The 90s marked the shift in popularity of hip-hop music from the East Coast to the West Coast.  This move coincided with the rise in popularity of gangsta rap music, a raw form filled with explicit language and violent tales of ghetto life, and utilizing funk-style musical accompaniment.

Gangsta rap music was born on the East Coast – Philadelphia to be specific, with Schooly D’s song “P.S.K. ‘What Does It Mean’?” released in 1986.  On the West Coast, Ice-T quickly followed in the same year with his own song “6 in the Mornin.’”  Though inspired by “PSK”, Ice-T’s song laid the blueprint for the Los Angeles gangsta lifestyle that became immortalized in gangsta rap music, and his 1987 debut release Rhyme Pays can be considered as the initial West Coast gangsta rap album.