Schoolly D puts out the first gangsta rap record

# Hip-hop

# Rap

1985: Number 11 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of hip-hop

The culture may have been bubbling up in Los Angeles, but gangsta stylings were first put on record in Philadelphia. Over a huge drum- machine patter, Schoolly D's PSK What Does It Mean? pays homage to the city's Park Side Killers gang. Telling anyone who wasn't aware all about the guns, the drugs and the girls, it's a fierce performance, D's sing-song flow suffused with braggadocio. Some of the language is quite euphemistic by later standards, though – something Ice-T noticed before adapting PSK for 6 in the Mornin', the west coast's own gangsta debut.

Contributor

Paul MacInnes

The GuardianTramp

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