NWA ‘Straight Outta Compton’ 30th Anniversary
Release date: 8th August 1988
Label: Ruthless / Priority
Producers: Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, Eazy-E
Profile (courtesy of Wikipedia):
“Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by American hip hop group N.W.A, released August 8, 1988, on group member Eazy-E’s record label Ruthless Records. Production for the album was handled by Dr. Dre with DJ Yella. The album has been viewed as the pioneering record of gangsta rap with its ever-present profanity and violent lyrics. This 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, which resulted in lyrics concerning the gangster lifestyle becoming the driving force in sales figures. It was later remastered and re-released on September 24, 2002, containing four bonus tracks. An extended version of the album was released on December 4, 2007, honoring the 20th anniversary of the original album. On April 14, 2015, Universal Music Group reissued the album on a Limited Edition red cassette as part of their Respect The Classics series. 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”
Additional info:
- The album comes in at #2 on Ego Trip’s Top 25 Rap Albums of 1988.
- The track ‘Express Yourself’ appears on our Classic Material 1988 mixtape.
- The tracks ‘Compton’s In The House’ and ‘Express Yourself’ appear on our 1988 Rap Megamix.
- Listen to samples used in the making of the album on WhoSampled.
Purchase: Discogs