West Coast Rap
West Coast rap is hip hop from California and the wider American West, known for funk-based beats and laid-back delivery.
Los Angeles gave it gangsta rap in the late 1980s and G-funk in the 1990s, built on deep bass, replayed Parliament-Funkadelic grooves and high synth melodies. The Bay Area runs on its own independent scene and the up-tempo hyphy sound. In the 2010s, DJ Mustard's sparse, bouncy club beats and Kendrick Lamar's albums renewed the region's profile.
Artists it is known for: Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Kendrick Lamar.
- Family
- Hip-Hop & Rap
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A scene
- From
- California, 1980s
- Also called
- west coast hip hop
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 18%
About 15,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have west coast rap among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
West Coast Rap artists
Kendrick Lamar
2Pac
Dr. Dre
Snoop Dogg
Ice Cube
N.W.A.
The Alchemist
Eazy-E
The Pharcyde
Cypress HillThe west coast rap 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.