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Mafioso rap, or "Crime Rap" is a hip hop sub-genre which first started in the late 1980s and later flourished in the mid-1990s. It is the pseudo-Mafia extension of East Coast hardcore rap.
In contrast to "Conscious rappers", who tended to depict realistic urban life on the ghetto streets, Mafioso rappers' tell stories about organized crime, and self-indulgence, referencing fine liqour, marijuana, drugs, designer clothes, and other luxuries of a Mafia leader, while making numerous references towards notorious crime organizations of the Italian underworld, including the Gambino crime family and Cosa Nostra. Fantasized and fictional narratives told by Mafioso rappers are often adapted versions of classic crime thrillers, most notably Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, King of New York, and Scarface. Another trademark feature of Mafioso rap is the idolizing of high profile organized crime figures. These crime kingpins range from legendary gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s such as Al Capone, Frank Costello, and Lucky Luciano, to John Gotti, to the druglords of Latin America (including Pablo Escobar).
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Background
The Mafia has been a staple reference for hip-hop artists since the genre's earliest days. Kool G Rap is regarded as the first rapper to make the Mafioso lifestyle a major theme in his lyrics[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. With epic tales, chronicling the crime underworld of drug trafficking and the luxurious pleasures of the high-end illegal business, Kool G Rap inspired the related Mafioso rap phenomenon of the mid-1990s, which later achieved mainstream success and great critical acclaim with albums such as Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, AZ's Doe Or Die, and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt. At the genre's zenith in the mainstream music industry, mafioso-inspired albums, including; Nas' It Was Written, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death, and P.Diddy's No Way Out, which all went on to become multi-platinum commercial successes. The act of taking the name of a famous mafioso character was popularised by the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas with their adoption of "Wu-Gambino" aliases on Raekwon's seminal debut, such as "Nas Escobar" and The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Frank White". In recent years, the Mafioso Rap Genre has re-emerged with albums such as; Ghostface Killah's Fishscale, Jay-Z's American Gangster, and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II.
Notable Mafiosa Rap Songs
- Road to the Riches – Kool G Rap
- On the Run - Kool G Rap
- Ill Street Blues - Kool G Rap
- Eye For An Eye - Mobb Deep (feat. Nas & Raekwon)
- Criminology - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah)
- Glaciers of Ice - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah and Masta Killa)
- Heaven & Hell - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah)
- Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homocide - AZ (feat. Nas)
- Gold - GZA (feat. Method Man)
- Fast Life - Kool G Rap (feat. Nas)
- Dead Presidents - Jay-Z
- Affirmative Action - Nas (feat. AZ, Cormega and Foxy Brown)
- 260 - Ghostface Killah (feat. Raekwon)
- Niggas Bleed - The Notorious B.I.G.
Notable Mafioso rappers
- AZ- (Whose name he took from Harlem drug dealer Azie Faison. His name is pronounced "AZ". He also has an alias by the name of "Sosa", from the movie "Scarface".)
- Big L- (Who often referred to himself as "Corleone" , after the Corleone family from The Godfather.)
- Big Pun
- Capone-N-Noreaga
- Fat Joe - (Who often referred to himself as "Don Cartagena". The album cover to Don Cartagena depicts Fat Joe in an outfit reminiscent of Al Capone.)
- The Firm
- Ghostface Killah - (Who Often referred to himself as "Pretty Toney", however the name Ghostface Killah was orginated from a martial art movie)
- Jay-Z
- Junior M.A.F.I.A.
- Kool G Rap- (Who is the founder of the genre, and has said that the G in his name stands for Giancana, which is the last name of Italian Chicago gangster Sam Giancana.)
- Mobb Deep
- Nas - (Who, during this period, took on the alias "Nas Escobar" after the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.)
- N.O.R.E- (He is also known as "Noreaga" which is derived from the former Military General of Panama, that was Known for drug running in the U.S. Manuel Noriega.)
- The Notorious B.I.G. (Who took the alias "Frank White" after Christopher Walken's character in the 1990 film King of New York)
- Raekwon - (Who is cited by numerous publications for reviving the mafioso genre, and turning it into a trend in the mid-nineties on his album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx)
- Scarface- (Taken after the character Tony Montana's nickname made famous in the 1980s cult classic gangster movie.)
- Wu-Tang Clan - (Who popularized the Wu-Gambino aliases, and had mafioso themes, and lyrics in several early songs and music videos)
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References
- ^ Kool Moe Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs, Thunder's Mouth Press, p.228.
- ^ http://www.mtv.com/bands/h/hip_hop_week/2006/emcees/index12.jhtml
- ^ Cobb, William Jelani, 2007, To The Break Of Dawn: A Freestyle On The Hip Hop Aesthetic, NYU Press, p. 59.
- ^ Hess, Mickey, 2007, Icons Of Hip Hop, Greenwood Publishing Group, p.57.
- ^ Shapiro, Peter, 2005, The Rough Guide To Hip-Hop, 2nd Edition, Penguin, p. 213.
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:g9fqxquhldae
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/koolgrap/biography online excerpt from 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide.
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