How N.W.A 's Powerful Hip Hop Changed The Genre Forever

At a time when a sanitised depiction of a corrupt hip hop record label is America's most wanted TV show, the empire state of hip hop in 2015 is a far cry from its origins as a form of expression for street poets to vent about everything from poverty and prejudice to police brutality. The release of Straight Outta Compton, the new N.W.A biopic, is an explosive trip back to a time when 'the world's most dangerous group' wreaked havoc on the global consciousness with their searingly honest lyrics about growing up in South Central LA at the height of the city's crack cocaine epidemic in the late 80s.

As Britain basked in the peace, love and doves of acid house, an altogether darker movement was fermenting in LA. Pimps and pushers were kings, and the festering frustration of a group of young black men facing seemingly inevitable futures as drug dealers was at the forefront of a movement that would become known as gangsta rap.

"We actually never referred to ourselves as 'gangsta rap'", recalls Ice Cube. "That was a term invented by the media for what we were doing. We actually called it 'reality rap' because it reflected what we were going through. We felt backed into a corner, and that nobody cared about our situation and that our only weapon was our music."

N.W.A began life in 1986 when Compton drug dealer Eazy-E sought retirement from the 'thug life' following the shooting of his cousin. Having earned an estimated $225,000, Eazy decided to invest in the hip hop game and founded Ruthless Records alongside record executive Jerry Heller. Heller arranged a meeting between Eazy and Dr. Dre, a local producer/rapper he had seen gigging in clubs. Inspired by Public Enemy and Ice-T, Dre had big ideas but lacked the financial means to make them a reality – an alliance with Eazy was mutually beneficial. Together with local MCs Ice Cube and Arabian Prince and Dre's Wreckin' Cru bandmate DJ Yella, the collective of rappers and producers began cutting records to distribute locally.

They were uncompromising in every aspect right down to their name, deciding they would be called N.W.A – Niggaz With Attitude. "We were taking a word that had been derogatory to black people for years and deciding to use it instead of allowing ourselves to be abused by it," says Ice Cube. "When we started out doing music, it was an underground thing. We never thought it would be on the radio or on the TV. We thought that we were just making music for our homies. We thought we'd be 'hood stars; that a guy on our block would play it and tell his friend and he'd dig it and word would get around that way. That was as far as we ever saw our careers going."

The group honed their skills reworking popular tracks into explicit versions while supporting established acts such as MC Hammer and Salt'N'Pepa. Local radio stations also picked up on them, playlisting tracks suck as Panic Zone and Eazy-E's solo track 'Boyz N The Hood'.

Buoyed by their increasing success and infamy, the group, now with new member MC Ren, began work on their debut studio album, 'Straight Outta Compton', completing the album in just six weeks at a total cost of just $8,000. The album's lyrics were steeped in brutal realism and set over a cacophony of samples, sirens, scratches, beats and loops.

Upon its release in August 1988, the album was met with a barrage of controversy due to its explicit lyrics, condemned by everyone from the US President to the FBI (who accused them of inciting violence against police officers). Tracks such as 'Gangsta Gangsta' and 'Fuck Tha Police' were widely discussed in the media, and the group was forced to refute allegations that it "glamourised gang violence and profanity", maintaining that the themes of their lyrics were descriptions rather than endorsements.

However, their message was often overlooked and N.W.A achieved a level of fame and notoriety that sent their record sales soaring. As well as speaking directly to the black kids who were living the lifestyle depicted within 'Straight Outta Compton', its aggression and rebellion appealed to a white middle-class audience who embraced the album's ability to shock and horrify their parents.

The group embarked on a US tour to promote the record and made the most of their newfound success, particularly Eazy. As co-owner of the record label and with a platinum-selling solo album, 'Eazy-Duz-It' under his belt, he fully embraced the playboy lifestyle, taking full advantage of the women that were throwing themselves at him. Calling himself a 'Thrillseeker' due to his predilection for unprotected sex, Eazy was known to have slept with up to ten women a day.

Although their antics were pretty much standard for a group of guys with easy access to money, alcohol and women, they were targeted by the police on numerous occasions, seemingly in revenge for the public mauling they'd received in 'Fuck Tha Police'. "The police harassed us a lot, especially on tour," Cube recalls. "They'd constantly pull us over, read the city ordinances, obscenity laws of what we could and couldn't say and tell us if we didn't comply we were going to jail. There were incidents all over the country."

As 'Straight Outta Compton' hit sales of a million copies, the group began to question the whereabouts of their earnings. When Jerry Heller presented them with cheques of $72,000 on the condition they sign binding contracts to Ruthless Records, Ice Cube refused, feeling that they were due much more. A heated exchange followed, and he left the group with nothing, suspecting shady dealings on Eazy and Heller's part.

The acrimonious split sparked a bitter rivalry with barbs traded back and forth in diss tracks with Ice Cube the subject of pure vitriol by his former bandmates throughout their next EP '100 Miles And Runnin' and next album 'Efil4Zaggin' (Niggaz4Life spelled backwards).

The album pushed themes of violence and misogyny even further and, once again, proved that their controversy was currency, shooting straight to No 1 on the Billboard chart. While N.W.A received no airplay due to their explicit lyrics, their media profile had never been higher. But the LA riots, sparked by the acquittal of four policemen who were filmed beating Rodney King in 1992, led many to re-evaluate N.W.A's message.

However, as their success grew, so did tensions within the group and Dr Dre was next to leave, again in a dispute over royalties. Though he wanted to quit the group, he was contractually obliged to stay and Eazy refused to release him from his contract – until he received a visit from Dre's new business partner, Marion 'Suge' Knight, a former bodyguard with a reputation for getting his own way.

In April 1991, Suge, surrounded by heavies carrying lead piping, confronted Eazy in a studio, saying that they were holding Jerry Heller hostage and would kill him if he did not sign a release on Dre's contract. Concerned for Heller's safety, Eazy complied, freeing Dre to form Death Row Records with Knight.

With N.W.A effectively over, Eazy moved into launching the careers of new acts on the Ruthless Records roster such as Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, while Dr Dre would re-define hip hop with his debut album 'The Chronic'. After everything that N.W.A had had thrown at them, the biggest bombshell of all came at the end of 1994 when a seriously ill Eazy was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with AIDS. He released a statement on March 16 1995 disclosing his condition, urging fans to learn from his diagnosis, practise safe sex and get tested. He died 10 days later on March 26 1995, aged just 31 years old.

"I couldn't believe it when he got sick," Ice Cube recalls. "We had made our peace a few months earlier at the Tunnel nightclub in New York. We hadn't seen each other and didn't know if there was gonna be beef, but as soon as we sat down and talked we were family again and all hatchets were buried. We didn't talk about contracts or anything like that, it was just two friends catching up who had missed each other."

Following the death of Eazy-E, the other former members of N.W.A pursued their own career paths. In 1996, Dre abruptly left Death Row Records after learning (somewhat belatedly) that Knight was corrupt, financially dishonest and out of control. In Straight Outta Compton, Dre finds Knight intimidating a semi-naked executive with a pitbull. "It happened," Dr Dre told The Hollywood Reporter recently. "I was like, 'What the fuck is going on?' I was ready to leave anyways. This was the extra push. All this shit actually happened."

The bad blood with Suge Knight continues, as does Knight's alleged 25-year reign of terror using heavy-handed tactics and intimidation methods to further his business affairs. He is currently awaiting sentencing in on charges of murder and attempted murder after ploughing his car into two advisers working on a trailer for the Straight Outta Compton film, one of whom, Terry Carter, co-founder of Heavyweight Records, died.

The film has come along at a time when the black experience in the US is once again under the spotlight. "It's always been the way with poor people, with black people", says Cube of the death of Sandra Bland, a black woman found dead in a Texas police cell earlier this year, shortly after her arrest for a traffic violation. "It hasn't changed. We're talking about something that has been constant – we're just catching more and more stuff on video nowadays. 'Fuck Tha Police' was relevant then, and it's relevant now. We were tired of what was going on and we wanted to do something about it. We changed pop culture in a lot of ways. It allowed artists to be themselves. If you wanted to be raw, a little risqué, you could be. We proved that you don't have to pretend to be squeaky-clean to get on TV."

Straight Outta Compton is out now