144: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON | N.W.A
Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by the rap group N.W.A, and recorded in Los Angeles county's City of Compton. Released on August 8, 1988, by Ruthless Records. The album was produced by N.W.A's Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A's Ice Cube and MC Ren, along with fellow rapper The D.O.C. Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to instead lead it by attacking peers and even police, men as well as women. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, the group calling itself "the world's most dangerous group."
Despite scarce radio play beyond the Los Angeles area, the album delivered gangsta rap's first platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with one million copies sold by July 1989. That year, the album peaked at #9 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and at #37 on the popular albums chart, the Billboard 200. Enjoying media spotlight, N.W.A's example triggered the rap genre's movement toward hardcore, gangsta rap. As the 1990’s closed, if largely through N.W.A's own splintering—yielding successful solo music careers and franchises for Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, whose 1991 departure dissolved the group—their ripple effects had reshaped rap, R&B, and pop music, influencing pop culture.
Remastered, the album's September 2002 reissue gained four bonus tracks. The next year, Rolling Stone ranked this album 144th on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list—fifth among rap albums— holding the spot again spot on the list's 2012 update. Nearing the album's 20th anniversary, another extended version of it arrived in December 2007. And in 2015, after an album reissue on limited edition red cassettes, alongside the release of the biopic film Straight Outta Compton reinvigorated album sales, which by year's end reached 3x Platinum. In 2016, it became the first rap album into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The next year, the Library of Congress enshrined Straight Outta Compton in the National Recording Registry. Read more