Stream the list in full (where available) on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. Still, if you want to if you want to burp invective in the comment section, or on Twitter, we understand. There are West Coast legends who didn’t partake: 2Pac, a rapper without a home, made half of a G-Funk album under the bloodyminded glare of Suge Knight, and Cypress Hill eschewed G-Funk almost entirely, as did MC Eiht. Additionally, there are artists whose absences will undoubtedly incite rage, but it’s worth noting that G-Funk, a derivation of gangster rap, is essentially a sub-sub-genre. The result is that, while there are glaring omissions – we could have easily presented a list of just DJ Quik tracks – there’s more room for acts that have been unfairly glossed over. Given the brevity of this list and the desire for diversity, we had one central rule: one song per album. It’s perhaps these juxtapositions and contradictions that make the sub-genre so compelling. Of course, some of the music fueled Los Angeles’s unending gang war glinting synths, sub-rattling bass lines, and warm, melodic instrumentals were often paired with narratives which in reality were scored by gunshots, screams, and sirens. G-Funk soundtracked house parties, barbecues and Sunday cruises as much as it did rallies.
Rappers prioritized partying over politics, but they never lost sight of the latter. Dre, DJ Quik, Warren G, and Battlecat and backed by bass built to test the strength of your car’s rearview mirror.
The bouncing, upbeat records of funk icons such as Parliament and Zapp, which had played in Los Angeles roller-rinks in decades past, were sampled by producers like Dr. It was groovy, pissed off, jocular, lurid and as complex as the neighborhoods which birthed it. In the racial and socio-economic tumult of Southern California, G-Funk helped continue to give a voice to beleaguered communities. You could only sample James Brown so many times. The technically innovative rhymes of Rakim and Big Daddy Kane were only fresh until the arrival of imitators. could only sustain itself and remain engaging for rap fans for so long. The unrepentant militancy of groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A. Max Bell and Torii MacAdams pick the sub-genre’s defining tracks, from Snoop Dogg’s ubiquitous ‘Gin And Juice’ to DJ Quik’s ‘Tonite’ and beyond. Taking inspiration from the synthesizer-driven funk of George Clinton, G-Funk brought an electrifying new sound to gangster rap, welding squealing leads and squelching basses to West Coast street stories.
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