Album: Straight Outta Compton
Year: 1988
“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.”
Those words, spoken by future mogul Dr. Dre, are the introduction to one of the most influential albums ever, N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton.
We’re now three decades from this particular musical moment, and time and respectability has diluted — if not obliterated — the impact of Straight Outta Compton to the point where nobody blinks an eye at the fact that a major motion picture dramatizing that moment even exists.
But in 1988, to a privileged white twentysomething like me, Straight Outta Compton felt a bit like a transmission from outer space, where I couldn’t really relate to the circumstances under which it was created, but it sure was fascinating to me.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1357: N.W.A. – “Straight Outta Compton”