i think there is a side of west coast rap that gets extremely under discussed and appreciated tho. most of the none critical/popular earthquake classic albums in here ARE STILL GANGSTER RAP, and i know why that is, but these albums need love/discussion:

Freestyle Fellowships first two lps
Myka and Aceys for 2-3 joints
Digital Underground's Sex Packets
Xzibits first two
Dilated's The platform
Lootpack's Soundpieces (even w/ Wildchild's WACK EMCEES, lol)
The Unseen
Defari's Focused Daily
Self-Scientific's The Self-Science
and a couple of others i'm forgetting

but these albums stretch from 88-2000 and carve out the strong reality to an alternative voice that ran parallel (NOT IN OPPOSITION) to the gangster and pimp shit of Short, Dre, Snoop and Quik. the west coast has always had many style and voices, but because the "hegemonic" history is NWA to _____ insert name(s) this gets lost.

it's always funny when current writers are flabbergasted that OFWGKTA, TDE, Dom Kennedy, Blu, Madlib (Stones Throw), Gangrene ect all come form the same region