Straight Outta Compton and the N.W.A MVP

"Rock & Roll is more about rebellion than guitars. N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton officially took that baton away from rock: It's the album that made hip-hop the new rock & roll" - Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, The Roots

“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.” It’s hard to quantify what those eleven words meant to rap music as the release of N.W.A’s seminal 1988 album Straight Outta Compton changed the script. Hip-Hop had been largely based on the East Coast with New York its unofficial headquarters. Suddenly, jazz related samples were replaced by Dr. Dre’s West Coast G-funk grooves, and lyrical content changed from social commentary, retellings of the sexual frustrations of teenage life and “flossing” to raising hell and the grim portrait of gangsta life.

By 1992, Straight Outta Compton had sold over three million copes and was certified double Platinum. A short list of its effect, not only on rap music but also on popular music in general, runs as follows (taken directly from Wikipedia);

• VH1 named Straight Outta Compton the 62nd greatest album of all time
• Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 144th of its list of of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• First rap album to gain a five star rating from Rolling Stone
• TIME magazine ranked as one of the 100 greatest albums of all time

More notoriously, it was also one of the first albums to garner the ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker. Quite paradoxically it was this notoriety that would provide an integral part of its mass appeal as media coverage made up for the lack of airplay. Made up of DJ Yella on turntables and emcees Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Dr. Dre (who also handled production with Yella), N.W.A released two more albums after Straight Outta Compton (which was their second effort N.W.A and the Posse from a year earlier) both of which failed to recapture their commercial or critical success.

So – with all that in mind. I decided to question who was really the MVP for N.W.A. The criteria for my rankings are as follows;

Lyrical Ability: Seeing as there are no songs on Straight Outta Compton with all four (five if you include Yella who only raps one verse on ‘Something 2 Dance 2”) emcees rapping, the logical alternative was to compare tracks where there is only one emcee.

Contribution: Really what they bought to N.W.A. This included how many tracks they rapped on, whether they wrote their lyrics and how involved they were in production.

Post Script: Looks at their solo albums and other ventures

The four emcees were ranked 1-4 in each of these categories with 4 being awarded to whoever the first placed and 1 to the last placed.

LYRICAL ABILITY

DR. DRE – Express Yourself

Given the lyrical content of Straight Outta Compton something must be said that Dre doesn’t curse once on this track where Dre preaches about the use of rap as a means of self-expression. Issues of lyrical authenticity or “keepin’ it real” also feature.

What let’s Dre down is that it is well known that he doesn’t write his own lyrics (Ice Cube wrote this track)

2nd - but is let down by lack of authorship

ICE CUBE – I Aint Tha 1

Ice Cube’s mysogynistic view of female motivation on this track contains just that. He also makes it known that he is “only down for screwin’”. Lyrically, Cube comes off pretty weak on this track and it is unfortunate that my criterion for lyrical flow is based on the solo joints rather any of the other tracks. Cube also wrote this track.

4th – disappointing release for someone who deserved the chance to shine

EAZY-E – 8 Ball

8 Ball provides insight into a night with Eazy himself to almost Hunter Thompson proportion. Eazy gets drunk, shoots at someone, is abrasive to females, throws up a lot then ends up in a fight. It pretty much sounds my regular Saturday night (sans the shooting and fighting….but definitely including the messiness and epic girl fails). Eazy co-writes this with Cube

3rd – as much as I love gonzo journalism, E does himself no favours and is not poetic at all

MC REN – If It Aint Ruff

I think it goes to show the completely underrated lyrical strength of Ren that, not only does he get two solo joints, but he also writes them both. After much deliberation, I have decided to go with 'If It Aint Ruff' over 'Quiet on tha Set' just because 'Ruff' is by far my most favourite track on this album. MC Ren is a pure emcee. Flossing party rhymes with mucho bravado. There isn’t much to say about it really. In my view, the best emcee in N.W.A

1st

CONTRIBUTION

DR. DRE

Dre produced the whole album with DJ Yella. Something which would be almost incomparable as far as contribution goes. A relatively weak emcee, Dre raps on 6/13 tracks and wrote no lyrics.

2nd – purely on the basis of production

ICE CUBE

Cube’s main contribution to this album had to do with the writing, of which he did on 9/13 tracks which included not only all his own verses, but most of Eazy’s and Dre’s. This is massive when you look at in the context of the diversity of the flows of the members. He also raps on 6/13 tracks. Solid contributor who was, effectively, backbone of it all

1st

EAZY-E

Eazy’s role seems to have been to contribute the ‘shock factor’ to the group. His flow is high pitched and rhymes seem juvenile in comparison. E raps on 8/13 tracks and writes on 3/13.

4th – too little in every respect

MC REN

Ren is to N.W.A what the Gza is to the Wu Tang Clan. He simply holds it down and represents in the purest sense. Raps on 7/13 and writes on 8/13

An unlucky 3rd

POST N.W.A WORK

DR. DRE

After N.W.A Dre almost single handedly defined West Coast G Funk. He co-owned Death Row Records and founded as well as being the current CEO of Aftermath Records. In 1992 he released The Chronic, an album considered one of the most important and influential of the 1990s. The Chronic sold over eight million copies and went six times platinum as well as peaking at #3 on the charts and won a Grammy for the single ‘Let Me Ride’. Kanye West (who is a total douche but gets it right here) stated that “The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life”. And it is. He also discovered Snoop, signed Eminem, 50 cent and the Game. Dre shone after N.W.A

1st

ICE CUBE

Cube has released numerous solo albums (his first four went platinum) and appeared in many Hollywood films. The funny thing is, that is entering Tim Allen/Bill Cosby territory with his acting whereas he was downright scary in N.W.A. As far as albums go, Lethal Injection seems to be the apex and every new album seems to be lacking something more each time. He should really apologize to the artistic community for his acting career with only Boyz N Tha Hood, Trespass, Higher Learning, Friday and Three Kings (5 films out of 28) being anything worthwhile. If he could apologize for the rest then it would be awesome.

2nd - Just plain outshone by Dre

EAZY-E

Eazy’s solo work seems to be the same old. Juevenille songs. Founded Ruthless Records. Ummm….I don’t really know what else he offered. Ohhh…he discovered Bone-Thugs N Harmony. Got AIDS. Died. Like most artists who die before their time, their artistic influence seems to be remembered in gross values rather than real.

3rd – Only because MC Ren had such a disappointing solo career

MC REN

Ren had the most potential as an emcee after N.W.A disbanded in 1991. Unfortunately, he dropped the ball. He guested heavily on Eazy Duz It and his first solo joint, Kizz My Black Azz was severely disappointing and sounded like it had been written by Eazy. This was difficult to watch as he was definitely my most favorite member of N.W.A.

4th – What could have been?

….and the results are

4th – Eazy E (5/12)

Lyrically, Eazy E congealed somewhere between 2 Live Crew and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Mild success with Ruthless Records and on solo joints.

3rd – MC Ren (7/12)

Best emcee on show that also wrote all his own stuff. Blighted by awful solo career.

2nd – Ice Cube (9/12)

Pretty much wrote Straight Outta Compton. Although prolific in writing, it must be said that his lyrics were all ‘not quite there’ as far as being top tier goes. Sustained success as a solo artist, a couple of great roles but prototypical rapper-trying-to-be-an actor as an actor.

1st – Dr. Dre (10/12)

As much as I would have like the best lyricist to be in this position, I can’t deny what Dre brought to the table. Changed the face of the game with slow, heavy, synthesizer-based beats.

O Anthropology, Where Art Thou?

Set in Mississippi in 1937 the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a contemporary retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey that has Ulysses, Delmar and Pete escape from a prison work camp in order to quest for the treasure that Ulysses had buried after robbing an armoured car. This film was indeed made for the purpose of mass consumption and is art who Morphy and Perkins define as “associated with bodies of knowledge, technologies and representational practices that provide insights into the whole life world of a society” (2006: 2). The film uses ‘traditional’ or ‘old timey’ bluegrass, gospel and blues in its’ soundtrack help to provide both lyrical and textural support for the historical and cultural aspects of the rural south in the depression era United States. This is used both as background and as a performance by a character in order to validate a sense of authenticity to their character and suggest the “cultural heritage of ‘the South’ is itself constantly evolving and constantly new” (Chadwell 2004: 3). This assigning of “qualitative values to properties of the material world” is how Morphy defines aesthetics and ideas of power, class, race, gender, economic practices and religious beliefs are all represented (1994: 7). The benefits of film are obvious, its’ dynamic nature is a better format for a range of representations rather than the static forms of sculpture or painting. The emergence and explosion of visual global mass media in the form of television, video and film have meant that artists now have a greater dynamic canvas in a which a plethora of representations can be not only embodied, but interact.

The film negotiates power relationships through its’ use of music. Even in the early days of recorded music in the southern United States a certain level of authenticity was attached to ‘old timey’ and bluegrass players, seen as a rejection of an emerging mass culture which threatened their own, regardless of their actual background or where their music originated (Chadwell 2004). The association of music being ‘old timey’ suggests nostalgia and heritage however this construct is flawed due to the fact that “technological progress was part and parcel of the professionalisation and popularisation of country music” with over five hundred radio stations transmitting in the South from the 1920s” (Gonzalez 2003: 102). Conversely, ideas of mechanical reproduction were utilised by ethnomusicologists like Alan and John Lomax allowing them to document, study and preserve American folk history (Gonzalez 2003).

O Brother, Where Art Thou? gives an insight into social relations during the time with there being limited acceptance of the growing black minority. Our protagonists, being convicts, have more in common with African Americans than their ‘cleaner’ living counterparts, something which Content refers to this as “the natural solidarity of universal brother hood” that “arises out of shared suffering” (2001: 44). Yet still there is a sense of prejudice when they initially meet a blind, black oracle who’s predictions of the future are scoffed at by Ulysses who says, “How does he know? He’s a negro…and an old man!” An indication that race would be somewhere on the same level as senility as a basis for deriding someone’s opinion. The oracle also exclaims that he has no name which illustrates the administrative practice of the time of rural blacks not registering births. The use of traditional bluegrass, gospel and blues songs also give us lyrics for interpretation. The performance of ‘Po Lazarus’, a tale of a black fugitive who is hunted down and killed by a deputy, by the black chain gang at the beginning of the film is a typical ‘work song’, used by the oppressed black minority of the time as a form of rebellion. A certain authenticity is given to the ‘old timey’ music being propagated in the film, a music supposedly representative of white values and culture however, as Chadwell notes, “the discourse authenticating this music as ‘old time’ manages to elide the connections between African American and White Southern cultures” (2004: 3). He also points out the irony in which “authenticity is invoked by cultures actively engaged in erasing or avoiding their actual roots” (2004: 4). During the film the trio attempt to record (with the help of black bluesman Tommy Johnson) a song for a radio station for monetary gain, something they are only able to achieve once they conform that they are indeed white and are willing to perform something ‘old timey’.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? also gives us clues regarding (assumed) gender relations during this point in history. Strang explains that “gendered categories of material culture and gendered social identities and roles are ubiquitous: there is no culture in which they cannot be observed” (1992: 77). Upon finding his ex-wife, who is now due to remarry, Ulysses objects and refers to himself as ‘paterfamilias’ indicating that males are the head of family units. The film also seems to be male gendered, our protagonists are all male, the lead female is objectified as a ‘wife’ or someone who needs male support in order to survive. Ulysses quest for treasure itself can be seen as him fulfilling the role of the contemporary hunter-gatherer whilst Penelope desire for a mate that is “bona fide” is a maternal wish for a honest, stable provider that is committed to raising a family.

As this was set during the great depression economic practices are represented through both the film and through the soundtrack. The opening credits are supported by Harry McClintock’s 1928 version of ‘Big Rock Candy Mountains’, a tale of hobo heaven that describes “a land that’s fair and bright, where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night” and also “where they hung the jerk that invented work”. Economic hardships felt in this, largely agrarian, environment are also expressed by a desperate need for landowners to hold onto their property. Upon visiting Pete’s relatives the trio find themselves threatened by a young boy who queries “Are you men from the bank?” then later reveals that his father had told him to shoot anyone from the bank. Later on, when questioned over what he was going to do with his share of the treasure, Delmar indicates that he would buy back the family farm from the bank adding “you ain’t no kinda man if you ain’t got no land”. This hardship is also expressed by Tommy Johnson when he sings a version of Skip James’ ‘Hard Time Killing Floor Blues’ which contains the lyrics “And you say you had money, you better be sure, 'Cause these hard times will drive you from door to door”. The Coen’s also use body composition to enunciate class with the more rich and powerful being far larger in girth than our malnourished protagonists. Content adds that “in the lean years of the depression, double chins and big bellies brand these villains as ‘fat cats’” (2001: 46). He also adds that this difference between the “exploiter and the exploited” is far more pronounced than differences in race and gender (46).

Being set in Mississippi, the ‘deep south’, we see religious representation play a major role in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. After escaping from the prison work party Delmar becomes baptized, an act that he sees as comparable to a pardon until he is informed otherwise. The music of O Brother, Where Art Thou? is littered with religious overtones such as ‘Down To The River to Pray’, ‘In The Highways’ and ‘Angel Band’ showing that Christianity was certainly central to their community at the time. Cosmological understandings are also expressed here with a Ku Klux Klan meeting being in opposition to “all the people say that we come descended from monkeys” pointing to a direct belief in creationism and a rejection of theories of evolution. Upon being picked up by the trio Tommy Johnson explains that he was at the crossroads last night where he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for skill in playing the guitar. Both the crossroads and deals with the devil feature in both white and black cultures (as Satan and Papa Legba respectively) with the crossroads being an environment where barriers between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead are blurred (Pearson and McCulloch 2003). The lawman, who is the personification of Satan in O Brother, gives us clues to his otherworldliness when he attempts to hang the trio after they have been pardoned of their crimes by the Governor. The trio protest on the ground that they have been pardoned to which the lawman replies, “the law is a human institution”. They are inexplicably saved by what Cant refers to as “the flood of modernity” (2007: 66).

The Coen brothers film’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? gives us an insight into attitudes toward race, gender, class, religious beliefs and economic practices that existed in the Southern United States during the depression. The film uses music, both diegetic and non-diegetic, as both lyrics as text for interpretation and for a sense of cultural authenticity to give support and validity to the experiences of our protagonists. The fact that our protagonists seem to share more in common with criminals and blacks rather than those of similar social groups and standings speaks more of the “universality of human experience” rather than lines drawn between people on the basis of race, gender (Strang 2005: 2). Cant sums it up best by saying that the Coen’s have “shown us a way in which both geography and history are impregnated with culture in the Deep South of Mississippi during the depression, an area sure inseparable in our minds from the images of the region created by literature, music and film” (2007: 63).


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cant, J. 2007. ‘Homer in Tishimingo: Eclecticism and cultural transformation in the Coen
Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou?’, in Comparative American Studies 5 (1): 63-79.

Chadwell, S. 2004. ‘Inventing that “Old-Timey” Style: Southern Authenticity in O
Brother, Where Art Thou?’, Journal of Popular Film & Television 32 (1): 2-9.

Content, R . 2001. Review of O Brother, Where Art Thou? By Rob Content. Film
Quarterly. 55 (1): 41-48.

Gonzalez, E. 2003. ‘The Motif of Music in Joel and Ethan Coen’s O Brother, Where Art
Thou? And Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, Revue Francaise D’Etudes Americaines 98: 99-110.

Morphy, H. and Perkins, M. (eds). 2006. 'The Anthropology of Art: a reflection on its
history and contemporary practice', in The Anthropology of Art: a reader, Oxford;
Malden, Mass.; Carlton, Vic.: Blackwell. pp 1-32

Morphy, H. 1994. ‘Aesthetics is a Cross-cultural Category’, in J. Weiner (ed) A Debate
Held in the Muriel Stott Centre on 30th October, 1993. John Rylands University Library of Manchester: Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory

Strang, V. 1999. 1999. ‘Familiar Forms: Homologues, Culture and Gender in Northern
Australia’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society, 5 (1): 75-95.

Strang, V. 2005. ‘Common Senses: Water, Sensory Experience and the Generation of
Meaning’, in Journal of Material Culture 10 (1): 93-121.



FILMOGRAPHY

Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen. O Brother, Where Art Thou? DVD. Touchstone Pictures. 2000.



DISCOGRAPHY

Various Artists. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Mercury Records. 2000. Compact Disc.