The Best Gangsta Rap to Listen to While Traveling

Sometimes you just need to listen to some gangsta rap. Whether on the road, in a hostel or “In Da Club,” sometimes we just need to listen to this type of music. Occasionally, however, we might find ourselves in sensitive situations surrounded by people of questionable sensitivity.

Truth: Gangsta rap isn’t the most listener-friendly genre of music in the world. Here is some gangsta rap that (maybe) we can all appreciate without outraging the most fragile among us.

Rakim, one half of golden age hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, is widely considered one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time: 100 percent street and 99 percent clean, Rakim’s rhymes stand up against any poetry by virtue of alliteration, internal rhyme, metaphor and command of language.

Everyone knows Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty.” The narrative in the average rap song about riding dirty depicts the rapper knowingly in the wrong and glorifying their disregard. On this clean, yet thugged-out track, the rapper flips the script and focuses on the issue of racial profiling. Chamillionaire is ridin’ clean, despite what the po-pos think.

Outkast, one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time, is a go-to rap group to put on without offending those around you. “Benz or Beamer” is the perfect track to throw on in your hostel. The group rap about the expensive cars they love so much, but also stay true to what they’ve always done. Outkast songs always have themes about not letting your success define you. Also, they are, for the most part, fairly clean with the lyrics.

This is just a short list of potential gangsta rap artists one can throw on their Bluetooth speaker without harming any tender eardrums around you. Hip-hop, while sometimes explicit, is a legitimate and important music genre, and despite the offensive (to some) lyrics, sometimes you just need to vibe out to some N.W.A.