A gang is with whoever I'm stepping

May 10, 2010 1:13 PM

Whatever Happened to N.W.A's Posse? L.A. Weekly tracks down the people featured on the cover of "N.W.A and the Posse."
posted by Mayor Curley (43 comments total)

Their posse's on Broadway.

Oh wait, wrong artist.
posted by entropicamericana at 1:19 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Awesome, thanks for posting this.

Also, this is just really, really great:

Another hilarious bit of trivia concerns the group's label, Priority Records. When N.W.A signed with Priority, the group was only the label's second signed act. The other was the California Raisins. That's right: The first noncompilation album released by Priority was The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs. The second was Straight Outta Compton. Eazy and Dre got a leg up in the music business because of a cartoon band's cover of Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine."
posted by nevercalm at 1:43 PM on May 10, 2010 [12 favorites]

a cartoon band's cover of Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine."

Claymation!
posted by mr_roboto at 1:46 PM on May 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

I've never heard of most of those people and that was still a very interesting read. Great post!
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:49 PM on May 10, 2010

Eazy and Dre got a leg up in the music business because of a cartoon band's cover of Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine."

Straight Outta Raisin Bran
posted by Kirk Grim at 1:53 PM on May 10, 2010 [6 favorites]

Also, who knew Arabian Prince was in NWA? I had no idea and would have never made the connection.
posted by Kirk Grim at 1:56 PM on May 10, 2010

Also, who knew Arabian Prince was in NWA?

OK, not me, but I bristled at the assertation that one has to be "into the old school" to identify Eazy. Hello, it's EAZY FUCKING E, people. That probably means I'm old.
posted by peep at 2:09 PM on May 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

I seriously cannot believe that this guy was ever even loosely associated with NWA. That was some Vanilla Ice-level early 90s pop trash right there. Brings me right back to 7th grade!
posted by wholebroad at 2:12 PM on May 10, 2010

That was great! No way "it was a good day" is the greatest rap song ever. Pssht. I also for a second thought he was talking about "with a key, sissies" professor X for a second. I didn't know Candyman was in the group, and it was fun to learn about Ice Cube's Architectural Drafting degree and K-Dee's name. I actually had K-Dee's tape for a hot second. The CPO stuff was enlightening too. I had forgotten his actual name was lil nation, and didn't know he'd changed it to Boss Hogg. That album was the shit back in the day. So emblematic of the extreme contradictions you would see - having "The Wall" and "Homicide" on the same tape.

Cube has new stuff out, KRS has some new tracks floating around, I saw something by Dres earlier today. It's going to be interesting to see how all of this goes forward.

With all the people on the cover who basically never went anywhere, I was actually thinking earlier today that there needs to be a listing of also-rans who appear on rap songs. You know, the 3rd rapper with Luda and Mystikal on "Move!" The other rappers besides Nas on "Quick to Back Down", and the legion of people Scarface has tried to put on.

Even Ren fell off. And I owned Kiss my Black Azz.
posted by cashman at 2:20 PM on May 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

Who would have thought Cube would be making mostly bad family movies these days?
posted by HumanComplex at 2:23 PM on May 10, 2010 [5 favorites]

I also for a second thought he was talking about "with a key, sissies" professor X for a second.

God, I hadn't thought about that crazy dude in years! What a trip!
posted by blucevalo at 2:26 PM on May 10, 2010

I wonder what The California Raisins are up to these days?
posted by rocket88 at 2:38 PM on May 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Did Ice Cube sell out? You say hell..."

well, yeah, actually, I guess he did.
posted by norm at 2:51 PM on May 10, 2010

blucevalo: I also for a second thought he was talking about "with a key, sissies" professor X for a second.

God, I hadn't thought about that crazy dude in years! What a trip!

I thought the same thing. R.I.P. for the real Professor X.

On an unrelated note: this weblog was great for covering these kinds of 'where are they now' / minor rap celebrity types of things.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:57 PM on May 10, 2010

Also: the impact and legacy of NWA, while significant, is frequently over sold, and it is no surprise to see LA Weekly oversell the shit out of it.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:59 PM on May 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

wholebroad : I seriously cannot believe that this guy was ever even loosely associated with NWA.

Seriously. I mean that dude in the red? Dork.
posted by quin at 3:06 PM on May 10, 2010

Jesus Christ. Why'd you have to ruin the Candyman song for me with that video.
posted by phaedon at 3:29 PM on May 10, 2010

the impact and legacy of NWA, while significant, is frequently over sold

As someone who was a fan of rap in the mid '80s, came of age in the early '90s, and still listens to music by at least one of these guys (or their later associates) every week, I'll say this: For me, that is not possible.
posted by coolguymichael at 4:03 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

PANIC ZONE!
posted by imaswinger at 4:11 PM on May 10, 2010

Damn, what a trip in the wayback machine. I can identify most of these guys, but I grew up in LA going to warehouse/house parties. But that was a handful of years after when Straight Outta Compton came out, but back then the hip hop, house, electro, lowrider (and much later) rave scenes used to overlap a lot more. It wasn't entirely uncommon then to find a rap/hip hop jam at one end of a huge dingy warehouse and a bunch of glassy eyed ravers at the other end with a bunch of lowriders out front putting the hydraulics and pneumatics through the paces.

I remember the first time I heard Straight Outta Compton. I must have barely been in high school, and it would have probably done me some good to know they weren't actually all that hard when they were recording that stuff, because compared to MC Hammer that shit was tense, raw and a frightening change in the lyrical scenery.

Consider: It's 1988, 1989. People are still taking Wham! and George Michael seriously. The crack epidemic has more than a few years to go before it peaks in LA, but Nancy Reagan is already sounding like a bad joke. The Rodney King riots are also a few years in the future. People had no idea what was going on. Even though the 1984 LA Olympics had just happened and "I Love LA" was still myopically getting airtime, but the general atmosphere was decidedly dark and crumbling. AIDS was just really starting to be talked about in the news and schools. The Berlin Wall has yet to fall but things are looking decidedly iffy in the Eastern Bloc.

Those beats are still so hard, deep and rough twenty years later it boggles the mind. They didn't simply hit a sweet spot, or fall into a niche. They blasted their own out of raw, uncut bedrock with dynamite and made way the only way they could.

(I'm listening to most of Straight Outta Compton and NWA has a Posse on youtube, but it just doesn't fucking the sound the same without it being on a pirated chrome cassette blasting through a pair of 12s in someone's trunk.)
posted by loquacious at 4:38 PM on May 10, 2010 [9 favorites]

Man, have I wondered (and unsuccesfully Googled) who the "white guy" was on that album cover. I also noted while everyone else has malt liqour, he has beer (though according to the story, none of them were really drinkers yet and what you see amounts to props). I would make fun of the white guy about his beer.


Those beats are still so hard, deep and rough twenty years later it boggles the mind.

I know this is 95% "In my day!!" get-off-my-lawn thinking, but gangsta rap back then was so much better than gangsta rap, such as it is, now.
posted by mreleganza at 6:51 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

When I'm called off, I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off

Straight Outta Compton was a moment of epiphany for me. Gansta rap went from "WTF is this gawdawful shit?" to me being a fan in one album. Maybe even just two songs off that album.

Eazy-E's cheeky, high pitched delivery would still be in my top 3 of all time. And IMHO the voice is as important as the lyrics and the beats when it comes to rap. Vitally important.

They put up my picture with silence
Coz my identity by itself causes violence
The E with the criminal behaviour
Yeah, I'm a gangsta, but still I got flavor
Without a gun and a badge, what do ya got?
A sucker in a uniform waitin' to get shot,
By me… or another nigga

Eazy-E's blitzing, in-your-face opening line of the 3rd verse of Fuck tha Police belongs in the Pantheon.

I'm tired of the motherfuckin' jackin'

And then... THEN... when you realise the whole genre is a piss take. Well, that just makes it even more enjoyable.

Er. Gansta rap is a piss take, right?

I believe good gangster rap is, anyway
posted by uncanny hengeman at 8:38 PM on May 10, 2010

Who would have thought Cube would be making mostly bad family movies these days?

Ditto!

And Ice T [not NWA, but the same era – forgive the slight derail] has got to be the WORST actor ever. Listen to his work on Law and Order: SVU. He gets about two lines per episode where he angrily blurts out badly annunciated inanities like "I ain't puttin' up with any more of your shit!"

The rest of the time the producers / script writers just get him to frown at baddies. And for obvious reasons, I feel.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 8:47 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Who would have thought Cube would be making mostly bad family movies these days?
posted by HumanComplex at 5:23 PM on May 10 [3 favorites +] [!]

And soon a bad family sitcom. I saw an ad for it the other day.
posted by SuzySmith at 8:59 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

it would have probably done me some good to know they weren't actually all that hard when they were recording that stuff

Yeah, they had me fooled for a short time. I liken them to a The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle / Sex Pistols / Malcolm McLaren type deal.

Right time. Right place. Create the zeitgeist, yet somehow ride it at the same time.

Surely some music writer has drawn this anology before?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:00 PM on May 10, 2010

I didn't know Candyman was in the group

He wasn't, the only people actually in NWA at the time were Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E and Arabian Prince (and the lone Latino guy on the cover who claims to have been an original member, if you want to believe him: this article is the only place I've ever seen this claim). The other people on the cover are just dudes that they knew, most of them don't appear anywhere on the album. This includes MC Ren, who is off to the left and wasn't a member yet. The article goes over all this.
posted by DecemberBoy at 9:08 PM on May 10, 2010

So here's a folk cover of Straight Outta Compton by Nina Gordon (Veruca Salt). For rollin' through the 'hood in teh Prius.
posted by Sutekh at 12:32 AM on May 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

the impact and legacy of NWA, while significant, is frequently over sold

BWHAAA??? They didn't even scratch the surface. Let's just say for a minute that we won't count all the artist they inspired and paved the way for, but let's talk about the ones they directly had some sort of connection with. So if there was no NWA then:
No Dre, Cube, or Eazy-E
No Ren or Yella
No D.O.C.
No Bone Thugs n Harmony
No Mack 10 or WC
No Death Row
No Snoop
No Warren G and Nate Dogg
No Daz and Kurupt
Tupac wouldn't have made his big hits
Neither would Xzibit
No Eminem and D12
No G-Unit or Game

That's just off the top of my head. Most all of those people probably would never have ever gotten their break If it weren't for NWA.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:49 AM on May 11, 2010 [3 favorites]

This must have been when MC Ren was driving his B210.
posted by fire&wings at 4:17 AM on May 11, 2010

So here's a folk cover of Straight Outta Compton by Nina Gordon

Damn it, Sutekh! I seriously had that version of the song stuck in my head all last week, and now it's back.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:23 AM on May 11, 2010

loquacious: "... it would have probably done me some good to know they weren't actually all that hard when they were recording that stuff..."

Robert Christgau, 1988:

"It's not about a salary/It's all about reality" they chant as they talk shit about how bad they are. Right, it's not about salary--it's about royalties, about brandishing scarewords like "street" and "crazy" and "fuck" and "reality" until suckers black and white cough up the cash.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:29 AM on May 11, 2010

P.o.B.: So if there was no NWA then:
No Dre, Cube, or Eazy-E

Obviously no NWA means no...NWA.

Baisically that list boils down to two people who weren't in NWA who had an affect on rap music who wouldn't have had that same affect without NWA: Snoop and Pac.

Snoop made all of one decent album and has coasted ever since; his impact peaked when Pac wanted to be like him, and, frankly, his greatest contribution to rap music is ghost writing and recording non-sucky bars for Chronic.

Pac would have been a talented rapper with or without Death Row; without Dre, Snoop, and the Row he probably would have kept making good, meaningful tracks instead of bullshit about how he thought it would be neat to actually be hard. He'd also probably still be alive, instead of getting caught up in some stupid ass image.

Just for the record, Eminem talks about how NWA is everything to him, but that's really bullshit. Listen to Bad Meets Evil or any other of his old stuff and you'll see he is much more talented than the little 'Forgot About Dre' box they put him in; he would have been a rapper either way, he just might have had to find another mold to follow when he got lazy.

So, yes, NWA gave us the first successful example of the Studio Gangster. If it wasn't for them, and if no one else did it instead, then gangster music would probably be relegated to actual criminals rapping, instead of people who hold architecture degrees and went to prep school. That sure would be a shame.
posted by paisley henosis at 5:56 AM on May 11, 2010

Single-page version.

"Who would have thought Cube would be making mostly bad family movies these days?"

US only clip
posted by Eideteker at 6:18 AM on May 11, 2010

First of all, just so we're clear: NWA was a big deal, and the ripples from that tossed stone are still spreading. But this: "change the course of popular music forever" kind of sentiment is stupid, fanboyish, and untrue.

NWA did encourage people from outside of the New York area to find their own voice, and while that would have happened anyway, they were definitely one reason why Outkast exists, and Outkast has inspired a whole series of people groups and movements of their own, now. Ditto Wu Tang; though each group drew more from the idea of NWA and less from the actual execution.

NWA did bring out Dr Dre, who was really the first Celebrity Producer, even before Summertime. If Dre hadn't done it, someone else would have (certainly Puffy, if no one else) but Dre really was the first one. While I don't think it is a great thing, it is probably the widest spreading influence NWA has had, total. Timbaland, Scott Storch, Pharell and 50 other people derive their authority as brand names from Dre.

Even still, raising the profile of the guy who creates the background music when their is no band, and adding a new way of looking at rap music and popularizing the Studio Gangster, although very noteworthy achievements, are hardly "change[ing] the course of popular music forever."
posted by paisley henosis at 6:58 AM on May 11, 2010

Pac would have been a talented rapper with or without Death Row; without Dre, Snoop, and the Row he probably would have kept making good, meaningful tracks instead of bullshit about how he thought it would be neat to actually be hard.

I've always said that he never should've left Digital Underground.
posted by electroboy at 7:31 AM on May 11, 2010

I'm not a huge fan of most of Dr. Dre's productions or spinoffs, but without NWA there would have been no The Chronic, and that album has to have been easily one of the ten most influential hip-hop albums ever put to vinyl.
posted by blucevalo at 8:20 AM on May 11, 2010

Apparently this ran on the PHX Sun Times blog in a format which addresses the "who, now?" factor.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:28 PM on May 11, 2010

er, "new" times.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:29 PM on May 11, 2010

Obviously no NWA means no...NWA.

In the biggest and smallest sense we have no overall idea of the impact of something, and we can't objectively rewrite history if something did or didn't happen, but if NWA didn't happen then pretty much everybody I put on that list wouldn't have gotten their break. I don't see how you could push aside everyone and say 'meh' but I suppose that's your opinion. Dre probably would've been the one to go on and keep doing music but who knows what music he would've been making after that so again we wouldn't get hear any of those people except maybe a couple of them.
Again, Snoop probably wouldn't have gotten his break if Dre didn't make it big and Pac was in jail before Suge got him out to make those albums. I'll take Pac's stuff before he got in with Death Row any day of the week but you can't deny how huge that stuff was. Would he still be alive? Probably not. He was his own worst enemy.

I don't know if I would say the changed pop music forever, but they definitely changed pop music and I don't know how you can deny that.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:18 PM on May 11, 2010

...Snoop made all of one decent album and has coasted ever since; his impact peaked when Pac wanted to be like him, and, frankly, his greatest contribution to rap music is ghost writing and recording non-sucky bars for Chronic...
I'm not a Snoop fan, but I hear pieces of him in all types of music.

You're ignoring and discounting the direct influence of Dre and all the rest on hundreds of current musical acts. Gangsta rap -- as defined by NWA -- was massively influential on current popular music of all types. Not just hip-hop/R&B, but pop, punk, industrial, electronica -- it's everywhere if you listen for it. And leaving aside music for a second, go to the mall today and you'll see people still dressed in a way that owes a lot to the early '90s faux gansta style.

If Dre hadn't done it, someone else would have...
A dumb, unprovable statement.

...certainly Puffy, if no one else.
Hahaha!
posted by coolguymichael at 1:54 PM on May 11, 2010

You know, the Insane Clown Posse would probably have never existed except for NWA, or at least wouldn't have become as popular. Consider:

* the acceptance of uber-violent lyrics in mainstream hip hop that NWA pioneered;
* the direct lineage to Eminem, and without the famous M/ICP grudge, the latter would likely have not received nearly the exposure; and
* the love of Ice Cube by the juggalos, which gave both a new rise of musical 'legitimacy'.

This is a thought experiment, but I think I'm on to something here.
posted by norm at 11:11 AM on May 13, 2010

All this is to say, if I am right, then an otherwise very important group has a lot to answer for. Kind of like the fact that I blame De La Soul, an otherwise extremely important and admirable group, for a) popularizing the skit on hip-hop albums and b) allowing the rise of PM Dawn.

Thanks for nothing, guys.

To say nothing of the fact that Ice Cube has as much street cred as De La Soul. Purple Ice? What's that? The high-altitude equivalent of Prince's famous precipitation? Damn!
posted by norm at 11:14 AM on May 13, 2010

I can't believe no one made the Raisin d'etre joke yet. Shoot, it only just came to me.

MeFi is slippin' these days.
posted by Eideteker at 5:42 PM on May 16, 2010