gangsta

Gangsta, Gangster, Gangbanger

A member of a gang who usually deals crack cocaine and marijuana to make endsmeat and support himself or his family. Usually risks his life by taking part in gang shootings over territory, merchandise, or beef.

Most gangstas are caught up in the life around them, growing up poor in the projects or areas like Compton, Los Angeles, and Long Beach. Those who decide they aren't going to get anywhere through education and school become gangstas and partake in the forementioned lifestyle. Some think they don't have a choice and become gan

In hip hop culture the gangsta is looked up to because he is the one guy you see making money, with brand new clothes, clean white nikes, and a brand new fitted hat despite not finishing school and living in a poor environment. Gangstas are respected because they do what they do to keep themselves alive and provide food for their family, especially when most are raised by poor single mothers with little brothers and sisters. Although glorified by hip hop culture the gangsta is usually responsible for putting crack in the hood and killing other gangstas, which becomes an issue with rappers like Kanye West.

There are also some hip hop figures who dislike the love for gangsta culture because, although they are doing what they do to survive, they are the cause of black on black crime, crack addiction within neighborhoods, and act as negative role models for young males who watch them being glorified in music videos by rappers who are former or fake gangstas. The thing they don't understand is that those rappers are rich and do not live in the hood anymore so they do not see the negative effects of this lifestyle and say what they say because people buy into it.

Examples of gangstas and gangs are the Rollin 20 Crips, the Queen Street Piru, and the Eighteens of 18th Street.

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