West Coast hip hop, also known as West Coast rap or California hip hop, is a style of hip hop music that originated in California in the early 1980s. It has since grown into a sub-genre of hip hop and has developed several creative centers, most of which are in African American communities in California. Pioneers of the genre include Ice T and especially N.W.A, whose controversial album prompted a letter from the FBI. It dominated the hip-hop air waves in the early and mid-1990s with the popularity of G-funk. The release of Dr. Dre's The Chronic had led to the West Coast's peak.
The center of West Coast hip hop is the Los Angeles area, but can also include the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.
