Mafioso Rap
Anchor moment: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is released
Musical signatures
Cinematic, often soul- and film-score-sampling production; first-person narratives drawn from organized-crime imagery (Cosa Nostra films, Five Families lore); aliases, code-talk, and tales of luxury, drug deals, and betrayal; mid-tempo boom-bap chassis with lush strings, horns, and pianos.
Pioneers
- Kool G Rap
- Raekwon
- Ghostface Killah
- the-notorious-big
- Jay-Z
- Nas
Associated scenes
- new-york-mid-90s
Moments in this sub-genre 1
Notes
Kool G Rap's 'Streets of New York' (1990) is widely cited as a precursor; the style crystallized in 1995 with Raekwon's 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...' and was extended on Nas's 'It Was Written' (1996) and Jay-Z's 'Reasonable Doubt' (1996).
Citations 2
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