Who are they?

NWA are a controversial hip hop group from Compton that formed in 1987. Easy E(Eric Wright) who co-founded Ruthless Records recruited Dr. Dre(Andre Romelle Young) and Ice Cube(O'Shea Jackson) to write for his label. They wrote a song for a different group under Ruthless Records but they chose to not record. So the three of them formed N.W.A and recorded Boyz In The Hood. Dre recruited DJ Yella(Antoine Carraby) who was a drummer in the band 'World class wreckin' with Dre amd they also joined with MC Ren(Lorenzo Patterson). The 5 core members worked so hard writing and producing music that showed their reality. They changed this genre and created gangsta rap. Ice Cube recalls "We actually never referred to ourselves as 'gangsta rap' That was a term invented by the media for what we were doing. We actually called it 'reality rap' because it reflected what we were actually going through. We felt backed into a corner and that nobody cared about our situation and that our only weapon was our music". The group was uncompromising in all aspects even down to choosing their name N.W.A( Niggaz Wit Attitudes). Together with the music they created their debut album 'Straight Outta Compton' released on August 8, 1988. They caused a seismic shift in hip hop, with its hard core image, bombastic sound and lyrics that were equal parts poetic, lascivious, conscious and downright in your face. N.W.A spoke the truth about life on the streets of Compton then a hotbed of poverty, drugs, gangsta and unemployment.