N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton (1988)

I am now about to witness the strength of street knowledge, brought to me by some guy who thought "Ice Cube" was a badass name and lots of cheesy dated drum tracks. Nope, can't fuck with that! The knowledge he imparts has something to do with how he's a badass and some people are pussie niggas and some women are bitches. And damn that shit is DOPE! I am impressed with Ice Cube's ability to rhyme "product" with "narcotics." I already feel like I've been listening for an hour, but really it's been 3 minutes, and there's still 57 to go.

I don't think I can do this right now. I'm so completely bored with rap. Maybe when N.W.A was releasing Straight Outta Compton it was some kind of revelation. I guess N.W.A should be recognized for introducing us to the talents of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube (the other guys I've never heard of). But if this was a revelation it solidified the worst parts of rap music from the last 30 years. It might be illegal to call your music rap without saying the word nigga, without talking about guns, without calling women bitches, and talking about how awesome you are. Not to mention name-checking other famous rappers.

One ironic line said by Dr. Dre stuck out to me: "Stop and think before you put some whack bullshit out. It's not difficult, in fact it's kinda simple to create something funky that's original." When Straight Outta Compton was released maybe it was original or a bit more novel than it is in retrospect. Off the top of my head I can't think of a genre more trapped in its own cliches as rap. I also find it difficult to think of N.W.A's music as original when they create several of their songs by chopping up samples from other people's music. Steve Miller's "Take The Money And Run" was sampled to create 2 different songs on this album alone.

My favorite song was probably "Something 2 Dance 2" and it wasn't just because it was the last track on the album. As opposed to the gangsta rap the rest of the album featured, this song was just a stupid mash up of dance beats and staccato samples of instruments from other songs. It was inoffensively cheesy in the most 80s way possible. I have to give N.W.A a little credit for that.

And on the whole Straight Outta Compton was inoffensive, in that it kinda just does what every other rap album I've ever heard does. So whatever. 2 stars.