100 Best Songs About Gangs
Best Songs Featuring Gangs and Street Crews
There’s something heavy in songs that orbit gangs and crews. Not glamor, not quite fear either, but a kind of code that presses on the edges. These songs don’t explain it, they sit in it—tight corners, too many eyes, old loyalty clashing with new desperation. You get snapshots. A scraped-up car stereo humming while the block leans in. A promise that got twisted. The way a neighborhood remembers things even if no one talks about it anymore. It’s not always bleak. Sometimes it’s straight adrenaline. Sometimes it’s someone yelling out their set like a prayer.
Nobody in these tracks is trying to make it sound clean. You’ll hear nerves in the beat, rage in the hooks, memory in the back corners. That crew standing behind the rapper? They’re not props. In a lot of pop, rock, country, and R&B songs, there’s a whole unspoken roll call baked into the track. You can feel the weight of whoever's missing. Some of these tracks blow out speakers, others sound like they were recorded through a cracked phone screen. But they all lock into something real, the kind of thing that’s hard to fake or overproduce.
There’s bravado, sure, but also grief, wild laughter, and moments that sound like the night right before everything spun out. Gangs in music don’t show up like stock characters. They come in like gravity, pulling the song into a place where rules bend and time tightens. Here’s the set of tracks that hold that weight the best.
Top 10 Gang Life Songs
1. 'Gangsta's Paradise'—Coolio featuring L.V.
2. 'Colors'—Ice-T
3. 'm.A.A.d city'—Kendrick Lamar featuring MC Eiht
4. 'Gin and Juice'—Snoop Dogg
5. 'I Fought the Law'—The Clash
6. 'Straight Outta Compton'—N.W.A
7. 'Mama Tried'—Merle Haggard
8. 'California Love'—2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman
9. 'Street Life'—The Crusaders featuring Randy Crawford
10. 'Boyz-n-the-Hood'—Eazy-E
Urban Lifestyle and Brotherhood Songs #11—30
11. 'Loyalty And Betrayal'—E-40
12. 'Hood Took Me Under'—Compton's Most Wanted
13. 'What Up Gangsta'—50 Cent
14. '3Hunna'—Chief Keef
15. 'If You Got Ana'—The Game
16. 'Locc 2 da Brain'—Bloods & Crips
17. 'Banger'—J-Kwon
18. 'G's and Soldiers'—Snoop Dogg
19. 'Game Recognize Game'—JT the Bigga Figga featuring Mac Mall
20. 'Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta'—Geto Boys
21. 'Growin’ Up in the Hood'—Compton's Most Wanted
22. 'Act a Fool'—King Tee
23. 'Comin' Out Hard'—8Ball & MJG
24. 'Pistol Grip Pump'—Volume 10
25. 'Last Time That I Checc'd'—Nipsey Hussle featuring YG
26. 'Ruff Ryders' Anthem'—DMX
27. 'Survival of the Fittest'—Mobb Deep
28. 'Warning'—The Notorious B.I.G.
29. 'N.Y. State of Mind'—Nas
30. 'Dead Presidents II'—JAY-Z
Criminality and Consequences Songs #31—50
31. 'Twinz (Deep Cover 98)'—Big Punisher featuring Fat Joe
32. 'Breakin' the Rules'—M.O.P.
33. 'Down For My N****z'—C-Murder featuring Snoop Dogg and Magic
34. 'Pocket Full of Stones'—UGK
35. 'Afro Puffs'—The Lady of Rage
36. 'Strap On The Side'—Spice 1
37. 'Black Superman'—Above the Law
38. 'Dollaz & Sense'—DJ Quik
39. 'New York, New York'—Tha Dogg Pound
40. 'Money, Power & Respect'—The Lox featuring DMX and Lil' Kim
41. 'What U See Is What U Get'—Xzibit
42. 'Grindin''—Clipse
43. 'Mr. Ice Cream Man'—Master P featuring Silkk the Shocker
44. 'Incarcerated Scarfaces'—Raekwon
45. 'It Was a Good Day'—Ice Cube
46. 'Bucktown'—Smif-N-Wessun
47. 'Sugar Hill'—AZ
48. 'Fast Life'—Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
49. 'Tried By 12'—The East Flatbush Project
50. 'Bloody Money'—Capone-N-Noreaga
Gangs and Street Narratives Songs #51—75
51. 'Shook Ones, Pt. II'—Mobb Deep
52. 'Where I'm From'—JAY-Z
53. 'Ten Crack Commandments'—The Notorious B.I.G.
54. 'Wanksta'—50 Cent
55. 'Tha Block Is Hot'—Lil Wayne
56. 'The Game Belongs to Me'—UGK
57. 'Amethyst'—Roc Marciano
58. 'Collard Greens'—ScHoolboy Q featuring Kendrick Lamar
59. 'Hustlin''—Rick Ross
60. 'Dior'—Pop Smoke
61. 'Numbers On the Boards'—Pusha T
62. 'Norf Norf'—Vince Staples
63. 'Crime Pays'—Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
64. '6 'N the Mornin''—Ice-T
65. 'Welcome To the Ghetto'—Spice 1
66. 'Ain't No Future In Yo' Frontin''—MC Breed & DFC
67. 'La Raza'—Kid Frost
68. 'Scarface Is Back'—Scarface
69. 'ILL Street Blues'—Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
70. 'Racks in the Middle'—Nipsey Hussle featuring Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy
71. 'Dope Dealer'—ScHoolboy Q featuring E-40
72. 'Gangstas'—Pop Smoke
73. 'GANG GANG'—Polo G & Lil Wayne
74. 'Gangsta Music'—LEAKA
75. 'Sinister Mob'—E-40 featuring Nate Dogg
Street Life and Loyalty Songs #76—100
76. 'Like A Jungle'—E-40
77. 'Behind Gates'—E-40 featuring Ice Cube
78. 'Doin' The Fool'—E-40 featuring Too $hort, Pimp C, Pastor Troy & Al Kapone
79. 'Flamboastin''—E-40 featuring Baby
80. 'It's Pimpin''—E-40
81. 'Clown Wit It'—E-40 featuring Mystikal
82. 'Tookie Knows II'—C-Bo
83. 'Same Hood'—Spice 1
84. 'The Story 2.5'—King Von
85. 'Hop Is Back'—Hopsin
86. 'Off Air'—Jay Rock
87. 'Mulholland'—Kendrick Lamar
88. 'Nothin’ but the Cavi Hit'—Mack 10 & Tha Dogg Pound
89. 'THROW'—YG
90. 'Dead Opps'—King Von
91. 'Welcome to Hell'—Lil Durk
92. 'Silly Boys'—YoungBoy Never Broke Again
93. 'Underworld'—Moneybagg Yo
94. 'HOLLYWOOD'—Drake
95. 'New Opp'—Fivio Foreign
96. 'Gangster Gang'—NBA YoungBoy
97. 'Gang Bangin''—The Game
98. 'Bloody Canvas'—50 Cent
99. 'Ghetto Vet'—Ice Cube
100. 'Regulate'—Warren G featuring Nate Dogg
© 2025 Carson McQueen
