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N.W.A. music biography continued...

genre that flourishes to this day. N.W.A. formed in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, when an admitted former drug dealer decided to invest his earnings in a record company. The leader of the group, Eazy-E, (Eric Wright), founded Ruthless Records "with money gained illegally on the streets," according to Rolling Stone. He then recruited some of his friends to form a rap act, most notably Ice Cube, (Osea Jackson), who wrote many of the raps on the group's debut album. Other N.W.A. members included producers Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and Yella (Antoine Carraby) and mixer M.C. Ren (Lorenzo Patterson). In 1989 N.W.A. released their debut album, Straight Outta Compton, a vivid snapshot of the amoral and dangerous world from which the group's members had emerged. Without any support from radio or MTV, the album became and underground hit and N.W.A. was on the map for its raunchy and blood-splattered lyrics, including a song call "Fuck the Police" which prompted a warning letter from the FBI. But helping to launch sales of the album was a new group of customers--white middle-class teenagers--who latched on to the hard-core sound of N.W.A. and almost made gangsta rap a religion.



After Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube left the group to pursue a solo career--allegedly, according to Rolling Stone, because of a financial dispute. Because Ice Cube had written many lyrics, the group's 1991 album, Efil4zaggin, marked a new direction for N.W.A. Nonetheless, the new release soared to the number one spot on the charts without a hit single or play on radio stations and MTV. The members of N.W.A. got into trouble with the law more than once in the 90s and essentially by early 1992 N.W.A was over, its members scattered to solo careers with varying degrees of success. Rumors of a reunion dogged the group, however, and in 2000, it seemed like it might actually happen when Dre, Ren, Snoop Dogg, Warren G., and Eminem participated in a national arena tour. There was talk of a proposed album called Not These Niggas Again, but by 2001 any further studio recordings were not, in Dre's opinion, strong enough to release. Still, N.W.A. in their brief time together had made an indelible mark on American pop culture—one that continues to find musical adherents to this day.