Straight Out Of Compton Essay

In the early 1990’s African Americans faced racial discrimination throughout their daily lives. Since this was arguably one of the most racially charged decades since the 60’s, African American and Americans alike needed a way to express how the corrupt world was working. The worst part of living in this era was the fact the people who had sworn in to protect us were the ones doing the most harm. Police officers abused their power with no regards to human life. Cases such as the beating of Rodney King by police on March 3, 1991 in Los Angeles demonstrated their disregard. With all of this commotion around the world, it led people to find another way to speak upon how corrupt things were. They had to use nonviolent ways to settle this, because if they fought back they would end up in jail for life or simply dead. This soon inspired a music group who went by the name NWA, or “N*ggas with Attitude”. They lived during this time and used their music as a way to spread their ideas and

The black community is changing and the hip hop is changing as well. Many of the founders of this genre have found success and fame. They have become producers and have their own recording label. This is the case of Jay Z who is has a music service designed to put the power back into the hands of the artist. This is very encouraging because it will allow the artist to be true to his art and not hold back because he needs to follow what the big corporations feel is profitable. In the case of singer, actor and producer, Ice Cube, his attitude toward his art have changed. At the beginning, he was angry and wanted to express that frustration through his music and he wrote the song, “Fuck Tha Police”. Now, he understands that saying fuck

These groups were from all over the country, not just the East coast. At this time the music exploded onto the scene and in 1988 hip-hop music sold $100 million dollars. The Beastie Boys album “Licensed to Ill” was released in 1986 and became the best selling rap album of the 1980’s (Scott 6). Also in 1986, Run-DMC became the first rap group to ever appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince became the first rap group to win a Grammy

Rap music officially started in 1978 in the Bronx, New York. According to the author, most Americans

Nelson George states that “Gangsta rap is direct by- product of crack explosion. Unless you grasp that connection nothing else that happened in the hip hop’s journey to national scapegoat will make sense. This is not a chicken-or-the-egg riddle —first came rocks, then gangsta rap” (136). To prove his point he examines the connection between drug culture of the inner city areas and the hip hop music. The money collected from illegal drug deals spent on recordings of gangsta rap music. George says “Suspicion of women, loyalty to the crew, adoption of a stone face in confronting the world, hatred of authority—all major themes of gangsta rap-owe their presence of lyrics and impact on audiences to the large number of African-American men incarcerated in the ‘90s” (138). I agree with his statement that gangsta rap is a directed by- product of crack explosion, because social and racial issues for instance drug dealing influencing the lyrics of music and this explosion of heroin and crack in communities gave birth to gangsta rap.

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.

b. Gangsta Rap was created in the 1990’s and was made popular by groups such as NWA.

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.

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.

Berry says that there are good types of rap and bad types by showing that few rappers actually use sexually obscure lyrics and sexist towards women. Good rap would be considered songs by artist such as Queen Latifah, Salt N ' Pepa, Yo Yo, and MC Lyte are working to dismiss the men rapper 's images of women through their own performance style and lyrics. Violence is another factor because it is associated with black urban youths where rap music is always the common denominator for in the communities. Berry gives the idea that a major part of rap music is a reality in these neighborhoods by using NWA, a.k.a. Niggas with Attitude that consists of five rappers from L.A. who rap about gang banging, drive by shootings, and police confrontations. The lead singer of the group argued that their lyrics aim to show the "raw reality of life" instead of making it people’s reality. Williams argues that rap music does not represent the beliefs and ethics of black communities but only because people overlook the positive efforts made by rappers and focus on the negative aspects. Berry demonstrate how the supremacy of white and black power are prominent through focusing on how Parales beliefs that rap just shows the lack of education, and the frustration of the ghetto, and how hating rap can be linked to fearing young black men who are the stars of rap . Ice

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

In the late 1980’s N.W.A was formed in Compton, California. Members of the group included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and more. Many of these members still retain their fame today and continue to be social activists within there community and on a national level. The formation of the group was ultimately derived from circumstantial anger and outrage at Los Angeles law enforcement at that time.

During the Nineteen Seventies the underground urban movement called hip-hop began to develop within the South borough of New York City. Encompassing graffiti art, break dance, rap music, and fashion, hip-hop became the dominant front of the African Yankee and Hispanic communities within the Nineteen Eighties. Tagging, rapping, and break dance were all creative variations on the male competition and street gangs. Sensing that gang members' violent urges may be changed into artistic ones, Afrika Bambaataa founded the Zulu Nation, a loose confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. The recognition of hip-hop unfolds quickly to white customers through movies, music videos, radio play, and media coverage. The attention

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)

Birthed in South Bronx, hip hop music and its style penetrated America in the late 1980s after MTV began playing heavily on rotation rap videos and launched Yo! MTV Raps in 1988. Music videos were like a soundtrack that people needed a wardrobe to wear.