Andy Verke

“F*** the police” said N.W.A. All of the N.W.A. members grew up on Crenshaw Blvd. in Compton, South Central L.A., where blacks were heavily discriminated against and the police made life even more difficult.

The members of the N.W.A. consisted of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. This group started out with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube making beats and lyrics in Dr. Dre’s aunt’s house. After some time, they all came together and produced their first hit “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988. They rapped about their struggles as African-Americans with the police in South Central L.A.

Their success did not come easily, because during the late 80s, no one ever thought about this new style of music called ‘gangsta rap’ except for a guy by the name of Jerry Heller, who worked for Ruthless Production.

Unfortunately two years after N.W.A.’s first album, the group spilt up. Ice Cube was the first to go because he thought Heller had cheated him financially. But it wasn’t long after that Dr. Dre split from N.W.A as well and joined Suge Knight with Death Row Records. In 1994 Eazy-E ended up splitting ties with Jerry Heller because of communication issues. It was at that time that Eazy-E called Ice Cube and Dr. Dre to get N.W.A. back together.

As the group was waiting to reunite, Eazy-E passed away from AIDS in 1995. N.W.A. still reunited with Snoop Dogg performing in Eazy-E’s place. Although they had solo careers, they produced a lot of songs together with Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Eminem. To this day, rappers idolize N.W.A. because without them gangsta rap would not be where it is today.