N.W.A
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N.W.A |
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N.W.A. ("Niggaz With Attitude") was a hip hop group that was formed in Compton, California in 1988, and disbanded in 1991.
Over the course of the five years the group was together, they continually redefined the face of West Coast hip hop in both lyrical and instrumental ways. N.W.A. was one of the first gangsta rap groups to achieve widespread commercial success without radio airplay or many other conventional mainstream promotions.
Their second album, Straight Outta Compton, marked the beginning of the new gangsta rap era as the production and lyrics were revolutionary with respect to the previous early 1980s releases of the genre. Many of the band members have gone on to lead successful solo careers.
Widely understood to be a drug-dealer, Eazy-E began Ruthless Records. Ice Cube had already written a song for him, "Boyz-N-The-Hood", and when one of the bands on his label rejected it, Eazy-E decided to rap it himself. He later found a houston native by the name Richard Otubusin "N-E-R-D", and together they formed the "Niggaz With Attitude" (N.W.A.) with Ice Cube as the MC and former World Class Wreckin' Cru members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Eazy-E released the party album N.W.A. and the Posse on Macola Records. Although marketed as N.W.A.'s debut album, half the songs didn't feature N.W.A., but rather a loose connection of artists on Ruthless Records. After this, Arabian Prince and The D.O.C. left to solo because N.W.A. wanted to do their first album Straight Outta Compton but they wanted to concentrate on solo albums.
Band history
"The World's Most Dangerous Rap Group"
N.W.A first released the groundbreaking Straight Outta Compton in 1988. Many consider it a wake-up call to the problems that were going on in the West, particularly in South Central Los Angeles. "Straight Outta Compton" reflected a rising anger in the city, "Fuck tha Police" talked of police violence, and "Gangsta Gangsta" spoke of gang life. While there were 13 tracks on the original album in total, it has become best known for these opening three.
Each member of N.W.A. learned their rap and production skills from the School Road Boys who met Dr.Dre in the 1980s and made significant contributions to the album by helping to co-produce it[citation needed]; both Ice Cube and, to a lesser extent, MC Ren contributed lyrics, with Eazy-E providing comic relief within his rhymes. Producers Dr. Dre and Yella composed beats for each song, and Dre occasionally rapped on the album as well.
Some of the lyrics were considered highly dangerous, especially those of "Fuck tha Police," the group's most notorious song. As a result of the lyrics, Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director of the FBI, sent a letter to Ruthless Records and its parent company Priority, advising the rappers that law enforcement took "exception to such action (fucking the police)." The FBI's letter only served to draw more publicity to the group.
This was one of the albums which prompted the parental advisory label scheme. Yet, reflecting the change in attitudes over time, the parental advisory label today on a newly purchased copy of the album displays merely "WARNING MODERATE impact coarse language and/or themes".
Fans and critics alike consider Straight Outta Compton to be one of the greatest albums ever in gangsta rap, opening the door for more acts to come. Straight Outta Compton eventually went double-platinum and Rolling Stone magazine recently placed it 144th on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. [1]
Departure of Ice Cube and a new album
Ice Cube left the group in late 1989 because he suspected that Eazy and his manager, Jerry Heller, were skimming money off of the group's album profits.[citation needed] He wasted little time putting together his debut solo album, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, which included “A Message to the Oreo Cookie”, an interlude in which vehement insults are addressed to an unnamed individual – perhaps the increasingly gentrified Eazy-E, as the track concludes with a sneering “think about it – fuckin’ sell-out.”
N.W.A. responded slowly; in their next release, some five months later, they merely alluded neutrally to Ice Cube’s departure, rapping in the title track of their EP "100 Miles and Runnin'" that the group "started with five but one couldn't take it / So now it's four, 'cause the fifth couldn't make it."
However, the following year, the band’s next full-length release, Efil4zaggin ( Niggaz4Life spelled backwords) showed a clear animosity towards their former member. Insulting references to Ice Cube are found in several songs, and in the middle of the album the track “A Message to B.A.” echoes his “Message to the Oreo Cookie”. In this interlude, Ice Cube is first addressed by the name "Benedict Arnold", after the notorious traitor of the American Revolutionary War, but then named outright in a montage of abuse. “When we see yo’ ass, we gon’ cut yo’ hair off an’ fuck you with a broomstick,” promises MC Ren. The track ends with the voice of Dr. Dre echoing Ice Cube’s original message: “Think about it – punk motherfucker.”
The insults escalated: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted had avoided direct attacks on N.W.A., but on Ice Cube’s second album, Death Certificate, Ice Cube fired back. He sampled and mocked the “Message to B.A.” before embarking on a full-length rap, "No Vaseline", accusing N.W.A. and their associates of a variety of failings, including being phonies, fools and homosexuals. Some considered his call for the murder of Eazy-E excessive, and his references to Jerry Heller’s religion prompted accusations of anti-Semitism ("You can't be the nigga for life crew, with a white Jew telling you what to do"), which may have prompted the track’s omission from the UK release of the album.
After Eazy-E’s death and the break-up of N.W.A., tensions eased: Ice Cube teamed up with Dr. Dre to record a track for Snoop Dogg’s short film and musical project Murder Was the Case, and both Dr. Dre and MC Ren guested on the track “Hello” on Cube’s 2000 album ‘‘War & Peace - Volume 2 (The Peace Disc).’’
End of N.W.A.
Soon after, Dr. Dre found out that Cube's words were true: Eazy and Heller were in fact getting more money, so Dre left the crew behind as well. This, more than anything else, meant the end of N.W.A. Dre then began his solo career, forming the legendary Death Row Records with former Bobby Brown bodyguard Suge Knight. His first album was The Chronic. On the single "Fuck Wit Dre Day", Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg (now known as Snoop Dogg) poke fun at Eazy-E and on the video for "Dre Day" Eazy was a character named Sleazy-E which was running around desperately trying to get money.
Eazy-E responded by releasing the EP It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa. On the songs "Real Muthaphuckkin G's" (or "Real Compton City G's") and "It's On", Eazy-E makes fun of Dr. Dre by calling him a "she thang" and on the music video showing pictures of Dr. Dre wearing cosmetics and flashy clothes. Suge Knight also dissed Eazy-E after his death, claiming the possibility that one can be shot with AIDS, Like a Eazy E thang you know?. This was after Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg had left Death Row Records.
After N.W.A.
Though N.W.A. released only a compilation, three full albums, and an EP, its impact has been enormous, with its legacy enduring in the solo careers of the members. After the groundbreaking efforts of N.W.A., all of the members pursued different occupations.
In 2004 Alwayz Into Somethin' and Express Yourself appeared on popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on West Coast hip hop radio station Radio Los Santos.
Reunion
In 1994, Ice Cube reteamed with Dr. Dre for the song "Natural Born Killaz" for the soundtrack to the short film Murder Was the Case. The reunion was a hit, as it helped propel the album to #1. 1998 saw the beginning of a partial N.W.A. reunion when Cube and Dre were soon rejoined by MC Ren to record some new songs. They first recorded "Hello" for Ice Cube's sixth solo album War & Peace - Volume 2 (The Peace Disc), featuring the line "I started this gangsta shit / And this is the mutherfuckin' thanks I get?" Later, the three recorded "Chin Check" for Ice Cube's movie Next Friday with Snoop Dogg in place of deceased Eazy-E. Yella was not included on either reunion tracks but was supposed to get involved later as he wasn't on the road with the Up in Smoke Tour along with the others, who were recording the tracks in a mobile studio. These tracks were planned to be a part of a conceptual comeback album of N.W.A. called Not These Niggaz Again, that was to be produced by Dre on the part of the beats and Ice Cube on the part of the lyrics. But due to the artists' fully booked schedules and some label problems, the new album never materialized. The main obstacles were coordinating three different record labels (Priority, No Limit, Interscope), foreclosing the copyright of the use of the name N.W.A., and endorsing the whole project to gain exclusive rights. Supposedly they did not succeed in realizing these goals, so those two songs were added to N.W.A.'s Greatest Hits album when it was remastered (archives by VH1 from 1999, 2000, and 2002). There is another reunion on The D.O.C.'s album Deuce: "The Shit", on which The D.O.C., MC Ren, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Six-Two spit their verses. Dr. Dre and DJ Yella have nothing to do with the song. There is also a remix of the song called "Tha Shit" featuring Eazy E's son Lil' Eazy.
Reunion Tracks
Natural Born Killaz - Dr. Dre and Ice Cube
The Muthaphuckin Real - Eazy-E and Mc Ren
Comin After You - Mc Ren and Ice Cube
Bangin - DJ Yella and MC Ren Chin Check - Ice Cube, Mc Ren, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg
Hello - Ice Cube, Mc Ren and Dr. Dre
Set It Off - Snoop Dogg, MC Ren, Ice Cube, Lady Of Rage, Nate Dogg, and Kurupt/
Tha Shit - The D.O.C., Six Two, Mc Ren, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg
To cover the immense influence the members of N.W.A. accomplished as a unit and on their own, Capitol and Ruthless Records released The N.W.A. Legacy, Vol. 1: 1988-1999 in 1998, an album that only contained three songs from the actual band, but contained many solo tracks from the five members. The success of the album caused the labels to release a second volume, The N.W.A. Legacy, Vol. 2, two years later. It followed the same format of the first album, containing only three tracks from the actual band and many songs from them as solo artists.
Members
Eazy-E
Eazy-E remained the head of Ruthless Records and was the executive producer of some of the most acclaimed acts in the scene of gangsta rap, including Above the Law, his N.W.A. fellow MC Ren, and the mainstream success Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. His street credibility was temporary damaged in Compton due to public political associations with the Republican Party, specifically President George H.W. Bush. Regardless, he continued to be, perhaps, the most influential and most representative image of the hardcore gangsta rap in hip hop circles.
Eazy-E (real name Eric Lynn Wright) kept the feud going with Dr. Dre by verbally attacking Dre and his protégés on Eazy's albums. It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa, while not as successful as Dre's The Chronic, it managed to go platinum in 1993. In 1995, he was working on a comeback album, Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton when he checked into a hospital with the belief he had strep throat, but what he found was far more serious. In a publicized statement, Eazy announced he had contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This is due to his history of unprotected sex with multiple partners, exemplified by the fact that Eazy had fathered seven children with six different women. No one, including Eazy-E himself, had a clue about how sick he actually was. During the week of March 20, the star drafted his last message to fans. One month after making that announcement, Eazy succumbed to the disease at a local hospital in Los Angeles. He was 31 years old when he died. Some believe that before his death, Eazy had made amends with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre (although others believe that only DJ Yella saw Eazy while he was in hospital). The evidence that Dr. Dre made amends with Eazy stems from Dr. Dre's song "What's the Difference?" from 2001, which raps "Eazy I'm still with you, fuck the beef, nigga, I miss you, and that's just bein real with you." Dr. Dre said in an interview on VH1 once that Eazy had made peace with all the other members but when he got to the hospital to see him he was already in the coma and died shortly after.
One of his sons, who goes by the name of Lil' Eazy, is now a burgeoning rapper who has vowed to carry on his father's legacy. His album is in the works and is to feature appearances and production from most of his father's old groupmates and friends.
Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre had a successful solo career as a rapper and producer. After N.W.A., he introduced the world to a new type of West Coast hip hop known as G-funk, which consists of P-Funk-influenced beats and samples and "gangsta" subject matter. The style grew to be very popular, as his debut album The Chronic went quadruple-platinum and launched the career of Snoop Dogg, who featured prominently on the album and went on to release his Dre-produced debut Doggystyle, which went 5x platinum. Such enormous success overcame New York's dominance on the hip hop scene, making West Coast rap a serious competitor.
Prior to the death of fellow Death Row artist Tupac Shakur and the incarceration of Death Row co-founder Suge Knight, Dre left the label, forming his own label known as Aftermath Entertainment. He released a poorly received compilation album, Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath, only notable for his own single, "Been There, Done That". In 1999, he re-emerged as a formidable force on the hip-hop scene with Eminem's The Slim Shady LP, which was executive-produced by Dre, and his own 2001, which featured similar "gangsta" subject matter as The Chronic but saw his production style take a significantly different direction. The former went on to become 5x platinum and the latter 6x platinum, helping establish Aftermath on the hip-hop scene. Eminem's follow-up album, The Marshall Mathers LP, featured increased production involvement from Dre and was an enormous commercial and critical success, selling a record-breaking 1.7 million copies in its first week and eventually became one of only four rap albums in history to reach the 10x platinum or 1x diamond mark. Dre has also launched the career of Compton rap newcomer The Game, executive-producing his 2005 debut album The Documentary. Dre also has other big name rappers such as Eve and Busta Rhymes on the Aftermath roster.
Rolling Stone magazine named Dre the 54th Greatest Artist of All-Time.
Ice Cube
Ice Cube also became a highly successful rapper. As of 2006, he has released six solo albums. Whereas N.W.A. rapped about gang life on the street, Ice Cube continued to include social commentary on his records on subjects such as gun control in the ghetto and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Like Dr. Dre, he has gained a lot of influence over other rappers such as Eminem and The Game. His political albums are most remembered for referring to America as AmeriKKKa, as well as addressing hypocrisy and issues such as ganglife and racism. All of his solo albums, except his first, debuted in the top 5 and were critically acclaimed. His first three albums (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Death Certificate, and The Predator) were big hits; they all achieved platinum status, and were geeted with rave reviews by critics. His fourth solo effort, Lethal Injection, was recorded on the back of projects with his crew, Da Lench Mob, and starring in Boyz N the Hood. It found Cube trying to keep up with the G-funk sound that was popular on the West Coast at the time, and as a result, Cube started to lose ground to his fellow West Coast rappers, such as Dre & Snoop. War & Peace, Vol. 1 (1998) and Vol. 2 (2000), proved that the fire from his first few albums was gone. In 1996, he ended up being involved with the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry. He teamed up with Mack 10 and WC to form the rap supergroup known as Westside Connection, which released hit singles such as "Bow Down" and "Gangsta Nation." The group is known for their hardcore music and spewing insults and threats to the East Coast. After only two albums, the group split up in 2004 after feuding and personal issues.
As his popularity increased, Ice Cube has experienced success as a film actor and director, starring in films such as the aforementioned Boyz N the Hood, Friday, Three Kings, xXx: State of the Union, Barbershop and Are We There Yet?. He has also released a reality TV series in March 2006, named Black.White. After an attempt to sign a contract to be on Aftermath Records he released his new album Laugh Now, Cry Later in 2006 on his own record company, Da Lench Mob Records.
MC Ren
Like Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, MC Ren had differences of opinions with Eazy-E but not as deep as the other members. He began a solo career under Eazy-E's Ruthless Records label and after the death of his friend and producer, DJ Train, he departed from Eazy-E's side. He remained on the record label, releasing four albums, including his first gold release and his critically acclaimed platinum LP Shock of the Hour which made him more an underground act than his former colleagues. In 2004, Ren announced plans for a project with West Coast political rapper Paris. This turned out to be the Public Enemy album Rebirth of a Nation (2006). Paris and MC Ren are featured most prominently on two tracks, "Raw Shit" and "Hard Truth Soldiers".
DJ Yella
Being a DJ, there was not much of a solo career for Yella to pursue, thus he was the lone member to remain loyal to Eazy-E after the breakup. He continued producing Eazy-E's records, including a couple of tracks for Eazy-E's protégés Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's debut EP Creepin On Ah Come Up. He also claimed he was the lone member of N.W.A. to be at Eazy-E's deathbed when he died. After the death of his friend, Yella released a solo album as a tribute to his former bandmate, but as with N.W.A., Yella did not touch the mic; instead, he hired guest rappers such as Dirty Red, Dresta, Traci Nelson, Leicy Loc, B.G. Knocc Out, and Efil4zaggin lyricist Kokane to perform. Yella has since retired from the music business and is now directing pornographic movies.
Incarnations
1st Incarnation 1986 - 1988
2nd Incarnation 1988 - 1989
2nd Incarnation 1989 - 1991
Trivia
It looks like N.W.A. started in 1986 but actually it didn't. The album "N.W.A. And The Posse" was not officially N.W.A.'s album. There are several evidences that N.W.A. originally started in 1988 when MC Ren came to N.W.A. and Ice Cube came back from University of Arizona. In hip-hop documentary "Beef I" Matthew MC Daniel from Guerrilla Style Films interwied Eazy-E and N.W.A. in 1988. Daniel asked: "Okay now a lot of people are confused just a lil' bit about that...could you explain like N.W.A. and Eazy-E, okay?" and Eazy-E answerd: "N.W.A. is a group, started with all of us: me (Eazy), Dre, Yella, Ren, Ice Cube...". 43 seconds before you can hear this interview, narrator says: "Before releasing N.W.A.'s first album (Straight Outta Compton), Eazy-E released Eazy-Duz-It, as Eazy-E's solo album. Written by Ice Cube, produced by Dr. Dre and factually made by N.W.A.". That means this: in 1986 they just formed N.W.A. because Eazy-E didn't want the song "Boyz-N-The Hood" named as Eazy-E's single. They asked help for Fila Fresh Crew and the others. Logically you can call "N.W.A. And The Posse" album as "N.W.A. And Fila Fresh Crew". In 1988 interview, Ice Cube said: We're working with out first album (Straight Outta Compton) so my solo has to wait. That explains that Arabian Prince and The D.O.C. just hanged out with N.W.A. and when N.W.A. was getting known as a one group, The D.O.C. and Arabian Prince went solo because they weren't part of N.W.A. and they have never rapped in N.W.A.'s songs. In song "Parental Discretion Iz Advised", The D.O.C. rapped few secords but the song was called as N.W.A. feat. The D.O.C. - Parental Discretion Iz Advised. Also I'd like to add that Eazy-E insisted "N.W.A. And The Posse" recording in Macola Records because he thought that only N.W.A.'s official album can be released in Ruthless Records.
Discography
| Album cover | Album information |
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N.W.A. and the Posse
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Straight Outta Compton
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100 Miles and Runnin'
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Efil4zaggin
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Greatest Hits
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The N.W.A. Legacy, Vol. 1: 1988-1999
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The N.W.A. Legacy, Vol. 2
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NWA are planning to release a tribute album N.W.A. Celebrates 20 Years Of Hip-Hop on December 26 http://www.rapnews.net/0-202-262225-00.html?tag=topic
Videography
All videos can be seen in a 2002 VHS release entitled
- N.W.A: Efil4zaggin The Only Home Video
- The N.W.A. Legacy: The Video Collection, 2002
- Rapper "Macdids" only appeared on the first album. He was kicked out of the group over a dispute about a woman.
External links
- Official NWA Legacy site
- NWAWorld
- NWA lyrics
- The N.W.A. Legacy: The Video Collection at IMDb
- A personal remembrance of Straight Outta Compton
