West Coast Hip Hop
West Coast hip hop is rap from the western United States, above all Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
It emerged in the 1980s with electro-influenced party records and then gangsta rap from groups such as N.W.A. In the early 1990s Dr. Dre's G-funk, with slow funk grooves and whining synth leads, defined the region's sound. The Bay Area added its own styles, including the fast, bouncy hyphy movement. Compared with East Coast rap it is usually smoother and more funk-based.
Artists it is known for: N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 2Pac.
- Family
- Hip-Hop & Rap
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A scene
- From
- California, 1980s
- Also called
- west coast rap
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 18%
About 15,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have west coast hip hop among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
West Coast Hip Hop artists
Kendrick Lamar
2Pac
Dr. Dre
Snoop Dogg
Ice Cube
The Game
N.W.A.
Eazy-E
The Pharcyde
Nipsey HussleThe west coast hip hop artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.