Compton isn’t just a line in a bar or a movie title. The Los Angeles suburb had a major part in shaping how the world hears West Coast music and how artists talk about the neighborhoods that raised them. From crack-era street reporting to house-infused rap experiments, the city keeps evolving on its own terms.
For this list, we’re focusing on Hip Hop figures who feel genuinely built in and around Compton’s streets, even when their birth certificates tell a more complicated story. That includes artists who moved in young, bounced between nearby cities, or crossed a border before finding home on Rosecrans. “Biggest” here doesn’t just mean sales or streams, but impact, influence, and how clearly you can hear Compton in the work.
Notably, a few important names sit just outside the main lineup. Tyga was said to have been born in Compton, but is more often framed around Gardena and wider South L.A. Arabian Prince has Compton on his résumé, yet his formative years lean harder toward Inglewood. 2nd II None are a key Compton duo, even if the paper trail around their early roots is lighter…