Artist: N.W.A
Best Album: Efil4zaggin
Best Song: Automobile (Yes, it is. Shut up.)
This Letter Could Have Been About: Nicki Minaj, Nappy Roots, Nas, Naughty by Nature, Notorious B.I.G., Northern State
Why I’m Writing About This Artist: This is another crowded-as-hell letter, guys. N.W.A, which stands for Niggaz With Attitudes. Point blank: They’re the most important group in the history of rap music. Period. Not necessarily the most talented, not the best, but absogoddamnlutely the most important. In fact, I’d say that there’s a large gap between them and the second most important– which, to my mind, would be Public Enemy, with the Wu-Tang Clan a reasonably close third. A lot of rappers and rap groups call themselves notorious; one guy who you might have heard of actually named himself that. N.W.A released a song called Fuck Tha Police in goddamn 1988.
Think about that shit for a second. Think about the effect that Dr. Dre and Ice Cube all by themselves had on the music business. I don’t have the space here to get into the history of the group– the Wikipedia page doesn’t do a half-bad job, actually— but when the authoritative history of hiphop is finally written (and maybe I’ll write it) N.W.A deserves a couple of chapters all by themselves.
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Don’t sleep on Eazy, either. Not only did he drop an above-average solo disc, Eazy-Duz-It, but he also mentored acts such as Bone, Thugz & Harmony. I think there’s also an argument to be made that Straight Outta Compton is the most important hip-hop album ever, but there would be serious challengers (The Marshall Mathers EP, Raising Hell, It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, etc.). Great post.
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I have another candidate for most important album later on– and you should check out 5150 Home 4 tha Sick if you’ve not heard it.
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Or Marshall Mathers LP, rather. Duh.
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It’s funny to read this right now. I actually looked up an NWA documentary on Youtube the other day, and my ‘holy shit, I forgot about that’ moment was seeing footage of the 100 miles and runnin video. I haven’t heard that in 20 years easily, and now I’ve heard it twice in a week. They deserve credit for popularizing the EP in Hip Hop too! 100 Miles and Runnin’ and Kill At Will were the first 2 EPs I remember, but a whole bunch of them came out after that.
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