gangsta rap
noun
: hip-hop music with lyrics explicitly portraying the violence and drug use of American inner-city gang life
gangsta rapper
noun
Examples of gangsta rap in a Sentence
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During hip-hop’s golden era in the late 1980s and early 1990s, jazz rap emerged just as gangsta rap and pop rap were dominating the airwaves and climbing the charts.
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Ime Ekpo, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
That plays out in the visually surreal musical sequence halfway through the movie, where, at Smoke and Stack’s juke joint, the blues is traced to gospel, funk, twerk music, West Coast gangsta rap, HBCU marching bands, and even Kanye West’s opulence.
—Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 25 Apr. 2025
The lyrics reflect a carefree lifestyle centered around drinking, smoking, and enjoying life with friends—a sharp contrast to the gangsta rap narratives dominating the scene at the time.
—Walaa Elsiddig, Billboard, 19 Dec. 2024
But Snoop Dogg the MC, the laconic voice who defined West Coast gangsta rap in the ’90s, never left us.
—August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2024
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Ime Ekpo, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
That plays out in the visually surreal musical sequence halfway through the movie, where, at Smoke and Stack’s juke joint, the blues is traced to gospel, funk, twerk music, West Coast gangsta rap, HBCU marching bands, and even Kanye West’s opulence.
—Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 25 Apr. 2025
The lyrics reflect a carefree lifestyle centered around drinking, smoking, and enjoying life with friends—a sharp contrast to the gangsta rap narratives dominating the scene at the time.
—Walaa Elsiddig, Billboard, 19 Dec. 2024
But Snoop Dogg the MC, the laconic voice who defined West Coast gangsta rap in the ’90s, never left us.
—August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for gangsta rap
Cite this Entry
“Gangsta rap.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gangsta%20rap. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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