NWA "Straight Outta Compton"

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of Straight Outta Compton, the debut studio album by American hip hop group N.W.A. PARENTAL ADVISORY on this show...

Released on August 8, 1988, on Eazy-E's record label Ruthless Records, production was handled by Dr. Dre with help from DJ Yella. The album is a pioneering record for west coast rap and it was the group's only release with rapper Ice Cube prior to his 1989 departure. It has been considered to be one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop records by music writers and has had an enormous impact on the evolution of hip hop.

Straight Outta Compton redefined the direction of hip hop, with lyrics focused on life, drugs, poverty, violence, and racism growing up on the streets of Compton, CA. In 2003, it was ranked number 144 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the fifth highest ranking for a hip-hop album on the list. In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".