Public Enemy frontman, Chuck D, once famously labeled Hip-Hop music as, "The CNN of the streets." While the infancy of the genre was decidedly more feel good — built around breakbeats that were turned into "party records" — Chuck's assessment speaks to the transition from "throwing your hands" up because a person was intoxicated with the music, and "putting up your hands" because of entanglements with gangs and police.

It's impossible to examine the shift from Chic-inspired rhythms to gangster rap without acknowledging Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message." Melle Mel's lyrics were in stark contrast to that of The Sugarhill Gang. Gone was "hot butter on a breakfast toast," and introduced was "broken glass," and, "people pissin' on the stairs."

However, the birth of true gangster rap belongs to Philadelphia's Schoolly D.

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