous Dr Dre, and "Hit 'Em Up". In the latter Tupac let loose all his pent up anger with a barrage of verbal abuse about Biggie, his wife, his fellow Bad Boy artists and the labels owner, Sean 'Puffy' Coombes. It was "Hit 'Em Up" along with Death Row Records owner Marion 'Suge' Knight's constant and very public hatred of Coombes which caused the escalation of the east coast - west coast rivalry.
The east coast - west coast conflict reached a tragic climax when, in 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot to death in a drive-by shooting, marking the end of Death Row Records. Dr Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg both left the record company and Suge Knight was sentenced to 9 months for assault. The messy ending of Gangsta Rap was not over yet though as the west coast retaliated to Tupac's death with another drive-by shooting in 1997 which left Biggie Smalls dead after being shot 6 times. Hip-Hop's two biggest stars met violent deaths in the space of a few months. Both were just 25 years old when they died.
Many thought that this would mark the end of Hip-Hop. From its early success in the 1980s, Hip-Hop had been viewed by most older music fans as nothing more than a fad and this perception persisted well into the 1990 but, without even having to reinvent itself, Hip-Hop flourished in the mainstream where fans were under less pressure to swear and pretend they were in a gang.