| Gangsta funk | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | West Coast hip hop, P-Funk, Funk, R&B, Mobb music |
| Cultural origins | Early 1990s, Los Angeles, California, United States |
G-funk, or Gangsta-Funk, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that emerged from West Coast gangsta rap in the early 1990s. It was a dominant sound that put west coast hip hop on the map. G-funk (which uses funk music with artificially lowered tempos) incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of p-funk tunes, and a high portamento sine wave keyboard lead. The lyrical content consisted of sex, drugs, violence, and women. There was also a slurred “lazy” way of rapping in order to clarify words and stay in rhythmic cadence.
Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples (such as EPMD or The Bomb Squad), G-funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples per song [1]. Music theorist Adam Krims has described G-funk as "a style of generally West Coast rap whose musical tracks tend to deploy live instrumentation, heavy on bass and keyboards, with minimal (sometimes no) sampling and often highly unconventional harmonic progressions and harmonies".[2] Dr. Dre, a pioneer for the G-Funk genre, normally uses live musicians to replay the original music of sampled records. This enabled him to produce music that had his own sounds, rather than a direct copy of the sample[3].
There has been some debate over who should be considered the "father of G-funk." Dr. Dre is generally believed to have developed the sound[4] "It has been said that the sound of g-funk originated from Cold187um of Above the Law. Cold187um’s ideas were used by Dr. Dre for the Deathrow debut album “The Chronic”. They were both on the Ruthless Records prior to this. Warren G and Snoop Dogg were with Cold187um before joining Dr. Dre and Deathrow. It’s been said that Dr. Dre gave no credit to Cold187um for the new sound created. It is rumored that Dr. Dre only credits himself if other producers work on a song for him, also known as uncredited “ghost producers”, lamenting the fact that he did not give credit where credit is due for the up and coming g-funk sound. On Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle album, Warren G and Daz Dillinger claim they produced "Ain't No Fun," even though Dre is credited as the album's sole producer[5]. These rumors have been flying around for over two decades and continue to cause a debate. On the other side of things, Dr. Dre as a producer is more like a director. He does not play the live instruments; rather he has other musicians play them while he directs them and the arrangements, translating his vision of the song.
Dre pioneered gangsta rap and his own variation of the sound, G-Funk .[6]. The first hints of the whiny synthesizers and Parliament-Funkadelic-style bass grooves in Dr. Dre's work appeared on N.W.A's single "Alwayz Into Somethin'" from their 1991 album Efil4zaggin. Dr. Dre's first true G-funk single, however, was 1992's "Deep Cover", the title song from the movie soundtrack of the same name, which also introduced Snoop Dogg to the world. When Dre's 1992 Death Row Records debut The Chronic was released in 1992, the album was immensely successful, and consequently made G-funk the most popular sub-genre of hip hop.[7]
Many opponents, however, have claimed that Dr. Dre developed his sound after hearing Above the Law's debut Black Mafia Life, before it had come out. Other’s refute the opposite because Dr. Dre’s The Chronic was released before Black Mafia Life. But Above The Law’s album had been in the works while Dre was still on Ruthless records. The ongoing dispute to who created the g-funk genre will always be in debate. But there is no doubt that Dr. Dre, along with Snoop Dogg and Warren G, continued the movement of g-funk to unparalleled heights, making it the dominant sound of West Coast music.
Dr. Dre’s sound of g-funk has influenced many artists alike: Daz Dillinger, Warren G, DJ Quik, etc. Considered as west coast classics are Warren G’s Regulators, Daz Dillinger and the Dogg Pound’s Dogg Food, and DJ Quik’s Safe & Sound.
Some popular g-funk songs that truly express the sound are:
Gin & Juice - Snoop Dogg
Afro Puffs - The Lady of Rage
Gz and Hustlas - Snoop Dogg
Nuthin' But A G Thang - Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
Regulate - Warren G feat. Nate Dogg
Tha Shiznit - Snoop Dogg
Keep Their Heads Ringin' - Dr. Dre
Let Me Ride – Dr. Dre
Fuck Wit’ Dre Day – Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
Ghetto Bird - Ice Cube
Heartz of Men - 2Pac
Doggy Dogg World - Snoop Dogg feat. Tha Dogg Pound
Can't C Me - 2Pac
California Love - 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre
Deep Cover - Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
2 of Amerika'z Most Wanted - 2Pac feat. Snoop Dogg
See also
References
- ^ Brown, Ethan (November 22, 2005). "Straight Outta Hollis". Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler. Anchor. ISBN 1-4000-9523-9. "[Unlike] popular hip-hop producers like the Bomb Squad, Dre instead utilized a single sample to drive a song."
- ^ Krims, Adam (2000). Rap Music and the Poetics of Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 74. ISBN 0521634474. http://books.google.com/books?id=Gg8UiSodjz8C&pg=PA75&dq=%22g-funk%22&sig=ACfU3U0SGQ2bjz1RT8pnQ_Cu0oCVBkvpfQ#PPA74,M1. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
- ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/23/entertainment/ca-dre23?pg=3
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Dr. Dre (Andre Young", in Vladimir Bogdanov et al., All Music Guide to Rock, 3rd ed., Backbeat Books, p. 324. ISBN 087930653X.
- ^ http://www.ugo.com/music/top-11-hip-hop-producers/?cur=dr-dre
- ^ ... [H]e reworked George Clinton's elastic funk into the self-styled G-Funk, a slow-rolling variation that relied more on sound than content."
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Dr. Dre", allmusic. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
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