CPO Boss Hogg) and Young D and the funky beats of Ruthless Records beatmaker DJ Train. This side project of MC Ren made just one album, 1990's To Hell and Black, another underground classic that showcased Ren's often underrated rap skills, as well as the searing rhymes of Lil' Nation (a.k.a. He released a sophomore album in 1996 called Helter Skelter and the Deuce compilation in 2003, but both were disappointing and poorly received. But his ascension to stardom ended abruptly when his larynx was crushed in a late-night car wreck just five months after his debut was released, destroying his voice. His 1989 debut, No One Can Do It Better, went platinum and is still considered an underground classic. He contributed lyrics to N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton and Eazy-E's first solo album, Eazy Duz It. (born Tracy Lynn Curry) was a golden-voiced rising star who was set to be Dr. Newsweek did some of this work-along with perusing our old tape and CD collections-to give you this primer on the era's most intriguing (and in some cases largely forgotten) acts who owe their careers to N.W.A: Dre protégés Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Kendrick Lamar) that you could spend days traveling down Wikipedia rabbit holes researching them. So many rap artists have ties to the N.W.A family tree (most notably Dr. Others didn't fare as well, burning out quickly or being derailed by tragedy.
N.W.A's run was short (the original lineup released just one full album together, in addition to an EP and a second album minus Ice Cube), but they inspired generations of artists and fans and spawned a slew of spinoff acts, some of which traveled the road paved by N.W.A to long careers and platinum success. In the process, they became arena-filling superstars and launched a new genre-gangsta rap-that paved the way for Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar and everyone in between.ĭuring their heyday in the late 1980s and early '90s, there was no Internet to search for similar acts, so fans relied on fanzines, underground radio, club DJs, word of mouth, cassette tape trading and other creative promotional means to find new artists. They pissed off politicians, cops and parents coast to coast, were threatened by the FBI and were boycotted and targeted by Congress and censorship crusaders. They weren't known as "The World's Most Dangerous Group" for nothing. Rap Brown and Tookie Williams into a visceral, speaker-rattling spectacle of urban funk and controversy. They took inner city rage and gangsta culture mainstream, melding Zapp, George Clinton, H. Dre, DJ Yella, MC Ren and the late Eazy-E, N.W.A not only sold millions of records but their shocking success propelled the entire gangsta rap movement to stratospheric levels and changed American pop culture forever. But when it comes to industry success, cultural impact, lasting musical legacy and sheer rock 'n' roll rebelliousness, the hall certainly got it right by inducting the Compton rap crew.Ĭonsisting of Ice Cube, Dr. N.W.A will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, likely angering and annoying many a rock purist.