N.W.A: American Gangstas

1989. I was 14. For the previous several years, almost every week my friends and I would go to the mall's record shop and buy (or steal) cassette tapes (right after visiting the arcade). The cassettes were $14.99, and the best that you could find then was whatever junk was playing on the radio. Music was only the radio then, or maybe MTV (You have to remember that 'cable tv' had only recently become available, and the original 13 channels had exploded to a whopping 20-some channels). If you wanted to express yourself, maybe you were into hair rock. Otherwise, the top 40 was generally music that your parents would listen to.

My friends and I recently discovered skateboarding around that time, which had finally transcended the west coast. And, alternative music (via 120 minutes) was almost turning the corner.

I think I discovered N.W.A. from Thrasher (a skateboarding magazine) or maybe a skateboarding video. I can't remember. But, I remember having to special order the cassette from the record shop. I got the tape, and immediately went home to pop it into my boom box. It was amazing. It was like punk rock for the RnB genre. Before then, our world of 'hip hop' was Tone Loc, Fat Boys, JJ Cool J - all record company sanctioned, lifeless, commercialized, censored.

N.W.A. really spoke to us kids, who were feeling massive angst, ennui, despair, rage, and desperation. The lyrics were clever, memorable, and violent - but most importantly it was truly rebellious. We had grown up in a tough time - crime was almost at its peak in the US, inequality was rampant, we were forced to conform, against our will, and our parents (the baby boomers) were largely absent. The police were, in a way, much worse than they are today. To me, it was the voice of struggling youths talking to the struggling youths throughout the country.

I probably listened to that tape until the tape wore out. My boom box eventually shredded it into bits and pieces and the tape reeled itself out onto my counter. But, I loved that album. I'd memorized all of the lyrics. It wasn't the last 'rap' that I'd listen to, but it was incredibly influential. It was a time when rebellion was still truly rebellion, before the corporations had analyzed, optimized, and regurgitated rebellion into a billion dollar industry.

I recently listened to Straight Outta Compton, and it was pretty bad. But, at the time, it was amazing. So much nostalgia and memories.

Dr Dre's 'wall of sound' composed from 1000s of samples would be impossible now - licensing would be astronomical & unnatainable - only the underground could pull it off - it remains as a imperfect definitive milestone in American culture - as hard and raw as it needed to be and strong sweet, beat poised, & heartfelt like Coltrane. Unique.

Huh? All of them grew up and lived in Compton and/or South Central. When did that become upper middle class? And do you have any reference for them being music industry insiders?