When Common‘s 1994 classic thesis on Hip-Hop “I Used To Love H.E.R.” dropped, many interpreted some of the lyrics as a criticism of West Coast Hip-Hop. Especially when he rapped:
“But then she broke to the West Coast, and that was cool
Cause around the same time, I went away to school
And I’m a man of expanding, so why should I stand in her way
She probably get her money in L.A
And she did stud, she got big pub but what was foul
She said that the pro-black, was going out of style”
and
“Now she be in the burbs, looking rock and dressin’ hippie
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talking about popping Glocks serving rocks and hittin’ switches
Now she’s a gangsta rolling with gangsta bitches
Always smoking blunts and getting drunk
Telling me sad stories,now she only fucks with the funk
Stressin’ how hardcore and “real” she is
She was really the realest, before she got into showbiz”
Ice Cube, a founding father of West Coast Hip-Hop and Gangsta Rap, took offense.
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