Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles county's City of Compton in early 1987.[3][4] Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988,[1] the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren[5] along with Ruthless rapper The D.O.C.[3] Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to lead it by attacking peers and even police. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, N.W.A calling itself "the world's most dangerous group."[3][6][7]

This article is about the N.W.A album. For the song, see Straight Outta Compton (song). For the film, see Straight Outta Compton (film). For other uses, see Straight Outta Compton (disambiguation).

Straight Outta Compton
Studio album by
N.W.A
ReleasedAugust 8, 1988 (1988-08-08)[1]
Recorded1987–88
StudioAudio Achievements, Torrance, California
Genre
Length60:16
Label
Producer
N.W.A chronology
N.W.A. and the Posse
(1987)		 Straight Outta Compton
(1988)		 100 Miles and Runnin'
(1990)
Singles from Straight Outta Compton
  1. "Straight Outta Compton"
    Released: July 10, 1988
  2. "Gangsta Gangsta"
    Released: September 5, 1988
  3. "Express Yourself"
    Released: March 27, 1989

In July 1989, despite its scarce radio play beyond the Los Angeles area,[4] Straight Outta Compton received gangsta rap's first platinum certification, one million copies sold by then.[3] That year, the album peaked at #9 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and at #37 on the popular albums chart, the Billboard 200.[8] Receiving media spotlight, N.W.A's example triggered the rap genre's movement toward hardcore, gangsta rap.[9] As the 1990s closed, if largely through N.W.A's own splintering—yielding successful solo music careers and franchises for Ice Cube and for Dr. Dre—the ripple effects had reshaped rap, R&B, and popular music, influencing popular culture.[10]

Remastered, the album's September 2002 reissue gained four bonus tracks. Nearing the album's 20th anniversary, another extended version of it arrived in December 2007.[11] And in 2015, after an album reissue on red cassettes of limited edition,[12] theater release of the biographical film Straight Outta Compton reinvigorated sales of the album, which by year's end was certified 3x Multi-Platinum.[3] In 2016, it became the first rap album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[13] The next year, the Library of Congress enshrined Straight Outta Compton in the National Recording Registry.[14]

Background

For most of the 1980s, New York City, hip hop's 1973 birthplace,[15] remained the rap genre's dominant scene.[16] The rap scene then secondary was Los Angeles county's.[17] Until 1988, this scene, retaining more of hip hop's dance and party origin, prioritized the DJ, from a DJ crew,[18] playing, at a dance party, electro rap and "funk hop"[19]—akin to Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force offering, from New York, the 1982 hit "Planet Rock"[16]—whereas the East Coast, as in Run-DMC's breakout album of 1984, had moved to prioritizing the lyricist, the "MC."[17]

Yet around Los Angeles, DJs increasingly imparted or invited lyrics atop the party music, how the World Class Wreckin' Cru core—including Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, led by Grandmaster Lonzo—made the West Coast's first rap album, albeit electro rap, released under a major record label.[17] But since 1982, among LA's rising lyricists was Ice-T, who heard Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D's 1985 single "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?"[17][16] In 1986, thus influenced,[20] Ice-T offered the track "6 in the Mornin'," which, seizing some of LA's attention from electro rap, reached gold sales as the inaugural anthem of a new rap subgenre later called "gangsta rap."[17][16]

In 1986, Eric Wright, a Kelly Park Compton Crip, was forming in Compton an independent label, Ruthless Records.[17] Dealing drugs, Wright had become acquainted with Dr. Dre and Arabian Prince, two friends, record producers, and recording artists hitting locally but denied royalties.[21] Upon recruiting from rap group C.I.A. a ghostwriter in Ice Cube, who was from South Central Los Angeles,[3] Wright had Dre and Cube craft a song, "Boyz-n-the-Hood."[22] But once a Ruthless group signed from New York City rejected it, Wright, dubbed Eazy-E, himself rapped it, a local hit.[19][22] It sounded similar to Schooly D's "P.S.K." single, and its tempo was too slow to dance to.[16]

Exceeding Ice-T's model, N.W.A imparted to gangsta rap the N.W.A signature, "exaggerated descriptions of street life, militant resistance to authority, and outright sexist violence."[23] Locally, by supplying radio edits, N.W.A enjoyed nearly direct radio access, anyway, via Greg Mack of KDAY radio.[4] But otherwise, even N.W.A's national debut, Straight Outta Compton, saw virtually no radio play, a fact that amplified the album's feat: the first gangsta rap certified platinum, one million copies sold.[17][24] As rap fans, even from afar, sought more from Compton and South Central,[10] local rappers, like MC Eiht of Compton's Most Wanted, met the call.[25] LA's rap scene rapidly moved from party rap to hardcore rap.[17]

Yet on the global stage, N.W.A towered as gangsta rap's icons. For their ostentatious lyrics, profane and strident, unrelentingly depicting violent defiance, even threatening law enforcement, an FBI agent sent the record label a warning letter, MTV banned the "Straight Outta Compton" video, some venues banned N.W.A performance, and some police officers refused to work security at N.W.A shows elsewhere.[3][24][26] As this all sparked publicity that reinforced their aura,[3] the rappers would allude to such facts in later raps.[27] In any case, Slant magazine recalls "Straight Outta Compton as the sound of the West Coast firing on New York's Fort Sumpter in what would become '90s culture's biggest Uncivil War."[28]

Record production

Talking of Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A's prime record producer, Dr. Dre, in a 1993 interview, recalls, "I threw that thing together in six weeks so we could have something to sell out of the trunk."[3] N.W.A's Greatest Hits, released in July 1996, included six tracks from the 1988 album: "Gangsta Gangsta", "If It Ain't Ruff", "I Ain't tha 1", "Express Yourself", an extended mix of "Straight Outta Compton", and "Fuck tha Police", which is absent from Straight Outta Compton's censored version.[29] Initially, still spending weekends in jail over traffic violations, Dre was reluctant to do "Fuck tha Police", a reluctance that dissolved once that sentence concluded.[3]

Synthesis

The album's producers were Dr. Dre with DJ Yella and Arabian Prince. Considering the album's force, its production may seem surprisingly spare, mostly sampled horn blasts, some funk guitar riffs, sampled vocals, and turntable scratches atop a drum machine.[10] Their drum machine, synthesizing kick drums, was the Roland TR-808, immediately obsoleted, upon its 1980 release, by the Linn LM-1, but costing about $1 000 versus $5 000.[30] Used as early as 1980 by Japanese electropop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, it became hip hop's venerated "808."[30] Its deep bass thumps, audibly artificial, lend the now classic sound of rap's 1980s and 1990s landmarks, including Straight Outta Compton's precursors, like Run-DMC's launch of aggressive vocalization from 1983 to 1984, Eric B. & Rakim's inauguration of liberal sampling in 1986,[31] Boogie Down Productions in KRS-One's assertion of criminal mindset in 1987, and Public Enemy's assault on mainstream authority and opinion in 1988.[30]

Vocals

N.W.A's Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless Records rapper The D.O.C. wrote the lyrics, including those rapped by Eazy-E and by Dr. Dre.[3] On the other hand, DJ Yella never raps, and Arabian Prince does only minor vocals on "Something 2 Dance 2." Otherwise, each group member stands out through a solo rap, too.

MC Ren has two solo tracks, "If It Ain't Ruff" and "Quiet on tha Set." Dr. Dre dominates "Express Yourself." Ice Cube's is "I Ain't tha 1." Eazy-E's is "8 Ball," a remix of the track on N.W.A's 1987 album N.W.A. and the Posse. The one guest is The D.O.C., who raps the opening verse of "Parental Discretion iz Advised."

Whereas Ren wrote his own lyrics, and The D.O.C. wrote some lyrics, perhaps mainly Dre's lyrics, Cube wrote some of Dre's lyrics and nearly all of Eazy's lyrics.[10] Still, even Eazy and Dre, alike Cube and Ren, each brings a distinct delivery and character, making N.W.A altogether stand out from imitators.[10]

Content

Reflecting in 2002, a Rolling Stone writer calls the album a "bombastic, cacophonous car ride through Los Angeles' burnt-out and ignored hoods."[32] In a contemporary review, rather, Mark Holmberg, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, calls it "a preacher-provoking, mother-maddening, reality-stinks" album that "wallows in gangs, doping, drive-by shootings, brutal sexism, cop slamming and racism."[33] "Hinting at gang roots, and selling themselves on those hints," writes Newsweek staff, "they project a gangster mystique that pays no attention to where criminality begins and marketing lets off."[34] Even when depicting severe and unprovoked violence, the rappers cite their own stage names as its very perpetrators. By their sheer force, the album's opening three tracks—"Straight Outta Compton," "Fuck tha Police," and "Gangsta Gangsta"—signature songs setting N.W.A's platform, says an AllMusic album reviewer, "threaten to dwarf everything that follows."[10]

First, the title track, smearing and menacing civilians and police, men and women, while women receive gruff sexual advances, too, even threatens to "smother your mother." Then, after a skit of the police put on criminal trial, "Fuck tha Police," alleging chronic harassment and brutality by officers, singularly threatens lethal retaliation. "Gangsta Gangsta" depicts group outings to carouse with women while slurring unwilling women and assaulting men, whether confrontational troublemakers, innocent bystanders, or a driver who, fleeing the failed carjacking, gets shot at. "8 Ball" is dedicated to the 40 oz bottles of malt liquor, Olde English 800.[35] "Express Yourself," written by Cube and rapped by Dre, incidentally scorns weed smoking—already proclaimed by Cube in "Gangsta Gangsta" as his own, chronic practice—which allegedly causes brain damage, a threat to the song's optimistic agenda, liberal individuality. "I Ain't tha 1" scorns spending money on women. "Dopeman" depicts the crack epidemic's aftermath. Closing the album, "Something 2 Dance 2" is upbeat.[3]

The term gangsta rap, soon to arise in journalism, had not been coined yet.[3] The rappers themselves called it, recalls Ice Cube, "reality rap."[3] Indicting N.W.A as its leading example, journalist David Mills, in 1990, acknowledges, "The hard-core street rappers defend their violent lyrics as a reflection of 'reality.' But for all the gunshots they mix into their music," Mills counters, "rappers rarely try to dramatize that reality" empathetically. "It's easier for them to imagine themselves pulling the trigger."[36] Still, the year before, Bud Norman, reviewing in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon, assesses that on Straight Outta Compton, "they don't make it sound like much fun."[37] In Norman's view, "They describe it with the same nonjudgmental resignation that a Kansan"—a resident of Kansas—"might use about a tornado."[37] Still, "Straight Outta Compton's insistent claims of reality ring a little hollow today," writes Steve Huey for AllMusic, "since it hardly ever depicts consequences. But despite all the romanticized invincibility, the force and detail of Ice Cube's writing makes the exaggerations resonate."[10]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
Blender[38]
Chicago Tribune[39]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[40]
Los Angeles Times[41]
Pitchfork9.7/10[42]
Q[43]
Rolling Stone[32]
Uncut[44]
The Village VoiceB[45]

Critiques

Music journalist Greg Kot finds N.W.A.'s sounds "fuller and funkier" than Public Enemy's, and the lyrics just as "unforgiving."[39] On the other hand, Cary Darling, in California's Orange County Register, while thinking that the lyrics make Ice-T "look like a Cub Scout," ultimately deems the album "curiously uninvolving," as it "lacks the insight and passion that put the best work by the likes of Boogie Down Productions, Ice-T and Public Enemy so far ahead of the field."[46] In the Hi-Fi News & Record Review, Peter Clarke, going further, calls the lyrics "unrelenting in their unpleasantness."[47] Offering the lowest possible rating, Clark adds, "The cumulative effect is like listening to an endless fight next door. The music on this record is without a hint of dynamics or melody."[47]

Charlie Dick, rating the album two stars for Q magazine, contends, "In the wake of Public Enemy and KRS-One, it is amazing that something this lightweight could cause such a stir. The all-mouth-and-trousers content is backed up by likable drum machine twittering, minimal instrumentation and duffish production."[43] Still, he anticipates, "This regressive nonsense will be passed off as social commentary by thrill-seekers all across the free world."[43] By 1991, while criticizing group members for allegedly carrying misogynist lyrics into real life, Newsweek staff incidentally comments that this album, nonetheless, "introduced some of the most grotesquely exciting music ever made."[34] And reviewing in retrospect, Steve Huey, in AllMusic, deems the album mainly just "raising hell" while posturing, but finds that "it still sounds refreshingly uncalculated because of its irreverent, gonzo sense of humor, still unfortunately rare in hardcore rap."[10]

Rankings

In 1994, British magazine Hip Hop Connection, placing the album third among rap's best albums, adds, "Straight Outta Compton sounded so exciting, insignificant details such as realism and integrity could be overlooked."[48] The Source magazine placed the album 63rd among the 100 Best Rap Albums.[49] Television network VH1, in 2003, placed it 62nd.[50] Spin magazine, sorting the "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005," identified it 10th.[51]

The first rap album ever to gain from Rolling Stone five stars at initial review, it placed 70th among the magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in its 2020 revised list.[52] And Time, in 2008, named it one of the 100 greatest albums of all time.[53] Vibe appraised it as one of the 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.[54] In 2012, Slant lists it 18th among the "Best Albums of the 1980s."[28] In any case, in November 2016, Straight Outta Compton became the first rap album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[13]

Charting and sales

N.W.A's album best selling, Straight Outta Compton, released in August 1988, attained gold certification, half a million copies sold, on April 13, 1989.[55] Meanwhile, the album peaked at number #9 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and on April 15, 1989, at #37 on the Billboard 200, which ranks the week's most popular albums.[8][56] On July 18, 1989, the album was certified platinum, one million copies sold.[55]

By contrast, N.W.A's unauthorized debut compilation album, N.W.A and the Posse, out since November 1987, reached gold certification in September 1994.[57] The group's 100 Miles and Runnin' EP, which took two years to produce and was released in August 1990, went platinum in September 1992.[58] That year, on March 27, Straight Outta Compton was certified double-platinum, two million copies sold.[55]

By Priority Records' estimation, about 80% of Straight Outta Compton's sales occurred in suburban areas predominantly white.[59][60] N.W.A's next and final full-length album, Efil4zaggin or Niggaz4Life, released in late May 1991, went platinum just over two months later, in August 1991, yet in 2020 remains platinum,[61] whereas on November 11, 2015, Straight Outta Compton was certified triple-platinum, three million copies sold.[55]

Approaching the August 2015 release of the film Straight Outta Compton, the album reentered the Billboard 200 at number #173.[62] The next next week, it rose to #97, another week later reached #30[62]—beyond its 1989 peak position of #37—and on September 5 peaked at #6.[63] Meanwhile, the album's title track, entering the popular songs chart, the Billboard Hot 100, becoming N.W.A's first song in the Top 40,[64] spent two weeks at #38.[65]

Media presence

In 2004, the DigitaArts list 25 Best Albums Covers included Straight Outta Compton.[66] By the album's release, Arabian Prince, on the cover, had left N.W.A. Lacking him, an iconic group photo taken by Ithaka Darin Pappas on November 11, 1988, at Pappa's studio apartment in Los Angeles' Miracle Mile district, has been repeatedly republished in media,[67] including The Source's May 1989 cover, captioning, "California Rap Hits Nationwide!" Pappas calls it the "Miracle Mile Shot,"[68] the DVD cover of the 2015 documentary Kings Of Compton,[69][70] in France's Musée d'art contemporain de Marseille from 2017 to 2018,[71][72] and a backdrop at N.W.A's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2016 in Brooklyn, New York.[73]

"It's definitely the best rap record I've ever heard," singer Sinéad O'Connor, then herself controversial, appraises in 1990.[74] But, feeling that he had rushed its production, N.W.A's own Dr. Dre, in a 1993 interview, remarked, "To this day, I can’t stand that album."[3] On the other hand, in 2005, comedian Chris Rock still ranked it the top rap album of all time.[75] And the next year, parodic music artist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a new album, Straight Outta Lynwood. Punk rock band NOFX released the 2009 song "Straight Outta Massachusetts." In the 2014 film 22 Jump Street, the character Mrs. Dickson, whose husband is played by Ice Cube, says she's "straight outta Compton."[76] And in 2015, the biopic Straight Outta Compton was a hit film.[77]

Track listing
No. Title Writer(s) Performer(s) Samples[78][79] Length
1 "Straight Outta Compton"
  • Ice Cube
  • MC Ren
  • Eazy-E
 4:18
2 "Fuck tha Police"[80]
  • Ice Cube
  • MC Ren
  • The D.O.C.
  • Ice Cube
  • MC Ren
  • Eazy-E
 5:45
3 "Gangsta Gangsta"
  • Ice Cube
  • MC Ren
  • The D.O.C.
  • Ice Cube
  • Eazy-E
 5:36
4 "If It Ain't Ruff"
  • MC Ren
  • MC Ren
 3:34
5 "Parental Discretion Iz Advised"
  • The D.O.C. (also for Dr. Dre)
  • MC Ren
  • Ice Cube
  • The D.O.C.
  • Dr. Dre
  • MC Ren
  • Ice Cube
  • Eazy-E
 5:15
6 "8 Ball (Remix)"
  • Ice Cube
  • Eazy-E
 4:52
7 "Something Like That"
  • MC Ren (also for Dr. Dre)
  • MC Ren
  • Dr. Dre
 3:35
8 "Express Yourself"
  • Ice Cube
  • Dr. Dre
 4:25
9 "Compton's N the House (Remix)"
  • MC Ren (also for Dr. Dre)
  • MC Ren
  • Dr. Dre
  • "Something Like That" by N.W.A
 5:20
10 "I Ain't tha 1"
  • Ice Cube
  • Ice Cube
 4:54
11 "Dopeman (Remix)"
  • Ice Cube
  • Ice Cube
  • Eazy-E
 5:20
12 "Quiet On tha Set"
  • MC Ren
  • MC Ren
 3:59
13 "Something 2 Dance 2"
  • Arabian Prince
  • DJ Yella
  • Dr. Dre
  • Eazy-E
 3:23
2002 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
14."Express Yourself" (extended mix)
  • Ice Cube
  • MC Ren
  • Dr. Dre
  • MC Ren
  • Ice Cube
4:42
15."Bonus Beats"  3:03
16."Straight Outta Compton" (extended mix)
  • Ice Cube
  • The D.O.C.
  • MC Ren
  • MC Ren
  • Eazy-E
  • Ice Cube
4:53
17."A Bitch Iz a Bitch"Ice CubeIce Cube3:10
2007 reissue (20th Anniversary Edition) bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
14."---- tha Police" (tribute remix)
  • MC Ren
  • Eazy-E
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony5:02
15."Gangsta Gangsta" (tribute remix)
  • Eazy-E
  • MC Ren
4:39
16."Dopeman" (tribute remix)
  • Ice Cube
  • Eazy-E
Mack 104:01
17."If It Ain't Ruff" (tribute remix)MC RenWC3:44
18."Compton's n the House" (live)
  • Dr. Dre
  • Eazy-E
  • Dr. Dre
  • MC Ren
2:02

Personnel
  • Eazy-E – rapping (seven songs)
  • Ice Cube – rapping (six songs)
  • MC Ren – rapping (eight songs)
  • Arabian Prince – keyboards & drum programming (five songs) & rapping (one song)
  • Dr. Dre – keyboards & drum programming (five songs), rapping (five songs)
  • DJ Yella – sampling & drum programming (seven songs), rapping (one song)
  • The D.O.C. (guest) – rapping (one song)

Charts
Chart (1989)[81][82] Peak
position
US Billboard Top LPs 37
US Billboard Top Soul LPs 9
Chart (1991) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[83] 51
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[84] 43
Chart (2003)[81][82] Peak
position
Irish Albums Chart 20
UK Albums Chart 35
Chart (2015–16)[85] Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[86] 8
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[87] 55
French Albums (SNEP)[88] 17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[89] 36
Irish Albums (IRMA)[90] 7
Italian Vinyl Records (FIMI)[91] 15
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[92] 38
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[93] 54
UK R&B Albums (OCC)[94] 6
US Billboard 200 6

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[95] Platinum 300,000
United States (RIAA)[96] 3× Platinum 3,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also

Notes
  1. Kory Grow (August 8, 2018). "N.W.A's 'Straight Outta Compton': 12 Things You Didn't Know". rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone, LLC. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  2. "Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A – Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  3. Kory Grow, "N.W.A's 'Straight Outta Compton': 12 things you didn't know", Rolling Stone website, Penske Business Media, LLC, 8 Aug 2018.
  4. David Diallo, ch. 10 "From electro-rap to G-funk: A social history of rap music in Los Angeles and Compton, California", in Mickey Hess, ed., Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010), pp 234–238.
  5. Incidentally, this 1988 album is N.W.A's last album with contributions by Arabian Prince, already gone by its August release, and by Ice Cube, gone by 1990. Both, however, are on N.W.A's 1987 compilation album, N.W.A. and the Posse—sometimes recognized as N.W.A's first album—whereas at the Posse album's release, MC Ren may not have yet joined N.W.A's roster. That is despite MC Ren's appearance, among several others, in the Posse album's cover photo [Martin Cizmar, "Whatever happened to N.W.A's posse?", LA Weekly, 6 May 2010]. In any case, by N.W.A's next significant release, a 1990 EP, 100 Miles and Runnin', the group is four—Eazy, Dre, Yella, and Ren—also on the next and final album, 1991's Efil4zaggin or Niggaz4Life.
  6. Musician (Amordian Press), 1991, volume 147, p 59.
  7. McDermott, Terry (April 14, 2002). "NWA:Straight Outta Compton pt 1". Los Angeles Times. Reprinted at Hip Hop News. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  8. "Tenth Ruthless anniversary: For the record", Billboard, 1997 Aug 9;109(32):R-16.
  9. Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005), pp. 327–328.
  10. Steve Huey, "N.W.A: Straight Outta Compton", AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited 7 May 2020.
  11. Omar Burgess (October 10, 2007). "HHDX News Bits: NWA and Eazy-E". HipHopDX. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
  12. Universal Music Group announced that it would reissue the album as a limited-edition red cassette on April 15 as part of Universal's Respect the Classics series [Pietro Fililpponi, "Universal announces more N.W.A re-releases, 'Straight Outta Compton' cassette tape, Friday 20th anniversary vinyl", Gotham News website, Gotham News LLC, 2 Apr 2015].
  13. "Grammy Hall of Fame Adds 25 Recordings". grammy.com. The Recording Academy. 2016. Archived from the original on December 4, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. "National Recording Registry Picks Are 'Over the Rainbow'". Library of Congress. March 29, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  15. Wayne Marshall, "Kool Herc," in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp 6–7.
  16. Loren Kajikawa, "Compton via New York", Sounding Race in Rap Songs (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015), pp 91–96.
  17. David Diallo, ch. 10 "From electro-rap to G-funk: A social history of rap music in Los Angeles and Compton, California", in Mickey Hess, ed., Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010), with pp 228–231 on Ice-T, p 233 and following on World Class Wreckin' Cru', pp 234–238 on N.W.A, and otherwise backstory on their precursor, contemporary, and evolving rap scene in the Los Angeles area.
  18. There were, for example, Egyptian Lover, down with Uncle Jamm's Army, and The Unknown DJ, down with the World Class Wreckin' Cru.
  19. David Diallo, "Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp 319–321.
  20. In the song, Schoolly D raps, "Park Side Killers is making that green / One by one, I'm knocking 'em out" [Tom Moon, "The first great gangsta rap record: Straight Outta Compton: N.W.A", 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List (New York: Workman Publishing, 2008), p 557].
  21. Vlad Lyubovny, interviewer, "Arabian Prince on being founding member of NWA w/ Dre & Eazy-E", VladTV–DJVlad @ YouTube, 11 Sep 2015.
  22. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "N.W.A: Biography", AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited 26 Apr 2020.
  23. Robin D. G. Kelley, "Kickin' reality, kickin' ballistics: Gangsta rap and postindustrial Los Angeles", in William Eric Perkins, ed., Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), p 128.
  24. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "N.W.A: Biography", AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited 25 Apr 2020.
  25. Jason Birchmeier, "Compton's Most Wanted", in Chris Woodstra, John Bush & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds., All Music Guide: Required Listening, Volum 2: Old School Rap and Hip-Hop (New York, NY: Backbeat Books, 2008), p 15.
  26. Eazy-E Timeline. Eazy-E.com. Accessed October 4, 2007
  27. In N.W.A's 1990 single "100 Miles and Runnin'", the title track of the group's only nationally distributed EP whose music video shows the rappers running from police, Dre raps that "now the FBI is all over my dick!" [MetroLyrics, "N.W.A—100 Miles And Running lyrics", CBS Interactive Inc., 2020]. And in the title track of his 1990 or debut solo album, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Ice Cube raps, "With a pay-off, cop gotta lay off / FBI on my dick, stay off" [MetroLyrics, "Ice Cube—Amerikkka's Most Wanted lyrics", CBS Interactive Inc., 2020].
  28. "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s – Feature – Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  29. "Straight Outta Compton Clean Version". Artist Direct. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  30. George Ciccariello-Maher, "The 808", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), p 75.
  31. Paul Harkins, Digital Sampling: The Design and Use of Music Technologies (London: Routledge, 2019).
  32. Caramanica, Jon (October 17, 2002). "Straight Outta Compton : N.W.A." Rolling Stone. New York (907). Archived from the original on November 6, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  33. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 30 Jun 1989, quoted in Anne Janette Johnson, "Contemporary Musicians: N.W.A.", Encyclopedia.com, Cengage, updated 1 Apr 2020.
  34. Newsweek staff, "Number one with a bullet", Newsweek, 30 Jun 1991, quoted in Anne Janette Johnson, "Contemporary Musicians: N.W.A.", Encyclopedia.com, Cengage, updated 1 Apr 2020.
  35. Tim Scott, "40oz beats: A brief history of malt liquor in hip hop", Vice, 17 Nov 2015.
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Bibliography

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