Reaffirming African American Cultural Values: Tupac Shakur's Greatest Hits As a Musical Autobiography‪.‬

Gangst Rap: The Interconnection of Capitalism, Controversy, and Culture Since the first successful commercial rap song, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang was released in 1979, rap music has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry that has been appropriated by corporate America to advertise a variety of products from soda to shoes. Although the growth of rap music and hip-hop culture has elevated the genre and its African American artists to icon status, rap's growth has not occurred without controversy. One genre of rap music, gangsta rap, has endured harsh criticism for lyrics that glamorize a gangster lifestyle, which Boyd (1997) has argued places ultimate value on the excesses of our capitalistic culture: materialism, power, machismo, sexism, and violence. By emphasizing the excesses of capitalism, gangsta rap has taken the idea of "getting paid" to the most extreme form. Due to gangsta rap's explicit lyrics, there has been widespread criticism from all points on the political spectrum. A discussion of the congressional hearings into gangsta rap is provided by Kitwana (1994), Ramsey (2003), and Wong (2001).