N. W. A: Niggas With Attitude

During the 80s a controversial group of rappers came together and changed the game of Hip Hop for generations to come. Niggas with Attitude, otherwise known as N.W.A, was comprised of the rappers; Ice Cube, MC Ren, Easy E, Yella, and Dr. Dre. Theses rappers spoke the truth about life in the streets; the hustling, the trapping, the sexual encounters, the gang life, and the most important, the racism. They shined a light on these issues in a violent, sexually explicit, yet intelligent and revolutionary way. The Facebook page, *N.W.A* creates an environment that connects people of all races, backgrounds, and ages; with the goal of immortalizing, and spreading the original message of the group.

N.W.A (an abbreviation of Niggaz Wit Attitudes)[1][2][3] was an American hip hop group from Compton, California, widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap and west coast hip hop sub-genres, sometimes credited as the most important group in the history of rap music.[4] Active from 1986 to 1991, the rap group endured controversy due to the explicit lyrics that many considered to be disrespectful to women, and glorifying drugs and crime. The group was subsequently banned from many mainstream American radio stations. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone.

had gained all throughout Los Angeles, California. During the 70’s-90’s, racism was still at huge. Nobody knew what was going on behind closed doors because we did not have social media back then. High tech phones/cameras and technology that advanced were not accessible at the time to actually view the rawness of what was going on in the field. Ethos is demonstrated by N.W.A. by their status. By status I mean that N.W.A. was a famous and well known rap group which featured only African Americans (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, DJ Yella). The five were originally big known rappers/producers prior to them coming together to form the group. So people already knew about them from a musical/hip-hop perspective and throughout the Los Angeles community, which is where they all resided from. N.W.A. had already gained that trust/credibility (ethos) from the community because of how high their status was at the time (famous

The success the N.W.A group artists consists of avoiding being taking advantage of by managers who do it because artists know less about paperwork, transactions and which type of business to do at the right point of time. O’shea Ice Cube Jackson got into a financial dispute between him and the N.W.A manager, Jerry Heller. The dispute was settled in-court in 1990. After the fact, Cube continued a successful solo career. After that the N.W.A continued working on the same path, despite of the obstacles by being criticized by politicians, Ban of sales from few retailers because it was the purest form “Gangsta Rap” full of violence, misogyny, but also a lot of humor, and pathos. Politicians spent amounts of energy to stop it from being something, it was simply wild. The politicians might take the side that says this specific type of music influence young African Americans to do crimes and do what gangs do as described in the songs yet, the beauty of it is that it’s purely honest, and making Compton visible on the world

In 1988 N.W.A put out the song called F*CK the Police that put out a worldwide misconception that made them the dangerous group in Hip-hop history. As a female growing up listening to hip-hop music from hearing Ol Dirty Bastard to Jay Z I can say for me hip-hop is a part of my life, so if that means that must do what they should do and that is to promote their fancy car, big booty slim thick girlfriends is a part of the Hip-Hop life then let it be then trying to bash hip-hop music. The hip-hop artist grows over time from (The Notorious B.I.G, 2 Pac, N.W.A, Wu-Tang, and Lil Kim) clan paved the way for Hip-hop artist today like Kendrick, Nicki Minaj, A boogie, Dave East.

There is little question that he came from the streets, but this had been a growing comparison among the correlation of hip hop and the crack generation. “Not only did black teenagers in similar situations relate to what Eazy was talking about, but white suburban kids fantasized about being in his situation” (Eriewine).

Eazy E was a west coast rapper. He was the Co-founder who was part of the group N.W.A. known for albums like Straight Outta Compton. Eazy E was born on September 7, 1963 in Compton, California. His original name was Eric Lynn Wright. He started a group named N.W.A. with his other rappers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. They were known for their violent lyrics. They made A album called Straight Outta Compton. At that time Eazy was a solo artist.

Since gangsta rap was first introduced by the group N.W.A., this type of rap music has sold more albums than any other form of rap. Gangsta rap in some ways glorifies violence, drugs, and easy money. N.W.A. wrote a song about killing cops that created a firestorm of controversy. As a result of several such controversies, the Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics labeling system was enacted in 1985 (Lommel 68). This system required the music industry to label songs that have explicit language and limit the sale of these albums to adults.

Kendrick brings rap back to its “roots” by reintroducing the narrative aspect of old school rap. When rap was first taking off in the late eighties, one group in particular helped mainstream it, N.W.A. Consisting of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Easy-E, this group

Picture this, you are teenager growing up in Los Angeles, on your way to school and you turn on the radio. “Yo thanks for tuning into to the hottest radio station in the streets of LA. Up next we got N.W.A. with their new single Appetite for Destruction.” That was common for nearly every person who lived in LA and enjoyed hip-hop music. During the early 90s and late 80s, West coast hip-hop was dominated by the gruesome realities of gangster rap and g-funk. Rap at the time was intense, authentic, and unbearable. Ultimately, this wave of “fuck you” sprouted from the injustices that plagued many impoverished communities. Individuals were angered from the oppressive acts that hindered any attempt to reach success, and gangster music within LA served as the platform to express the frustration under such terrible circumstances. Although the sound was revolutionary and taking over the entire nation, still Los Angeles needed a fresh of breath of air to display the artistic talent that came out of Los Angeles. New York could play with both sides of the hip-hop spectrum of light-heartedness to aggressiveness, but unfortunately for LA, they only had one sound. In New York, they had artists from Kid N Play to Public Enemy. If Los Angeles were ever going to snatch the throne from New York, they needed to do so quickly before the dawn of Golden Age ended.

They were often harassed by police because of what the group represented with their gangster music.

This results from descendance of rappers from Griots. Griots were keepers of knowledge, including tribal history, and news of birth, death, and war. Many griots spread knowledge through spoken words just like hip hop rappers (Blanchard). Rappers create songs that spread news of their daily lives, dreams, and childhoods. They are viewed as the voice of the poor and urban African American youth who are misrepresented by the media. Rap is more than just saying words on a hip hop beat, it allows rappers to speak for their community and voice concerns. Rap was well known in African-American communities, but became prominent in 1979 with the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. Within weeks, rap began topping the music charts which ultimately led to it gaining the name “new genre of pop music.” The first group to bring rap to a mainstream audience, MTV, was Run D.M.C. Run D.M.C was a trio of middle-class African Americans who came together in the early-1980s. They mixed rap with hard rock, shaping a new style of hip hop known as “New School Hip Hop.” New School Hip Hop was also pioneered by Def Jam which was a rising record label for rappers and DJ’s. Def Jam introduced many artist such as LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. The Beastie Boys broadened rap’s audience, becoming one of rap's first all white male band, On the other hand, Public Enemy invested rap with radical black political ideology

With the violent diction, many people were put off by it. “Although violence, sexism and obscene lyrics have always been a part of American popular culture, what made gangsta rap intimidating was its lyrics…The lyrics came instead from the minds of what many white Americans considered to be the most violent and threatening segment of America-‘young angry inner city black men”(Canton 245). Much like today, the incarceration rate for black men was incredibly high, which can be seen through the aftermath of the Watts Riot, the formation of the Black Panther Party as well as countless other civil movement events. Gangsta rappers’ goal was to appeal to the masses of their culture. As many of them at least knew someone that had been put in jail, making songs about what got them there pulled a strong audience. For example, prominent gangsta rap group, NWA combined the violent rhetoric and political charged diction in their song, “F*ck tha

A few years later Eazy E met up with Ice Cube tomake amends and be friends again, and also wanted to get N.W.A back together. Unfortunately,Eazy died of AIDS on March 26, 1995. After everyone grieved his death, they went theirseparate ways but still kept in contact. Dr.Dre became the founder and CEO of AftermathEntertainment and Beats Electronics, continuing with being a producer and then making his ownheadphones called “Beats”. Ice Cube on the other hand had already started his solo career onceleaving N.W.A. and started writing for other artist. Also starting his acting career by starring infamous movies such as, “Boyz N The Hood”, “Friday”, and “Are We There

Hip-hop wasn’t a new form of music in 1989, in fact it started in 1982 with Run DMC, but nobody was ready for this form. The police and politicians didn’t like what N.W.A was saying in their lyrics, but all of the things they were rapping about were things that were going on around them on a daily basis. They were seeing people being shot, drug deals going down, and women being called b*tch*s. "I remember when Straight Outta Compton came out, where I lived we could all relate to what they were rapping about because it was our lifestyle."(Wilson. Interview). So basically art was imitating life. But as the decade took a turn into the ‘90’s, so did things for N.W.A. (Tha Biography of Tha E) Ice Cube left to pursue a solo career (Ice Cube- Westside Times) and after him Dr. Dre left to start Death Row Records with Marion "Suge" Knight in 1992. (The Untouchable Death Row Records)