After thriving in New York City for much of the 1980s, hip-hop began to look toward Los Angeles. While the New York hip-hop scene evolved from its dance and party roots, turning the listener's attention more towards the emcee than the DJ after the great success of Run-DMC's self-titled debut album (1984), the Los Angeles scene remained anchored to electro until the mid-1980s when Ice-T, inspired by Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D's single "PSK What Does It Mean?", released the single "6 in the Mornin'" (1986). Ice-T's song became an unexpected hit and gave rise to a new rap subgenre, which was later named "gangsta rap".
Around the same time, the group World Class Wreckin' Cru, including Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, released the first West Coast rap album to be released on a major label, CBS / Epic. The major label was looking for other emerging artists and the group CIA (Cru in Action) signed a one-single deal with CBS: the group consisted of Dr. Dre's cousin Sir Jinx, K-Dee and Ice Cube, who was also a ghostwriter for World Class Wreckin' Cru. After the album was released on CBS, Dr. Dre left the group and began working with Eazy-E, who got him out of some legal trouble after World Class Wreckin' Cru promoter Alonzo Williams didn't help him, in exchange Eazy-E asked him to be the producer of his record label, the newly formed Ruthless Records, founded together with manager Jerry Heller.
The group NWA was formed in 1987, after Eric "Eazy-E" Wright insisted on meeting André "Dr. Dre" Young and the group was originally formed by the two of them. Later, producer Kim "Arabian Prince" Nazel and rapper from the group CIA O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson were added. This formation released "Panic Zone / Dope Man / 8-Ball" with Macola Records in 1987 and later published the EP "NWA and the Posse", where the group was still in the definition phase and was credited only in the three tracks released with Macola. The EP was successful, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and convincing the group to continue their adventure in the recording industry. Dr. Dre brings Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby and Eazy-E brings his childhood friend Lorenzo "MC Ren" Patterson, who had just written much of Eazy-E's debut album "Eazy-Duz-It".
The following year, NWA began recording their first LP. With a meager budget of just eight thousand dollars (other sources indicate twelve thousand), the group recorded the album in a few weeks (four to six depending on the source) and released it in January 1989. Shortly before the release, founding member Arabian Prince left NWA due to financial disagreements, something didn't add up: the group sold thousands of physical copies of the EP — certified gold by the RIAA in 1995 —, went on tour (without ever being paid), but the money never arrived for the boys, there should be some royalty statements, but they don't seem to exist. While most of the boys were new to the recording industry, Arabian Prince already had some experience as a solo artist and decided to leave NWA. As a result, his intended solo track for the album "Something 2 Dance 2", a mainstream radio-friendly track, was removed from subsequent pressings of the album.
NWA is one of the first rap supergroups, one of the best and they're on their debut studio album, which isn't only a great middle finger to America: it's not the first gangsta rap album, but it's the first to find a huge popular consensus, defining the whole genre and making the West Coast take its first step towards commercial dominance. The production is provided by DJ Yella and Dr. Dre, while the lyrics are written by Ice Cube and also performed by MC Ren and Eazy-E. With this release, Dr. Dre establishes himself as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time and demonstrates it widely here with ten excellent rhythms, fantastic, absolutely perfect and fit with the rapping of the performers, including Dre himself: his production is simple, minimal, clean, incredibly clear, composed largely of the drum machine, some bass lines, some guitar riffs and scratches, the producer goes beyond the simple sampling in vogue at the time, extracting rough funky and raw samples that will later be imitated by everyone on the Coast, his rhythms are hard and funky to represent the general atmosphere of the album and to support the violent delivery of the MCs.
Rapping is one of the best parts of the album: there are no revolutionary lyrics, they're cinematic, deeply and perfectly detailed, excellent, and the energy and attitude of the performers combined with the violent nature of the lyrics create incredibly powerful cuts. As for the lyrical part of the LP, it's difficult to find something so violent and vivid before this year: these four aggressive, cheeky and defiant boys celebrate violence, the main topic of this disc that soon becomes the standard basis for every other gangsta rap albums. The group focuses on street life by speaking directly from street life itself, with effortless narratives and cleaned up with a little romance, creating a fascinating, brutal and nihilistic painting: there's little social criticism, most of the LP is about crime, misogyny, racism, brawls, car theft, lack of justice, smoking weed, homophobia, police brutality, harassing women, driving drunk, shooting cops, partying and all that ish that made so great the blessed genre of gangsta rap.
Each individual member of the group has its own delivery, its own personality and individual energy, its own style with which it faces the tracks and delivers its image of a street thugs, going against everything and everyone with an anger never seen, uncontrolled and incontrovertible that it produces one of the frightening and scariest moments in rap, particularly in the manic trio of opening songs which is one of the most powerful in the history of the genre. The lyrical structure of the lyrics is quite simple for a classic, but it's effective: the metric patterns are minimal, allowing the rhymes to get straight to your face like a fist, bad, unstoppable, they blow your brain up. Ice Cube kills his cuts, he's at his best in career. Even Eazy-E isn't kidding: it compensates for the lack of lyrical talent and the lack of technical ability in delivery with a lot of personality and an energy that often lead him to be considered as one of the best performers of the genre. MC Ren is the most underrated of the year, technically only Cube is ahead of him, he has a dope flow and has done extraordinary things here too, but he has always remained in the second-third line: he's like that domestique in cycling who makes 20 km uphill in front of everyone pulling at 15 kph and comes off at -500 meters allowing you to win the stage. Dre and Yella are also a little out of the way, but deserve equal props for giving the soundscape to these shocking cuts.
The group attracts numerous controversies for their cuts, the most notable being "Fuck the Police": inspired by an episode they had with the police while recording the album, the boys wrote the lyrics, although Dr. Dre was less convinced than the others, still having to serve weekends in prison due to traffic violations. The hit caused a huge negative reaction from the media and also from other rap groups on the West Coast, some clubs banned their performances, the police refused to work as security for their concerts and the FBI even sent a warning letter to the label. The controversy strengthened the anti-establishment image of the group, which from now on would define itself as "the most dangerous group in the world".
Released by Ruthless and distributed by Priority, the album doesn't get radio or television airplay, compensating with an incredible following in the underground market that leads the record to be certified platinum the following year, peaking #37 in the Billboard 200 and among top ten in the rnb chart. Upon its release, the disk was met with mixed reviews from critics, most of the specialized writers appreciated NWA's attempt to describe the situations of the ghetto, giving life to what was known at the time as "reality rap", while the most ferocious argued that the extreme exaggeration of the performers was the result of a long study calculated scientifically at the table to steal as much money as possible from the listeners, as if the boys were any MC Hammer — although Priority Records later stated that most of the album's sales occurred in suburban areas, as was the case with Hammer. In the UK, the group received more negative reviews than positive. By retrospective, is hailed as one of the best hip-hop documents ever, first rap album to be inserted in the Grammy Hall of Fame (2016) and then selected by Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry (2017).
Upon its release, it's the most violent, vulgar and hardcore album that has been released and, despite being one of the most influential ever, it'll not be surpassed by many other records in terms of quality: the rhythms are timeless, the lyrics are better and it's basically without weaknesses (there's some slip on the misogynistic and homophobic parts of violent texts). It's a heavy, raw and disarming effort, without skimping on the most playful and fun moments, brilliantly executed. The group achieved a rare success and is seen as a model to imitate, one of the pillars of hip hop; moreover, from this album comes the metonymic trope "gangsta — NWA". Overall, it's a rare example of hardcore rap done very well, refreshing and legendary, it's truly a point of reference for the genre and one of the greatest albums ever in hip hop.
Rating: 9.6/10.
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