A. has stood out so prominently, especially against the current backdrop of bubble-gum pop and gangsta rap.

NPR: M.I.A.: Rapper and Daughter of Revolution

Their mix of explicit lyrics, accordions, tubas and 12-string acoustic guitars make for an odd cross between gangsta rap and polka-esque folk music.

BBC: Narco-tourism in Mexico City

On his mixtapes, he's evolved out of conventional bling-thug rhetoric into something much looser and more playful, treating gangsta rap's antisocial themes primarily as an arena for wordplay.

NPR: 'Tha Carter III' Takes Lil Wayne Platinum

At once a Lalaland filled with dreamers, Los Angeles has also been scene to some of the worst race riots in American history: a paradoxical place that spawned both Charlie Chaplin and Gangsta Rap.

CNN: Los Angeles: Lights, camera, attitude

Unlike their L.A. gangsta rap forefather Ice-T, N.

NPR: 'Straight Outta Compton,' 20 Years Later

W.A wasn't the world's first gangsta rap act.

NPR: 'Straight Outta Compton,' 20 Years Later

Growing up in the Hollygrove section of New Orleans, Lil' Wayne (Dwayne Carter), also known as Weezy F Baby, Birdman Junior, and Raw Tunes, wrote dozens of gangsta rap hits while still in his teens.

NPR: 'The Great Deluge': A Katrina Post-Mortem

My life would surely be much more amusing if I were living in his fictitious Bacchanalia with a gangsta-rap soundtrack.

ECONOMIST: Software's hard lesson