Gangsta lean
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"Gangsta Lean" is an urban slang phrase denoting a style of automobile driving in which the driver sits slung low and tilted toward the passenger seat. The phrase first appeared in popular music in William De Vaughn's 1972 song "Be Thankful for What You Got," which includes the lyric "diggin' the scene with a gangsta lean."
[edit] Use in other songs
William DeVaughn's original lyrics are referenced in the 1988 Teena Marie Top 10 R&B hit single "Work It" ( "Don't mention you be on the scene, and you drive my car, and your gangsta lean...") and repeated later that year in the N.W.A. chart-topping rap song "Gangsta Gangsta."
Other mentions include the 1993 Digable Planets song "Where I'm From" and Adina Howard's 1995 hit "Freak Like Me" ( "and I will take you around the 'hood on a gangsta lean.") A remix of MC Lyte's song "Cold Rock a Party" also references the phrase with the line "...I be da baddest b that hit da scene since da gangsta lean..."
American R&B group DRS released a song in 1993 entitled "Gangsta Lean", which peaked at #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
"Gangsta Lean" is the title of a song recorded by alt-country band The Gourds on their 1999 album Ghosts of Hallelujah.
Rihanna's 2007 single "Shut Up and Drive" references the slang in the opening verse "I'm a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine with a sunroof top and a gangsta lean".
Ludacris' 2003 single "Diamond in the Back", which samples DeVaughn's song, references the slang in the opening chorus "I wanna (diggin' the scene with a gangsta lean)".
American rap group Clipse has a song entitled "Gangsta Lean", but unlike previous songs that referenced the title, the Clipse's version was based around marijuana.
