G-funk

G-funk, or gangsta funk, is a type of hip hop music that emerged from West Coast gangsta rap in the early 1990s. G-funk (which uses funk music with artificially lowered tempos) 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 -- a feature that became the genre’s notable trademark. Additionally, 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]

Origins

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^[3]; the first hints of the whiny syn-leads and Parliament-Funkadelic-style bass grooves in Dre's work appeared on N.W.A's single "Alwayz Into Something" 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 the world to Snoop Dogg. 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. ^[4]

See also

Further information: List of G-funk musicians

References