West Coast

From Compton to the Bay, West Coast hip-hop built its own universe. Dr. Dre defined the sound in 1992 and spent the next decade raising the ceiling on what rap production could do. 2Pac recorded Me Against the World from a prison cell and debuted at number one. Kendrick Lamar arrived in 2012 with a concept album about one night in Compton that changed the conversation about what rap could say. Nipsey Hussle turned the Marathon into a movement. The catalog here runs from The Chronic to good kid, m.A.A.d city - West Coast hip-hop at its most essential.