Raw lyrics stirred fear in FBI, love among fans
that whipped the country into a frenzy.
The accompanying video was arranged as if the LAPD was on trial, the jury box filled with young black and Latino men. Dr. Dre presides as judge. The prosecutors are MC Ren, Eazy-E and Ice Cube.
Most of the lyrics can’t be repeated here, but the basic message was this: “Police think they have the authority to kill a minority.”
There’s no way anyone can listen to this and not be moved in some direction. As police and Focus on the Family, a Christian conservative group, grew more infuriated they pressured the government to do something.
And so the FBI sent a letter to N.W.A’s record company.
“Advocating violence and assault is wrong, and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action,” wrote the feds.
The letter also calls the song “discouraging and degrading.”
This was the first time the bureau took a stance on a song, book, film or any form of art in its history.
The record company’s lawyers assured everyone there was nothing the government could do. The rappers thought it was funny. The publicity ultimately boosted N.W.A, leading to stories in publications that had not covered gangsta rap.
Like so many groups, issues over money plagued them and Ice Cube went solo. Though N.W.A didn’t do many interviews, they had long known and liked Dee Barnes, who was hosting the Fox show “Pump It Up.”
After the show aired, Dre was furious at the results and assaulted Barnes at a record-release party. He was surprised when people took exception to this.
“Ain’t nothing you can do about it now by talking about it,” Dre told Rolling Stone. “Besides it ain’t no big thing — I just threw her through a door.”
Barnes’ civil suit was settled out of court and she has since become an advocate for women in hip-hop.
N.W.A’s second full album, “Elif4zaggin,” was their last. That one also stirred up criticism because of its anti-Semitic lyrics.
Feuds festered over the years, but eventually the surviving members mended fences to appear on one another’s albums.
In 2016, N.W.A was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And “Straight Outta Compton,” well, that attitude is there for all time — in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.