by Cyril Cordor\r 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 never has 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's strong, up-and-coming contender in West Coast rap.\r \r \r \r Born Philip Martin in Inglewood, Lamont bounced all around Los Angeles' different neighborhoods when he was young until settling down in Carson. Beginning to rap at age 13, he tried to veer away from the street life and kept himself busy racking up a huge collection of hip-hop tapes, vinyl, and CDs. Once Lamont started making his own tapes and CDs, he caught a break when his mixtape, Who I Gotta Kill to Get a Record Deal, Vol. 1, found its way into the ha...