Then came Public Enemy and a political agenda. Later, NWA, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop, and the whole infamous gangsta crew. Scared the bejesus out of us white folk, you bet. Adults at least. The kids loved it though.
Kids love the counter-culture.
But at least with gangster rap, it was all out in the open. The bitter reality of ghetto life, the squalor, the violence. Not repressed and glossed over, like today. Puffy was the harbinger of all this fluff. Even his name is unmenacing.