I'm going to do something slightly new. I recently read two books by the author Ben Westhoff and I'm going to review both of them at once.

Original Gangstas

This was the first book I read by Ben Westhoff and it's very well written. It focuses mostly on LA/South California rap although it discusses other regions when necessary. I think it does really well in giving a high level account of the history of the rap scene there. It's also notable fair and balanced in my opinion with regards to controversial subjects such as unsolved murders. One of the things that I appreciated about it is how much context it lends to that era of rap. I spent several days afterwards just listening to old albums and getting new meanings out of the lyrics. This is well worth a pickup and read though.

Dirty South

After finishing Original Gangstas, I had high hopes for this book but found it wanting. I think it's very well done and covers essential rap history but it feels incomplete. I don't really think this is the fault of the author, but more so when the book is written. It was written in 2010 and rap seems to have continued growing in those regions after that point in my perspective. In some sense, it felt like it stopped in the middle of a story. Unclear how much of this is due to when it was written and how much is due to not having a compelling narrative flow like Original Gangstas. Overall I think it's still worth a read, due to it's good information about older southern rap.