Running head: N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 1
N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” and the Impacts It Had On Society
Keelyn T Harkey
JMC 1013: Intro to Media
The University of Oklahoma
N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 2
Abstract
This research paper focuses on the impact of the studio album Straight Outta Compton by the hip-hop group N.W.A. Gang violence, everyday lives of African Americans, and police brutality towards African Americans became the main issues in Los Angeles in the mid to late
1980’s. Hip Hop music like “Straight Outta Compton”, “Fuck the Police”, and “Gangsta
Gangsta” brought the brutal lifestyles and struggles of inner-city life to the attention of the entire world. On August 8, 1988, N.W.A. released the album Straight Outta Compton. In 1989, the music video for the title track “Straight Outta Compton” was released. 30 years after the release of the album, it is still a relevant piece of media, which applies to many current situations in today’s society. From public outrage towards police, to riots, to murder, this album has impacted society and our musical culture today.
N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 3
An Introduction
The N.W.A was a prevalent hip-hop group who rose to popularity in the late 1980’s. The group is known for its controversial lyrics, fluid beats, and the way they changed hip-hop music forever. Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and The D.O.C were the talents behind this music group. Deemed the “World’s Most dangerous Group” (Kennedy, 2017), the N.W.A released Straight Outta Compton on August 8, 1988, on Eazy-E’s self-made record label,
Ruthless Records. Before Straight Outta Compton was released, police brutality was a major issue among inner city minorities, especially African Americans. In the 1980’s court cases like
L.A. vs. Lyons: which prohibited policemen from using chokeholds to restrain people; federal investigation Operation Big Spender: where private investigators found out the magnitude of corruption in the L.A. police department; and Operation Hammer: an attempt by the LAPD to crack down on gang violence (KCET, 2016), fueled the rage among African Americans, and unveiled inner city gang brutality. Due to unfair practices in the LAPD, the media ignored violent inner-city gang life. Since police were becoming more unfair to African Americans, the
N.W.A expressed their outrage through songs on Straight Outta Compton, like “Fuck the Police”, and “Gangsta Gangsta”. The album is full of underlying messages, stories they were trying to convey to the masses, and lyrics to garner a reaction from multiple groups of people. The impact of Straight Outta Compton is still seen and heard in today’s society. Straight Outta Compton is a very important piece of media that changed hip-hop culture and the way African Americans are viewed today.
Description: The Songs That Make Up Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton is an album composed of 13 songs with a duration of 60 minutes
(Apple, 1988). The title track “Straight Outta Compton” became the world’s first taste of N.W.A. N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 4
This song introduces the members of N.W.A., and highlights the messages of gun violence in the black community, the unforeseen threat to black Americans by police, and the groups attitude towards women (Caulfield, 2015). The second song on the album, “Fuck the Police”, is the most controversial, and gave African Americans a voice to stand up to police brutality. “Fuck the
Police” unveiled the police brutality that was occurring in the inner city. This song, along with other factors, escalated the tensions between African Americans and police. The next song, “If It
Ain’t Ruff” further represents the lifestyle of gagsters in Los Angeles. Its fresh beats give the message that if you cross MC Ren, you won’t win “IF It Ain’t Ruff” puts the spotlight on MC
Ren, who showcases his spitfire flow and finesse with internal rhymes over three verses of cartoonish braggadocio that culminate in him advising his haters to just “play like an airplane and just jet” (Caufield, 2015). “Express Yourself, is a song with an accompanying music video
(“Straight Outta Compton” and “Fuck the Police” are also songs that have an accompanying music video). “Express Yourself” is one of the less radical pieces on the album. The song encourages individuality with lyrics like “from the heart, cause if you want to start to move up the chart, then expression is a big part of it” (Straight Outta Compton, 1988). It’s an inspirational song for inner city kids to display their individuality while also highlighting what would happen if someone doesn’t agree with your individualism. “I’m expressing with my full capabilities, and now I’m living in correctional facilities (Straight Outta Compton, 1988). “Parental Discretion Iz
Advised”, the fifth song on Straight Outta Compton, is another less controversial song on the album. The song is notable for being one of Ice Cubes last cuts with N.W.A (Young, 2017), and still highlights the gangster attitude, but with a more mainstream approach. The album also includes the songs “Compton’s N the House (Remix), a song from Eazy-E’s debut album, “8 Ball
(Remix)”, a remix from “Panic Zone 12”, the N.W.A’s debut album (Young 2017), “Something N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 5
Like That”, rapped by Dr. Dre and MC Ren, “I Ain’t the One” the final song Ice Cube is featured on with N.W.A (Young 2017). “Dope Man (Remix)”, “Quiet on tha Set”, which highlights the way people perceive an African American rapper from Compton, and “Something
2 Dance 2”, a “light-hearted end to an album full of heavy ideas and music” (Young 2017).
Analysis: Gang Life: A Main Theme On “Straight Outta Compton”
N.W.A used Straight Outta Compton to project the main messages of the album to the masses: inner city gang life, police brutality, and gun violence to anyone who would listen.
From the description of the main songs, you can see that the N.W.A had a few common themes throughout the album. The message of the album showed the mass media the horrible life of inner-city violence. The N.W.A sparked the media’s attention by giving the world Straight Outta
Compton. Inner city violence hadn’t been covered in the mainstream media before the release of this album. Due to the vast success of Straight Outta Compton, the album introduced an entire nation to inner city life of African Americans and ‘gangsta rap’. (McCann. 2012). The main theme of the album was to show the world what inner city gang life was like, and to show that police brutality was, and still is, a prevalent subject in African American communities. Most of middle America’s first taste of hip-hop culture came from N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton. The most prominent time that Straight Outta Compton, and more specifically “Fuck the Police” was seen in L.A. was after the police beating of Rodney King. After police were seen beating an unarmed Rodney King in the streets of L.A., “Fuck the Police”, Straight Outta Compton, and
‘gangsta rap’ became a rally cry for African Americans. In L.A., Straight Outta Compton became an iconic album among the African American community due to its projected messages of police brutality and the hardships of living in minority communities.
Interpretation: The N.W.A. Attempt to Spread Its Message N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 6
Straight Outta Compton and the N.W.A were trying to project police brutality, inner-city gang violence, and the gangster lifestyle to the mass media. These subjects were particularly important to African Americans across the United States. N.W.A became famous for “not holding back about what it was like to be young and black and terrorized by the police” (Green, 2015).
The album also brings up a divide that wasn’t talked about before. Before Straight Outta
Compton and the N.W.A, rap music was just starting to become more common in the mainstream media. After the N.W.A came on the scene, a divide rose between rappers who rapped for a mainstream audience, and rappers who rapped about controversial and political topics (Green,
2015). Artists that rapped about controversial topics, and more mellow rappers, were rejected from the mass media and were categorized as ‘gangsta’ lifestyles. Straight Outta Compton was a way for African Americans to have a voice against police brutality and social injustice. Today, the effects of this album are still prevalent, as you can see African Americans protesting, and having a voice against social injustice, just like the N.W.A. did back in 1989.
Evaluation: Straight Outta Compton Reaches the Mass Media
Pre-Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube described the deaths related to crack distribution, gang violence, and inner-city life as follows: “When something happens in south-central Los
Angeles, nothing happens. It’s just another n**** dead” (Grow, 2017). N.W.A’s message wasn’t to make people fear African Americans, but rather wanting to represent “black bodies and communities” (McCann. 2012) and give the mass media a reason to cover inner city violence.
Overall, Straight Outta Compton achieved its goal of bringing inner city gang life to the mass media. Today, Compton, California is still a hotspot for crime and violence, but Ice Cube says that its nowhere near as bad as it was in the 1980s (Grow, 2017) Even though inner-city gang life is still prevalent in most cities, police brutality is becoming more of a talking point within the N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 7 media. More police officers are being held accountable for their actions, which can be drawn back to the N.W.A standing up for itself. Straight Outta Compton accomplished giving a voice to
African Americans to combat police brutality and social injustice. Even though the album was rejected from the mass media, African Americans forced news outlets to start covering events that occurred in Compton, and throughout the African American community. It shed light on police brutality and made more people aware of the struggles inner-city people went through day to day.
Engagement: Straight Outta Compton Defies All Odds
The mass media reacted to the album in two different ways. People used the album as a message of hope or became afraid of African American men. This mass polar opposite reaction is not defined by race because Straight Outta Compton was extremely popular with white middle class teens, even though they knew nothing about street life (Kennedy, 2017). African Americans viewed Straight Outta Compton as a glimmer of hope, and a playlist for the riots that occurred in
Los Angeles in the 90’s. Along with the album, the N.W.A went on a short tour to accompany the release of their album. The tour lasted mostly through the summer months of 1989 and was very popular. One notable moment on their tour occurred during their June 19, 1989 concert in
Detroit, Michigan. Before the concert, the members of the N.W.A were taken into a room and were confronted by police. Ice Cube said, “They took us into this little room. All they did was talk to us. They told us they wanted to arrest us onstage to front us off in front of everybody to show that you can’t say ‘Fuck the police’ in Detroit.” (DeVito, 2015) The hip-hop group preceded to rap the song “Fuck the Police” and during the song, fireworks were set off, and the concert crowd was dispersed, and the hip-hop group fled back to their hotel. Ice cube states that the event was just a demonstration of police power and that the police were the ones who started N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 8 the trouble (DeVito, 2015). The N.W.A shocked middle America. (Kennedy, 2017) News outlets covered stories of the hip-hop group in negative ways, mothers were shielding their children from anything remotely related to ‘gangsta rap’ and fueled the fire between African Americans and police officers. Straight Out of Compton was so controversial to middle America, that even the FBI was involved in trying to shut down the hip-hop group from spreading their message. An example of middle America being offended by Straight Outta Compton is when a Minnesota attorney general threatened to prosecute record stores that sold Straight Outta Compton. He stated “This is frankly offensive to me, and to any parent, if they [parents] were to hear and know what these lyrics were all about, they would know that they’re nothing but filth” at the end of a
CBS segment highlighting inner-city life (Holmes, 2015). This is just one of many examples of middle America wanting the N.W.A to be stopped, and the violence of inner-city life to be ignored. Personally, I think that the N.W.A. did almost everything right. If they weren’t as controversial as they were, the mass media would not have been exposed to ‘gangster’ lifestyles.
The N.W.A could have focused their album more towards police brutality and more struggles of inner-city lifestyles than drugs and gangs, but by doing so, they could have sacrificed the message they were trying to send to other communities and the mass media.
Disregarding personal opinions, Straight Outta Compton garnered nationwide success.
Despite refusal from radio stations, MTV, and other media platforms to project the album and its singles, Straight Outta Compton went on to reach number 37 on the Billboard Top 200 chart in
1989 (M, 2015). Today, Straight Outta Compton has over three million album sales. The album had a surprising turnout due to the fact that ‘gangster rap’ was not introduced in the mass media until Straight Outta Compton and the N.W.A came along. The album itself was made in just a few weeks, with a total expenditure of about $12,000. The April after the album’s release, the N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 9 album went gold, and at the beginning of summer, it went platinum. (Grow, 2018) The years following the release of the landmark album show that musical artists took inspiration from
N.W.A and the beats, rhymes, and messages were implemented in the new wave of hip-hop.
Straight Outta Compton paved the way for new rappers and a new style of music to emerge across the US. In 2015, a movie was made dedicated to the album, and the story behind N.W.A.
After the 2015 biopic, Straight Outta Compton rose to number 38 on the Billboard chart and was certified triple platinum in November 2015. (Grow, 2018)
Conclusion
In summary, the album Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A was a monumental album not only for hip-hop, but for society as we see it today. In 1989 N.W.A released their debut album Straight Outta Compton. This album had a monumental impact on people in inner cities, suburban America, and the federal government. On one side of the spectrum, you have the reaction from the inner-city gangsters, who used the messages behind Straight Outta Compton as inspiration in standing up to police. During the height of N.W.A, the crack epidemic was reaching its peak in Los Angeles at the time of the release of the album and there was a vast amount of crime and violence in Compton. Even though the city had a major problem with crime, the mass media rarely covered any of the police beatings, gang activity, or violent activity, and if the media did cover stories, it was often covered as a lost cause. On the other side, N.W.A shocked suburban America. The group was deemed ‘the most dangerous group’ due to the controversial lyrics, and anti-police rhetoric. Straight Outta Compton is a piece of media that was very relevant during its initial release, and today, 30 years after its release. Today, police brutality is a hot topic in many conversations. The same struggles that the N.W.A were trying to project to the mass media are the same messages the Black Lives Matter Movement are trying to convey. N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 10
Though its smaller in impact, the 1992 LA riots can be compared to people rioting against police brutality towards unarmed African Americans today. Straight Outta Compton is an iconic album that has deep underlying messages. It’s a rare piece of media that sparked a huge movement, gained monumental success, shed light on issues that were not being covered before, and pushed the boundaries of hip-hop, all while being rejected from tv and radio stations, covered negatively by news outlets, and disapproved by the federal government. Despite all the controversy and negative perceptions of Straight Outta Compton, people still listen to and find the songs inspirational in today’s society. N.W. A’S “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” 11
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