N.W.A.

Short-lived band from L.A.’s Compton district who formally instigated hip-hop’s gangsta era. Bankrolled and fronted by former drug dealer turned solo rapper Eazy-E, N.W.A’s original lineup featured future rap superstars Ice Cube and producer/DJ Dr. Dre, alongside DJ Yella (b. Antoine Carraby, circa 1967) and MC Ren (b. Lorenzo Patterson, circa 1966).

The group’s debut, Straight Outta Compton (1989), came as a shocking counterpoint to East Coast hip-hop’s emerging Afrocentric, politically conscious tendencies: Dre’s raw production carried forth unfettered messages of street violence, crime, and misogyny that posited the revolving narrators as blaxploitation antiheroes. The band’s style, too, was an affront to hip-hop’s prevalent aesthetic: they wore baggy “prison blues,” the silver-and-black colors of the bad-boy L.A. Raiders, and had unfashionable Jheri-curl hairstyles that prompted critic Frank Owen to dub the band “Niggers With Activator.”

Straight Outta Compton went platinum with minimal radio play; it gained mainstream attention only when the track “Fuck tha Police” was condemned by the 200,000-member Fraternal Order of Police and a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shortly after Compton, Ice Cube exited N.W.A over a financial dispute, but the group carried on, recording the lesser 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP (1990) and the Efil4zaggin (1991) album, which entered the charts at number one under the newly instituted SoundScan system.