TO LIVE AND DEFY IN L.A.: How Gangsta Rap Changed America by Felicia Angeja Viator DVD by Martin Scorsese

by Martin Scorsese

gave me an odd sense of comfort

In his seventy-plus years

’ when you feel pain

and for himself

TO LIVE AND DEFY IN L.A.: How Gangsta Rap Changed America by Felicia Angeja Viator DVD by Martin ScorseseHow gangsta rap shocked America, made millions, and pulled back the curtain on an urban crisis. How is it that gangsta rap so dystopian that it struck aspiring Brooklyn rapper and future superstar Jay Z as "over the top" was born in Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, surf, and sun? In the Reagan era, hip hop was understood to be the music of the inner city and, with rare exception, of New York. Rap was considered the poetry of the street, and it was