The renowned Eric Wright, known as Eazy-E, once stated that, “You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge”. The “World’s most dangerous group”, N.W.A, also referred to as N*ggaz Wit Attitudes, revolutionized the rap game into what we know it as today. This crew, composed of artists such as Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy- E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, brought a different aspect to the genre, known as reality rap. Growing up in the neglected city of Compton, California, these artists were raised around the ruthlessness and cruelty of the town, reflecting in it through their music and lyrics. They took Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message”, which was the first song to address inner city issues, and elevated the game. Right around the time of the Rodney King trials and riots, the African American community needed someone to speak the truth, and that is exactly what N.W.A did. Throughout the film, Straight Outta Compton, directed by F. Gary Gray and Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, it is evident that N.W.A transformed the genre of hip hop through reality rap dealing with issues such as police brutality, gangs, and drugs.
Drugs became a huge movement throughout Los Angeles and the Compton area in the late 1980’s, with crack cocaine being the most prominent one. People on the streets resulted to drug dealing to make easy and quick money, including Eazy-E, who started out as an infamous drug dealer in his early days. In the first scene of the movie, Eazy enters a drug house engaging in a deal. Tensions get high and the people pull guns on each other, while in the distance someone whistles, alerting for police. While the dealers begin to hide the drugs all throughout the house, a batteram protrudes straight through the door, demolishing the front of the house. SWAT teams and search dogs raid the house, looking for every possible drug as Eazy barely escapes the madness out the back window. These events occur on a daily basis in Los Angeles, leading to Toddy T to release the song, “Batteram” in 1985. Jeff Chang details the importance of the song as he states that it was “telling a story of a working class family man whose life is interrupted by cluck heads and the Batteram, the tape was the first to describe the changing streets” (315). Drugs really took a toll on communities, leading to houses being destroyed and people getting killed, which was very unnecessary. This kind of lifestyle affected music as well, as a rapper in Planet Rock explained that, “This crack culture influenced our music, it became part of our music” (Planet Rock). Another song that exemplifies the struggles of drugs in the community is Ice T’s “6 in the morning”, released in 1987. This track depicts the battle that dealers face against the War on Drugs as they try and allude the police. Drugs and cocaine were very prominent through N.W.A as well, releasing a song in 1988 called “Dopeman”. In the first verse, Cube states that, “That’s the way it goes, that’s the name of the game. Young brother getting over by slanging caine”. Not many people around the hood had high income, so resulting to drug dealing, or “slanging” was an only option. The drug business rubbed off on the members of N.W.A, and lead them to rapping about the experience of it. Eazy-E, a dealer at the time, funded the label directly off the money he gained from dealing. During an interview with the crew, a reporter asked the group, “your songs glamorize guns and drugs”, while Cube cuts him off and states, “out art is a reflection of our reality”. No matter if the press likes the music, N.W.A will still produce it since it is what they experience everyday on the streets, regarding drugs and violence. Drugs played a heavy roll in the character of N.W.A, affecting them in their daily life, and led to the origin of reality rap.
Police brutality has plagued our nation for decades, as it still affects our communities today. Use of excessive force, beatings, and other incidents are an essential contributor to N.W.A’s rap. During a scene outside of the studio, six cops drove up on the artists while they were just standing around, harassing them, forcing them to lay on the ground, and cursing at them, with one of them stating that, “these clients of yours, they look like gang bangers”. These policemen attacked these innocent black men because of the color of their skin, which is highly unethical and major problem in communities. Acts like these forced N.W.A to go against the police, fueling their music. Later, Ice Cube is simply walking home from Dre’s house when a cop stops him forces him against a car, checks him for drugs, and handcuffs him while his parents watch on. These acts of mistreatment were key influences on N.W.A’s prevalent song, “Fuck Tha Police” off the album Straight Outta Compton. Ice Cube explains through the first lines in the song, “Fuck the police coming straight from the underground. A young n*gga got it back cause I’m brown. And the color, so police think. They have the authority to kill a minority”. These artists faced much discrimination in their lives at the hands of police, and they are not afraid to express their feelings about it through their music. Although this song was seen as one of the most controversial tracks of all time, it brought nation-wide attention to a matter that needed serious consideration to put a stop to. Another song that mirrored “Fuck Tha Police” was Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, which attempted to bring peace to racial tension in inner cities. Reality rap was more than just rapping about girls and money; it’s meaning was to promote change where change was due.
Police brutality went farther than just tormenting African Americans on the street, it let to complete mayhem. For instance, a major deal in the nation regarding police mistreatment was the Rodney King riots, taking place in April and May of 1992. On March 3rd, 1991, Rodney King was pulled over after a high speed chase in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Instead of simply arresting King, four white policemen were seen tasering, beating, and harassing the unarmed man, breaking 11 bones at the base of his skull as well as his leg. A video emerged to the public, displaying the viciousness that occurred. As Eazy-E watches the video on the news, the broadcaster states that, “there have been 125 complaints of police enforcement”, an unreasonably high amount. On April 29th, 1992, the verdict reached that the cops were acquitted of any charges of excessive force, which caused havoc in the streets. Cars were burnt to a crisp, shops were destroyed and robbed, and buildings were set on fire, resulting in over $1 billion in repairs, along with 50 people killed in the disaster. Dre and Cube are seen driving by the city in absolute madness, which was the worst riots since the Watts Riots in 1965, which killed 34 and cost $40 million after a beating of an unarmed motorist. Directly after the riots, Cube defends the rioters for reacting by stating that, “you can’t treat people like that and not expect them to rise up”. And that is exactly what N.W.A did with their music, standing up for the people with no voice. Reality rap not only let N.W.A address issues such as police brutality and cruelty, but brought state of mind to the African American communities as it promoted changed around the nation.
Just as people in the hoods result to drugs, a large percentage decide to join gangs as well. None of the members of N.W.A were affiliated in gangs, but they all had experiences with gang incidents that reflect in their music. For example, they were framed by the police as being members, as Chang states that, “federal agents subjected the crew to drug searches, asking if they were LA gang members using their tour as a front to expand their crack selling operations” (325). N.W.A were discriminated as gang bangers their entire careers, stating in “Fuck Tha Police”, “searching my car, looking for product. Thinking every n*gga is selling narcotics”. This takes place as police were cracking down on the War on Gangs with Operation HAMMER, which lead to thousands of arrests of black youths in the LA area. Yet, the Operation was a failure as it barely put a dent in the gang culture in the cities. During one of the first scenes of the film, Ice Cube and his fellow schoolmates are riding the bus home after school when one of his friends flashes “Crip” signs at two gang members driving by. The gang members, Blood affiliates, then stop the bus and threaten the high school students board, pulling their guns and pointing it at one student’s head. This event would be traumatizing to any person, as Cube takes note of this, mentioning gang life throughout his lyrics. Gabriela Jiménez details the effects of gangs on music in her article, “Something 2 Dance 2”, that, “Gang escalation from the 1970s through the 1980s situates the environment that accompanied the creation and development of hop” (139). Hip hop’s roots start in the conversation of drugs and gangs. With gang related experiences, they influenced the emergence of reality rap within N.W.A.
N.W.A did not just bring attention to hip hop, they reinvented it. Their experiences growing up and living in inner city LA and Compton led to a style that changed the genre forever, reality rap. Through the group’s understanding of issues such as police harassment, riots, drugs, and gangs, their music helped pave a way for communities and gave a voice to people without one. N.W.A rose above all adversity and struggle that they had faced throughout their entire careers to turn into one of the most influential groups of all time. Reality rap gave hip hop an essential aspect that will be used for time to come, and we can attribute the “Boyz-N-The Hood” for that.