In the 1990s, countless R&B acts incorporated hip-hop, but not many of them used straight up gangsta rap. Meet D.R.S. (whose name stands for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). Formed by Jail Bait (The Merciless), Deuce Deuce (The Shooter), Endo (The Shitstarter), Blunt (The Blunted) & Pic (The Bitch Killer), these scoundrels broke into the scene in 1993 with a huge hit called Gangsta Lean. Lean was not your typical Slow Jam. Instead of love, or sex (which seem to be the two main subjects of most Slow Jams), this song was about friends (or homies, as the song says) who pass away. Anyone who's ever lost someone they love can identify with Gangsta Lean, and the tune was one of thebiggest R&B hits of the year. Besides Gangsta Lean, D.R.S. had no other radio hits off their debut CD, also entitled Gangsta Lean. Other notable Slow Jams on this CD include a cover of Prince's Do Me, Baby, but much of the time, the Los Angeles quintet doesn't sing about love or romance, but instead, gang violence, drug dealing, carjacking and other problems plaguing the inner city. Like Ice-T, 2Pac, or Ice Cube, D.R.S. embraces a first-person format and gives you the perspective of the gangbanger, the criminal or the thug which, of course, makes its violent accounts all the more disturbing. Gangsta Lean was among the most unique releases of 1993, but unfortunately, D.R.S.' experimentation didn't pay off commercially. It does pay off creatively, however, making Gangsta Lean a gem that's worth searching for.

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