by Justin Manucci

Created on: March 13, 2009

NWA is a Compton, California based hip hop and rap group, which focused on the real issues where they lived in their rap songs. Most of their songs were considered "Gangster Rap" because of the hard core controversial lyrics, and the topic which were discussed. The group consisted of 5 members, Dr. Dre, Eazy- E, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and Ice Cube.

One of the most influential hip hop albums of all time, especially of the late 80s was NWA's second album, "Straight Outta Compton". It was released on August 8th, 1988 on Ruthless Records, which was run by the group's member, Eazy-E. Since the August 1988 release, the album has been rereleased twice, once in 2002 as a remastered album, and then again in 2007, as the 20th anniversary of the popular hip hop album.

The album was set out to define hip hop, with their controversial lyrics and stories they told about life on the streets of Compton, California. Their whole goal of their albums was to reveal the life of a "gangster" on the streets. It was also very influential (as well as some of the artists including Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube who went on to produce solo albums) for the West Coast's side of the East Coast versus West Coast battle in the 1990s in the hip hop and rap genre.

Some of the most popular songs on the album include the ever so controversial, F* Tha Police, Gangsta Gangsta, and Express Yourself. Of the three songs, Express Yourself is the only song that doesn't contain a curse word. As anticipated, these songs were extremely controversial, and many of these couldn't be played on the radio, and were banned by the FCC for being played on television as well. Therefore, it is very hard to find the music videos of these songs, although in this modern era, you should have no trouble finding them on online video websites such as www.YouTube.com.

This album was extremely popular, despite its bad reputation from the general public and the media. Its controversial lyrics were apparently what people wanted to hear, because the album "Straight Outta Compton" sold over three million copies, and went Double Platinum in 1992. Although this is incredible, NWA's first album actually was their bestselling album, and it went Gold. Despite this, Straight Outta Compton remains one of their most influential and best known albums of all time.

Overall, this is definitely NWA's best album of all time. I would highly recommend this album for anyone looking to try out NWA's, or for anyone who is a fan of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy- E, or DJ Yella. Anyone who is a classic hip hop fan or a hip hop fan in general should enjoy this album. In conclusion, I give it a 5/5.

Learn more about this author, Justin Manucci.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.