![]() ![]() Yet as problematic as the uglier moments are, they come from the same strive toward truth telling that made the album a classic. At their worst, the group’s embrace of shock value resulted in the misogyny and bloodlust found on “Straight Outta Compton.” ![]() Related: Read Kendrick Lamar's touching salute to N.W.A at the Rock Hall inductionĪt their best, N.W.A’s punk sensibilities sounded like the album’s revelatory three-track opening run, a suite of explosive discontent consisting of the title track, “Gangsta Gangsta” and, perhaps the album’s most iconic track, “(Expletive) Tha Police,” which has endured as a rallying cry from the Rodney King protests through the Black Lives Matter movement and onward. ![]() And for their fans, who could hear their own life stories illuminated on “Straight Outta Compton,” their music was life-affirming. Less documentarians than savvy, fearless storytellers, the members of N.W.A amplified their versions of reality on “Straight Outta Compton” with their lurid storytelling, meant to provoke the certain demographic of listeners already prone to stereotyping black men as menacing thugs and shoving their fingers in the eyes of the morality police. “Our music's not shocking to people who know that world,” Ice Cube told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. While the album was assailed by critics for glorifying gang activity and using language deemed too profane for mainstream sensibilities, for N.W.A – which billed itself as the World’s Most Dangerous Group – their reputation just meant they were offending the right people. N.W.A threw profanities like grenades in their inflammatory lyrics, with a name – (Expletive) With Attitude – that dared white listeners to repeat its racial epithet. Released during an era when rap was increasingly being marketed to mainstream white audiences, N.W.A had no interest in charming advertisers or wooing Middle America with their storytelling on “Straight Outta Compton.” The band members frequently described themselves at the time as journalists, reporting on their South Central Los Angeles communities and the effects that poverty, gang violence and the crack epidemic had on their own disenfranchised generation. Interview: N.W.A.'s impact goes beyond 'Compton' movie More: Library of Congress to preserve works by N.W.A., Bowie, Streisand N.W.A and the brilliant fury of “Straight Outta Compton” would change rap forever, charting paths for former drug dealers and no-name kids from disenfranchised urban communities to turn their lived experiences into art and providing a foundational text for hip-hop’s growth into the protest music of the 21st century. ![]() Dre and the group’s other associated rappers and inspired a wave of think pieces and tributes to the group’s career-defining release.Īnd as the album celebrates a hard-won three decades of existence, it’s rightfully looked upon as a groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting hip-hop release – its emotions no less raw and its cultural commentary no less biting than they were in 1988. The famed N.W.A album, which turns 30 on Wednesday, got the biopic treatment in 2015 with a movie of the same name. It traced the origins of Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. The 30th birthday tribute for “Straight Outta Compton” happened a few years early. Watch Video: Trailer: 'Straight Outta Compton' ![]()
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