Printed in The Daily Item, Tuesday, August 18, 2015
If music is a window to the soul, then prior to the spring of 1988 I probably could have been deemed soulless. Granted I was only 13, but my musical taste and knowledge pretty much reflected whatever was getting airplay on WZOU and KISS 108. My music collection largely consisted of mixtapes that I’d amassed by simultaneously pressing pause, play and record while listening to the radio (and inevitably included station IDs and DJ endorsements because I was never quite quick enough with my editing skills).
If music is a window to the soul, then prior to the spring of 1988 I probably could have been deemed soulless. Granted I was only 13, but my musical taste and knowledge pretty much reflected whatever was getting airplay on WZOU and KISS 108. My music collection largely consisted of mixtapes that I’d amassed by simultaneously pressing pause, play and record while listening to the radio (and inevitably included station IDs and DJ endorsements because I was never quite quick enough with my editing skills).
“New Jack Swing” – a funky blend of hip-hop, R&B and pop music – was the emerging and dominant sound that radiated from my Walkman, as well as from most of my friends’. Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown, Al B. Sure! and basically anything tha tproducer Teddy Riley touched was king. And of course there was mainstream rap – LL Cool J, Run DMC, the Fresh Prince,and the Beastie Boys – that was primarily comprised of East Coast-based artists and getting airplay on Top 40 stations. My favorite songs were about needing love, fresh sneakers, parents who just didn’t understand, and fighting for the right to party. It was light, fun, and for the most part relatable to me – a 13-year-old blue-eyed blonde girl from West Lynn.
Then there was a game changer.
The profanity-laced album was released in the summer of 1988 to critical acclaim and much controversy, thanks to a song about the police whose title that I can’t print due to its explicit language – but N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton didn't really hit my radar until the following spring. I saw the video for the song Express Yourself on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. We didn’t yet have cable, but a friend had taped the episode for me and I played it on a continuous loop.
N.W.A.’s sound, and more distinctly the lyrics, were nothing like anything I’d ever heard. None of my friends had either. The messages in the rhymes were raw and real. It was deemed “gangsta,” but really it was a reflection of life in inner-city Compton, Calif. N.W.A. got East Coast music fans to seriously look toward the West for the first time maybe since the Beach Boys.
The profanity-laced album was released in the summer of 1988 to critical acclaim and much controversy, thanks to a song about the police whose title that I can’t print due to its explicit language – but N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton didn't really hit my radar until the following spring. I saw the video for the song Express Yourself on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. We didn’t yet have cable, but a friend had taped the episode for me and I played it on a continuous loop.
N.W.A.’s sound, and more distinctly the lyrics, were nothing like anything I’d ever heard. None of my friends had either. The messages in the rhymes were raw and real. It was deemed “gangsta,” but really it was a reflection of life in inner-city Compton, Calif. N.W.A. got East Coast music fans to seriously look toward the West for the first time maybe since the Beach Boys.
While I sat in my room 3,100 miles away I wanted to know more about Compton and more about N.W.A. Knowing I couldn’t find it on the radio, I begged my mom to drive me to Strawberries Records. I didn’t tell her what I wanted and she didn’t ask. With me in the front seat and my not-yet-2-year-old brother in the back of her Hyundai Excel, we headed for Boston Street. With $15 of hard-earned babysitting cash in hand, I ran into the record store (there’s a term you don’t hear anymore), grabbed the tape, and handed it to the clerk. Thankfully the glaring “PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT CONTENT”sticker didn’t dissuade him from selling it to me, even if didn’t look a day over 10.
Getting back into the car, I slyly tried to slip the tape into my Walkman; however, my mom had different plans. “What did you get?,” she asked. “Let us hear.” I was reluctant to hand it over. The five young men on the cover looked nothing like the five clean-cut teens on the cover of my New Edition album – one was even holding a gun – and of course, there was that sticker.Nevertheless, I popped the tape in.
On came Dr. Dre, followed by Ice Cube…“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge. Straight outta Compton, crazy mutha…” If you know the lyrics, what happened next won’t surprise you. My mother screamed, grabbed the tape, and tossed it out the window as we drove down Parkland Avenue. My toddler brother was crying as I jumped out of the car and ran back for the tape. I was forced to walk the rest of the way home, but I listened to it through my headphones for the 30 minute journey. After that day, there was no turning back. A life-long love affair with Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, DJ Yella and their new genre of music was established.
Fast forward 26 years. Straight Outta Compton has withstood the test of time, with beats that are still so fresh the entire album has made the transition from my Walkman to my iPod. What has also remained just as relevant are its themes of racism, police brutality, the war on drugs and gang life in this country; so relevant, in fact, that a long-awaited, much-hyped bio-pic movie depicting the rise of the group, how they revolutionized hip-hop culture to become one of the most important and influential acts in the history of rap, opened last weekend.
The group disbanded in 1991, but that didn’t stop the members from continued success far beyond their place in history as the fathers of gansta rap.
Andre "Dr. Dre" Young rose to mega-stardom with his 1992 solo album The Chronic, and as a record producer launching the careers of Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent. In 2008, he became a household name after launching his own line of headphones – Beats by Dre. Dre became the richest doctor on call and hip-hop’s first billionaire when Beats was purchased by Apple last year for $3 billion.
O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson was the first member to leave the group in 1990, and has since released several multi-platinum albums. He’s also had an illustrious film career as an actor, writer and producer that, just to name a few, include Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning, Friday, Barbershop, 21 Jump Street, Ride Along, and Straight Outta Compton.
Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby, like his groupmate Ice Cube, also got into the film business – the adult-film business. He claims to have filmed and edited more than 300 adult movies in his career.
Lorenzo '"MC Ren" Patterson worked with Eazy-E on his first solo record in 1992, which went platinum, and released two more with limited success. He worked as a consultant on the Straight Outta Compton bio pic.
Sadly and shockingly, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, died in 1995 at the age of 31 from complications stemming from AIDS.
While I have certainly not reached “Dr. Dre success” levels (yet), my work week often spills into the weekend, so I was not able to catch Straight Outta Compton on its opening weekend. I plan to see this week. I’m trying to talk my cousin Chris into going with me, and hoping that the film meets my almost three decades’ worth of expectations. I’m not certain that either will happen, but there is one thing I do know for sure – I will not be asking my mother to drive me to the theater.
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