G-funk, or Gangsta-funk, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that emerged from West Coastgangsta rap in the early 1990s. G-funk (which uses funk music with an artificially lowered tempo) incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of P-funk tunes, and a high portamento sine wave keyboard lead. The lyrical content consisted of sex, drugs, violence, and women. There was also a slurred “lazy” way of rapping in order to clarify words and stay in rhythmic cadence.
Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples (such as EPMD or The Bomb Squad), G-funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples per song.[1] Music theorist Adam Krims has described G-funk as "a style of generally West Coast rap whose musical tracks tend to deploy live instrumentation, heavy on bass and keyboards, with minimal (sometimes no) sampling and often highly conventional harmonic progressions and harmonies".[2] Dr. Dre, a pioneer for the G-Funk genre, normally uses live musicians to replay the original music of sampled records. This enabled him to produce music that had his own sounds, rather than a direct copy of the sample.[3]
There has been some debate over who should be considered the "father of G-funk." Dr. Dre is generally believed to have developed the sound,[4] but Cold187um and KMG of Above the Law have claimed that they originated the sound. They claim that Dr. Dre did not credit the group for pioneering the style when he released “The Chronic”, his Death Row debut album.[5] They both released records on Ruthless Records prior to this. Warren G and Snoop Dogg were with Cold187um before joining Dr. Dre and Death Row. On Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle album, Warren G and Daz Dillinger claim they produced "Ain't No Fun," even though Dre is credited as the album's sole producer.[6]
The earliest use of sine wave synthesizers and Parliament-Funkadelic-style bass grooves in Dr. Dre's work appeared on N.W.A's single "Alwayz Into Somethin'" from their 1991 album Efil4zaggin. Dr. Dre's first true G-funk single, however, was 1992's "Deep Cover", the title song from the movie soundtrack of the same name, which also introduced Snoop Dogg to the world. It was Kokane who appeared on the Deep Cover soundtrack with a song that was produced by Cold 187um called Nickel Slick, there was a video done for & a remix of the song was done by Dr.Dre. When Dre's 1992 Death Row Records debut The Chronic was released in 1992, the album was immensely successful, and consequently made G-funk the most popular sub-genre of hip hop.[7]
Another early G-funk pioneer, also from Compton, was rapper and producer DJ Quik, who was already using P-funk instrumentals as early as 1991 in his debut album Quik is the Name, though his most recognizable G-Funk album would be 1995's Safe & Sound. Another well known rapper that used G-Funk was Nate Dogg.
^Brown, Ethan (November 22, 2005). "Straight Outta Hollis". Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler. Anchor. ISBN1-4000-9523-9. [Unlike] popular hip-hop producers like the Bomb Squad, Dre instead utilized a single sample to drive a song.
^Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Dr. Dre (Andre Young", in Vladimir Bogdanov et al., All Music Guide to Rock, 3rd ed., Backbeat Books, p. 324. ISBN 087930653X.
