Bishop Lamont

Even though the man most responsible for West Coast gangsta rap, Dr. Dre, took him under his wing in the mid-2000s, Carson, CA, native Bishop Lamont has never fit the gangsta mold of his left-coast peers. With one foot firmly planted in underground hip-hop and the other in the mainstream, Lamont's varied lyrical topics, which juggle street rap, sociopolitical muckraking, and even religion, established the rapper as a strong up-and-coming contender in West Coast rap. Born Philip Martin in Inglewood, Lamont bounced all around Los Angeles' different neighborhoods when he was you...