Latest / DISGRACELAND / N.W.A Pt. 1: Street Hustle, Reality Rap and Culture-Shifting Violence

Transcript

N.W.A Pt. 1: Street Hustle, Reality Rap and Culture-Shifting Violence · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:13
Speaker 2: The stories about NWA are insane. Their founding member was
0:17
Speaker 2: a retired crack dealer, their producer was a violent surly genius.
0:22
Speaker 2: Their main lyricist words set off a riot with tens
0:25
Speaker 2: of thousands of fans. NWA, the group was born of
0:29
Speaker 2: the violent streets. Its members were raised on Compton, south
0:32
Speaker 2: central Los Angeles, where they are forced to dodge stray
0:35
Speaker 2: bullets from rival gangs and shakedowns from abusive cops on
0:39
Speaker 2: the regular. This violent and horribly unjust daily life informed
0:43
Speaker 2: NWA's music, imbued it with a sense of reality that
0:46
Speaker 2: previously had not existed in pop music and for many
0:50
Speaker 2: was too unbelievable to be true. They were labeled sensationalists, misogynists,
0:54
Speaker 2: profanity spewing, opportunists, anything but what they really were protest
0:59
Speaker 2: musicians who, by the way, were highly entertaining, and who
1:03
Speaker 2: made great music. That music you heard at the top
1:06
Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
1:09
Speaker 2: preset loop from my mellotron called trash Man Funk BK two.
1:13
Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:16
Speaker 2: rights to Money Money by Billy idol and why would
1:19
Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of secondhand shondel Cheese?
1:22
Speaker 1: Could I afford it?
1:24
Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:27
Speaker 2: November twenty seven, nineteen eighty seven, And that was the
1:30
Speaker 2: day NWA entered the studio to record their album Straight
1:33
Speaker 2: out of Compton, an album of hard beats and lyrics
1:37
Speaker 2: so steeped in reality that they would predict one of
1:39
Speaker 2: the most shockingly violent events.
1:41
Speaker 1: In American history. On this episode.
1:44
Speaker 2: Trash Man Funk, Shondel Cheese and the Violent Reality of NWA.
1:50
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and miss this Disgraceland. The crimes they
2:21
Speaker 2: committed were violent, thuggish, numerous and constant assault with the
2:25
Speaker 2: deadly weapon, inflicting great bodily harm, breaking and entering brutality.
2:31
Speaker 2: They took no shit. Were known to snatch up unsuspecting
2:34
Speaker 2: victims on the street, throw them up against the wall,
2:36
Speaker 2: empty their pockets, and think nothing of kneeing them in
2:39
Speaker 2: the testicles, forcing them to bend over in submission, and
2:42
Speaker 2: then kicking in their teeth. Beat Downs were common, bare
2:46
Speaker 2: knuckle brawls, boot kicks to the head, and when the
2:49
Speaker 2: beatings didn't work, they'd use their gats to make a point,
2:52
Speaker 2: pistol whippings cold steel to the temple to intimidate. They
2:56
Speaker 2: were known to smil menacingly through the windows of their cars,
3:00
Speaker 2: driving through the neighborhoods, slow surveying their turf, and ensuring
3:04
Speaker 2: that anyone out of line was quickly swarmed and brought
3:06
Speaker 2: to heal. Straight gangster, except I'm not talking about gangsters
3:12
Speaker 2: or NWA or any other so called gangster rappers. I'm
3:16
Speaker 2: talking about the LAPD. In nineteen eighty five, violent crime
3:21
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles exploded to unprecedented levels due to the
3:24
Speaker 2: cities heavy.
3:25
Speaker 1: Trafficking of crack cocaine.
3:27
Speaker 2: Unemployment was on the rise, and career opportunities for young
3:30
Speaker 2: black men in South central Los Angeles were near obsolete.
3:34
Speaker 2: In the mid eighties, the violent street gangs who controlled
3:38
Speaker 2: the drug trade in Compton, Englewood and other neighborhoods and
3:40
Speaker 2: towns that comprise South central Los Angeles, the Bloods and
3:44
Speaker 2: the Cryps, and their various offsets.
3:46
Speaker 1: They offered real financial.
3:47
Speaker 2: Opportunity for neighborhood kids where there otherwise were not.
3:51
Speaker 1: The gang ranks swelled, and so did the murder rate.
3:54
Speaker 2: Bloods and Crips decked out from head to toe and
3:57
Speaker 2: red and blue, respectively, overwhelmed LA. Their presence, their violence
4:02
Speaker 2: was a daily reality for residents in South Central, particularly
4:05
Speaker 2: incomptent drive by shootings. Machine guns sprang from the windows
4:09
Speaker 2: of pimped out sixty four impalas at the barred screen
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Speaker 2: doors of drug guns, indistinguishable from any of the innocent
4:16
Speaker 2: families and neighborhood bungalows. Dead bodies lying in the streets,
4:20
Speaker 2: victims of the ongoing curf war between the bloods and
4:22
Speaker 2: the crips, or drug deals gone bad, or just innocent bystanders,
4:26
Speaker 2: often children caught up in friendly fire. There were three
4:30
Speaker 2: thousand gang related murders in the eighties in Los Angeles.
4:33
Speaker 2: If you grew up in LA during this time and
4:35
Speaker 2: were black and male, you were six times more likely
4:38
Speaker 2: to be murdered than your white counterpart. But it wasn't
4:43
Speaker 2: all bad. Compton was a real community, with hard working
4:47
Speaker 2: men and women getting up every day, sending their kids
4:50
Speaker 2: to school and themselves off to work, hoping, praying everyone
4:54
Speaker 2: would make it home intact for dinner time, without hassle
4:57
Speaker 2: from either the gangs or from those who were sworn
4:59
Speaker 2: to serve protect the LAPD, who under the leadership of
5:04
Speaker 2: Police Chief Daryl Gates, were at war in their war zone,
5:08
Speaker 2: South Central Compton. Gates militarized as police force, armored tanks,
5:14
Speaker 2: battering rams, helicopters, and in any means necessary mentality when
5:18
Speaker 2: it came to police work force, indiscriminate force was their weapon. Gates,
5:23
Speaker 2: in an official testimony before the United States Senate, actually
5:27
Speaker 2: said that those who merely smoke pop should be quote unquote.
5:30
Speaker 1: Taken out in shot dot dot.
5:33
Speaker 2: Daryl Gates thought of his LAPD as a quote unquote
5:36
Speaker 2: professional organization and to him, in many of his cops
5:40
Speaker 2: seuth Central residents were mostly all gangsters, potsmokers, crack dealers,
5:44
Speaker 2: it didn't matter. And the ones wearing gang colors red blue, whatever,
5:48
Speaker 2: they were, all the same. Black was the only color
5:51
Speaker 2: that mattered. If you were young black and a resident
5:54
Speaker 2: of South central Los Angeles in the eighties, as far
5:56
Speaker 2: as the LAPD was concerned, you were trouble at worst,
6:00
Speaker 2: a hardcore gang banger, at best, an eventual shipbird destined
6:04
Speaker 2: for one of the gangs prison, and or an early grave.
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Speaker 2: An LAPD acted accordingly. Young black men were harassed by
6:11
Speaker 2: cops constantly, whether they were gang affiliated or not. Pulled
6:15
Speaker 2: over for nothing, padded down, searched, smacked around, beat on,
6:18
Speaker 2: hauled in, humiliated. The NAACP and ACLU filed complaints, locals
6:24
Speaker 2: signed petitions, State and federal representatives gazed speeches, community groups
6:29
Speaker 2: held meetings, citizens voiced their anger, and church basements over
6:32
Speaker 2: staled donuts and cold black coffee, and at the end
6:35
Speaker 2: of the day, nothing changed. The lapd blew it all off.
6:39
Speaker 2: It kept going about their business, and the gang bangers
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Speaker 2: tolerated the police harassment and kept banging, and the bodies
6:45
Speaker 2: kept dropping. An entire community kept on keeping on living
6:49
Speaker 2: their lives in fear. It was war, and Darryl Gates
6:53
Speaker 2: and his cops are going to continue to police the
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Speaker 2: only way they knew how, through sheer, brutal, indiscriminate, racially
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Speaker 2: biased force. And there was little that anyone could do
7:02
Speaker 2: about it. But one gang banger would find a weapon
7:06
Speaker 2: more powerful than any community group, more powerful than any
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Speaker 2: petition or local politician or the NAACP and ACLU combined
7:14
Speaker 2: that weapon a microphone. That gangster, easy motherfucking ew but Ease,
7:22
Speaker 2: also known by real name Eric Wright, was no common
7:25
Speaker 2: gang banger. In another lay born into different circumstances. Eric
7:30
Speaker 2: would have been a CEO or some other sort.
7:32
Speaker 1: Of high level executive.
7:34
Speaker 2: He had a mind for business and took his business
7:36
Speaker 2: dealing cocaine wholesale seriously every morning while his competitors and
7:41
Speaker 2: customers slapped off the effects of whatever wild party they
7:44
Speaker 2: had attended the night before. Young, early twenty soethingter Eric,
7:48
Speaker 2: who didn't drink, would wake up early, sit at his
7:50
Speaker 2: parents breakfast table and read the La Times. Then, as
7:54
Speaker 2: was his routine, he'd head to the garage and organize
7:57
Speaker 2: his product, readying it for sale later that after after noon,
8:00
Speaker 2: before peeling off the customary two grand in cash from
8:03
Speaker 2: one of the many stashes he kept in and around
8:05
Speaker 2: the house, stuffing it into his sock, and gliding out
8:08
Speaker 2: over the driveway to his mint condition nineteen seventy three
8:11
Speaker 2: Chevy Caprice, decked out in all black, a color chosen
8:15
Speaker 2: not entirely because of its bad assory, but also because
8:18
Speaker 2: of its neutrality. The black Chicago White Sox hat covering
8:22
Speaker 2: his black Jerry Curl hair, the black satin La Raiders
8:25
Speaker 2: starter jacket, the black jeans, black Adidas, and black wrap
8:28
Speaker 2: around sunglasses all had the added benefit of not being
8:31
Speaker 2: either blue or red, the colors of the local crips
8:34
Speaker 2: blue and rival Bloods Red. Meeting Eric clad head to
8:38
Speaker 2: toe him black, wasn't in danger of pissing off either
8:41
Speaker 2: gang and accidentally winding up dead because of a poor
8:44
Speaker 2: fashion choice. But avoiding death on the streets of Compton
8:47
Speaker 2: wasn't that easy for the drug dealer who would later
8:49
Speaker 2: name himself easy. He had four kids from three different
8:54
Speaker 2: women by the time he was twenty three. Eric loved
8:57
Speaker 2: the ladies, but the responsibility many had to hustle. Many
9:00
Speaker 2: had to be out there slinging it every day, and
9:02
Speaker 2: the more coke wholesale or not, the more risks there
9:05
Speaker 2: was that he'd be arrested or killed and either a
9:08
Speaker 2: deal gone wrong or a robbery, not to mention the
9:10
Speaker 2: fact that the local cops took every opportunity they could
9:13
Speaker 2: to fuck with him, so he did his best to
9:16
Speaker 2: lay low and deal as dope as carefully as possible.
9:19
Speaker 2: Unlike his first cousin, Horace Butler, Horace was Eric's mentor
9:23
Speaker 2: in the drug game, and Horace lived large. He cut
9:26
Speaker 2: an impressive figure, more fat boy than Bobby Brown. Horace
9:30
Speaker 2: was a big man who was in the game to
9:31
Speaker 2: make it big as fast as possible. He dealt weight
9:34
Speaker 2: and didn't care who he fucked with along the way.
9:37
Speaker 2: It was only a matter of time before he pissed
9:39
Speaker 2: off the wrong person, which he inevitably did and ended
9:42
Speaker 2: up shot to death in his candy painted GMC truck
9:45
Speaker 2: on the on ramp to the tent. When he died,
9:48
Speaker 2: Eric was heartbroken, but he was also the beneficiary of
9:51
Speaker 2: his cousin's large stash of cocaine and cash. He went
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Speaker 2: to work quick, cutting it up and listening a trusted
9:58
Speaker 2: friend a deal for him and putting some of the
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Speaker 2: money out on the street to start working for him.
10:02
Speaker 2: He applied his intelligence to the game of drug dealing
10:05
Speaker 2: and within no time he was more successful than his
10:07
Speaker 2: dead cousin ever could have dreamed of, and sitting on
10:10
Speaker 2: nearly half a million dollars in profit. But he knew
10:13
Speaker 2: it was only a matter of time, only a matter
10:16
Speaker 2: of time before it was his head with a bullet
10:18
Speaker 2: hole and it blood. He did, face down on the
10:20
Speaker 2: steering wheel of his seventy three Caprice on the side
10:23
Speaker 2: of the tent. He needed to get out of the game,
10:26
Speaker 2: but like most young men in Compton, at the time,
10:28
Speaker 2: there were a few options beyond dealing drugs or go
10:31
Speaker 2: nowhere minimum wage jobs other than pussy rap music was
10:35
Speaker 2: his only other interests. He was obsessed with the mixtapes
10:38
Speaker 2: he'd heard circulating throughout the neighborhood. The tapes originated from
10:41
Speaker 2: a booth of the local swap meet run by indie
10:44
Speaker 2: record store owner Steve Janno, and they blew Eric's mind
10:48
Speaker 2: that they were long playing sixty minute mixes featuring run DMC,
10:51
Speaker 2: Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock, King T and the
10:55
Speaker 2: Fat Boys, and some of the breaks featured raps in
10:57
Speaker 2: the creator of the mixes, a kid who had turned
11:00
Speaker 2: out Eric Kneuo from the neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: Eric quickly bought up every one.
11:04
Speaker 2: Of these cassettes and begged Jano to introduce them to
11:06
Speaker 2: the kid who made them, a dude by the name
11:08
Speaker 2: of Andre Young, one of the other kids down at
11:11
Speaker 2: Skateland USA.
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Speaker 1: Called Doctor Dre.
11:32
Speaker 2: Skateland USA was a local Compton hangout for teens and
11:35
Speaker 2: young people, a roller rank that would host MC's DJs
11:39
Speaker 2: and touring rap artists. It was a neutral space where
11:42
Speaker 2: once you were inside, you were supposedly saved from the
11:45
Speaker 2: gang warfare happening right outside its doors, but there was
11:48
Speaker 2: only one way in and one way out. Once you
11:51
Speaker 2: walked out of Skateland stores, it was blood country. The
11:55
Speaker 2: gang bangers would line up and beat down anyone who
11:57
Speaker 2: looked funnier looked at them funny upon their exit. Skateland
12:01
Speaker 2: was also where Doctor Drake got his first real shot
12:03
Speaker 2: at performing with his group World Class Wrecon Crew, a
12:07
Speaker 2: hip hop infused electro collective drafting off of disco's last
12:11
Speaker 2: gasp of relevance. Ultimately, the group was going nowhere, and
12:15
Speaker 2: Drey was unhappy, though he appreciated collaborating with the group's
12:19
Speaker 2: other DJ, DJ Yellow Yellow cracked him up. It was
12:23
Speaker 2: the mid eighties, the radio was all about a new edition.
12:26
Speaker 2: In Top forty was blanketed by SYP pop and R
12:29
Speaker 2: and B, but on the East Coast, Rap was evolving
12:32
Speaker 2: into something much harder. Run DMC's Sucker MC's B side
12:36
Speaker 2: from their nineteen eighty three It's Like That single was
12:38
Speaker 2: a shotgun blast whose kickback reverberated all the way.
12:42
Speaker 1: From Queen's to Compton. Dray was possessed by the beat.
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Speaker 2: It was so fucking hard, but World Class Wrecking Crew's
12:49
Speaker 2: manager pushed Dray to produce what DRA called the soft
12:53
Speaker 2: shit in hopes of cracking the FM dial, and they
12:56
Speaker 2: came close. One of their singles, Surgery, received local air
13:00
Speaker 2: and sold a respectable fifty thousand copies. But Drey's heart
13:03
Speaker 2: wasn't it. He wanted to make something bigger, something that
13:06
Speaker 2: sounded hard like run DMC, but that also incorporated the
13:10
Speaker 2: hyperreal lyrics being spit out at the time by West
13:13
Speaker 2: Coast pimp turned rapper Iced Tea, best demonstrated on one
13:17
Speaker 2: of his early B sides, six in the Morning, a
13:19
Speaker 2: track I says was heavily influenced by Philadelphia rapper schooly
13:23
Speaker 2: D in his track PSK what Does It Mean? Ice
13:27
Speaker 2: ta Six in the Morning is now credited as the
13:30
Speaker 2: first gangster rap song. It's lyrics at the time totally unique.
13:35
Speaker 2: If you were young and black and growing up on
13:37
Speaker 2: the violent gang controlled in LAPD patrolled streets of South
13:40
Speaker 2: central Los Angeles, these lyrics were your first and only
13:44
Speaker 2: opportunity to hear your world represented on the radio or
13:47
Speaker 2: anywhere else in pop culture. It was your only shot
13:50
Speaker 2: to see what so many other Americans get to experience
13:53
Speaker 2: every day and take for granted. Their world reflected back
13:56
Speaker 2: to them from mainstream culture. Six in the Morning was
14:00
Speaker 2: released in nineteen eighty six, the same year that The
14:02
Speaker 2: Cosby Show, Family Ties and Cheers were the top three
14:05
Speaker 2: rated television shows. Falcos Rock Me Amadeis, Madonna's Papa Don't
14:10
Speaker 2: Preach in Berlin's Take My Breath Away, with the year's
14:12
Speaker 2: top selling singles and top gun Crocodile, Dundee and Platoon
14:16
Speaker 2: were the highest grossing films at the box office. There
14:20
Speaker 2: was not an ounce of street reality in any of
14:22
Speaker 2: these top selling mainstream performances from nineteen eighty six. So
14:26
Speaker 2: for Dre, hearing his life, his reality, his and so
14:29
Speaker 2: many of his neighbor's story and lifestyle spit back in
14:32
Speaker 2: him over the radio through the speakers of friends Alpines
14:35
Speaker 2: rolling down Crenshaw in the middle of the neighborhood that
14:38
Speaker 2: inspired the track Six in the Morning was powerful. Drey
14:42
Speaker 2: knew that this was where his future was. Hardcore street
14:45
Speaker 2: lyrics like the ones from Iced Tea over hard beats
14:47
Speaker 2: like the ones from Run DMC and DRE had a
14:53
Speaker 2: secret weapon, a sound that would separate his musical fusion
14:56
Speaker 2: from everything else, a sound that anyone anywhere would be
14:59
Speaker 2: able to to recognize as his own, a sound that even.
15:02
Speaker 1: He would be able to hear a mile away.
15:04
Speaker 2: When his song eventually blasted from passing car stereos, he
15:08
Speaker 2: and everyone else would know it was a Doctor Dre
15:10
Speaker 2: jam when they heard his signature sound, the Compton whistle.
15:14
Speaker 2: It was that high pitched, squealing synthesizer that Dre first
15:17
Speaker 2: heard in the Ohio players tracked funky worm. Dre went
15:21
Speaker 2: to work implementing it in and around the beats he
15:23
Speaker 2: was fucking with in the back room at Skateland during
15:26
Speaker 2: off hours. This sound would eventually grow to become the
15:29
Speaker 2: staple sound of the genre. Dre would eventually help invent
15:32
Speaker 2: g funk. Drey's new friend, Eric was way down with
15:38
Speaker 2: what Drey was cooking up, and Dra convinced Eric he
15:41
Speaker 2: didn't need to invest in a record store. He needed
15:43
Speaker 2: to invest in a record label. They had what they needed,
15:47
Speaker 2: a signature sound, big ass beats, and an original point
15:50
Speaker 2: of view. Their songs would rep their reality, and they
15:53
Speaker 2: as rappers would rep their hometown Compton, just like East
15:56
Speaker 2: Coast rappers wrapped Hollis Queen's in the Bronx two hundred
16:00
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars of Eric's drug money that they
16:02
Speaker 2: could invest into their new venture. But they also had
16:05
Speaker 2: a problem. Neither of them wrote lyrics, but Dre had
16:09
Speaker 2: a friend who did. O'sha Jackson, only sixteen, was a
16:13
Speaker 2: natural born lyricist with drive. He was from Englewood, next
16:16
Speaker 2: neighborhood over from Compton, but every morning he bust out
16:19
Speaker 2: to a high school in the burbs with white kids
16:21
Speaker 2: who rolled the school in BMW convertibles. Eventual Brett Easton
16:25
Speaker 2: Elli's characters, who O'sha could not relate to at all,
16:28
Speaker 2: but whose easy way of life stirred in him envy
16:31
Speaker 2: in resentment. Their galling entitlement made it clear to O'Shea
16:35
Speaker 2: that there was another, potentially better, easier way of life
16:37
Speaker 2: if he played the game right, hustled, fostered his talent,
16:41
Speaker 2: and didn't get caught up in the gangs or catch
16:43
Speaker 2: a deadly beating from the cops. O'sha hated the gang bangers.
16:47
Speaker 2: He knew they were evil and running down his community,
16:50
Speaker 2: but he hated the cops more. The twin influences of
16:53
Speaker 2: the gang bangers and South Central police tactics would combine
16:56
Speaker 2: to give O'sha his lyrical point. Of view, and like
16:59
Speaker 2: all great writers, he wrote what he knew the streets
17:02
Speaker 2: outside his door in Englewood and in neighboring Compton, where
17:06
Speaker 2: his friend Drey lived, and was fucking with that hustler, Eric,
17:09
Speaker 2: the one who gave up the game and was now
17:10
Speaker 2: calling himself easy. Dre, the doctor, mad scientist that he was,
17:15
Speaker 2: was now conducting a full on experiment. He knew that
17:18
Speaker 2: if he got himself, oh Shay and Eric in a
17:21
Speaker 2: room together, they could unlock a new evolution and wrap
17:24
Speaker 2: without fail. O'sha was inspired by Eric's larger than life
17:27
Speaker 2: well life and wrote lyrics about him, But the group
17:31
Speaker 2: Dre picked to perform the track was a bust in
17:33
Speaker 2: the studio and they couldn't relate to the hardcore lyrics.
17:36
Speaker 2: They were put off by the gangster language and bailed.
17:39
Speaker 2: It was down to Drey and dj Yella, who'd made
17:41
Speaker 2: the scene, Eric and O'sha. Then it happened. Drey somehow
17:46
Speaker 2: convinced Eric to jump on the mic. After all, O'sha
17:50
Speaker 2: wrote the song about him. It took some coaxing, but
17:53
Speaker 2: ultimately he did it and was careful, patient producing. Drey
17:55
Speaker 2: was able to ease his friend Eric Wright fully into
17:58
Speaker 2: the character of eas Everything was there, the authentic gangster
18:02
Speaker 2: drug dealing backstory, the man in black hip hop fashion,
18:05
Speaker 2: that take no shit attitude.
18:06
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't it work? And Drey was right?
18:09
Speaker 2: The fully produced track was electric and once pressed and
18:13
Speaker 2: distributed throughout La Through the strength of its hard beat,
18:16
Speaker 2: the attitude and the vocal performance, and the authenticity and
18:19
Speaker 2: reality it repped in its lyrics, the track Boys in
18:21
Speaker 2: the Hood became an instant hit. kDa, the Redondo Beach
18:25
Speaker 2: outfit that was one of the top not to mention,
18:27
Speaker 2: one of the only rap friendly radio stations in America,
18:31
Speaker 2: was flooded with requests. Within months, the newly minted Easy
18:34
Speaker 2: E went from selling pressings out of his car to
18:37
Speaker 2: a former distribution deal. Fuck that soft shit, The hard
18:40
Speaker 2: stuff was where.
18:41
Speaker 1: It was at.
18:42
Speaker 2: All you had to do was go out on your
18:44
Speaker 2: front ear and listen to the cars rolling by to
18:46
Speaker 2: hear the influence of the track. It was everywhere in
18:49
Speaker 2: South Central at the end of nineteen eighty seven. You
18:51
Speaker 2: couldn't help but hear it as long as you were
18:53
Speaker 2: listening outside during the day. At night, the lyrics stopped
18:57
Speaker 2: and the story that the lyrics told began For real,
19:00
Speaker 2: a big beat built from gunshots, ghetto bird choppers, batter
19:04
Speaker 2: rams and police sirens, real life sounds, soundtracking life for
19:08
Speaker 2: the citizens of South Central We'll be right back after
19:13
Speaker 2: this word word word. At first, the chant from the
19:19
Speaker 2: audience was familiar to Eric, We want easy, over and
19:23
Speaker 2: over again, and he loved it.
19:25
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't he?
19:27
Speaker 2: It was validation for all the hard work and the
19:29
Speaker 2: risk he took, investing a quarter million of his hard
19:32
Speaker 2: earned street dollars into himself, his record label, and ultimately
19:35
Speaker 2: the success of his group. He worked out his own
19:38
Speaker 2: version of the American Dream for himself, but the adoring
19:42
Speaker 2: chorus gave way to a different chant. It was also
19:45
Speaker 2: a song title which showed that the crowd loved the
19:49
Speaker 2: music they were putting out, But this one was less satisfying,
19:52
Speaker 2: more jarring. It reminded him of something more menacing, confrontational.
19:57
Speaker 2: It reminded him of the cops back in Compton as
20:00
Speaker 2: it pulled them over. A Couple months back, he yanked
20:02
Speaker 2: him from his vintage of ew Bug, the one with
20:04
Speaker 2: the freaks come out at night, lettering airbrushed across the
20:07
Speaker 2: back and slammed his face cheek, sat down hard under
20:10
Speaker 2: the hood of the car, who then pulled him upright,
20:13
Speaker 2: spun him around to face, and pressed the barrel of
20:15
Speaker 2: a standard issue Block twenty two straight into Easy's temple.
20:19
Speaker 2: They wanted the drugs, and they knew he was a dealer.
20:22
Speaker 2: But what they didn't though, was that he'd cleaned up
20:24
Speaker 2: his act and taken his talents to the music industry.
20:28
Speaker 2: So the LAPD would walk away empty handed, but not
20:31
Speaker 2: without making a point. Compton was their turf, not Easies,
20:35
Speaker 2: local drug dealer or rapper or whatever the fuck. They
20:38
Speaker 2: owned the night, They owned the streets, not him, and
20:41
Speaker 2: for E, he was humiliating and if he was being honest,
20:45
Speaker 2: scary as fuck. O'Shea was next to Easy on stage.
20:50
Speaker 2: He was now going by the name Ice Cube. He
20:52
Speaker 2: heard the same chant as E, but he had his
20:55
Speaker 2: own memory, winding up his heart rate as the crowd
20:57
Speaker 2: yelled back a phrase that he had written back to
21:00
Speaker 2: the cops outside of the studio, as the members of
21:03
Speaker 2: NWA had secluded themselves in to record their group's masterpiece,
21:07
Speaker 2: an effort that took only eight weeks and cost only
21:09
Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars to make. Those cops meant business just
21:13
Speaker 2: like Cube did. Maybe They recognized something to him that
21:16
Speaker 2: they saw in themselves, an unwillingness to take any shit
21:19
Speaker 2: at all, which is why they braced him on the sidewalk,
21:22
Speaker 2: and when he asked why they were questioning him, they
21:25
Speaker 2: threw him to the pavement, stepped on the back of
21:27
Speaker 2: his neck, and demanded to know why he was just
21:29
Speaker 2: hanging out on the corner doing nothing, And they weren't
21:32
Speaker 2: buying the truth. The Cube was taking a break from
21:34
Speaker 2: the hard work and making a record, not until the
21:37
Speaker 2: band's manager, Jerry Heller, a white man, came outside to
21:40
Speaker 2: squash the b Even then, the cops refused to accept
21:44
Speaker 2: the Cube was an actual musician. After all, rap was
21:47
Speaker 2: a music, it was a fat Whatever it was, it
21:50
Speaker 2: would save ice Cube from the rage roiling inside him
21:53
Speaker 2: due to a lifetime of similar incidents just like this.
21:56
Speaker 3: One.
21:57
Speaker 2: Doctor dre hated the chant. It annoyed him. He just
22:00
Speaker 2: wanted to make music. But the chant, something about the
22:02
Speaker 2: pointed anger of it so direct aims straight at the
22:05
Speaker 2: cops from back home, the same cops who did next
22:08
Speaker 2: to nothing to protect his dead brother or to find
22:11
Speaker 2: his killer, the ones who left them to bleed out
22:13
Speaker 2: and die on the streets. Of Compton. Drey didn't want
22:15
Speaker 2: the grief within him stirred, and that's all the Chant did.
22:19
Speaker 2: Yell it didn't mind it. Neither did mc wren the
22:21
Speaker 2: two other group members. They had their own baggage to
22:24
Speaker 2: sort through, and the Chant did to them what it
22:26
Speaker 2: did to the others, forced them to remember where.
22:28
Speaker 1: They came from.
22:29
Speaker 2: How fucked up Life on the streets of Compton was
22:32
Speaker 2: pure violence, deadly gang members and deadly cops, a violent
22:36
Speaker 2: vice that squeezed you into submission. The cops scared them
22:40
Speaker 2: more than the bloods and the crips, though, but at
22:42
Speaker 2: least to the gang bangers. NWA were now celebrities and
22:45
Speaker 2: not to be fucked with. Within reason. They were NWA
22:48
Speaker 2: Compton's greatest exports since Dennis Johnson, who at the time
22:51
Speaker 2: was busy helping the Boston Celtics gang entry into yet
22:54
Speaker 2: another Eastern Conference finals.
22:56
Speaker 1: But I Digress.
22:57
Speaker 2: NWA was easy East brainchild supergroup that included all of
23:01
Speaker 2: the men currently standing on stage next to e plus
23:04
Speaker 2: lyricists The Doc. They were now NWA, and they were
23:08
Speaker 2: a supergroup with attitude the idea of a posse. This
23:11
Speaker 2: deep was easiest and their first real album Straight Out
23:15
Speaker 2: of Compton was Drey's sonic vision reality wraps over Heartbeats
23:18
Speaker 2: come to life and album for him over sixty minutes,
23:21
Speaker 2: and it was as hard to ignore as fresh spray
23:23
Speaker 2: from an AK forty seven. It's opening salvo, you are
23:27
Speaker 2: now about to witness the strength the street knowledge quickly
23:30
Speaker 2: smacks you in the face and then pummels you with
23:33
Speaker 2: a sledgehammer beat that somehow also grooves while cue Easy
23:37
Speaker 2: and Ren kickoff verse after verse at the verse with
23:40
Speaker 2: the line straight out of Compton, detailing of life spent
23:43
Speaker 2: dodging violent cops in.
23:44
Speaker 1: The streets of their homehood.
23:46
Speaker 2: There's no mistaking where these dudes were from, and that
23:49
Speaker 2: wasn't an accident. Dre and E wanted to rep their hometown,
23:52
Speaker 2: just like East Coast rappers rep theirs, except Compton wasn't
23:56
Speaker 2: exactly the same as Hall as Queen's or the Bronx.
23:59
Speaker 1: Compton was a war.
24:00
Speaker 2: So to properly do it justice, NWA relied on their
24:04
Speaker 2: own experiences in the street reality that they faced on
24:07
Speaker 2: a daily basis to inform their lyrics that meant violence, drugs,
24:13
Speaker 2: crooked cops, and backward misogynist attitudes toward women. Aka Bitches
24:17
Speaker 2: and Hose with no sugarcoating. They spit it out all
24:21
Speaker 2: over beats that hit you hard and peppered everything with
24:23
Speaker 2: humor they learned from the blue comedy records of Rudy
24:26
Speaker 2: Ray Moore and Red Fox at their.
24:27
Speaker 1: Parents vibd on.
24:29
Speaker 2: To an adolescent music fan in nineteen eighty eight, it
24:32
Speaker 2: all added up to something as infectious, if not more so,
24:35
Speaker 2: than Aerosmith or Guns n' Roses or any other mainstream
24:38
Speaker 2: rock blanketing airways at the time. The violence and profanity
24:42
Speaker 2: depicted in the lyrics made it almost impossible for radio
24:46
Speaker 2: to get behind the album, and MTV outright banned their
24:49
Speaker 2: first videos, but it didn't matter.
24:51
Speaker 1: The record was too good, the lyrics too real.
24:54
Speaker 2: Through the power of strong distribution for easies, new record label,
24:58
Speaker 2: ruthless records, and even wrong or word of mouth, news
25:02
Speaker 2: of this new type of wild rap or reality rap,
25:04
Speaker 2: or what the press was fast calling gangster rap, spread
25:07
Speaker 2: quick not only through urban neighborhoods and schools, but through
25:11
Speaker 2: lily white suburban neighborhoods and small towns all across America.
25:15
Speaker 2: And of course the gang bangers loved it too. It
25:19
Speaker 2: was their world come to life on record. But what
25:22
Speaker 2: made NWA so revolutionary is that they embraced the persona
25:26
Speaker 2: of the gangsters. They weren't objectifying the gang violence they
25:29
Speaker 2: saw in their neighborhoods, they were personifying it.
25:32
Speaker 1: They were the bad guys.
25:34
Speaker 2: Long before Tony Soprano or Walter White, five kids from
25:37
Speaker 2: Compton made it okay to root for the bad guys.
25:40
Speaker 2: They were the protagonists, the antagonists.
25:43
Speaker 4: The lapd over on the East Coast public enemy may
25:47
Speaker 4: have been bringing the noise by commenting on the social
25:49
Speaker 4: injustice they saw, but NWA was cutting through the noise
25:53
Speaker 4: by playing the part of the villain, wearing the black hat,
25:56
Speaker 4: shooting down the cops and the raps, dealing weight in
25:59
Speaker 4: their raps, beating down rivals in the wraps, a first
26:02
Speaker 4: person fucking of the system.
26:04
Speaker 2: NWA had had enough enough with the drive bys and
26:07
Speaker 2: the senseless murders, enough with the police harassment, enough with
26:11
Speaker 2: the lack of opportunity.
26:12
Speaker 1: But they didn't play the victim card.
26:14
Speaker 2: They took a truly defiant stance, redefined the theater of ward,
26:18
Speaker 2: fought back through music, and made their way through their
26:21
Speaker 2: own fucked up reality by any means necessary. A model
26:24
Speaker 2: coined by Malcolm X, stolen by Daryl Gates, and stolen
26:27
Speaker 2: back by NWA. American teenagers ate it up. They sold
26:32
Speaker 2: millions of copies of Straight Out of Content, and Easye
26:35
Speaker 2: was laughing to himself with the absurdity of it all.
26:38
Speaker 2: But not everybody thought it was funny. The lapd were pissed,
26:42
Speaker 2: as were their police brethren throughout the country, and tonight
26:45
Speaker 2: here in Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena, in front
26:48
Speaker 2: of upwards of twenty thousand people, it all seemed to
26:51
Speaker 2: be coming to a head. While Easye, Ice Cube, Doctor
26:56
Speaker 2: dre Yella and mc wren sat on stage letting the
26:59
Speaker 2: chant of Fuck the Police rained down on them in
27:01
Speaker 2: front of twenty thousand strong they could feel the tension.
27:05
Speaker 2: They could see it in the eyes of the cops
27:06
Speaker 2: and the crowd there ostensibly to protect the band, though
27:10
Speaker 2: it felt like they were there more to intimidate and
27:12
Speaker 2: to oppress. NWA was warned before the show not to
27:15
Speaker 2: play their song Fuck the Police.
27:18
Speaker 1: The song had.
27:18
Speaker 2: Sparked a nationwide debate over NWA's claims of police brutality
27:22
Speaker 2: and of what life was really like in the streets
27:25
Speaker 2: they grew up on were gangster rappers really rapping the
27:28
Speaker 2: reality of their surroundings or were they just cashing in
27:30
Speaker 2: on the profanity and violence. Police forces around the country
27:34
Speaker 2: took the song in its direct title as an affront,
27:37
Speaker 2: many of them refusing to provide security for the group
27:40
Speaker 2: while they were on tour the lyrics were too controversial.
27:44
Speaker 2: The lyrics go on to detail Ice Cube's first person
27:46
Speaker 2: account of crooked lapd and the justified beating on in
27:50
Speaker 2: quote unquote slaughter of the police. The lyrics were a
27:53
Speaker 2: live wire, and on this night in particular, the tension
27:56
Speaker 2: in the room made it feel like the song if
27:58
Speaker 2: the group decided to play it might inside a riot.
28:02
Speaker 2: The crowd would not stop channing the title over and over.
28:06
Speaker 2: It was deafening and inspiring. It was time for the
28:10
Speaker 2: group to kick into one of their other songs. Gangsta
28:13
Speaker 2: Easy was ready. Cube was hoping for something more, and
28:16
Speaker 2: Drey was milling about, hovering over his tables on stage.
28:20
Speaker 1: Yella, as always, was dutifully.
28:22
Speaker 2: Awaiting direction from Dre, and Wren was wondering what the
28:25
Speaker 2: fuck was with the delay, and the crowd kept chanting.
28:28
Speaker 2: Cops were now nervously making their way through the audience
28:31
Speaker 2: to the front of the stage, some of them uniformed,
28:33
Speaker 2: most of them undercover. There on the scene in the
28:36
Speaker 2: crowd to prevent whatever the fuck was about to happen
28:38
Speaker 2: from happening, and Drey's eyes caught Cubes across the stage.
28:42
Speaker 2: He motioned him closer, and when he got into earshot,
28:45
Speaker 2: Drey asked, you ready. Cube said nothing, just gave him
28:49
Speaker 2: an approving scowl and a defiant nod. Dray shouted, come
28:53
Speaker 2: in on the two, then fuck the police. The crowd
28:58
Speaker 2: lost itself, every word back in Acube's face. Cops looked
29:03
Speaker 2: visibly scared. They were outnumbered by the tens of thousands.
29:07
Speaker 2: The song was killing and worth every ounce of bullshit
29:10
Speaker 2: it brought on because it was real. You could tell
29:12
Speaker 2: from the response it was undeniable. Kids loved it because
29:16
Speaker 2: it tapped into something totally authentic, totally unique. It was
29:19
Speaker 2: a look into an American reality that was underreported in
29:22
Speaker 2: the media. It was a crisis, this reality of gangs
29:25
Speaker 2: and abusive cops, a cycle of violence that made it
29:28
Speaker 2: near impossible to find your way through to the American dream.
29:32
Speaker 2: And it was pissed the fuck off, just like nearly
29:34
Speaker 2: everyone in the audience, which is why the crowd began
29:37
Speaker 2: to riot. The sound of gunshots or what was later
29:40
Speaker 2: learned to be firecrackers set the riot off. Yello heard
29:43
Speaker 2: them first on stage and quickly fled, Fuck this, no
29:47
Speaker 2: protest song was worth dying for. The rest of the
29:49
Speaker 2: group followed suit, trying to escape backstage while the crowd
29:53
Speaker 2: tor shit up in the house. But the members of
29:55
Speaker 2: NWA were quickly corralled by the local cops and hauled
29:58
Speaker 2: in for inciting a riot. But in the end it
30:02
Speaker 2: all worked out. The Detroit cops were not like the
30:05
Speaker 2: cops back home. They were more interested in autographs for
30:08
Speaker 2: their kids than they were pressing charges. It seemed like
30:11
Speaker 2: they had arrested them just to prove they could, and
30:13
Speaker 2: the group was quickly let go. Cube even joke to
30:17
Speaker 2: the cops, maybe we can produce a song for you
30:19
Speaker 2: guys called fuck n W A Fuck the Police is
30:37
Speaker 2: the greatest protest song in the history of music period.
30:41
Speaker 2: No other song got to the point quicker and or
30:43
Speaker 2: had a greater impact. You can come into my podcast
30:47
Speaker 2: studio and stand on my desk and yell at me
30:49
Speaker 2: about Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and Sam Cook and
30:51
Speaker 2: Joe Strummer, and Hell even Public Enemy, but named one
30:55
Speaker 2: song by any of those artists that generated a formal response,
30:58
Speaker 2: a thinly veiled threat from the United States Government, the FBI.
31:03
Speaker 1: You can't.
31:04
Speaker 2: The letter the FBI wrote to Ruthless Records reads, in part,
31:07
Speaker 2: a song recorded by NWA encourages violence against and disrespect
31:12
Speaker 2: for law enforcement, advocating violence and assault is wrong. Seventy
31:16
Speaker 2: seven law enforcement officers were feloniously slain in the line
31:20
Speaker 2: of duty in nineteen eighty eight. Law enforcement officers dedicate
31:23
Speaker 2: their lives to the protection of our citizens, and recordings
31:27
Speaker 2: such as this one from NWA are degrading to these brave,
31:30
Speaker 2: dedicated officers. I wanted you to be aware of the
31:33
Speaker 2: FBI's position relative to this song and its message. I
31:37
Speaker 2: believe my views reflect the opinion of the entire law
31:39
Speaker 2: enforcement community, Signed Milt Altrich, Assistant Director, Office of Public Affairs,
31:45
Speaker 2: Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. The FBI
31:51
Speaker 2: response was that apex of criticism and heat NWA caught
31:55
Speaker 2: from the song. Critics throughout the country railed against the group.
31:59
Speaker 2: Criticism of the cops, it was stated over and over again,
32:02
Speaker 2: was a fabrication and exaggeration and way over the line
32:06
Speaker 2: nothing more than sensationalism contrived to sell records. But ice
32:10
Speaker 2: Cube and the rest of the group held firm in
32:12
Speaker 2: the face of their critics. They knew what their reality was.
32:15
Speaker 2: They knew that Daryl Gates and the LAPD, at least
32:18
Speaker 2: the cops policing the neighborhoods they came up on were
32:21
Speaker 2: corrupt and violent, and then NWA or not, the world
32:24
Speaker 2: would soon know their shocking reality. George Holiday, for one,
32:28
Speaker 2: was shocked, shocked at what he'd seen firsthand and caught
32:32
Speaker 2: on videotape, shocked that the police would do that, and
32:35
Speaker 2: also shocked that CNN was not interested. So he got
32:39
Speaker 2: himself a meeting quickly with an enterprising reporter at KTLA,
32:43
Speaker 2: the local Los Angeles television station. When he arrived, the
32:47
Speaker 2: newsroom was a buzz. Magic Johnson's Lakers were on a
32:50
Speaker 2: run and heading toward what was expected to be an
32:52
Speaker 2: epic NBA Finals showdown against the freak Michael Jordan. Holiday
32:57
Speaker 2: and the reporter entered a bear conference room. Holiday found
33:00
Speaker 2: himself nervous, chatty, and recounting unprompted the events that led
33:03
Speaker 2: him to the KTLA newsroom that day. It was a
33:06
Speaker 2: helicopter that got my attention. It was too low. I
33:09
Speaker 2: lived by the highway, so I hear them, but never
33:11
Speaker 2: that low. And then there were the sirens and the cruisers.
33:14
Speaker 2: I looked up my window and realized they were all
33:16
Speaker 2: outside my door, right across the street. So I grabbed
33:19
Speaker 2: my camcorder, brand new, not even out of the box.
33:22
Speaker 2: I just hit the little button and pointed. I was
33:24
Speaker 2: out on my balcony, so I had a straight shot.
33:26
Speaker 2: CNN doesn't want it, says they can't run it, says
33:29
Speaker 2: it's too much. I thought you guys might be able
33:31
Speaker 2: to use it, and the reporter said nothing, just fidgeted
33:35
Speaker 2: with the wires behind the television in the VCR. But
33:38
Speaker 2: when he was done, he slid the VHS tape that
33:40
Speaker 2: had Holidays so worked up out from the Manila envelope
33:43
Speaker 2: and popped it into the VCR. And that sound plastic
33:47
Speaker 2: hitting plastic, then the cartridge sliding back into the console,
33:52
Speaker 2: the VHS tape in his grip, the creak of the
33:55
Speaker 2: tape heads and spinning gears, the anticipatory sound of it
33:58
Speaker 2: all had George Holiday's heart in his throat. The reporter
34:01
Speaker 2: was calm, sitting back in his chair, notebook in his lap,
34:05
Speaker 2: penned between his lips, staring at the TV. The sounds
34:09
Speaker 2: of the KTLA newsroom keyboards clacking away, telephones ringing, pagers buzzing,
34:14
Speaker 2: angry editors shouting, began to fall away as the sound
34:18
Speaker 2: of the home video Holiday capture began to fully transfer
34:21
Speaker 2: from the VHS tape to the tiny television speakers. Helicopters, sirens,
34:26
Speaker 2: muffled shouting, and then the image came to life of
34:29
Speaker 2: the TV screen. To accompany the sound, Holiday watched the
34:33
Speaker 2: reporter lean in, transfixed its dark out nighttime. A white
34:39
Speaker 2: Hyundai on the side of the road, three of its
34:42
Speaker 2: four doors opened. A man, a black man, presumably his owner,
34:45
Speaker 2: lying on the ground above him, four white Los Angeles
34:49
Speaker 2: police officers above them, a helicopter shouting down, its powerful
34:54
Speaker 2: floodlight on the scene, in effect providing big budget action
34:58
Speaker 2: film quality lighting for George Holiday and his camera perched
35:01
Speaker 2: a few yards away on his deck, videotaping the beating
35:04
Speaker 2: that would set his city on fire, A beating that
35:07
Speaker 2: shocked Americans, but a beating that did not shock NWA.
35:11
Speaker 2: It was a beating they'd warned us about over and
35:14
Speaker 2: over again on straight out of Compton. The sound of
35:17
Speaker 2: their account on record was shocking, sure, but it was
35:20
Speaker 2: nowhere near as shocking is the sound of the real thing,
35:23
Speaker 2: the sound of a defenseless black man, a man whose
35:26
Speaker 2: name America would soon come to know as Rodney King,
35:29
Speaker 2: being struck fifty six times with batons by a gang
35:32
Speaker 2: of white thugs, young, angry, violent, heavily armed LA cops,
35:39
Speaker 2: defenseless on the ground, writhing in pain, struck fifty six times.
35:47
Speaker 3: Anything the evidence is new, it's dramatic behind its devastating.
35:51
Speaker 3: Of those Los Angeles police officers involved in the March
35:54
Speaker 3: third beating, the dreck white coverage, one of.
35:56
Speaker 1: The two officers was nearly the times that evening. That's
36:00
Speaker 1: a got to be arrest, another call, saying sounds almost
36:04
Speaker 1: as exciting as the last call. It was right out
36:07
Speaker 1: of gorillas in the midst there's a professional organization.
36:10
Speaker 5: Where do you think we are?
36:14
Speaker 3: The the phrump that they tho becon King was high
36:39
Speaker 3: on road and resist being arrest things that they never left.
36:44
Speaker 1: I think it's a disgraced.
36:47
Speaker 5: It's a professional organization. What do you think we are?
36:51
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this this Disgraceland.
37:19
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
37:22
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
37:26
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
37:29
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37:30
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Speaker 6: Rock and Roller.
38:13
Speaker 4: He's a bad down man.