N.W.A

• 1. Introduction

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  Among the objects on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, is a letter from the FBI about N.W.A. Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director of the bureau, sent it to Ruthless Records and its distributing company, Priority Records. Focus on the Family had pressed for action. Ahlerich wrote that "advocating violence and assault is wrong," and that law enforcement took exception to such action.

  The rappers in question came from Compton, California, and the group existed for only four years, from 1987 to 1991. Even so, it sold more than ten million units in the United States alone, while many mainstream American radio stations refused to play its records.

  Who were these six men, and what did they say that made a federal agency write to their label? How did a group assembled by a local label owner change the sound and the politics of American rap? And what pulled it apart so quickly, so bitterly and so publicly?

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• 2. Ruthless Beginnings

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  Steve Yano first turned Eazy-E away. Eazy-E, a Compton man who had co-founded Ruthless Records with Jerry Heller, kept asking for an introduction anyway. Yano was impressed by that persistence and arranged a meeting with Dr. Dre.

  From there the group took shape in early 1987. The first lineup was Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, the fellow producer Arabian Prince, and Ice Cube, who had started out rapping for a group called C.I.A. DJ Yella joined shortly afterward. He and Dre had both worked as DJs and producers in an earlier act, the World Class Wreckin' Cru.

  Later in 1987, Ruthless released the single "Panic Zone" through Macola Records. Its co-writer, the Mexican rapper Krazy-Dee, had originally titled it "Hispanic Zone." Dr. Dre advised him that the word hispanic would hinder sales, so the title changed.

  The single was folded into a compilation, N.W.A. and the Posse, which was more a sampler than a debut. The group is credited on only three of its eleven tracks. They were "Panic Zone," "8-Ball" and "Dopeman." Those three marked the first time Eazy-E, Arabian Prince, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube worked together. Eazy-E's solo track "Boyz-n-the-Hood" appeared on the record too. The compilation peaked at number 39 on Billboard magazine's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

  In mid-1988 the solo rapper MC Ren was recruited as the sixth member. With the lineup complete, the group went into the studio that summer.

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• 3. Reality Rap

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  Straight Outta Compton opens with a run of three tracks that set the terms for everything after it. The title song introduced the group. A second song protested police brutality and racial profiling, and it became the group's most notorious. The third, "Gangsta Gangsta," painted the worldview of inner-city youth.

  The group recorded the album over the summer and fall of 1988. Later writers credited it with pioneering gangsta rap, but N.W.A used a different phrase: reality rap. Twenty-six years later, Ice Cube reflected on that moment. He said "they were talking about what really led into the style that we ended up doing, which is now called hardcore gangster rap."

  Dr. Dre, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince, working together as HighPowered Productions, composed the beats for every song. Dre made occasional rapping appearances. The D.O.C., Ice Cube and MC Ren wrote most of the lyrics. That included the protest song that put the group in conflict with various law enforcement agencies. Police officers refused to provide security at the group's concerts, which damaged their touring plans. The FBI's letter, meanwhile, only drew more publicity.

  Two months earlier, Eazy-E's solo debut Eazy-Duz-It had come out. Eazy's persona dominated the record, and MC Ren was the only guest rapper, but behind the scenes it was a group effort. Dre and Yella handled the music. MC Ren wrote most of the lyrics, with help from Ice Cube and The D.O.C. It became another double platinum success for Ruthless. A few months before that, the label had found its first hit with J.J. Fad's gold-certified debut Supersonic.

  N.W.A also took to the road. From December 1988 to January 1989, they joined Public Enemy and Ice-T on a short nationwide tour. In the summer and fall of 1989, they set out on an extensive three-month tour of their own. The shows typically featured solo sets by Eazy-E.

  Ruthless had a busy 1989. It released Michel'le's debut album, with contributions from Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, and an official CD reissue of N.W.A. and the Posse. It also released The D.O.C.'s debut, No One Can Do It Better. That record was essentially a collaboration with Dre and notably free of gangsta rap content. It became another platinum-certified album, and it included a posse cut with N.W.A called "The Grand Finalé."

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• 4. Money and Betrayal

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  Arabian Prince was the first to go. By the time Straight Outta Compton was finished, he had grown disillusioned with how Jerry Heller managed the group's money. He began skipping studio sessions and photoshoots. By the end of the short tour with Public Enemy and Ice-T, he had left.

  In late 1989, Ice Cube followed him out over royalties. He had written almost half of the lyrics on Straight Outta Compton himself and felt he was not getting a fair share of the profits. His lawsuit against Heller was settled out of court. He wasted little time assembling a solo debut, 1990's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, and he avoided mentioning his former labelmates on it.

  N.W.A did not return the courtesy. The title track of their 1990 EP, 100 Miles and Runnin', carried a jab at him. The lyric said the group had started with five, and one could not take it. The video showed the remaining members together in a jail cell while an Ice Cube look-alike was released. Another track on the EP accused him of cowardice and questioned his authenticity, longevity and originality.

  The 1991 album brought more of the same. An interlude titled "A Message to B.A." echoed the opening of Cube's own song "Turn Off the Radio." It first addressed him as Benedict Arnold, after the notorious traitor of the American Revolution. It then named him outright in a torrent of abuse from the group and its fans.

  Ice Cube answered on Death Certificate, his second full-length release. He sampled and mocked the skit, then launched into "No Vaseline." He called the group "straight bozos" and said he had seen it coming when he went solo. He also accused them of jealousy over his own company. He turned a line from their EP back on them, claiming he had dropped four men and was now collecting the money.

  The song then went after Heller. It used homophobic metaphors to describe the group's unequal business relationship with him, and it attacked his religion. That drew accusations of antisemitism, the beginning of such charges against Ice Cube during his affiliation with the Nation of Islam. The track was omitted from the UK release, and later pressings carried a censored version.

  The feud spilled into real life. In September 1990, members of Above the Law clashed with Ice Cube and his posse Da Lench Mob at the annual New Music Seminar conference. Ice Cube's side was forced to flee the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

  On the 27th of January 1991, Dr. Dre assaulted Dee Barnes, the host of the hip-hop show Pump It Up, after her coverage of the N.W.A and Ice Cube beef. Rolling Stone reporter Alan Light described the attack. Dre slammed her face and the right side of her body repeatedly against a wall near a stairway. His bodyguard held off the crowd. Dre then tried to throw her down the stairs and kicked her in the ribs and hands. She escaped into the women's restroom, but Dre followed, grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the back of the head. Dre later brushed it off, saying he had just thrown her through a door.

  That same year, Dre released the first track in a new style of his own.

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• 5. A New Sound

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  After "100 Miles and Runnin'," Dr. Dre never made another uptempo record. Fast tempos had been a common feature of late-1980s hip-hop. He moved to a midtempo, synthesizer-based sound that became known as G-funk, beginning with "Alwayz Into Somethin'" in 1991. The style dominated both the West Coast and East Coast hip-hop scenes for several years.

  That song appeared on Efil4zaggin, the group's second album, whose title is simply its original title spelled backwards. Many consider it Dr. Dre's finest production work. It re-established the group in the face of Ice Cube's continued solo success. It also became the first hardcore rap album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 sales charts.

  It was also the last album N.W.A made. The group had carried on as a four-piece, with no replacements for Arabian Prince or Ice Cube. It disbanded shortly after the album's release.

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• 6. Feuds and Farewells

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  In 1992, Death Row Records put out its first release, and its target was Dr. Dre's old label. Dre, The D.O.C. and Michel'le had left Ruthless to join Death Row. Allegations followed that Eazy-E had been coerced into signing away their contracts, although he kept a portion of their publishing rights. A bitter rivalry ensued.

  Dre opened the exchange with that first Death Row single. Its video featured a character named "Sleazy-E," played by the actor A.J. Johnson, running around in a desperate search for money. The insults continued on Dre's album The Chronic.

  Eazy-E answered in 1993 with the EP It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa. He called Dre and Snoop "studio gangsters," mocked Dre's new image, and aimed homophobic taunts at him. The video for one track showed a still of Dre in make-up and a sequined jumpsuit. Those photos dated back to his years before N.W.A, when such fashion was common among West Coast electro hop artists. Eazy-E kept targeting Dre and Death Row on most of his songs.

  Eazy-E died of AIDS-related causes on the 26th of March 1995.

  MC Ren had his own complaints. In 1994 he criticized Eazy-E as a "big-head" and a "wannabe mega-star." He even suggested that N.W.A should reunite without him. Ren later said that his only relationship with Eazy-E ran through Ruthless Records. There he released a platinum-selling EP in 1992 and the album Shock of the Hour in 1993. After two years of not speaking, the two ended their feud shortly before Eazy-E's death with a 1995 duet.

  DJ Yella was reportedly the only member who got along so well with Eazy-E that he dedicated his 1996 album to him. The others took longer to say it. Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Ice Cube later voiced their re-evaluated feelings toward their old friend in song. Examples include 1998's "Ruthless for Life," 1999's "What's the Difference" and 2006's "Growin' Up." The 2011 music video for "I Need a Doctor" carried the same sentiment.

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• 7. Reunions

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  Ice Cube's cameo in Dr. Dre's 1993 video for "Let Me Ride" marked the thaw between the two men. In 1994 they recorded "Natural Born Killaz" for Snoop Dogg's short film and soundtrack Murder Was the Case. Ice Cube later appeared on a track on MC Ren's album Ruthless for Life, and MC Ren appeared on Dre's 1999 album 2001.

  The three remaining emcees came together again in 1999 for "Chin Check," a song on the soundtrack of Next Friday, a movie starring Ice Cube. In 2000 they reunited for "Hello" on Ice Cube's album War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc).

  The timing was no accident. The West Coast gangsta scene had fallen out of the spotlight after the death of Tupac Shakur in 1996. Dre's patronage of Eminem, and then his comeback album 2001, brought the genre and its artists back to national attention.

  Then came the Up In Smoke Tour of 2000, an all-star run that reunited much of the N.W.A and Death Row families. On the road, Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, the special guest Snoop Dogg and Eminem began recording in a mobile studio. A comeback album was planned, and it included DJ Yella, who had not been on the tour.

  It never materialized. Schedules conflicted. Three record labels (Priority, No Limit and Interscope) had to be coordinated. The project also needed the rights to the N.W.A name. Only two tracks from the sessions were released, and they were the two songs already described. On "Chin Check," Snoop Dogg was counted as a member of N.W.A. Both later appeared on the group's remastered Greatest Hits.

  Smaller reunions continued on other projects. MC Ren and Ice Cube appeared on "Set It Off," from Snoop Dogg's album Tha Last Meal in 2000. In 2003, The D.O.C.'s album Deuce included "The Shit." It featured MC Ren, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Six-Two, with Dre and Yella present in the studio.

  Compilations kept the catalog in circulation. Priority issued Greatest Hits in 1996. Capitol and Ruthless jointly released The N.W.A Legacy, Vol. 1: 1988-1998 in 1999. It held only three songs by the actual group and various solo tracks from the five members. Its success prompted a second volume three years later in the same format. A later package was titled The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge.

  In 2014, Ice Cube appeared on MC Ren's remix of "Rebel Music." It was their first collaboration since 2000. On the 27th of June 2015, MC Ren and DJ Yella joined Ice Cube during his solo set at the BET Experience show. The venue was the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was the group's first reunion performance without Dr. Dre in 15 years.

  Dre rejoined them the following spring. In April 2016, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella took the stage during the second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

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• 8. Legacy

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  Straight Outta Compton became the first rap album ever to earn five stars from Rolling Stone on initial review. The critic Gerrick D. Kennedy called it one of the loudest big bangs in hip-hop. He also called it "a sonic Molotov cocktail." In 2006, Time named it one of the 100 greatest albums of all time, and Vibe listed it among the 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century. Slant Magazine placed it 18th among the best albums of the 1980s in 2012. Rolling Stone's revised 2020 list of its 500 Greatest Albums put it at number 70.

  The institutional honors came later. In November 2016, it became the first rap album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry, citing its cultural, historical or aesthetic significance. The group itself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, after three earlier nominations. Rolling Stone ranked N.W.A at number 83 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2024, it became the fourth hip-hop act to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

  The sound traveled far. Funky, bass-driven beats and exaggerated lyrics echoed through the 1990s and beyond. N.W.A influenced both West and East Coast hip-hop. It also influenced alternative and nu metal acts such as System of a Down, Slipknot and Korn. The group is credited as the first to open rap to a white American audience. Critics compared the initial rejection of its music by cultural elites to the reception of the Sex Pistols in rock.

  The politics were just as lasting. In the 1980s and 1990s, American political elites regarded rap as an "existential threat" to the social order. The researcher Bryan J. McCann argued that the mainstream treated gangsta rap as a genuine danger rather than a playful destabilization of the period's law-and-order discourse. During the War on Crime era, N.W.A offered a dissenting voice. Its attacks on institutional racism in the police politicized African-American youth, and then white American youth, against police brutality and racism.

  The story eventually reached the screen. Universal announced on the 18th of June 2014 that the biopic Straight Outta Compton would be released on the 14th of August 2015. The script was researched and written by S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus, who worked closely with Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre produced it. John Singleton was first chosen to direct in September 2011, but F. Gary Gray replaced him in August 2012. Jonathan Herman was hired in December 2013 to draft a new script.

  Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., plays his father. Jason Mitchell plays Eazy-E, Corey Hawkins plays Dr. Dre, Aldis Hodge plays MC Ren, and Neil Brown Jr. plays DJ Yella. The rapper YG auditioned for the role of MC Ren. Ice Cube described a story that mixes gangster rap, the FBI, the L.A. riots, HIV and the feuding, with Darryl Gates and his battering ram thrown in. The film received positive reviews and grossed over $200 million worldwide.

  Other artists paid their own tributes. In Dr. Dre's 1999 single "Forgot About Dre," Eminem rapped "Just study a tape of N.W.A." That may refer to mainstream radio's rejection of the group's songs. The 2005 video for "Hate It or Love It," by The Game featuring 50 Cent, shows actors portraying the two as boys. Police arrest them for spraypainting "N.W.A" on a wall. The Game also has the letters N.W.A tattooed on the right side of his chest.

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