How to Use gangsta in a Sentence

gangsta

noun
  • And the rims: 22-inch saucers up front and a gangsta-shaming 32 in the rear.
    Joe Brown, WIRED, 21 July 2008
  • Dre's love of hip hop led him to become part of N.W.A., the trailblazing gangsta-rap group.
    Kristi Turnquist, OregonLive.com, 6 July 2017
  • Gangsta in the way that gangsta should be – warring against those who seek to oppress.
    Angela Helm, The Root, 2 Sep. 2017
  • Like the time, in Season 1, when Will bets that his cousin wouldn’t last long in Compton, and Carlton winds up dressed like a gangsta.
    Wesley Morris, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2020
  • It’s not labeled into punk rock, trap, old school, gangsta.
    Katherine Turman, Billboard, 11 Apr. 2018
  • And like, n---as always wanna talk that gangsta, ain’t nothing gangsta about none of that s--t.
    Tatiana Cirisano, Billboard, 5 June 2017
  • Happy birthday to my co, so extremely proud of you and inspired by your love, artistry, and gangsta!
    Shafiq Najib, PEOPLE.com, 11 June 2022
  • Nah, ain’t nothing original about gangsta, don’t call me that.
    Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 26 Oct. 2022
  • The East Coast old guard bristled at dance and found the idea of Southern gangsta rap, and Southern women gangsta rappers, laughable.
    Zandria Robinson, Glamour, 2 Nov. 2021
  • Black male gangsta archetype, punctuating satire as the new mode for entertainment.
    Malik Peay, Rolling Stone, 7 Feb. 2023
  • Since finding fame on the show, Mr Zhou had shown no inclination to upset prudish censors by returning to his gangsta-rapper roots.
    The Economist, 25 Jan. 2018
  • Most gangsta rappers aren’t exactly forthcoming in that regard, but even among his peers Staples relishes playing it close to the vest.
    Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 13 July 2021
  • In keeping with the world of macho gangsta lyricism, his songs bristle with violent and criminal imagery and profane passion.
    al, 30 Sep. 2019
  • Larkin has previously, obliviously, stereotyped the African American Kendra as lower class and her son as a gangsta.
    Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 25 Oct. 2019
  • Or when the gangsta rappers, and Oscar nominees, Three 6 Mafia, sang about pimps and hoes before the black-tie audience, hardly their usual crowd, and then, fantastically, won.
    Cara Buckley, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2018
  • Relating the upset in the black community when the Raiders were moved to Oakland, Ice Cube narrates a tale of increasing discontent with sports, politics, and the powers that be—culminating in the rise of gangsta rap.
    Christina Newland, Esquire, 29 June 2017
  • So next time one of your friends complains that things aren’t going well because the gangsta planet is minding its own business, traveling in retrograde relative to the Earth, remind them it’s actually the best planet.
    Ryan Mandelbaum, The Atlantic, 2 June 2017
  • Dogg recalls a summit where Warwick invited him and other gangsta rappers to her house, warning them to stop using inflammatory lyrics about women.
    Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2022
  • Widely regarded as being more masculine and certainly more gangsta than Barack.
    Clio Chang, New Republic, 5 July 2017
  • Later that decade, gangsta-rap lyrics became a political issue on Capitol Hill; rappers became more of a financial risk for record labels, upending the music business even as the genre grew in commercial clout.
    Neil Shah, WSJ, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Gorelick's popularity peaked in the era of grunge and gangsta rap, and his super sweet sax tone and speedy solos led to ferocious critical reviews despite his undeniable super popularity.
    Steve Knopper, chicagotribune.com, 24 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gangsta.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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