Dirty Rap - Late 1980s and Early 1990s Dirty Rap

Late 1980s and Early 1990s Dirty Rap

Though the genre had been around since at least the late 1970s with Blowfly's Rapp Dirty, it was six years later, in 1986, that the controversial rap group 2 Live Crew pioneered "dirty rap" with their Miami bass debut 2 Live Crew Is What We Are. With the graphic sexual content of their X-rated party rhymes, 2 Live Crew garnered much negative publicity. However, it wasn't until their 1989 As Nasty As They Wanna Be that dirty rap became a legitimate genre. After being attacked by conservative critics, censors, and attorneys, 2 Live Crew responded with the 1990 album Banned in the USA, a much more political and angry album. Oakland rapper Too Short released the 1986 album Raw, Uncut, and X-Rated about similar dirty sex subjects, and he would continue to use provocative and sexual lyrics throughout his career.

2 Live Crew returned to their utterly pornographic roots with 1991's Sports Weekend: As Nasty As They Wanna Be, Pt. 2, which was lambasted by many critics as running the sexually deviant lyrics of As Nasty As They Wanna Be into the ground. From Sport's Weekend onward, the Crew continued to make dirty rap and party rap.

Various rappers followed with dirty rap in the wake of 2 Live Crew's popularity. The group Poison Clan became widely successful, as did the all-female group Bytches With Problems, who were an anomaly within the notoriously misogynistic dirty rap scene. Sir Mix-A-Lot's 1992 hit single "Baby Got Back" could arguably be considered within the dirty rap genre, however, the majority of Mix-A-Lot's work is not sexually explicit enough for him to be considered a true dirty rap artist. Similarly, the new jack swing hip hop group Wreckx-n-Effect scored a dirty rap hit with their 1992 single "Rump Shaker." The pimp rapper Too Short is also a notable contributor and beginner to dirty rap music since he began his first album in 1983, though his topics range from sex to the gangster lifestyle.

In the early 1990s, the Baltimore club scene first began gaining an identity separate from house music and mainstream hip hop. Baltimore club, or gutter music, often features sexually explicit lyrics, and has influenced many current dirty rappers.