Damn it feels good to be a gangsta by the geto boys

This trope is also a huge part of Hip-Hop culture, as shown by the name of the Gangsta Rap genre. Indeed, the 'rise and fall' narrative has become such an integral part of the gangster genre that it now makes straight examples of this trope nigh impossible. However, modern works are more likely to subvert or deconstruct this trope than play it straight. Of course, it has roots much further back in history - the popularity of outlaws like Jesse James and Billy the Kid in the American frontier era certainly counts, and even as far back as Robin Hood it was cool to steal. This trope was widely popularized in the US during The Roaring '20s when Prohibition made organized crime big business and the gangster became one of the iconic figures of the era and The Great Depression, where bank robbers were seen as striking at the greedy and foolish banks that got the country into this mess. This essay made a big impact on the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and informed their Genre Deconstruction in The Godfather and Goodfellas in the case of The Godfather it was essentially an Unbuilt Trope. Even when Executive Meddling had the bad guys getting punished, the filmmakers and actors conspired to give the villain protagonists a memorable death scene that made audiences Cry for the Devil, similar to classic tragic heroes and villains. He argued that they were a counter to the films made in The Golden Age of Hollywood, and were a form of Wish-Fulfillment for working-class audiences with their Rags to Riches stories and charismatic, tragic characters. The critic Robert Warshow wrote a famous essay called The Gangster as Tragic Hero, in which he posited that gangsters like those in Scarface are Americanized versions of Greek or Shakespearian tragic heroes, dark mirrors of The American Dream, or the 'great no' to the American promise of success. Besides, in fiction, it doesn't matter how many dogs you kick as long as you look really cool when you do it. Violence might be abhorrent in Real Life, but on the big screen it can be just another way to get the audience's adrenaline flowing, and there's nothing wrong with that. In short, a perfect Escapist Character for times when being a good guy is just too dull. One of the most enduring images in modern fiction is that of the glamorous gangster - a streetwise, Self-Made Man who's rich, powerful, badass, irresistible to women, fashionable, and unfettered by conventional morality. It might be a terrible thing to say, but it's true (at least, in fiction).

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta by the geto boys