Original Gangstas

Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap

Synopsis:
In the late 80s, a group of high school dropouts, drug dealers, and ex-cons spoke out against racial injustice and police brutality through hip-hop. Their explosive popularity put their Los Angeles neighborhood of Compton on the map. They gave a voice to disenfranchised African Americans across the country and quickly redefined pop culture worldwide. Their names remain as popular as ever—Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur. Music journalist Ben Westhoff shows how this group of artists shifted the balance of hip-hop from New York to Los Angeles. He illustrates how N.W.A.'s shocking success led to rivalries between members, record labels, and eventually an all-out war between East Coast and West Coast rappers. In the process, hip-hop burst into mainstream America during a time of immense social change and became the most dominant musical movement of the last thirty years. At gangsta rap's peak, two of its biggest names—Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls—were murdered, and the surviving superstars had to make peace before their music collapsed in its own violence. Exhaustively reported and masterfully written, "Original Gangstas" is a monumental work of music history that offers news-making stories about a legendary group of artists, some living and some deceased.

From the author:
Ben Westhoff is a longtime music journalist whose work has appeared in various publications. He spent three years as the Music Editor at L.A. Weekly and is the author of "Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop," which has been praised for its lively reporting and colorful social history.