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Original Gangstas
From Compton to Tupac's murder: Ben Westhoff's history of West Coast rap was published in the US in 2016 and in German by Hannibal in 2017.
- Author
- Ben Westhoff
- Full title
- Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap
- Published
- September 13, 2016, Hachette Books, New York
- Length
- 432 pages
- ISBN
- 978-0-316-34486-9
- German edition
- Original Gangstas: Die unbekannte Geschichte von Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur und der Geburt des Westcoast-Rap, Hannibal Verlag 2017, translated by Paul Fleischmann, ISBN 978-3-85445-620-9
Music, drugs, and poverty shape the reporting of Ben Westhoff. The American journalist from St. Louis, who later also published Fentanyl, Inc., delivered a comprehensive history of West Coast rap in 2016 with Original Gangstas: from the beginnings in Compton and South Central to the murders of Tupac and Biggie.
2016 with Hachette, 2017 in German: Book Details
From the Rise of N.W.A to the Coastal War
The book chronicles the rise of N.W.A, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube, the founding of Death Row Records, and how the label turned Tupac and Snoop Dogg into superstars. Westhoff draws on extensive research and looks directly into the neighborhoods where the music came from.
He describes the violence, money, and rivalries that shaped this scene. He also covers the conflict between the East and West coasts, at the end of which Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. were murdered.
Neither Heroes nor Villains: Tupac in the Context of His Era
The book places Tupac in context rather than profiling him in isolation: a serious, well-researched work of nonfiction. According to the publisher, Kirkus awarded the work a starred review, praising it as a detailed, “definitive” history of the gangsta rap era. Rolling Stone highlighted that Westhoff depicts neither simple heroes nor simple villains.
Anyone wanting to understand the world Tupac entered at Death Row in 1995 will find the best overview here. For German readers, the volume remains one of the few translated books on the subject.
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