Mafioso rap

Mafioso rap is a hip hop sub-genre which flourished in the mid-1990s. It is the pseudo-Mafia extension of East Coast hardcore rap.

In contrast to West Coast and many other East Coast gangsta rappers, who tended to depict realistic urban life on the ghetto streets, Mafioso rappers' subject matter included self-indulgent and luxurious fantasies of rappers as Mobsters, or Mafiosi, while making numerous references towards notorious crime organizations of the Italian underworld, including the Gambino crime family and Cosa Nostra. Fantasized and fictional narratives told by Mafioso rappers are often adapted versions of classic crime thrillers, most notably Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, King of New York, and Scarface. Another trademark feature of Mafioso rap is the idolizing of high profile organized crime figures. These crime kingpins range from legendary gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s such as Al Capone, Frank Costello, and Lucky Luciano, to John Gotti, to the druglords of Latin America (including Pablo Escobar).

The Mafia has been a staple reference for hip-hop artists since the genre's earliest days. LL Cool J, for instance, was among the first rappers to do so in his song "I'm Bad": "Not the last Mafioso, I'm an MC cop.". Similarly, Kool G Rap was one of the first rappers to make the Mafioso lifestyle a major theme in his lyrics. Kool G Rap's epic tales, chronicling the crime underworld of drug trafficking and the luxurious pleasures of the high-end illegal business, inspire the related Mafioso rap phenomenon of the mid-1990s, which later achieved some mainstream success and great critical acclaim with albums such as Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, AZ's Doe Or Die, and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt. At the genre's zenith in the mainstream music industry, mafioso-inspired albums, including P.Diddy's No Way Out, Nas' It Was Written, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death, and Big Pun's Capital Punishment went on to become multi-platinum commercial successes.
The act of taking the name of a famous mafioso character was popularised by the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas with their adoption of "Wu-Gambino" aliases on Raekwon's seminal debut, such as "Nas Escobar" and The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Frank White".

Notable Mafiosa Rap Songs

*Eye For An Eye - Mobb Deep (feat. Nas & Raekwon)
*Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homocide - AZ (feat. Nas)
*Envy - Fat Joe
*Regrets - Jay-Z
*Gold - GZA
*Heaven & Hell - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah)

Influential Mafioso rappers

*AZ- Whose name he took from Harlem drug dealer Azie Faison. His name is pronounced "AZ". He also has an alias by the name of "Sosa", from the movie "Scarface".
*Big Pun
*Capone -Derived from the famous 1930's Chicago mob boss Al Capone.
*Capone-N-Noreaga
*Fat Joe- Fat Joe also goes by an Alias by the name of "Don Cartegena".
*The Firm
*Ghostface Killah
*Junior M.A.F.I.A.
*Kool G Rap- Who said that the G in his name stands for Giancana, which is the last name of Italian Chicago gangster Sam Giancana.
*N.O.R.E- He is also known as "Noreaga" which is derived from the former Military General of Panama, that was Known for drug running in the U.S. Manuel Noriega.
*Nas - Who, during this period, took on the alias "Nas Escobar" after the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
*The Notorious B.I.G. - Whose gangster alias is "Frank White" (the title character of the film, King of New York) and more popular alias "Biggie Smalls" (the name of a gangster played by Calvin Lockhart in the 1975 film ).
*Raekwon
*Scarface- Taken after the character Tony Montana's nickname made famous in the 1980s cult classic gangster movie.
*Wu-Tang Clan

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