Schoolboy Q: Gangsta 4 Life

Schoolboy Q, a very well known rap artist in the recent years, released a music video highlighting days in the life of a Compton gangster in which he grew up in. The music video has 6,283,135 views and is one of the most popular music videos in Schoolboy Qs rich collection of popular music videos. The music video is very graphic and violent but gets the message that Schoolboy Q is trying to send out to his viewers.

The music video takes place in a car with a group of Compton gangsters riding across the streets and making criminal actions. The video portrays a lot of what happens in the real world of Compton, which includes the use of weapons such as guns, actions of robberies, use of prostitutes, and drug deals. The video takes the viewer through the gangsters' perspective and shows the real world of a gangster.

Schoolboy Q expresses his life in a biography in his website where he explains his life path up to his rapping career. He talks about his good and bad decisions which made him who he is today. He lived a normal life in Texas before his move to Los Angeles where his focus would shift from school and sports to drug dealing, shootouts, and jail time. He emphasizes the adversity and lessons he learned from life as a gangster in Compton which resides in Los Angeles. His biography and music video both express lessons of life from being part of Compton's crimes.

Many rappers in the recently often talk about their lives in the gangs and ghettos and how they had to overcome things. It is a part of them expressing where they come from and who they are. It has almost become competition between recent rappers for how much tougher or "gangster" they are. Schoolboy Q goes out with this music video and separates himself from the other rappers by showing that he is a real gangster compared to the other rappers. He strengthens what he says in his lyrics by playing it with the music video. The video aims to shock the viewers of where he comes from and what happens to people like him in Compton to send a strong message to the viewers of his authenticity in rap. Overall, from the music video you can see the culture of where Schoolboy Q comes from and his lyrics show his toughness in the neighborhood in a daily manner.


This music video is very interesting because of the way it shows the criminal actions happening from a car. It gives a unique perspective of what a car goes through in the streets of Compton. "Streets" is a term often used by gangsters to characterize that the place they reside in is dangerous and they own the place. I think the car perfectly signifies the meaning of going through the "streets". "Bellin through the mothafu**in' streets yall" is also repeated numerous times in the video, so I can imply that the "streets" holds a deep meaning of symbolism for Schoolboy Q and gangs all around. The portrayal of all the criminal actions in the video also gives the viewers the whole view of the so called "streets" and illustrates the symbol of streets in their heads.

Amongst Schoolboy Q's wide variety of creative music videos, "Dope dealer" also represents a part of his criminal life in Compton. The video is about smuggling marijuana and gives a perspective of where marijuana goes through in the ghetto. He shows the different kinds of people, ironically a cop is part of a drug deal where he emphasizes corruption. What makes all his music videos strong are their related themes of criminal acts in Compton and camera work emphasizing what they want to such as perspective. It brings the viewer closer to the life of Schoolboy Q's perspective.

I believe this music video does a great job of sending viewers the image of who Schoolboy Q is and increases his popularity in the entertainment industry. The gore and explicit languages create a lasting impact because the viewers can relate from the perspective along with the language. As you can see from his public photos, videos, and biography, he represents himself with the bad of Compton culture. He wants people to see and know the importance of life lessons and he does a great job of spreading his beliefs with his creative nature of music videos.