Ben http://www.elsegundousd.com/eshs/be2003/bayeaglecopied/decemberarti...

Ben’s classic pick. The following CD is not new at all. New music is mostly lame, instead, I shall open up the vaults and bring back old memories.

NWA- Straight outta Compton Rap sucks nowadays. Cars, money, diamond necklaces, rims…boooooooooring, I want to hear about murder. Gangster rap, the pinnacle of hip hop has passed. All that’s left is talentless rappers like Ja Rule pumping out sappy love songs with some sleazy, equally talentless singers like J-Lo and Ashanti whose success is owed solely to their lack of clothing. Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, Yella and most importantly, Eazy E, five of the most influential artists of all time formed the greatest hip hop quintet of all time, NWA. NWA released Straight Outta Compton in 1988, and there has not been a hip hop record of such caliber since. The CD opens up with the statement, “You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.” This sets the tone well for the CD. Directly after that audio clip, comes the title track Straight Outta Compton, an amzing song. The second begins with a recorded skit featuring a call from jail, but soon, the third song, Gangsta Gangsta starts. Gangsta Gangsta is hands down NWA’s greatest song. It encompasses everything NWA is about, guns, drugs, gang killings, ‘64 impalas and female dogs, using a wopping 62 expletives. Ice Cube opens up Gangsta Gangsta, but about half way through, the greatest rapper of all time, Eazy E, takes over. The only appropriate highlight of this first song is the line “and then you realize we don’t care we don’t just say no, we’re too busy sayin’ yeeeeeaaah!” Other highlights on this CD include Straight Outta Compton, F*** the Police (pronounced po-lease), Express Yourself, and a couple of songs with titles that cannot be printed in this paper. Travel in time a few years after NWA’s demise and hip hop gets thoroughly corrupted. Terrible rappers like P. Diddy and Nelly have taken the edge off rap. Today, Rap is no tougher than pop, infact in some ways, they are becoming more and more similar, which is a travesty in itself. It is becoming more and more difficult to find mainstream hip hop with a social or political message. Whatever happened to the Public Enemies and Run DMCs? Who wants to hear about all the golden teeth some guy has, or how he has 13 cars that he’ll probably end up having to sell in 3 or 4 years to pay his bills. All that does is make us realize how bad it sucks that we don’t have all those great things. Popular hip hop has no substance anymore. F*** the police has a very political message, whether it is right or wrong, or good or bad. As crude as it is, F*** the Police deals with issues from racial discrimination to police brutality, not just gang fights and cop killing. No matter what the lyrical subject, music with substance will always be better than empty meaningless pop songs that have completely polluted today’s mainstream hip hop. Some Tipper Gore-esque PTA mothers may complain that NWA corrupts the minds of the young, while this may be true, any kid who is going to listen to F*** the police and then go kill a cop has problems regardless of NWA. A well raised, properly functioning person is not going to kill people or do drugs just because Ice Cube rapped about it. Do-gooder parents need to point the finger at themselves before they point it at NWA, Ozzy Ozbourne, violent video games, or any other scapegoats they need to dump the blame on. The fact is that there will never be hip hop of such high caliber again. You can mope about it, or you can grab a saw’d off and hit Crenshaw in your six-four, in memory of Eazy E and NWA. Word.

1 of 1 6/30/2008 3:02 PM