Relentlessly violent and wilfully outrageous, it still retains its power to shock, delight and enlighten.
Straight Outta Compton
N.W.A
70
Straight Outta Compton turned N.W.A. from a local phenomenon in LA into a nationally feared public menace. Dr. Dre’s simple but impeccably equalised production, Ice Cube’s powerhouse flow and incipient Black radicalism, Eazy-E’s sneering nihilism and MC Ren’s stolid ice grill started to shift the focus of the hip-hop universe 3,000 miles west.
“N.W.A. not only changed music, but we changed pop culture all over the world. Because we made it all right for artists to be themselves.”
Ice Cube
The adrenaline surge of the title track, the blaring sirens of “Fuck tha Police” and the roughshod drums of “Gangsta Gangsta” comprise nothing less than one of the most bracing opening sequences in music history. Relentlessly violent and wilfully outrageous, Straight Outta Compton arose from Los Angeles’ sprawling swap meets and dilapidated suburbs like a biblical plague, warning that hip-hop could no longer be ignored by the musical mainstream and still retains its power to shock, delight and enlighten. Ignore it at your peril.