Gangsta Gangsta

I like the depiction of the emergence of "Gangsta Rap" and culture in Sag Harbor in 1985. It is a sophisticated first hand account of how these trends came into prominence in the late 80s and 90s. Sag Harbor takes place just a few years before gangsta rap became popular in mainstream culture. You can see the convergence of these ideas in both the early rap references found throughout the book as well as the boys’ brief obsession with acting tough with pellet guns.

The book is littered with allusions to early rap throughout. Reggie and Bobby are always practicing their Run DMC routine. Benji gets into an argument with Marcus over whether Afrika Bambaataa bit the sound of Kraftwerk. Benji makes reference to Ice Cube lyrics that he was reminded of (although not written yet at the time of the story). Benji talks about how he listens to rap songs that his brother buys. The early rap scene has definitely taken root in Benji and his friend’s lives as evidenced throughout the whole summer. But while rap has taken hold, it was different and not quite “gangsta.” Benji acknowledges this when comparing Run DMC’s lyrics to Ice Cube’s from a few years later: going from talking about their rhymes to how they have to shoot their rivals. It would not really reach this state until a few years after the events in the book in the late 80s with NWA’s Straight Outta Compton. 

Benji is a prep school kid on holiday but he still bears witness to the prepubescent gangster culture in the gun games he plays with his friends. The boys all think it would be a good idea to shoot bb guns at each other. Benji who is initially opposed even finds himself drawn into the fray. Benji suffers the unfortunate injury of a pellet embedding itself into the side of his face that he cannot remove. Even though this game is somewhat childish it had real repercussions for the kids involved. This fake gun war foreshadowed the rising gun violence in this period. 

But there could be more than one explanation to Benji’s new exposure to guns. The violence was always there and it is just Benji’s exposure to the culture that was new. After all, Benji was an upper middle class kid who went to private school and only got his lessons in culture over the summer. Many liked the emerging gangsta rap because the rappers told it how it was. The violence that the genre depicts was a part of the urban experience and only got its mainstream exposure through gangsta rap. 

Either way, it is interesting to see two different themes in Benji’s summer that were about the become one theme in American culture. His summer was a peek into these ideas very early on in both his formation into adulthood as well as their formation into established genres. I just find these early ideas very interesting with our knowledge with what they will eventually become. Even Benji speaks with some hindsight, telling us that one of the boys would lose his life and another would become paralyzed due to gun violence. Overall, I thought this was a very interesting look at these ideas in the book.