Complex and Nipsey Hussle break down eleven iconic rap tracks influenced by the 1980s crack epidemic in South Central Los Angeles.

When the crack epidemic first hit Los Angeles in 1983, it embedded itself into the city’s fabric. Ravaging neighborhoods and taking lives, the crack explosion would eventually move beyond South Central and leave its mark on communities, politics and culture across America for decades to come. In 2007, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported that there were 167,914 admissions to treatment centers due to crack cocaine addiction in the United States alone.

But before the horrors of the drug were as widely known, the day-to-day realities of the crack epidemic were mainly told through the emerging art form that we would come to know as hip-hop. Stories of d-boys, battering rams, junkies, and police brutality went from inner city knowledge to widespread broadcasts over radio waves and on music television, atop pummeling beats and turntable scratches.

On Wednesday, July 5th at 10 p.m., FX will debut its newest original series, Snowfall, from executive producer John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood). Based in South Central Los Angeles, Snowfall portrays the origins of the crack epidemic through a fictionalized account of several characters that aim to get rich or die trying during the drug’s earliest days. In anticipation of the show’s premiere, we teamed up with West Coast hip-hop staple Nipsey Hussle to break down 11 of the best rap songs influenced by the crack epidemic and how they brought the truth into national consciousness.

Watch Nipsey talk about his relationship to the greatest crack-influenced rap songs in the video below and then scroll down to read the messages between the rhymes.