Not your usual LA tour: where hip-hop, history and Hollywood collide

This is not a Hollywood tour, it's a hood tour," says Mooney. "We are the gang capital of the USA, but right now there's a peace treaty between the gangs."

With that dramatic introduction, our guide pulls out from our Hollywood Boulevard meeting point and drives the van toward South Los Angeles, the hub of LA's African-American community and the inspiration for a lot of hip-hop music and movies. With beat-heavy music thumping through the sound system, we're heading for the hood.

I'm on the Hood Life tour, aimed at giving tourists a taste of South LA in the difficult '80s and '90s, when the area was wracked by drug wars and violence. Nowadays, it's a very different place, as Mooney points out upon arrival in Baldwin Hills, dubbed the "Black Beverly Hills". Getting out to photograph views over the city, we find neatly tended streets with attractive early-20th century houses, and not a soul in sight. The same is true of the nearby Projects, a dangerous place in the 1980s.

"It was bloody back then, with gang members fighting in the streets and police helicopters in the air," says Mooney, "But enough is enough. Things are different these days, and the hood is more diverse now."

What follows is a fascinating drive through South LA, as we learn about the history and culture of the area.

As we progress, our guide points out locations from movies such as Boyz n the Hood, Training Day and White Men Can't Jump. Then we stop so Mooney can take photos of us each standing on a long palm-lined street which featured in the TV series Snowfall. (I haven't seen all these films and shows, so my watch list is expanding as we progress!)

The music is still thumping away as Mooney tells us about Nipsey Hussle, a rapper who was also an activist promoting educational and job opportunities for young people in the area.

He died young, but is remembered via a mural we see on an outlet of iconic burger joint Fatburger.

Winding our way along residential streets, we spot the house of Laurence Fishburne's character in Boyz n the Hood, then pull up outside homes which featured in the movie Friday, a low-budget 1995 comedy hit starring rapper Ice Cube and comedian Chris Tucker.