Down Is The New Up

“you are about to witness the strength of street knowledge”

It does not matter how many listens I give this album, I press play and Dr Dre announces that first line - I just know i am about to hear something special.

“Straight Outta Compton” was probably not the first Gangsta Rap Album, but it created a revolution in hip hop and perhaps gave birth to the sub- genre of gangsta rap. Either way it has come to epitomise the genre and influenced countless others to follow in their footsteps. In 1988 hip-hop was barely a blip on the musical radar - this album was put it very much front and center and not just from an artistic point of view, it redefined hip hop and through the next decade gangsta rap would enjoy huge popularity. The FBI sent a letter to the bands record label advising them that “advocating violence and assault is wrong and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action.” this of course just drew more attention. The Album became the first to ever go platinum without radio airplay and they were largely banned from touring. Some stores would not sell the album with the song “Fuck tha Police” on it - rather than editing the song, the censored version of the album did not feature the song at all. In 1989, Australian radio station Triple J had been playing “Fuck tha Police” for up to six months, before gaining the attention of Australian Broadcasting Corporation management who subsequently banned it. As a reaction the staff went on strike and put N.W.A’s “Express Yourself” on continuous play for 24 hours, playing it roughly 360 times in a row. 

The stories held within are frightening, and riveting; thought provoking and unapologetic. Main members, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E, paint a vivid picture of L.A.’s rough Compton ghetto. You really feel the empathy of the life that they live through their brutally honest delivery of pain, anger and the need to be heard. The lyrical content provides powerful images of poverty, guns, violence, police, women and more violence. It is rough, raw, misogynistic, homophobic and whatever other negative labels you want to stick to it. 

The album is completely fearless - this is part of the beauty of it. These guys were young when it came out, Ice Cube and MC Ren were just 19 and the others in their early 20s. N.W.A. was a super group of Rap/Hip-Hop’s greatest talent before any of them had become known. Ice Cube and Dr Dre are legendary. 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. Lyrically it was so confrontational and so explicit for the time that it is hard imagine when compared to much of the content in modern rap. This was like the sex pistols and punk a decade earlier - only young black and angry. 

It is not all killing and swearing though, the record sounds insanely fresh and perfect; which is quite a feat, since production value in hip-hop has come a long way since 1988. It highlights what would become apparent over the next 20 years and that is Dr Dre’s production mastery. The beats and samples are are funky, innovative, well crafted and most importantly, they serve as a perfect template for their engrossing lyrical flows. The raw samples used tend to provide the perfect atmosphere for all the anger and rebellion featured on this album. Ice Cube’s nitty-gritty lyricism and acute observations of society are most impressive. His richly detailed storytelling will captivate Their is a fair amount of comic relief, mainly by the playful Easy-E to balance out the record, especially once the sheer confrontation of the first few tracks is dealt with. 

This album was one of the first rap albums to cross into white middle class suburbia - Whether it was the shock value, the profanity, the controversy cause by songs like Fuck tha Police - im not sure. Long before rap artists that grew up in middle class families created a gangsta persona and acted to suit, long before eminem came along, these guys were hardcore and just rapping about what they knew. They changed the game.

Straight Outta Compton” is an angry, raw and beautifully crafted masterpiece.