Straight Outta Compton (album)

Straight Outta Compton
Studio album from NWA
Publication (s)	August 8, 1988
admission	1987-1988
Label (s)	Ruthless / Priority / EMI
Format (s)	CD , vinyl , MC
Genre (s)	G-funk , gangsta rap , west coast hip-hop
Title (number)	13
running time	60:27
production	Ice Cube DJ Yella Dr. Dre Eazy-E MC Ren
chronology NWA and the Posse (1987) Straight Outta Compton 100 Miles and Runnin ' (1990)
Single releases July 10, 1988 Straight Outta Compton 5th October 1988 Gangsta gangsta March 27, 1989 Express yourself

Straight Outta Compton is the debut album of the US West Coast - Rap group N.WA . It was released on August 8, 1988 on the Ruthless , Priority and EMI labels . Due to the provocative lyrics and the scandalous song Fuck tha Police , which prompted the FBI to ask the record company to withdraw the album, it is now considered one of the most important albums of gangsta and west coast rap .

Importance and Controversy

For the band, it was the album that made them internationally known. Until then, successful hip-hop came exclusively from New York City . With its aggressive sound and direct lyrics, Straight Outta Compton determined the direction of hip-hop in the early 1990s. It has been extremely controversial since its release and, above all, due to today's most famous and provocative song Fuck tha Police , which was banned on all radio stations and on the music television station MTV , numerous associations called for a boycott of the album and the band. The Priority record label also received a letter from the FBI opposing the album's message:

" Fuck tha police comin 'straight from the underground

a young nigga's got it bad 'cause I'm brown

and not the other color so police think

they have the authority to kill a minority "

As a result of the publication of this letter, media interest in the album increased rapidly and Straight Outta Compton sales multiplied. Bryan Turner from distributor Priority Records said in retrospect: The [letter] was like a nuclear explosion. Once we circulated that, everybody wanted to hear the record the FBI wanted to suppress.

content

Ice Cube and MC Ren wrote most of the lyrics for the album. Although the album consists for the most part of rather simple party songs, the first three tracks in particular provided the deep impression that resulted in both the success and a condemnation of the group borne by the general public: Straight Outta Compton , Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta , Gangsta . Similar to early hip-hop, the album described life on the street, which was shaped by gangs, but unlike in the past, no longer critically, but praising it either nihilistically or even hedonistically . They are, however, in the tradition of the music from Southern California by the Beach Boys , the Eagles or Jefferson Airplane . All groups sang mainly about the hedonistic lifestyle, money and women, except that the earlier groups did not come from the gang-dominated Compton district .

production

Dr. Dre , Eazy-E and DJ Yella did most of the production of the album. Musically, the album has little in common with Dr's earlier fast, electronic upbeat-influenced releases in the World Class Wreckin 'Cru . Straight Outta Compton is musically much slower, darker and with strong funk influences, embedded in a sound collage of gunshots, sirens, car noises, screams and curses. A large number of other songs were also sampled for the production of the beats.

Cover design

The album cover shows the band members standing in a circle from a frog's perspective , with Eazy-E pointing a gun at the viewer. In the upper part of the picture is the band name "NWA" in red and at the bottom the title Straight Outta Compton in white.

Re-releases

On September 24, 2002, the album was re-released in the USA, this time with four bonus tracks. In 2007 Straight Outta Compton was re-released again with five other bonus tracks.

Track list

01. Straight Outta Compton (Eazy-E / Ice Cube / MC Ren) - 4:19

02. Fuck tha Police (Ice Cube / MC Ren / Eazy-E / Dr. Dre) - 5:45

03rd Gangsta Gangsta (Eazy-E / Ice Cube / MC Ren) - 5:36

04. If It Ain't Ruff (MC Ren) - 3:34

05. Parental Discretion Iz Advised ( The DOC /Dr.Dre/Eazy-E/Ice Cube / MC Ren) - 5:16

06. 8 Ball [Remix] (Eazy-E) - 4:52

07. Something Like That (MC Ren / Dr. Dre) - 3:35

08. Express Yourself (Dr. Dre; contains samples from Express Yourself by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band ) - 4:25

09. Compton's n the House [Remix] (MC Ren / Dr. Dre) - 5:20

10. I Ain't tha 1 (Ice Cube) - 4:54

11. Dopeman [Remix] (Ice Cube) - 5:20

12. Quiet on tha Set (MC Ren) - 3:59

13. Something 2 Dance 2 (The Arabian Prince / Dr. Dre) - 3:32

Bonus tracks from the 2002 release

14. Express Yourself (Extended Mix) - 4:42

15. Bonus Beats - 3:03

16. Straight Outta Compton (Extended Mix) - 4:53

17. A Bitch Iz a Bitch - 3:10

Bonus tracks from the 2007 release

14. Fuck tha Police (Tribute Remix) - 5:02

15. Gangsta Gangsta (Tribute Remix) - 4:39

16. Dopeman (Tribute Remix) - 4:01

17. If It Ain't Ruff (Tribute-Remix) - 3:44

18. Compton's in the House (live) - 2:02

Chart successes and singles

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Straight Outta Compton   DE 36 08/28/2015 (5 weeks)   AT 55 09/11/2015 (3 weeks)   CH 66 09/06/2015 (5 weeks)   UK 35 09/30/1989 (14 weeks)   US 4th 03/04/1989 (110 weeks)

Singles

Express yourself   UK 26th 09/09/1989 (9 weeks) Gangsta gangsta   UK 70 09/01/1990 (2 weeks) Straight Outta Compton   UK 66 09/10/2015 (3 weeks)   US 38 05.09.2015 (2 weeks) Fuck tha police   UK 97 09/17/2015 (1 week)

Straight Outta Compton reached the top position in the US charts at number 37. The album also made it to the charts in Great Britain, Ireland (# 20, 8 weeks) and New Zealand (# 43, 4 weeks).

The title track Straight Outta Compton as well as Gangsta Gangsta and Express Yourself were released as singles.

After the release of the film of the same name, Straight Outta Compton , which deals with the history of NWA, the album entered the US charts again in 2015 and reached number 4. Straight also reached number 4 in Germany (number 36), Austria and Switzerland Outta Compton as a result hit the charts.

Sales figures and awards

Straight Outta Compton sales are approximately 3.5 million worldwide. In the US alone, the album sold over three million times and was consequently a triple platinum record .

reception

Professional reviews
Reviews
source	rating
laut.de
Rolling Stone
allmusic

The Rolling Stone led Straight Outta Compton in 2012 at number 144 of its list of the 500 best albums of all time .

The album was rated five out of five possible points in the Milestones column of the online magazine laut.de. The reviewer Dani Fromm writes that Straight Outta Compton is "two and a half decades after its publication [...] undisputedly one of the records that you have to know if you don't want to be laughed at by the nodding community." Above all, "the raw power that in the unadorned words and the drastic, plastic descriptions ”and“ the freshness of the beats ”fascinate unbroken. In terms of content, the album serves "the very everyday madness cocktail of discrimination, drugs, violence and sex."

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matthew Bath: The 25 best album covers. digitalartsonline.co.uk, June 14, 2004, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Sources for chart placements: US / NZ / IR , accessed December 8, 2011.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Straight Outta Compton (album) in the Official UK Charts (English)
4. ↑ albums and singles of the NWA in the Official UK Charts (English)
5. ↑ ^{a b} Express Yourself in the Official UK Charts (English)
6. ↑ ^{a b} Gangsta Gangsta in the Official UK Charts (English)
7. ↑ ^{a b} Straight Outta Compton in the Official UK Charts (English)
8. ↑ US charts
9. ↑ IR charts
10. ↑ NSL charts
11. ↑ Chart tracking Straight Outta Compton at billboard.com
12. ↑ Chart tracking Straight Outta Compton at officialcharts.de
13. ↑ Worldwide album sales on statisticbrain.com, 23 August 2015, English. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
14. ↑ RIAA: triple platinum
15. ↑ ^{a b} laut.de: Review of the album (5/5)
16. ↑ Rating: Rolling Stone ( Memento from November 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ Review: Straight Outta Compton at Allmusic (English)
18. ^ Rolling Stone: Straight Outta Compton # 144