Region
West Coast
24 artists
West Coast hip-hop is the sound of California: from the hard gangsta rap of Compton to the sunny G-funk of Long Beach and the experiments of today's LA scene.
The story. Ice-T and N.W.A put Los Angeles on the map in the late '80s. After N.W.A split, Dr. Dre founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight and created the G-funk sound with Snoop Dogg. With 2Pac, the West Coast dominated the mid-'90s, the era of the rivalry with New York. Cypress Hill brought Latino flavor and rock, and in the 2000s The Game revived Compton. In the 2010s a new golden age began: Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment, Odd Future and Tyler, the Creator, Vince Staples, Anderson .Paak and The Internet.
The sound. Funk is the foundation: slow grooves, melodic synths and deep bass, made for driving. Today's West Coast is broader, from jazz and soul to experimental and electronic.
Key albums
- Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A (1988)
- The Chronic, Dr. Dre (1992)
- Doggystyle, Snoop Doggy Dogg (1993)
- All Eyez on Me, 2Pac (1996)
- good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar (2012)
- Summertime '06, Vince Staples (2015)
