“I’ve been doing this since 12…. 12 years old 13 years old I’ve been doing this. Day in day out year in year out. It’s been…a big part of my life…..too much of my life basically. And like I said I don’t know maybe God has like a force field on me to even last this long to be able to talk about it”.
Cle “Bone” Sloan, Bastards of The Party 2008
HBO
A New Game
Jaceon Taylor aka The Game has always been a major name in “gangsta rap”. A rap prodigy from Compton, CA who came of age musically speaking under Dr. Dre and 50 Cent and their respective Aftermath and G unit imprints. Raised in the home of the Tree Top Pirus. The Game’s journey in gangsta rap I equivocal to a 2nd or 3rd generation trust fund kid who has all the expectations to be as great as his predecessors. With the whole rap world watching Chuck Taylor took the reigns of “gangsta rap”. At times being the seeming only voice for the genre The Game took his crown and ruled with a vengeful
hand.
With a classic album like “The Documentary”, “Doctors Advocate” and “Jesus Piece”, one who had as much success as Game would be satisfied with collecting publishing royalties and touring off their already proven catalog of music. The game had no such quarreling In his psyche releasing “The Documentary 2”, a double-disc album that easily recaptured his energy of days past. Boasting big singles and one of the biggest being “My Flag”. An anthem about representing gang life in the purest forms. With an All-star lineup of West Coast rappers (my favorite was MITCHY SLICK, full disclosure, I’m a Southeast San Diego native).
Redemption Song
Growing up in Watts, CA is no easy feat. Home to the Bounty Hunter Bloods one of the original gang
sets in Los Angeles. For Johnny Reed McKinzie Jr. Better known as Jay Rock it was simply known as home, raised in the late 80s and 90s South Central, Jay experienced good and bad with a sense of community where others saw trouble.
“that’s what watts stand for… You know what I mean.. It taught me. We all taught to survive it taught me how to be a man and stand by that you cuz we come from nothing”
Jay Rock
Jay Rock took his experiences in Nickerson Gardens Projects and painted a vivid picture for fans. His debut hit song “All My Life (the ghetto)” feat Lil Wayne soared to the top of music charts and launched the careers of Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, the remaining members of Black Hippies and the entire TDE label for that matter. With critically acclaimed projects like the Watts Finest series or from Hood tales to the Cover of XXL. And a new hit album “Redemption“, spawning massive singles like “Kings Dead” and “Win“. Jay Rock is considered to be one of the four fathers of “gangsta rap’s” revitalization.
Gangsta rap was once again starting its upward trend, and now in the new digital age with its numerous peers sharing sites and music platforms putting out music became 1000x easier than in the 90s or even early 00s. The popularity of sites like YouTube, SoundCloud, Worldstar Hip Hop, and Reverberation led to an explosion of new music from all genres, and gangsta rap was a prominent player in this new school of music. Now Coming from all areas of the country “gangsta rap’s” reemergence had morphed into many of its own subgenres. I.e. drill, trap, etc. Names like Jooba Loc, 2eleven, Fig Newtons,
FT Hop Out, DWflame, Slim 400 just to name a small few are now the young up and comers in the “gangsta rap”, some of these artists have the luck of coming up under proven and sometimes legendary acts. Others don’t have that luxury but in today’s market, the playing field has been leveled allowing artist like a King LilG, Oso Ocean, Young Drummer Boy, or G Perico a way to carve out their own niche in rap.
“Part 4 Finale Thursday, Aug 9th”