Professor Viator Discusses LA's Emerging Hip-Hop Scene of 1980s

BLUEPRINT, ABC RADIO NATIONAL (AUSTRALIA) -- From farmers markets to taco trucks, Bel Air to Compton, we take a journey through the sights, sounds and flavors of LA.

Guests include Felicia Angeja Viator, assistant professor in History, San Francisco State University, and author of “To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America.” She discusses the emerging hip-hop scene in Los Angeles of the 1980s, citing the DJ crew Uncle Jam’s Army and the club hit “Egypt Egypt.”

“It’s more akin to what we might now identify as electro or freestyle music,” Viator said. “And what really links it to the gangsta rap that descends from it is the bass — bass that is so heavy it literally moves people when it bangs out of the speaker.”