The song was so raw, so unlike anything else before it, that the streets had to have it. His high-pitched voice was not the usual MC sound, but the blunt force of his lyrics - usually penned by Ice Cube - stood out. What Eric Wright lacked in microphone skills, he more than made up for in conviction. Pressed up on the now-defunct Macola label and sold at the Compton Swap Meet, “Boyz-N-Tha-Hood” was a viral hit before the rise of the Internet. Though not officially an N.W.A record, this was the single that started it all. N.W.A Won’t Perform at 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony, Ice Cube Says “Gangsta Gangsta” ends with an Eazy-E verse that contains an ominous exchange, foreshadowing his eventual demise from HIV: “We want to f- you, Eazy!” “I want to f- you too.” That was reality too. So when they said, “You don’t like how I’m livin’, well f- you!” that was their reality. The other members of the group were speaking from a very genuine place as young black men who had been marginalized by society and harassed by police as if they were criminals for most of their lives. Although N.W.A dressed and rapped as if they were gang members, only Eazy had really made a living in the streets. N.W.A’s version of reality was hardcore “street knowledge,” a force so powerful it would lead to a genre of music lucrative enough to fund countless music industry salaries. Dre set forth a mission statement of sorts for the group. Sampling BDP’s “My Philosophy on the hook - “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality” - Dr. “100 Miles…” still stands as a dope record as well as a document of history. Later, Dre raps, “Started with five and, yo, one couldn’t take it/ So now there’s four ’cause the fifth couldn’t make it.” Turning industry chatter into musical drama, this seemed like a savvy move until Cube got the last laugh. “You don’t really think you’re gonna get away do you?” an ominous snatch of movie dialog says. song was the opening shot in a beef that ended when Cube dropped the knockout punch that was “No Vaseline.” Taking an early lead, MC Ren, Dre and Eazy do their best to paint Cube as a fugitive on the run, although he left the group over a contractual dispute. The title track from a 1990 EP released in the wake of Ice Cube’s departure from the group, this N.W.A. Sampling the hook from Rare Earth’s “I Just Want to Celebrate,” Dre did his best to set a carefree tone, but all the shots at Cube made it clear that the stakes were very high.

The remaining core members knew they had to come extra hard on this one to show they had not lost their edge. The rawness of the track, with its rapidfire drum-machine rolls, provided a perfect complement to Ice Cube’s aggressive flow: “N-a begging for credit, he’s knocking out teeth/ Clocking much dollars on the 1st and 15th.” How real is that?Īs the first track off N.W.A’s second album N-az4Life (often written as Efil4Zaggin), the group’s first full release since Ice Cube’s acrimonious departure, this song was more than just highly ancticipated - it was a true show-and-prove moment. “I started this gangsta shit,” goes the hook, “And this the motherf-in’ thanks I get?” Dre’s beat, a steaming slab of future funk circa Chronic 2001, and his verse may steal the show, but Cube and Ren represent well, showing that the old chemistry was still there and making “Hello” a fitting farewell to the N.W.A era at the dawn of a new millennium.įirst released as the B-side to Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-Tha-Hood,” this aggressive slice of life opens with a skit in which a desperate cokehead tries to trade a rope chain for a $20 bag of cocaine.

But the song serves as a look back of the group’s legacy. Dre and MC Ren occurred nine years after the group officially disbanded. 2 (The Peace Disc), this reunion of Cube, Dr. Released on Ice Cube’s 2000 album War & Peace Vol. How’s that for “The Strength of Street Knowledge”? Whether the group ends up rapping at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony at the Barclays Center ( Ice Cube says no), they will be permanently immortalized for changing the face of hip hop, pop music, and American culture with songs like these. While the film garnered just one Oscar nomination - for Best Original Screenplay - it was one of the top 20 movies of 2015, raking in over $160 million domestic gross that year alone. Perhaps the success of the hit biopic Straight Outta Compton gave them the extra push they needed.

Nwa straight outta compton mp3