Ben Westhoff

Making a watchable, substantial Hollywood movie about Tupac Shakur should have been impossible....

In his new book, Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap (out this month through Hachette Books), former L.A. Weekly music editor Ben Westhoff explores the origins of gangsta rap, the confrontational, street-savvy, funk-infused style that would......

Afeni Shakur, the mother of rapper Tupac Shakur and the subject of his song, “Dear Mama,” died yesterday, May 2, 2016, in Marin County, California, possibly from cardiac arrest. She was 69.   Born Alice Williams and raised in Lumberton, North Carolina, Shakur moved to the Bronx as a child......

Like the n-word and “queer” before it, “bitch” has been pretty thoroughly re-appropriated. Urban dictionary defines “bad bitch” as someone “mentally gifted and usually also fine as hell.” But don’t give credit to Iggy Azalea; give credit to another white rapper, Tairrie B, who was signed to Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records and in......

We all know kids die at raves. It happens all the time, including most recently at EDC last weekend in Las Vegas. Usually, the cause is drugs. But not everyone who takes drugs dies; those who know what they're actually taking, stay hydrated and take other precautions have a better......

Happy Dre Day! This Friday, June 19, at the Compton Community Center, gangsta rap fans will celebrate the glory of Dr. Dre. It’s the second annual such event, honoring “Compton’s First Black Billionaire,” following last year’s $3 billion sale of his company Beats to Apple. Dre himself likely won't be there. He didn't come......

No one wants to take credit for coining the term “gangsta rap.” At least, no rappers do. As noted in L.A. Weekly's story commemorating the 20th anniversary of Eazy-E’s death, during N.W.A’s time, artists preferred to call the genre “reality rap.” After all, they weren’t telling bloody, fictional stories a......

For Eazy-E, the concept of gangsta rap was fully formed in his mind. By 1986, the genre, which nobody then called "gang­sta rap" ("reality rap," please) had begun to sprout in L.A. by way of Ice-T's "6 'n the Mornin'," which was patterned after Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D's "P.S.K. What......

Joe Fierro, a bodyguard for N.W.A. who was known as KJ Mustafa, died yesterday in Pleasanton, California. He was 61. Fierro was right in the thick of things during the Compton-based gangsta rap group’s most volatile years. As head of security for their label, Ruthless Records, he was in charge......