Juicy or Regulate? Debating the Best Rap Song of 1994

1994, if you recall, was eventful in a variety of ways. You had Nelson Mandela becoming the president of South Africa (a good thing), Kurt Cobain killing himself (a sad thing), and O.J. Simpson ducked down in the back of a white Ford Bronco as he kinda sorta tried to escape the LAPD (a bizarre thing that shifted a number of things culturally). So 1994 was big, thus the music from the year was big. Rap music was becoming big.

In 1996 Coolio Was Nominated for a Grammy and I Got Punched in the Face

“Gangsta’s Paradise” was one of the few rap songs to reach pop radio. It’s relatively clean and helped by a gospel choir singing the chorus. It also didn’t require the parental advisory warning for explicit lyrics like so many other rap songs at the time did. (Except you, Fresh Prince. You kept “Summertime” nice and clean. Though you did force me at the age of 13 to wonder what the word “aphrodisiac” meant.)
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