Los Angeles is a uniquely diverse city for music. Whether it’s the boppity-bloops of rendered instrumentals or the ferocious boom-bap of its strain of Hip Hop, the desert city with the traffic problem is teeming with diverse musical life. When considering L.A. you immediately conjure images of Hollywood, but it is in its corners where you will find its magic. Compton, for some, isn’t even considered L.A. as it lands within L.A. county but, is a city in its own right. Then there are innocuous terms like the “West Side,” which simultaneously means “West Hollywood” as well as beach towns like Venice and Santa Monica as well as the entire coast. Los Angeles is also the type of place that unwraps itself to you slowly. Many of its most amazing scenes have no map, and you must be purely in the know to find out where the cool kids are hanging out. It can all be difficult to wrap your head around.
What is not difficult to wrap your head around are its quintessential Hip Hop sounds. There are hints of funk in there, jazz, funk, bebop, and house, as well as soul. Things come to an end here, both in theory and in practice. If you are comtheing West, there is simply nowhere else to go but out into the ocean. So it is the case for music in America. Los Angeles is the very last stop. So for our first installment for Black Music Month, we give you ten of L.A.’s quintessential Hip Hop albums as judged by our Features staff. We know you may disagree or have addendums to this list and we welcome them. The comment section awaits.
The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
While West Coast Hip Hop was represented mainly by the visceral allure of Gangsta Rap, The Pharcyde were always the total opposite. For many rap fans facing the Pacific Ocean, the group made up of Fatlip, Imani, SlimKid3 and Bootie Brown were the equivalent to De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest. This made their debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde such a wonderful oddity. G-Funk inspired production spearheaded by Dr. Dre was replaced by the smooth jazz of J-Swift. Instead of themes of drug dealing, epic sexcapades and violence, the foursome came off as So-Cal slackers. The Pharcyde were lovable lames who looked cool. That means cracking momma jokes, weed induced conversations on becoming the president and masterbation among others. Those kinds of carefree middle-class worries throughout Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde felt necessary then and now.
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Dr. Dre – The Chronic
After Ice Cube left N.W.A., the group that popularized Gangsta Rap were essentially hanging on by a thread. Some time later, they officially broke up with bad blood brewing between Eazy E and Dr. Dre. The future Aftermath head managed form an alliance with controversial figure Marion “Suge” Knight and Death Row. Its result? The Chronic. A groundbreaking album that changed the commercial direction for Hip Hop, the 16 track masterpiece finally gave the area a specific sound dubbed G-Funk. Structured almost like a compilation backed by Dre’s production, The Chronic had a heavy cast of future lyrical heavyweights including a young Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Warren G, RBX and Daz Dillinger. Didn’t matter if Death Row were dissing Eazy(and Luther Campbell) or gangsta fantasies, it was pure nihilistic bless that would changed Hip Hop forever.
Ice Cube – AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
Ice Cube always served as the social political anchor to N.W.A.’s radicalism. His exit from the revolutionary group was the first of many holes that would affect the group’s real breakup. Afterward, N.W.A. moved into being a parody of their gangsta-rap motifs. On the other hand, Cube got even more political. Making his way to Public Enemy producers The Bomb Squad and Dr. Dre’s cousin Sir Jinx, he created a brutal first person narrative of black male life through Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. As “The Nigga Ya Love To Hate,” Cube’s debut became a fierce exercise in black nationalism. Even the harsh lyricism of O’Shea had a sense of humor on classic cuts like “Once Upon A Time In The Projects” and “A Gangsta Fairytale.” Amerikkka’s Most Wanted was conscious rap without the backpacker softness.
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Snoop Dogg – DoggyStyle
The Chronic served as a showpiece for Dr. Dre, first impression of Death Row Records and grand introduction to Snoop Dogg himself. Damn near half the album featured the Long Beach native in some capacity. One question remained: Could he do it by himself? Doggystyle proved not only that but prophesied the clear star power Dogg possessed. On the production end, Dr. Dre managed to elevate the groundbreaking G-Funk sound crafted on his solo debut. Riding the sonics with a slick southern drawl that was equally structured and melodic was Calvin. Matching his delivery were tales of gang life filled with an honest pessimism.
N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton
“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge,” says Dr. Dre on Straight Outta Compton’s titular opener. For years, Eazy E, Dr. Dre, MC Yella and Mc Ren were trying to break out of the area’s dense Hip Hop scene. At the same time, gang violence, corrupt police and the crack epidemic shined a spotlight on the area. If Ice T’s Schoolly D influence cracked open the door for gangsta rap. However, N.W.A. busted everything down and scared everyone from middle America to the highest level of government with Straight Outta Compton. Though many artists today take the term “Fuck The Police” for granted, hearing the group say that in 1988 was shocking. That level of defiance would inspire a new generation of artists willing to give the middle finger to authority without blinking an eye.
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DJ Quik – Quik Is The Name
Quik revolutionized the West Coast out of the gate with Quik Is The Name. A pioneer of the G-Funk sound that would come to completely dominate the airwaves on albums like Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, Quik Is The Name is quintessential West Coast, barbecue music. The story behind the record is also signature Quik, as he revealed in an interview that he pocketed nearly half of his $30K recording budget by mixing over the album in 17 days at the famous Westlake Studios. The album was also revolutionary for another reason: it took emphasis off of gangsta’ rap, which had become a watered down phenomenon at that point, and focused more on getting high and living. Both “Tonite” and “Born and Raised In Compton” were light and upbeat, and with that fat live bass livening up the previously sampled sounds, Quik Is The Name is still one of the most enjoyable records of all-time.
Ice-T – Original Gangster
When you hear people talk about pioneers of gangsta rap, Ice-T has to be on that list. And on no album did Ice come harder or better with that motif than Original Gangster. Released in 1991, it was the beginning of the political, straight forward T that we’d find in film, on television, and branching out into the rap/rock genre-meld that he elevated to a respectable kind of thing with Body Count. That album would come a year later, and although some people will tell you Power or Rhyme Pays is where his zenith lies, you’d be remiss to discount the crispness of O.G. You can see that climb to sonic perfection echoed in the likes of Dr. Dre et. al. And songs like “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme),” “Midnight” and “The Killing Fields” were story driven, no-nonsense looks into the real lives of the brilliant petty hustlers, characters and blue collar underworld gangsters that furnished Ice-T’s lyrics with laser clarity. Also, the refrain on “Bitches 2” is just one of the most classically Hip Hop hooks of any day.
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Tupac – All Eyez On Me
We’re talking a two-disc set here. Two hours and 12 minutes of pure, thugged out rage spread over 27 different tracks. That’s the length of a fairly long feature film, but the eerie, G-Funk surrounding tracks like “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” made it worth it. It was his first release on Death Row Records, and some critics thought he traded his complex persona for women, money, cars and a lighter fluid like wrath. Still, he found time to drop classic hot-weather classics like “All About U,” “2 Of Americaz Most Wanted,” and “California Love.” The album had many, many more gems, however. “All Eyez On Me” is the song of choice for riding on your enemies; “Picture Me Rollin” is the embodiment of putting your middle finger up to your haters, and “Thug Passion” created too many drunk nights for folks all over the country. Never, perhaps, has an album combined both raw anger with chill fun. It deserved to go diamond, and is easily one of the best Hip Hop albums of all time.
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid m.A.A.d City
The good kid in the mad, mad city, Kendrick Lamar’s debut full-length challenged our conception of what an album could do in the 21st century. Set in L.A., we’d missed this focus on craftsmanship and narrative, and GKMCmade us all wonder how we’d lived without it for so long. It told a universal story. From the hilarious and ominous skits using real voicemails from his parents about him using their van, to the quasi-religious underbelly and the flashing back and forth between younger Kendrick and older Kendrick, the album described how one long night in the city could go terribly wrong. Quintessential because it cemented that the West Coast had returned, GKMC continues to reveal secrets to us as its decidedly easy listening lulls us into an unsteady calm.
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Cypress Hill – Cypress Hill
“Here is something you can’t understand,” blared through speakers and out of apartment windows as Cypress Hill’s eponymous debut was as dark as it was fun. The record was heavily sampled, reflecting the laissez-faire attitude artists had toward the production technique at the time, and it was superbly mixed and rendered. Cypress Hill was the first latino Hip Hop group to ever go platinum, and this album would do that twice. It was universally lauded and is essential 90s listening, but it’s important because it highlighted latino contributions to the culture, and because of its runaway success. The album was also wholly produced in house.
YG – My Krazy Life
YG came out of nowhere to create a gangsta’ masterpiece. Buttressed by DJ Mustard production and completely lit, the Compton rapper may be one of the last folks left bold enough to make blatantly gangsta records. But it wasn’t just that. My Krazy Life was a robust tale showing the dark side of Kendrick’s GKMC. YG was the one Kendrick’s character was running from, and although it didn’t make it to the Grammys, it’s still the other side of K. Dot’s coin, and rounds out the circle of Hip Hop dominance the West Coast has been experiencing over the past few years.
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The Game – The Documentary
Believe it or not, there was once a moment in time where Game was considered the savior in West Coast rap after the scene went dormant for sometime; more notably after Tupac’s death. Then the Compton native comes along and served as the adequate shot in the arm. Also helps that Game found support in the hottest rapper of the era, 50 Cent. The former G-Unit member’s debut, The Documentary, could serve as a proper starting point for the West Coast renaissance.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
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Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @UralG.
