by DM Zwack

Created on: June 12, 2009

Songs that chronicle violence and mayhem are by no means a recent development. Elements of gangsta rap can even be found in the story of Stagger Lee Shelton, a St. Louis cabdriver who also belonged to a network of pimps known as the Macks (Remember, fact is stranger than fiction). In 1895, Shelton murdered a man named Billy Lyons, reportedly over a dispute that culminated in Lyons removing Shelton's hat from his head and refusing to give it back. This incident is thought to have provided the inspiration for the legendary and often recorded song "Stagger Lee", also known as "Stack O' Lee" or "Stack a Lee", which gained popularity in the early 20th Century and has been covered by Mississippi John Hurt, Lloyd Price, Dr. John, and numerous others.

All through the first half of the 20th Century, jazz and blues songs were known to occasionally feature graphic sex and violence and drug references, as artists like Lucille Bogan, Blind Willie McTell, Julia Lee, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, Lil' Green and the Memphis Jug Band recorded songs based in gritty realism. In 1948, the following lyric appeared in the Muddy Waters hit "I Can't Be Satisfied":

"I feel like snapping pistol in your face/I'm gonna let some graveyard, lord, be your (or her) resting place..."

All that said, the blaxploitation films of the early 1970s provide a more recent antecedent to gangsta rap, as characters like Shaft, Foxy Brown, and Superfly became immortalized on screen. The style, clothing, and lingo popularized by such movies proved more influential and lasting than anyone could have foreseen, especially considering their generally meager production budgets. In addition, late 1960s and early 70s writers, most notably Iceberg Slim,recounted harrowing tales of pimps and prison. By the 1980s, as the popularity of hip-hop music grew, many rap artists began to step away from the dance party feel of early acts like the Sugar Hill Gang and Whodini, preferring a more stark and angry sound. Even Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five brought forth "The Message" in 1982. Though not a gangsta rap song as such, it nevertheless reflected some of the horrors wrought by poverty, drug use, violent crime, and prison life.

It is difficult to say with any certainty who the first gangsta rapper was. Perhaps Ice-T, whose debut album, "Rhyme Pays", appeared in 1987, deserves the title. Another contender is Schoolly D, whose music has proved far less enduring than other pioneers of the genre. However,

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