 | | Too Short discovered rapper Spice 1, who'd been born in Texas before moving to California. His self-titled debut was as vivid and fatalistic a gangsta album as possible, and his hard-edged, angry, and pessimistic rapping style and tone only added to the despair emanating from the disc. |
 | | One of the premier West Coast gangsta rap artists of the early '90s, DJ Quik was a rapper as well as a producer whose career carried on well into the next decade, as he put his career aside and began working primarily as a beat-maker. |
 | | Ice Cube was the first member of the seminal California rap group N.W.A. to leave, and he quickly established himself as one of hip-hop's best and most controversial artists. |
 | | Born Marcellus McCarver, Celly Cel grew up in Vallejo, CA, just north of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. |
 | | Kurupt began his winding career with Death Row Records and rose to momentary fame alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, but struggled to establish himself as a successful solo artist. |
 | | Scarface quickly became the South's most admired rapper and remained so throughout the '90s after breaking away from the Geto Boys to launch his solo career in 1991. |
 | | Whether as a member of N.W.A., a solo act, or a label head, Eazy-E was one of the most controversial figures in gangsta rap. |
 | | During the mid-'90s, when West Coast rap reigned supreme, Mack 10 emerged as a close associate of Ice Cube and enjoyed several years of considerable commercial success before his popularity faded toward the end of the decade. |
 | | Tha Dogg Pound was an integral part of the Death Row Records empire, which cast a tall shadow over rap music in the early to mid-'90s, and though the label only released one Dogg Pound album, Dogg Food (1995), the duo's impression remained fairly constant in the years that followed, as the two group members pursued solo careers and occasionally reunited. |
 | | Born in Los Angeles, but an Oakland resident by the age of 14, Too Short was the first West Coast rap star, recording three albums on his own before he made his major-label debut with 1988's gold album Born to Mack; his next four all went platinum. |
 | | Though N.W.A got most of the recognition, Compton's Most Wanted also did much to popularize and proliferate early-'90s West Coast gangsta rap. |
 | | The rap supergroup Westside Connection came together in late 1996, comprising Ice Cube, Mack 10, and WC (of WC & the Madd Circle). |
 | | N.W.A, the unapologetically violent and sexist pioneers of gangsta rap, are in many ways the most notorious group in the history of rap. |
 | | 2Pac became the unlikely martyr of gangsta rap, and a tragic symbol of the toll its lifestyle exacted on urban black America. |
 | | Synonymous with Bay Area rap, E-40 garnered a regional following, and eventually a national one, with his flamboyant raps, while his entrepreneurial spirit, embodied by his homegrown record label, Sick Wid' It Records, did much to cultivate a flourishing rap scene to the east of San Francisco Bay, in communities such as Oakland and his native Vallejo. |
 | | A long-time staple of the gangsta rap scene, WC began his career with the groups Low Profile and the Maad Circle before forming Westside Connection with Ice Cube and Mack 10. |
 | | His rapping style an influence on Snoop Doggy Dogg (by Snoop's own admission), Richie Rich first entered music in the late '80s with the Oakland-based group 415. |
 | | One of the key members of the mid-'90s Death Row Records empire, producer/rapper Daz Dillinger worked alongside some of the West Coast's best rappers. |
 | | Beginning with his 1993 debut, Gas Chamber, C-BO made it clear that he planned on surprising rap listeners with his controversial lyrics, which would eventually land him in jail. |
 | | Part of the post-N.W.A explosion of California gangsta rap, Above the Law came out of the eastern Los Angeles suburb of Pomona; leader Cold 187um, aka Big Hutch (born Gregory Hutchinson), was joined by KMG the Illustrator (born Kevin Dulley), Go Mack (born Arthur Goodman), and DJ Total K-Oss (born Anthony Stewart). |
 | | West Coast rappers Outlawz are known primarily for their affiliation with 2Pac. It was on 2Pac's Makaveli album that Outlawz first came to the greater rap community's notice, appearing on a few songs. |
 | | A versatile producer as well as an excellent solo rapper in his own right, Brotha Lynch Hung was born Kevin Mann in Sacramento, California. |
 | | B-Legit (aka the Savage) had previously performed with the Click before striking out on his own with 1995's Tryin' to Get a Buck. |
 | | San Francisco-based Rappin' 4-Tay (aka Anthony Forté) was fresh out of high school when he debuted on record on Too Short's "Don't Fight the Feelin'" (from Life Is. |
 | | Suga Free's career got off to a slow start despite a promising debut album, 1997's Street Gospel. In 2000, he returned to the spotlight with high-profile guest appearances on Xzibit's Restless and Snoop Dogg's Tha Last Meal. |
 | | As one of the original early-'90s West Coast gangsta collectives to follow NWA's lead, South Central Cartel first appeared with their debut album South Central Madness in early 1992 before releasing a succession of albums throughout the remainder of the decade. |
 | | MC Ren had a much less celebrated solo career than most of his former bandmates in N.W.A, despite enjoying some commercial success. |
 | | Luniz are a rap duo out of Oakland consisting of Yukmouth and Knumskull, two friends who have known each other since junior high. |
 | | A Bay Area rap duo formed at the beginning of the 1990s, RBL Posse (short for Ruthless By Law) was originally founded by Black C and Mr. |
 | | As the embodiment of '90s gangsta rap, Snoop Dogg blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Introduced to the world through Dr. |
 | | From Vallejo, CA (also the home of the Click), gangsta rapper Mac Dre moved to the Romp label in 1996 after two small releases on the Strictly Business label. |
 | | Ant Banks, a Bay Area producer who began working behind the scenes with local legend Too Short, first appeared on two 1992 hip-hop soundtracks, Juice and Menace II Society. |
 | | Though the controversial subject matter of gangsta rap wasn't much of a barrier to popular success during the '90s, the Geto Boys' recordings proved almost too extreme for widespread exposure. |
 | | A Bay Area family affair, Click is a four-member hip-hop posse from Vallejo, CA, headed up by rapper E-40 (Earl Stevens) and including his brother D-Shot, sister Suga T, and cousin B-Legit, who grew up in the same household. |
 | | Chicago's Do or Die gained a hit with their first single, Po Pimp. Released on a tiny Chicago label, the track became a local hit and sparked the group's signing by Houston's Rap-A-Lot Records. |
 | | Protégés of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Long Beach, CA-based duo tha Eastsidaz teamed rappers Big Tray Deee and Goldie Loc, whose partnership was forged in 1999. |
 | | After the release of his debut album, the career of Texas-born rapper the D.O.C. was shattered by a car crash that almost took his life. |
 | | Before becoming one of the West Coast's most illustrious MCs at the end of the 1990s, and later a TV celebrity, Xzibit was a promising underground rapper. |
 | | More than any other rapper, Dr. Dre was responsible for moving away from the avant-noise and political stance of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions as well as the party vibes of old-school rap. |
 | | San Diego-based rapper Jayo Felony (aka Bullet Loco or Peer Pressure) turned to music after spending his teen years in a gang, a decision that ultimately resulted in a stint in prison; after recording a handful of underground tapes he issued the single "Piss on Your Tombstone," selling it on consignment at local record stores. |
 | | Graced with a quick and sometimes sung delivery, along with a unique sense of melody, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony burst out of Cleveland, Ohio in the mid-'90s with a pair of massive hits ("Thuggish Ruggish Bone" and "Tha Crossroads") along with a great first album, as well as a successful follow-up, and then quickly unraveled. |
 | | One of the pioneers of Southern rap, Eightball & MJG, emerged from Memphis, Tennessee in the early '90s and, aligned with the Houston, Texas-based independent label Suave Records, quickly garnering a tremendous regional following while proving highly influential to a generation of aspiring, independent-minded rap artists and entrepreneurs. |
 | | Rapper Yukmouth first surfaced as one half of the Oakland, CA-based duo the Luniz; debuting in 1995 with the album Operation Stackola, they launched a major hit with the single "I Got 5 on It. |
 | | West Coast rapper Bad Azz is far from well-known, yet he has worked with some of the best-selling hip-hop artists of all time, including Snoop Dogg, Warren G. |
 | | He was known as the soul man of G-funk, and before his first album had ever been released, Nate Dogg made appearances on several huge hits: "Regulate" with Warren G, 2Pac's All Eyez on Me, and the soundtrack to Murder Was the Case. |
 | | Master P created a hip-hop empire without registering on any mainstream radar. For several years, he operated solely in the rap underground, eventually surfacing in the mid-'90s as a recording artist and producer who knew exactly what his audience wanted. |
 | | Southern gangsta rappers Pimp C and Bun B formed UGK (aka Underground Kingz) in the late '80s and signed to Jive Records for their major-label debut album, 1992's Too Hard to Swallow. |
 | | Oakland rapper Dru Down debuted in 1994 with Explicit Game, scoring a hit with the single "Mack of the Year"; the record also served as a launching pad for his Bay Area cronies the Luniz. |
 | | Along with better-known rappers like E-40 and 2Pac, Mac Mall was one of several who helped put the Cali Bay Area on the map in the mid- to late '90s as a hotspot in the rap game. |
 | | Ice-T (born Tracy Morrow) has proven to be one of hip-hop's most articulate and intelligent stars, as well as one of its most frustrating. |
