Bitches Ain't Shit

"Bitches Ain't Shit" is the final song of Dr. Dre's debut solo rap album, ''The Chronic'',Thomas Golianopoulous
"Dr. Dre, 'The Chronic' at 20: Classic track-by-track review"
''Billboard.com'', Prometheus Global Media, LLC, 15 Dec 2012. which was released in December 1992 as Death Row Records' first album.Wayne Marshall, "Hip-hop's irrepressible refashionability: Phases in the cultural production of black youth", in Orlando Patterson with Ethan Fosse, eds., ''The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth'' (Cambridge, MA & London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2015)
p 184
Though never a single, "Bitches Ain't Shit" was a huge underground hit.Soren Baker, ''The History of Gangster Rap'' (New York: Abrams Image, 2018)
indexing "Bitches Ain't Shit"
The song's popularity was a major contribution to the success of ''The Chronic'''s sales.James G. Spady, Charles G. Lee & H. Samy Alim, ''Street Conscious Rap'' (Philadelphia: Black History Museum, UMUM/LOH Pub., 1999)
p 538

The song proved controversial, due to prevalent themes of misogyny.

Record production

Death Row

In 1986, Ice T's song "6 in the Mornin'," diverting from electro rap and "funk hop" some fanfare in the Los Angeles area's rap scene, was gangsta rap's inaugural anthem, reaching gold sales.David Diallo, ch 10 "From electro-rap to G-funk: A social history of rap music in Los Angeles and Compton, California", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide'', Volume 1: ''East Coast and West Coast'' (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010)
pp 228–231
on Ice T, particularly
231
an
pp 234–238
on N.W.A, amid backstory on their precursor, contemporary, and evolving rap scene in the Los Angeles area. In more focus on the scene's transition from electro rap to gangsta rap, whereby N.W.A's landmark album, ''Straight Outta Compton'', in 1988, granted West Coast rap its first unique identity, see Loren Kajikawa, "Compton via New York", ''Sounding Race in Rap Songs'', (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015)
pp 91–93
For more on the album, see Steve Huey
"N.W.A: ''Straight Outta Compton''"
''AllMusic.com'', Netaktion LLC, visited 14 Jun 2020. Forming in early 1987, the group N.W.A recast gangsta rap into a grim, menacing presentation. Despite scarce radio play outside the County of Los Angeles, and despite two, early departures over money—secondary record producer Arabian Prince in 1988, then primary rapper and ghostwriter Ice Cube in late 1989—N.W.A advanced gangsta rap to platinum sales, but disbanded in 1991 once primary record producer Dr. Dre left. Freed from N.W.A's brash persona, Dre held creative control and preeminent industry cachet.Ben Westhoff,
The making of ''The Chronic''"
''LAWeekly.com'', ''LA Weekly'', 19 Nov 2012.Ben Westhoff
"Backstabbing, Moogs and the funky worm: How gangsta rap was born"
''TheGuardian.com'', Guardian News & Media Limited, 13 Sep 2016.

Dre wanted to only produce, but his N.W.A. ghostwriter the D.O.C. convinced him to still rap, too. Starting Death Row Records with their manager Suge Knight,Vlad Lyubovny, interviewer
"The D.O.C.: I put Suge and Dre together so we could build Death Row Records"
''VladTV''/''DJVlad'' "Verified" channel @ YouTube, 22 Dec 2015. Interview clip opens on money gripes sending Dr. Dre from Ruthless Records. Death Row Records' formation enters nea
2:33
mark. Snoop Dogg's development enters nea
12:36
mark. they drew Dick Griffey, whose SOLAR Records had the office space, recording studio, and major distributor Sony Music.Chuck Philips, "The big mack", ''Spin'', 1994 Aug;10(5):48–53,96
p 53
In April 1992, SOLAR issued their first rap song, "Deep Cover," which hit drew Sony's interest in Death Row.Ronin Ro, ''Have Gun, Will Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records'' (New York: Main Street Books/Doubleday, 1999)
esp.p83
But soon, outrage at " Cop Killer," heavy metal, by Ice T's band Body Count, repelled Sony, as "Deep Cover" had similar theme. Death Row gained Warner Music distribution via Interscope Records.Snoop Dogg cover story by Dream Hampton, "G Down", ''The Source'', 1993 Sep;(48):64–70
archived at ''dreamhampton.com''
Knight excluded Griffey, and reportedly "Deep Cover" as album track was replaced by a newer song, "Bitches Ain't Shit."

''The Chronic''

Assisted by Daz and by Warren G on drum programming and sampling soul and funk classics, Dre shaped a new sound, and new aura: gangsta funk, G-funk.Marcus Reeves, ''Somebody Scream!: Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power'' (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2008)
p 142
Besides the "pop-crafted ingenuity" of Chronic singles "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" and "Let Me Ride", Dre's gangstas in these songs and music videoes, not fleeing the police on grim streets, were cruising sunny boulevards in modified 1964 Chevy Impalas, showcasing them at street rallies, mingling at barbecues, and, after nightfall, drinking malt liquor at parties, at any moment puffing weed, altogether, at that time, "a glamorous brand of gangsta rap
p 143
Bryan J. McCann, ''The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era'' (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017)
p 70–
for several pages, McCann swiftly unveils and deciphers the cultural subtexts of the G-funk aesthetic. In late 1993, Death Row Records' second album—Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut solo album ''DoggystyleGerrick D. Kennedy
''Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap''
(New York: Atria Books, 2017): p
204

211
on Death Row Records' atmosphere
p 201
on Dr. Dre's ghostwriter the D.O.C.'s own view of it
p 206
on ''Chronic'' singles gaining play on popular radio and on MTV and then superstardom by Dre and Snoop as trendsetters; pp 211–213 on ''Doggystyle'''s recording and content and on Snoop's murder case.''—secured gangsta rap in mainstream, popular music.Travis L. Gosa, "The fifth element: Knowledge", in Justin A. Williams, ed., ''The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
p 56
Yet in late 1992, there was Dr. Dre's debut solo album ''The Chronic''. With key visual motifs in music videos, its sonic motifs, eerie yet elegant—with grooving bass lines and bassy thumps under catchy, melodic hooks and Snoop's relaxed, melodic raps—debuted gangsta rap on popular radio.Alan Light, "The year in hip hop: Hard reign", ''Vibe'', 1993 Dec & 1994 Jan;1(4):74–75
p 75
"Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" pervaded it,Stereo Williams
"When Snoop Dogg became the most wanted man in America"
''TheDailyBeast.com'', The Daily Beast Company LLC, 18 Nov 2018.James C. Howell, ''The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations'' (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015), p
83
��85, finds the G-funk innovation, superseding N.W.A, employing videos depicting "acclaimed and imagined places" showcasing street gangs' hubs in South Central Los Angeles, Compton, and Long Beach. But unlike warring Crips and Bloods sets, "G-funk artists remained united in messaging and representing, creating a profound cultural force (with the benefit of broadcast media)", blending "two overarching behavioral types, the nihilist gangbanger and the enterprising hustler", "stressing 'gratuitous, individualist pleasures of the moment'." "What is most remarkable is that G-funk music became mainstream. Dr. Dre's 'Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang' was arguably the 'hardest rap' to ever rank high (#2) on the Billboard Hot 100 chart" 83 Howell elaborates, while citing further sources, "gang images have served for many decades as a marketable media product—in movies, novels, news features, and television drama—but the 1990s saw a significant change in how they were presented." "Thus, gangsta rap gained status as 'a culture of resistance' " p 83–84 "In sum, gangsta rap contributed significantly to the emergence of more gangs in the late 1980s and early 1990s and, with that, gang membership rolls expanded more than in any period of U.S. history." "Along with the parallel growth of gangs and gang-related violence and drug trafficking, arrests in many cities contributed to substantial growth in imprisonment of young black men". "Without any doubt, youth gangs became more formidable once undergirded by the highly influential youth subculture. The allure of gangs grew stronger because of the widespread glorification of gang culture in rap music." 85Note, however, that youths' commission of violent crime ''per se'' manifested a different statistical trend. "Arrest rates of young people for homicide and other violent crimes skyrocketed from 1983 to 1993. In response to the dramatic increase in the number of murders committed by young people, Congress and many state legislatures passed new gun control laws, established boot camps, and began waiving children as young as 10 out of the juvenile justice system and into adult criminal courts. Then, starting in the mid-1990s, overall arrest rates began to decline, returning by 1999 to rates only slightly higher than those in 1983." ffice of the Surgeon General, National Institute of Health, ''Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General'' (Rockville, Maryland: Office of the Surgeon General of the United States, 2001)
ch 2 "The magnitude of youth violence"
sec "The violence epidemic"] and was a 1994 Grammy nominee, while "Let Me Ride" won a Grammy.Kevin L. Ferguson, ''Pop Goes the Decade: The Nineties'' (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2019)
p 130
"Bitches Ain't Shit," while similarly musical, was "gruff" and "sinister"Havelock Nelson
"Album reviews: ''The Chronic''"
''RollingStone.com'', ''Rolling Stone'', 18 Mar 1993. and yet comedic, a gonzo style.Chris Steffen, interviewer
"Ben Folds on repeating mistakes, conjuring characters, and repeating mistakes"
''AllMusic.com'', Netaktion LLC, 23 Aug 2019. Here, piano rock singer Folds discusses his own 2005 cover version of "Bitches Ain't Shit" and clarifies that he took most of the original song's "misogynistic rant" out from his own version. Yet Folds also says, "Dr. Dre is no dummy: there's comedy in it, there's Quentin Tarantino, and then there's also serious stuff in it." In turn, about the Hollywood filmmaker, Bret Easton Ellis
"The gonzo vision of Quentin Tarantino"
''NYTimes.com'', ''The New York Times'', 12 Oct 2015, cannot "imagine an earnest 20-something millennial dreaming up a film as perverse and lurid" as his 1994 film ''Pulp Fiction'' or 1992 film ''Reservoir Dogs'', much less "his racially explosive comedy-western ''Django Unchained''." Ellis deems 2015 "obsessed with 'triggering' and 'microaggressions' and the policing of language", whereas Tarantino's films are "relentlessly un- PC."

Album recording, across nine months in 1992,"Dr. Dre speaks at Snoop Dogg's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony 11.19.18"
''The Hollywood Fix'' "Verified" channel @ YouTube, 19 Nov 2018. began in Calabasas, California, 2016)
p xviii
More accurately, however, the "Bitches Ain't Shit" lyrics are as follow: Dre overlooks women to examine a man, namely, "a bitch named Eazy-E">Eric Wright"; Daz advises to find a "ho" who herself "got the cash flow" and then have sex with her and receive ''her'' money; Kurupt pursues carnal thrills from an indulgent "freak" among the fawning "bitches" on his "nuts" whom he regards as a "trick" breed while he mentions nothing about money; Snoop, in love with his own girlfriend, planned to assault the man sleeping with her, and is "heartbroke" when concluding "fuck a bitch" while having mentioned nothing about money; Jewell, a woman, deflecting critics or rivals, boasts of autonomy, willful affiliation with the record label, paramount indifference otherwise, and fulfilling her own sexual appetites, yet mentions nothing about money. Dre when earlier recalling "a bitch" in fact calls him a "she" who seeks Dre's money, but alleges that "she" does this by mimicking a "white bitch" who, in Dre's rap, retains male identity via the main "bitch" allegedly "sucking on his" penis "just to get a buck or two". Already notorious to rap fans, the white man was the black man's business partner, Jerry Heller [Jim Irvin & Colin McLear, eds., ''The Mojo Collection'', 4th edn. (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2007)
p 587
N.W.A.'s April 1991 single "Alwayz into Somethin' " had incidentally implied shooting at "bitch O'Shea"—or, in the radio edit, "girl O'Shea"—the first name of Ice Cube, who had exited N.W.A. in late 1989
Alwayz Into Somethin'
", ''N.W.A.'' @ YouTube, 11 Mar 2017, or
radio edit
]. Retorting this, Ice Cube's October 1991 song "No Vaseline" scathingly accused Helller and Wright of exploiting N.W.A's artists
No Vaseline
, ''Ice Cube / Cubevision'' @ YouTube, 25 Oct 2021]. Cube's cameo in the September 1993 music video of "Let Me Ride" would signal that Cube and Dre had reconciled [Sam Silverman
"The truth about Dr. Dre and Ice Cube's relationship"
''NickiSwift.com'', 6 Jan 2021, which useful review may misname Snoop an N.W.A. artist]. Film and music critic Nathan Rabin instead accurately relates Dre's ''Chronic'' track "Bitches Ain't Shit" with Snoop's ''Doggystyle'' track "Ain't No Fun", two massively influential, underground hits and misogynistic anthems that feature Kurupt [''The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture'' (New York: Scribner, 2009)
p 91
Rabin explains, "Gangsta rap taught us that the worst thing any man could do was to fall in love with a woman", who then "can break your heart", and "can turn your world upside down." "''The Chronic'' preaches that bitches ain't shit but hos and tricks. Kurupt extrapolated on this point when"—in "Ain't No Fun", a year later—"he legendarily reasoned, 'If Kurupt gave a fuck about a bitch, I'd always be broke / I'd never have no motherfucking endo to smoke' " [p 91
"Ain't No Fun"
''SnoopDoggTV'' @ YouTube, 8 Nov 2014]. Kathryn Gines, "a black woman philosopher" who founded the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers [''Hypatia (journal), Hypatia'', 2011 Spring;26(2):doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01172.x, 429, notes that in the "Housewife" track on Dr. Dre's second solo or November 1999 album '' 2001 (Dr. Dre album), 2001'', the line ''Bitches ain't shit but hos and tricks'' occurs in Kurupt's verse Open Court/Carus, 2005)
p 95
Gines alleges an "inaccurate portrayal of the Black welfare mother" and of black mothers staying home without welfare as "summed up by the chorus of Dr. Dre's song 'Housewife': 'So what you found a ho that you like / But you can't make a ho a housewife' " [p 95]. Citing no other lyrics of it, Gines deems "Housewife" to "suggest that Black women can't be trusted because they are constantly using sex, scheming, or 'plottin' ' on a man, trying to bring him down. Perhaps these aren't the rappers' personal views. Still, they are the lyrical contents of songs like 'Housewife.' " 95But, again, "the lyrical contents" ''per se'' do not specify black women or portray an attempt to exploit motherhood for material comfort. In the "Housewife" verses, Dre's character gets a woman sexually attached and then financially exploits her to her boyfriend/husband's disadvantage, guest rapper Hittman's repays a woman who faked a pregnancy to get "abortion money", and Kurupt's, although indeed claiming that "hos" or such wish they could "break a G down", directs such, "Give me some head, give me some ass / Give me some cash, pass it to Daz / Pass it to Snoop, or pass it to Nate / Hos eat dick like eggs and steak"
Housewife
, ''Dr. Dre'' @ YouTube, 28 Jul 2018]. Tha Dogg Pound, comprised by Daz and Kurupt, complemented by Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, commodified pimp outlook ha Dogg Pound, "Big Pimpin' ", ''Above the Rim (soundtrack), Above the Rim'' (Death Row, 1994)]. In pimp talk, the agenda to ''break a bitch down'' or, as Kurupt inverted it, ''break a G down'' is a specific concept, widely applicable [Mickey Royal, ''The Pimp Game: Instructional Guide'' (Mikail Sharif, 2018), pp 52– o
54
��56]. "Be it fame, stardom, love, money, respect, security—in order to be a ho, she must want something." 55The pimp strategizes to "poison" her with problems but then offer her a "cure" so that she seeks him to "deliver her dreams". To get her to "relinquish her soul", then, he may "break the bitch down", leaving her under his "spell" without options besides him, whereupon it is his choice to make her a prostitute, a "ho" 56 Yet in a pimp's view, "these methods are being practiced, performed, and perfected every day, everywhere, right up to, and including, the Oval Office.
preface
by Google Books]. To a pimp, the popular view that women are singularly loving and selfless is a myth whereby a woman, even if naive or intending no harm, and especially if under "spell" by an exploitive or abusive man, readily breaks a caring man who loves or helps her, as in the boyhood saga of Robert "Iceberg Slim" Beck 'Pimp: The Story Of My Life'' (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1967 / Edinburgh: Canongate Books">Holloway House">'Pimp: The Story Of My Life'' (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1967 / Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2009), p
1
��12, or via Amazon.com's ''Look inside'' utility]. Reputedly, the "pimping disease" is street life's affliction to young men thus disillusioned as young boys about their own mothers, including reputable and good mothers [''ibid''., quoting p 9]. Beck, who pimped from about 1935 to 1960, recalled, "Most of the successful pimps in those days had been dumped in garbage cans, had been abandoned, and had never known maternal love. They were the cold-blooded ones." "But I always had that sucker streak in me." "I was never the best pimp. To be a great pimp, you've really got to hate your mother." [Bill Morris
"How Iceberg Slim schooled Dr. Dre: On Justin Gifford's 'Street Poison' "
''TheMillions.com'', PWxyz LLC, 3 Sep 2015].

Daz, before heralding Snoop's hook recital as "the anthem," advises best practices to grow relaxation time with "your homies." In Daz's protocol, "you pick a ho who got the cash flow," and "run up in them hos and grab the cash and get your dash on." Once the hook soon closes, "Then I hops in my coupé to make a quick run," Kurupt adds, "To the sto'—to get me a 4-O."

Kurupt, out to buy a 40 oz. bottle of malt liquor, gets paged by Snoop. "That must mean," Kurupt knows, "more hos." His outing to Snoop's hometown Long Beach—"just so I can meet a freak to lick me from my head to my feet," Kurupt beams—swiftly attracts, he prides, "bitches on my nuts like clothes." But, in his circle, "we don't love them hos": "a ho's a trick"; "a trick's a bitch."Apparently definitive is the Kurupt verse's close (while Snoop queries—and echoes another bar): '', Bitches on my nuts like –clothes. Heh. , But I'm from the Pound and we don't love them hos. How could y' , trust a ho? (Why—) 'Cause a ho's a trick. I don't , love them tricks (Why—) 'Cause a trick's a bitch, and my , dick's constantly in her mouth— turning them , trick-ass hos the fuck out, now , '' 01:51

Snoop Dogg

Snoop skims a saga of finding himself as "a nigga on sprung," "up in them guts like every single day," and "in love like a motherfucker," walking into his debacle with her, "a bitch named Mandy May." Early on, despite "the homies" advising him that she was "no good," he had "figured that niggas wouldn't trip with mine," his being, after all, "the maniac in black, Mr. Snoop Eastwood." But, "on a hot, sunny day," his "nigga The D.O.C.">D.O.C." and "homie Dr. Dre," retrieving him from a jail stint, pose, "Snoop, we got news."

Now wise to her "tricking" during his "county blues," Snoop, who "ain't been out a second," already must inflict some "chin checkin.' " So he pulls up to "my girl's house," he says, and will "kick in the door," but first goes, "Dre, pass the Glock." At the doorstep, drawn to "look on the floor," Snoop finds, "It's my little cousin Daz, and he's fucking my ho"—a discovery that prompts Snoop to "uncock" the pistol. Snoop admits, but affirms, "I'm heartbroke, but I'm still loc,"The term ''loc'', in California gang culture, meaning "insane, irrational, or mentally unbalanced", particularly as to violent tendencies, is short for the Spanish term ''loco'', meaning "crazy" aciej Widawski, ''African American Slang'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2015)
p 218
S. Ivan Riley Jr & Jayne Batts, "Youth and gang violence", in Ralph Riviello, ed., ''Manual of Forensic Emergency Medicine'' (Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2010)
p 197
and, at long last, swears Mandy May off: "Man, fuck a bitch."

Public reception

The hidden jam

"Bitches Ain't Shit," in predating the cultural effects of Snoop's debut solo or November 1993 album, met a society that, despite misogynistic rap lyrics by Too Short and by 2 Live Crew since the 1980s,Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff "Chairman" Mao, Gabriel Alvarez & Brent Rollins, "16 memorable misogynist rap music moments", ''Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists'' (New York: St. Martin's Griffin Press, 1999)
p 40
Ten of them postdate the #2, Dr. Dre et al., "Bitches Ain't Shit" (Death Row, 1992). Of the five that instead predate it, two are by, alike Dre, a recent N.W.A member, #15, Ice Cube, "Can't Fade Me" (Priority, 1990), or by the group itself, with Dre in it, #8, N.W.A, "One Less Bitch" (Ruthless, 1991). The remaining three, predating "Bitches Ain't Shit" but not connected to N.W.A, are #3, Too Short, "The Bitch Sucks Dick" (75 Girls, 1985), #12, 2 Live Crew, "We Want Some Pussy!!" (Luke Skywalker, 1986), and #11, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, "Talk Like Sex" (Cold Chillin', 1990). still expected popular songs, rather, to romanticize women.Nathan Rabin, ''The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture'' (New York: Scribner, 2009)
p 91
William L. Van Deburg, ''Hoodlums: Black Villains and Social Bandits in American Life'' (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p
209

269
Although too hardcore to be a ''Chronic'' single, it was among the album's "unheralded favorites,"Marcus Reeves, ''Somebody Scream!: Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power'' (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2008)
p 148
spurring talk of "the beat"—that is, the whole instrumental streamMitchell Ohriner, ''Flow: The Rhythmic Voice in Rap Music'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)
p 16
note #17, discussing no particular song, separates two meanings of the word ''beat'', one in music theory versus one to rap listeners: "Here, I use the term 'instrumental stream' in place of what is usually called 'the beat.' I wish to distinguish between 'beat' in the sense of an abstract time point within the metre of the music from 'beat' in the sense of the instrumental sounds of a rap verse, minus the rapping." (Both meanings thus differ, also, from a third meaning of ''beat'', solely the drum pattern.)—and of the "flow" by vocals, whereby Snoop's, mellow in the era, at times hinted singing. Altogether, this hidden track, a huge underground hit, as explains its guest rapper Kurupt, "was one of the things that helped sell ''The Chronic'' the most."

Interviewed, asked her sentiments on "Bitches Ain't Shit," one young woman, incidentally black, echoed many women's view Kyra D. Gaunt, "African American women between hopscotch & hip hop: 'Must be the music (that's turnin' me on)' ", in Angharad N. Valdivia, ed., ''Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities'' (Thousand Oaks, CA, London & New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 1995), p
285

287
esp
p 286
by commenting, "I shouldn't like it, but I love the song 'cause it's the jam." Kyra D. Gaunt, ''The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop'' (New York & London: New York University Press, 2006)
pp 120–121
In October 1993, rap journalist Dream Hampton, remarking aside the controversy over it, called it, in the rap genre, "the best song on the best album of a pretty slow year."Dream Hampton
"Dreaming America—hip hop culture"
''Spin'', 1993 Oct;9(7):111. Surveying the genre across 1993, music critic Alan Light called the album a "sonic masterpiece." Since the November 1992 release of "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," the album's singles, lyrically mild, pervading popular radio, shifted the rap genre's spotlight, for the first time, from the East Coast or New York to the West Coast. ''The Chronic'', rapidly, "recast hip hop in the mold of L.A. rap."

Snoop was charged with involvement in a homicide in August 1993, but was bailed out and continued becoming one of America's biggest superstars.'''' "Bitches Ain't Shit" was notorious, but began reshaping popular music's culture. But meanwhile, even some rap fans still disputed that rap songs, being strongly rhythmic, often sampling other songs, and allegedly not melodic, are in fact ''music''. "Bitches Ain't Shit" critique usually exclaimed either "the beat" or the "flow"—end of the analysis—or anxiety and allegation at its lyrics written in prose format.Amanda Seales, ''Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use'' (New York: Abrams Image, 2019)
p 20
Expert analysis of the musicality in rap songs' construction, including metric and rhythmic structures within Snoop's style was mostly beyond a "poorly conversant music public," reading about controversial lyrics.

Public opposition

The runup

All in 1990, many rap records gained the ''Parental Advisory'' label, ''Newsweek'' smeared rappers as, in one reading, "ignorant black men who scream obscene threats," and in Florida a federal judge, triggering ban laws, ruled a rap album, '' As Nasty as They Wanna Be'', obscene, US history's first in music.Jessica Elliott, "Hip hop and censorship", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture'', Volume 2 (Westport, CT & London: Greenwood Press, 2007), p
398

399
But, hearing the lewd party music in court, jurors laughed, and acquitted the group, 2 Live Crew. By contrast, recorded amid the 1992 Los Angeles riots, ''The Chronic'' reflects this climate—anger, angst, and mayhem, present in Dre's life, too—interspersed by visions of leisurely life for a West Coast rap "G." For the December 1992 album release by Death Row Records, its intermediary label, Interscope Records—cued by its own parent, Time Warner's major label, Warner MusicJulia Chapman
"The race card"
''Spin'', 1996 Jan;11(10):65.Nelson George, ''Hip Hop America'' (New York: Penguin Books

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