Then comes another bomb: “Express Yourself,” erected on Charles Wright’s tune of the same title but taking it somewhere else altogether. “Parental Discretion Iz Advised” is planned provocation, with The DOC’s opening stanza mostly within the bounds of the acceptable before Dre, Ren and Cube up the ante for Eazy-E’s climactic demand of money for sex in an outrageous final verse. An underrated member purely because he was surrounded by such huge personalities, MC Ren’s skills hit the mark on “If It Ain’t Ruff,” downbeat relief from the noise of its predecessors and a diversion into standard hip-hop throwdowns. “Gangsta Gangsta” kicks off like a crime movie, with Eazy-E sounding exactly like the hustler he was before NWA hit. “Straight Outta Compton” introduces the group as a gang: sawn-off shotgun, mutha-smothering and all. Arabian Prince and The DOC were also on hand, though only the former made the Straight Outta Compton cover.
MC Ren joined in 1987, just as NWA were ready to drop bombs that included tracks on the album NWA And The Posse. Eazy-E had earned acclaim for his single “The Boyz-N-The-Hood,” penned by Cube with a title to conjure with. Ice Cube had been in CIA, better known to UK B-boys than their US brethren thanks to an appearance on the popular Street Sounds Hip-Hop compilations. They had pedigree Dr Dre and Yella were part of World Class Wreckin’ Cru, who fused R&B and rap with some success. It was more complicated than that, though: if you hadn’t noticed NWA, that was your fault. This relatively unknown group was suddenly at hip-hop’s pinnacle, both underground and simultaneously highly visible, thanks to an album that could blow you away – its cover is designed to look like Eazy-E’s gun is the last thing you’ll ever see. It made the West Coast matter in hip-hop. Straight Outta Compton arrived, on August 8, 1988, like a road crash: you couldn’t ignore it.
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