N.W.A.

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YO! I'M HARDCORE YOU BITCH! SHUT DA' FUCK UP! JA RULE YOU PUSSY! I HATE U! I BUST ACAP ON YO' ASS! NIGGAZ WITH ATTITUDE! YEAH! 50 CENT IS NOT A GANGSTA HE A PUSSY BUBBLEGUM POP RAP STAR! N.W.A. RULES THEY WERE VIOLENT! YEAH!

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (1988)

(reviewed by Robert Grazer)

HIGH POINTS: Fuck Tha Police, I Ain't Tha 1, Straight Outta Compton.  LOW POINTS: Something Like That, Something 2 Dance 2, 8Ball, Parental Discretion Iz Advised, If It Ain't Ruff

I must say I don't know too terribly much about hip-hop history, just a relative idea of which few records were of major importance to what major scenes, and from what I can gather this one here was the first truly important gangsta rap album. Essentially from that, this is one of the major players in giving rap the violent/misogynist/racist/plain image that remains in the mind of many unfamiliar with it today. I have singled out a few tracks above that I think more or less exemplify this to a better degree than others, but in all honesty I don't see much at all in the way of actual highlights aside from a few successful jokes and jabs in a few tracks, but even these have no lasting value. I suppose that it wouldn't exactly be fair to say that from this supposed (and generally mislabeled) "Golden Age of Hip-Hop" Straight Outta Compton is the album that more or less ruined the potential of the music for most following artists (I'm not too much into Run-D.M.C. either), but albums like this are certainly a part of the problem.

The deep rooted and controversial gangsta attitude that seemed so shocking back in 1988 seems quite tame though, and while I suppose I've got to give the band some credit for releasing something like this into the hip-hop scene of the late 80s, to modern listening ears this, like a lot of old-school rap, seems a wee bit primitive, both in its stylistics and message. Dr. Dre's The Chronic (which I can't admit to being too fond of either) seems to me a far better example of the gangsta lifestyle, and certainly some of the artists to come out in the aftermath of that release are for more shocking and violent than the rather tame rants here, Eminem as much as anyone. Time has really numbed the overall effect of Straight Outta Compton in the face of so many other, far superior hip-hop releases, not to mention the rather impressive material that Public Enemy was releasing around the same time. Of course, I seem to get the feeling that I'm not the only person who recognises this, since N.W.A.'s popularity has dwindled considerably over the years while Public Enemy are still routinely named hip-hop's all-time greatest.

One thing I think Straight Outta Compton lacks here is any set style to their sound, more in the sense that the rhymes are very basic, and, aside from Eazy-E's rather obnoxious tone, no one's voice really stands out either. It wouldn't much surprise me if one gets Ice Cube and MC Ren mixed up between raps from time to time; I occasionally do myself. The rhymes themselves are quite simplistic, usually shifting off in an extremely basic and rather predictable fashion, and I find it hard to believe that anyone can listen to some of the lyrics on here without breaking out laughing at the sheer idiocy of the raps. I suppose I can understand someone appreciating the message behind the music here, but all of this ridiculous badassitude has been said many times since, and in much more interesting ways than here.

And this really leaves Straight Outta Compton as nothing more than a bit of a cultural statement, a historical document, worth note I suppose if you're more interested in hip-hop history (or seeing the origins of Dr. Dre himself) than you are in interesting music, perhaps there is some reason to own this, but for the rest of us, there has since been an explosion of artists doing similar music in more a memorable manner, with actual personality and life to the sound. I'm not sure if I've committed some sacrilege by my criticisms over this, but my guess is a lot of the people who would rush to defend this album by threats of violence and whatnot fifteen years ago are all more grown now, with more to do than to defend a strikingly unremarkable record. Other than that, the album cover is kind of interesting.

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