Disco de N.W.A: “Straight Outta Compton [Bonus Tracks]”

I'm reviewing "Straight Outta Compton" (1988) from a different perspective than most reviewers. While I like some rap and can certainly appreciate the gene, I'm not a huge rap fan. I'm a rocker, first and foremost, and this review is aimed specifically for people who aren't all that much into rap.

N.W.A's debut "Straight Outta Compton" can be seen as the rap counterpart to Guns N' Roses debut "Appetite for Destruction" (1987). Released within a year of each other; both albums showcase tales of inner-city debauchery, drug and alcohol excess, with a sense of nothing to loose. Both albums feel very real, very lived in, and remain powerful sentiments of what it's like to grow up and live in abject poverty, through the eyes of society's misfits.

Because the rap genre has become so saturated and mainstream, it's hard to imagine the impact "Straight Outta Compton" had upon its release and discovery. Little suburban white kids all across America heard first-hand accounts of life in the inner-city streets of the United States. I remember listening to this album back in the early 90s and remember what an impact it had on me. It dispelled a lot of myths by telling my totally ignorant brain what life is really like for oppressed minorities in the forgotten ghettos of what I had always been told was a great country, fair to everyone, regardless of race, color or creed (hey, I grew up in Reagan/Bush middle-America!) While rap sometimes seems to glamorize "thug-life" or wind-up as self-parody (a problem that would later besiege the post-Ice Cube N.W.A) this is never a problem with "Straight Outta Compton."

Honesty can get you only so far, however, without the skills. The reason "Straight Outta Compton" is as great as it is, is because of the enormous talent involved. Featuring a very young Ice Cube, Eazy E, MC Ren, Yella, and Dr Dre, N.W.A. was a supergroup of Rap/Hip-Hop's greatest talent before any of them had become known. Poetic lyrics flowing with ease; the songs, sometimes humorous, sometimes ugly, tell the listener the grim realities of urban poverty. Even at a very young age, it is apparent that all five were first rate producers, rappers, and lyricists, as each song possesses an infectious groove and a catchy beat. "Straight Outta Compton," the opening track, can be seen as Rap's "Welcome to the Jungle," while "F.ck the Police" sticks it to the man like no other. "Gangsta Gangsta," probably the album's most memorable song, is lyrically one of Ice Cube's most authentically bad-ass moments. Elsewhere on the album, Dre's "Express Yourself" is probably the album's catchiest (and most radio-friendly) song, while Eazy-E's "Eight Ball" remains a rap classic. The rest of the album, while not quite as memorable, is still first rate.

Going on twenty years as of this writing; "Straight Outta Compton" sounds as fresh and relevant today as it did upon its release. Even if rap isn't your thing, this album is well worth owning as it offers the best of the genre. If you buy only one rap album in your life "Straight Outta Compton" is the one to get.

NWA is without a doubt the most important rap group ever! Without them who knows how the rap game would be. These guys where the first to actually express their opinions on how f**cked up racism, gang violence, police brutality, and poverty was and still is, and they couldn't of said it better. Grandmaster Flash was the first to really say it in The Message, and I respect that, but without NWA the message may never of gotten through to America. Anyways, this album is f**king awesome. The best songs on here are F*ck Tha Police, Express Yourself, Gangsta Gangsta, A B*tch Is A B*tch, and possibly the best gangsta rap song of all time Straight Outta Compton. I know that song word for word. But all of these songs are great and couldnt of been said better lyrically. All of these guys Eazy E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Dr Dre, have spectacular delivery. The way they would rhyme is just mesmerizing. Like I said, it couldnt of been done any better, not one weak song on the whole album. Youve got to salute NWA for being real and sending a message to America.

What can you say about such an incredible album? Well, first of all if you don't own any N.W.A material you should go out and get this a.s.a.p. This is just like the original album except for a few bonus tracks. However, the bonus cuts arn't really that great, I would of liked to see Boyz N Tha Hood or 100 Miles and Runnin' instead of a bunch of extended mixes. Anyway the poor bonus tracks do not at all take away from the greatness of the actual album. This was truly a historical album and any hip-hop fan (especially of west-coast and gangsta rap) should definitely have this album.

This is a strong album from start to finish. It's got a few legendary tracks on it, and even those that aren't legend status are amazing. If you like rap, BUY THIS ALBUM!

As a classic hip-hop album, "Straight Outta Compton" leaves more than a little to be desired. The musical attack and lyrical stance of the first three tracks is pretty stunning, and, fantasy or not, "F*ck tha Police" is for the ages. At the same time, however, when Ice Cube invokes Charles Manson as a measure of how bad he is twice in the course of that initial opening burst you start to think something's up. Since these guys weren't really killing anybody, it's fair to assume they started bragging about doing so (as well as throwing the last 'ho out of bed after she gets Ice Cube off on the chilling "I Ain't tha 1") because they saw that it got them attention. The violence and sexism in and of itself isn't really the problem - the issue is that, except for on "F--k tha Police," they don't have jack to say about it. This became even more apparent after Ice Cube left the group, and while his stance towards woman, (...), Asians etc. was pretty much inexcusable, the trenchant social commentary he brought to the table made his music compelling all the same. After the first few tracks on "Straight Outta Compton," Ice Cube pretty much drops out of sight, and even if he does provide lyrics for Eazy and Dre's cuts over the rest of the album they don't retain the same interest. For further evidence of the group's calculated badass stance, note that the album seems to be divided into "Dirty" and "Clean" sides - the last half of the record has almost no profanity, while I count something like 86 f-words on "F--k tha Police" alone. Furthermore, the clean tracks, aside from maybe "Express Yourself", are pretty dang dull. While I can't deny the impact this group had, there are better, smarter, rappers in the world of gangsta (e.g. Ice-T, who actually has real moral sense and the brains to prove that's not antithetical to his subject matter), and beyond those first three songs, the aesthetic worth of "Straight Outta Compton" is pretty much nil.

After this album, of course, Ice Cube left and N.W.A went off the deep end, until by "Efil4zaggin" their "hard" stance was so over-the-top it practically amounted to an invitation to self-genocide. Meanwhile, malt liquor spokesman Ice Cube became a movie producer, and hip-hop went on to better things. Personally, I'd suggest that if you want real ghetto poetry you ought to check out Ghostface Killah, who understands that actually having a soul isn't such a bad thing.