WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Okay, let's just dive in. Welcome back to the 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.719 Deep Dive. Today, we are not just opening a history 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.220 book. We are, I think it's fair to say we are 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:11.500 handling unexploded ordnance. That's a very good 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:13.339 way to put it, a very fair warning. Yeah, we 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:15.980 are lighting the fuse on a topic that is just 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:18.199 explosive in every single sense of the word, 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:20.960 culturally, politically, musically. I want to 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.620 start with a quote that really, it set the tone 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:25.199 for me when I was prepping for this. Oh, okay. 00:00:25.629 --> 00:00:27.429 It's from the music journalist Garrick D. Kennedy. 00:00:27.649 --> 00:00:29.929 He described the subject of our deep dive today 00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:34.329 as a sonic Molotov cocktail. Sonic Molotov cocktail. 00:00:34.469 --> 00:00:37.789 Wow. That is a powerful image. Isn't it? Yeah. 00:00:37.869 --> 00:00:40.009 It implies something, you know, homemade, volatile, 00:00:40.210 --> 00:00:43.429 and just designed to burn things down. Exactly. 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:47.170 And according to Kennedy, this cocktail, it ignited 00:00:47.170 --> 00:00:49.109 a firestorm when it was thrown through the window 00:00:49.109 --> 00:00:52.329 of pop culture in the summer of 1988. We're talking 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:55.429 about one of the loudest big bangs in music history. 00:00:55.630 --> 00:00:58.490 Yeah. We're talking about N .W .A. Niggas Wit 00:00:58.490 --> 00:01:00.509 Attitudes. The world's most dangerous group. 00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:03.130 A title they absolutely earned, quite literally. 00:01:03.409 --> 00:01:05.890 It's just wild to think about. This is a group 00:01:05.890 --> 00:01:08.510 from Compton, California, that was really only 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:12.269 active, I mean, as a full unit for a few short 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:15.939 years. Yeah. What was it? 87 to 91. Right. It's 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:18.420 a blink of an eye in music industry terms. But 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:21.079 in that tiny window, they managed to completely 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:22.939 rewrite the rulebook. And not just the musical 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:24.500 rulebook. I mean, they went after the cultural 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:26.260 rulebook, the political one, the business one. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:28.400 They changed everything. So here's our mission 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:32.099 for today. We need to figure out. How five guys 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:35.159 from Compton, California managed to bridge racial 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:37.840 lines, scare the living daylights out of the 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:41.400 FBI and become, well, arguably the most influential 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:44.200 act in hip hop history. It's a huge question. 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:47.439 And to answer it, we have to go beyond the, you 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:50.060 know, the headlines or the basic VH1 behind the 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:52.280 music story. Right. We really need to look at 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.200 the chart beta, the historical records, the biographical 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.739 accounts and just the nuts and bolts of the industry 00:01:57.739 --> 00:01:59.799 that they completely disrupted. We're going to 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:03.540 talk about that. rise the the very messy feuds 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:07.480 the tragedy and of course the legacy but before 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:09.780 we get to that molotov cocktail moment in 88 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:12.240 we have to set the stage because i think a lot 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:14.479 of people just assume nwa appeared out of nowhere 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:17.759 you know fully formed wearing all black and scowling 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:19.400 which is definitely not the case i mean if you 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.159 drop yourself into compton in 1987 the soundtrack 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:24.900 of the city is it's not what you'd expect okay 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:26.919 so paint that picture for us yeah what are the 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:30.240 kids in compton listening to Right before NWA 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:33.479 drops. They're listening to ElectroHop. ElectroHop. 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:36.340 So we're talking about what, like breakdancing 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:39.379 beats? That kind of thing. Exactly. Think Africa, 00:02:39.379 --> 00:02:42.020 Bambata, planet rock. It's high energy. It's 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:44.939 uptempo, very danceable. It's music made for 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:47.419 popping and locking. Very, very synthesized. 00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:49.860 So not the gritty street level storytelling we 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:51.599 associate with the West Coast just a couple of 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.000 years later. Not even close. In fact, the dominant 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.039 group on the West Coast scene at this time, and 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:58.900 this is such crucial context, was the world class 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:02.360 wrecking crew. OK, I have seen photos of the 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:05.039 world class wrecking crew. And we need to describe 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.560 this for you, the listener, because it is it's 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:11.439 shocking given who is in the group. It's visually 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:14.500 jarring if you only know the later history. We 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:18.500 are talking shiny satin jackets, sequin jumpsuits. 00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:21.520 Laced gloves. Yes, laced glove. It was very, 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:24.240 very Prince inspired, wasn't it? Totally. And 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.930 the reason this matters so much is that. Dr. 00:03:26.969 --> 00:03:29.430 Dre, the man who would eventually craft the most 00:03:29.430 --> 00:03:32.310 hardcore sound in hip hop. Yeah. He was the DJ 00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:34.629 and producer for this group. He was wearing the 00:03:34.629 --> 00:03:36.550 sequins. He had a stethoscope around his neck. 00:03:36.669 --> 00:03:38.949 It's such a huge disconnect, but you can feel 00:03:38.949 --> 00:03:41.349 the ground shifting beneath them. I mean, while 00:03:41.349 --> 00:03:43.229 the clubs were playing electro, the streets were 00:03:43.229 --> 00:03:45.240 getting a lot harder. This is the height of the 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:47.740 crack epidemic in Los Angeles. Right. It's tearing 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:50.699 through neighborhoods. Gang violence was spiking. 00:03:50.699 --> 00:03:52.900 So you have the split. You know, the music was 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:54.879 all about partying, but the reality was just 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:56.840 about survival. And that creates the vacuum. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:59.159 Right. For what critics would eventually label 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:02.860 gangster rap. Right. Although, and this is a 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:04.819 distinction we are. absolutely going to keep 00:04:04.819 --> 00:04:07.740 coming back to the group themselves they hated 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:10.500 that term they preferred reality rap yes yes 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:13.099 they saw themselves as journalists you know if 00:04:13.099 --> 00:04:15.060 you're a war correspondent and you take a picture 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:18.199 of a battlefield nobody accuses you of promoting 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.740 war you're just documenting it that was their 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:23.220 argument We're just showing you what's happening 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:25.740 in our neighborhood. Exactly. But the critics 00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:28.660 and definitely the parents, they did not see 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:31.240 it that way. No, they did not. OK, let's get 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:33.560 into the assembly of this team, because it really 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:35.399 is like a heist movie, you know, where you have 00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:38.079 to recruit the specialist for each job. And it 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:41.899 all starts with the financier. Easy. Eric Wright. 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:44.899 Now, Easy wasn't a rapper. Not at first. No, 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:48.180 not at all. Easy was a street guy. He was a drug 00:04:48.180 --> 00:04:50.980 dealer. And he'd accumulated a pretty significant 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:53.600 amount of cash. We're talking tens of thousands 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.639 of dollars from the streets. And he had the foresight 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:58.600 to realize that the drug game had a very short 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.680 shelf life. You end up dead or in prison. Pretty 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.360 much the only two outcomes. So he wanted to go 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:06.399 legitimate. He wanted to get into the music business. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:10.240 So he co -founds Ruthless Records with a veteran 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:12.839 industry manager named Jerry Heller. And we will 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:14.800 get to Jerry Heller later because that relationship 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:19.560 is... Let's just say complicated. Oh, yeah. But 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:23.139 EZ needed talent. He had the money, but he didn't 00:05:23.139 --> 00:05:25.579 have the music. Right. And this brings us to 00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:27.959 a really great little anecdote about EZ's persistence. 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:30.699 He was trying to get an introduction to a guy 00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:33.819 named Steve Yano. And who was Steve Yano? Yano 00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:37.399 was a legend in the L .A. scene. He ran a record 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.220 stall at the Rhodium Swap Meet. The Swap Meet. 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:43.100 That feels so quintessentially West Coast. It 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:44.980 was the distribution hub. I mean, if you could 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:46.720 get your takes all at the rhodium, you had a 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.759 shot. Yano was the tastemaker. And Easy just 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:52.139 kept badgering him, trying to get into that inner 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:54.379 circle. And at first, Yano just blew him off. 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:56.560 He wasn't interested in some kid with drug money. 00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:59.379 But Easy just didn't take no for an answer. He 00:05:59.379 --> 00:06:01.839 was relentless, and that persistence is such 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.860 a key character trait for EZE. He eventually 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:07.899 wore Yano down. Yano was impressed by the hustle 00:06:07.899 --> 00:06:10.319 and arranged a meeting that would, well, literally 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:14.180 change history. He introduced EZE to Dr. Dre. 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:16.779 So you have the money meeting the music. Exactly. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.620 EZ had the capital and the vision for an empire. 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:23.199 Dre had the sonic architecture. He was so tired 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.620 of the world -class wrecking crew. He wanted 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:27.699 to make something harder, something that reflected 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:29.879 what he was actually seeing outside his window. 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:31.939 But they still needed a voice. They needed a 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:34.699 writer. And that's where Ice Cube comes in. O'Shea 00:06:34.699 --> 00:06:37.379 Jackson. Now, Cube wasn't a street guy, was he? 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:39.720 No, not in the same way. Cube was actually going 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:42.060 to school. He was studying architectural drafting 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:44.209 in Arizona for a bit, but he was always - He 00:06:44.209 --> 00:06:45.529 was always writing rhymes. He was in a local 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:48.990 group called CIA. So the initial core is Eazy 00:06:48.990 --> 00:06:52.649 -E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube. And we have to mention 00:06:52.649 --> 00:06:56.610 another producer who, well, who often gets erased 00:06:56.610 --> 00:06:58.470 from the history books a little bit. Arabian 00:06:58.470 --> 00:07:00.470 Prince. Yeah, Arabian Prince feels like the Pete 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:03.170 Best of NWA sometimes. He was a founding member. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.860 a producer and a rapper and his style was very 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.019 much rooted in that electro hop sound we were 00:07:09.019 --> 00:07:11.220 just talking about right and that tension between 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:13.639 the old electro sound and the new gangsta sound 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:17.079 is perfectly captured in their very first single 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:20.720 panic zone panic zone from 1987. i went back 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.040 and listened to this track and if you played 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:25.740 it for me totally out of context i would never 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:28.560 in a million years guess it was nwa it sounds 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:30.519 like a techno track it really does it's got that 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:33.500 rapid fire beat it's very synthesized fits that 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:36.560 arabian prince vibe perfectly but there is a 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:39.019 piece of trivia about this song that just it 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:41.180 absolutely blew my mind when i found it in the 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:43.660 research the title the title it wasn't originally 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:45.879 called panic zone tell the listener what it was 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:47.839 called this is incredible it was originally titled 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.860 hispanic zone hispanic zone yes it was co -written 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:54.259 by a mexican rapper named crazy d the song was 00:07:54.259 --> 00:07:56.660 basically about crazy d's life and the neighborhood 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:59.759 where he lived so we almost had The world's most 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:02.339 dangerous group launching with a track called 00:08:02.339 --> 00:08:05.259 Hispanic Zone. It's unbelievable. It's incredible 00:08:05.259 --> 00:08:07.939 to think about. But this is where we see the 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:10.279 business savvy of Dr. Dre kicking in really, 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:12.959 really early. So what did Dre do? Dre looked 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:15.600 at the title and he advised Crazy D to change 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.189 it. He basically said, look. If you put the word 00:08:18.189 --> 00:08:20.750 Hispanic in the title, it's going to hurt sales. 00:08:20.910 --> 00:08:23.949 It's going to pigeonhole the record. Wow. So 00:08:23.949 --> 00:08:26.829 even in 1987, before they're superstars, before 00:08:26.829 --> 00:08:29.990 any of this, Dre is thinking about branding. 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:32.720 and marketability. Completely. He's thinking 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:34.879 about broad appeal. So they changed Hispanic 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.440 to panic. It's such a massive what if moment 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:40.899 in music history. I mean, if I stick with Hispanic 00:08:40.899 --> 00:08:44.379 zone, maybe NWA never becomes NWA. Maybe they 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:46.379 just stay a local novelty act. It just shows 00:08:46.379 --> 00:08:47.940 that they were still trying to figure out their 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:49.700 identity. You know, they weren't locked in yet. 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.919 So to round out the group, Dre brings in his 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:56.049 buddy from the Wrecking Crew. DJ Yella, a really 00:08:56.049 --> 00:08:59.389 reliable, talented DJ who had great chemistry 00:08:59.389 --> 00:09:01.529 with Dre from their old days. And finally, they 00:09:01.529 --> 00:09:04.230 recruit the sixth member, the final piece of 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:07.269 the puzzle. MC Ren, Lorenzo Patterson, just a 00:09:07.269 --> 00:09:10.110 ferocious lyricist who brought this very dark, 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:12.870 very serious edge to the group. So the team is 00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:15.950 assembled. They release a compilation album called 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:19.710 N .W .A. and the Posse in 1987. Which is a bit 00:09:19.710 --> 00:09:21.490 of a misnomer, isn't it? Yeah, I looked at the 00:09:21.490 --> 00:09:24.350 track list. NWA is barely on it. They only appear 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:26.669 on, what, three of the 11 tracks? It was really 00:09:26.669 --> 00:09:28.850 more of a showcase for ruthless records. You 00:09:28.850 --> 00:09:32.909 had Panic Zone, you had 8 -Ball, Dope Man, and 00:09:32.909 --> 00:09:36.029 Eazy -E's big solo track, Boys in the Hood. But 00:09:36.029 --> 00:09:39.169 even with that really limited output, it charted. 00:09:39.169 --> 00:09:42.629 It hit number 39 on the Billboard Top R &B Hip 00:09:42.629 --> 00:09:45.080 Hop Chart. Which was the proof of concept. It 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:46.919 showed Eazy and Jerry Eller that there was a 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:49.360 hungry audience for this content. The appetizer 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:52.000 was a hit. Now it was time for the main course. 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:55.759 1988. The Sonic Molotov Cocktail. Straight out 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:57.679 of Compton. This is the moment. This is when 00:09:57.679 --> 00:09:59.559 everything changes. Let's break down the opening 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.179 salvo. Because I don't think there has ever been 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:05.240 an album in any genre that starts with three 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.860 punches this hard. It's completely relentless. 00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:09.980 Okay, so track one. Straight out of Compton. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.830 The introduction. It's the manifesto. You are 00:10:12.830 --> 00:10:15.789 now about to witness the strength of street knowledge. 00:10:16.470 --> 00:10:18.929 That opening line, that's the thesis for the 00:10:18.929 --> 00:10:21.690 entire album. They are telling you right from 00:10:21.690 --> 00:10:24.110 the jump, we are not from New York. We aren't 00:10:24.110 --> 00:10:26.309 from the glamorous parts of L .A. We are from 00:10:26.309 --> 00:10:28.990 Compton. And they made Compton sound like a war 00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:31.269 zone and a badge of honor at the same time. They 00:10:31.269 --> 00:10:33.590 put it on the map. Before this album, Compton 00:10:33.590 --> 00:10:36.309 was just another suburb. After this, it was a 00:10:36.309 --> 00:10:38.350 mythological place in the global imagination. 00:10:38.809 --> 00:10:40.799 They had to go straight into track two. And this 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.299 is the one that really, really scared the establishment. 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:47.080 Fuck that police. It's hard to overstate how 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:49.700 shocking this was in 1988. I mean, you have to 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:51.580 remember, this is the era of just say no. This 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:54.419 is the era of respectability politics. And here 00:10:54.419 --> 00:10:56.639 you have a group of young black men putting the 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:00.379 entire institution of the police on trial. Literally. 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:03.210 The song is structured like a court case. It 00:11:03.210 --> 00:11:05.669 is. Judge Stray presiding. And they aren't just, 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:07.549 you know, yelling insults at the police. They 00:11:07.549 --> 00:11:09.690 are listing specific grievances. They're talking 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:11.509 about racial profiling. They're talking about 00:11:11.509 --> 00:11:14.750 brutality. The fact that, as the lyrics say, 00:11:14.950 --> 00:11:17.509 police think they have the authority to kill 00:11:17.509 --> 00:11:20.210 a minority. It was a protest song. Full stop. 00:11:20.470 --> 00:11:23.350 It absolutely was. It was a primal scream against 00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:25.529 the conditions they were living under. This wasn't 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:29.129 manufactured rage. It was real. And then, before 00:11:29.129 --> 00:11:31.149 you can even catch your breath, you're at track 00:11:31.149 --> 00:11:35.039 three. Gangsta Gangsta. Which pivots from the 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:38.259 external enemy, the police, to the internal lifestyle. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:40.700 This is the track that describes the worldview 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:43.440 of the gangsta. Life ain't nothing but bitches 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:46.379 and money. It's so nihilistic. It's hedonistic. 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:48.720 And it paints a picture of a world where empathy 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.039 is a weakness. And this is where the sociological 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.919 aspect comes in. They're showing you the product 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:56.019 of the environment they just described in the 00:11:56.019 --> 00:11:57.879 first two tracks. No, we mentioned that term 00:11:57.879 --> 00:12:00.629 gangsta rap earlier. And the media, they heard 00:12:00.629 --> 00:12:03.490 Gangsta Gangsta. They said, aha, that's the genre 00:12:03.490 --> 00:12:06.629 name. It was an easy label and a very convenient 00:12:06.629 --> 00:12:08.909 one for them because it allowed the media to 00:12:08.909 --> 00:12:12.409 just dismiss the music as being criminal. If 00:12:12.409 --> 00:12:14.570 you call it gangster rap, you're implying that 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:16.889 the artists are just thugs promoting violence. 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:20.509 But Ice Cube hated that label. He despised it. 00:12:20.509 --> 00:12:22.850 He called it reality rap. Explain that distinction 00:12:22.850 --> 00:12:25.389 for us. Why does that specific wording matter 00:12:25.389 --> 00:12:29.549 so much? Because words have power. Reality rap 00:12:29.549 --> 00:12:32.250 frames the artist as a journalist, a mirror. 00:12:32.750 --> 00:12:35.309 Ice Cube's argument was always, don't shoot the 00:12:35.309 --> 00:12:37.710 messenger. You know, if you don't like what we're 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:39.330 saying in our songs, maybe you should fix the 00:12:39.330 --> 00:12:41.330 neighborhood we're rapping about. He was saying 00:12:41.330 --> 00:12:43.190 that they were documenting the symptoms of a 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:45.710 sick society, not causing the sickness itself. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:48.320 That is a crucial distinction. Let's talk about 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:50.379 the production for a second, because the sound 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:52.799 of this album is just as important as the lyrics. 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:55.019 Oh, this is the Dr. Dre genius really coming 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:58.039 into bloom. It's so noisy. It's chaotic. It's 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:01.139 a wall of sound. Dre was using samples, live 00:13:01.139 --> 00:13:03.519 instrumentation, and heavy, heavy percussion. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.980 The drums on this album, specifically those TR 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:10.039 -808 kicks, they hit you in the chest. It really 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:11.700 does sound like the city. It sounds like traffic 00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:14.419 and sirens and people yelling. Precisely. It's 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:16.929 immersive. And then you have the writing. And 00:13:16.929 --> 00:13:18.590 this is another area where the casual listener 00:13:18.590 --> 00:13:21.690 might get confused. Easy is the front man. He's 00:13:21.690 --> 00:13:24.070 on the cover. He's the star. But he wasn't writing 00:13:24.070 --> 00:13:27.950 the words. No. The DOC, Ice Cube, and MC Ren 00:13:27.950 --> 00:13:30.570 were the primary writers. So when you hear Easy 00:13:30.570 --> 00:13:33.129 rapping those iconic lines in Boys in the Hood 00:13:33.129 --> 00:13:36.350 or 8 -Ball, he's essentially an actor performing 00:13:36.350 --> 00:13:40.350 a script written by Cube. In a sense, yes. But 00:13:40.350 --> 00:13:42.870 we can't discredit Easy's performance. I mean, 00:13:42.870 --> 00:13:45.610 he had that voice. That high -pitched. nasal 00:13:45.610 --> 00:13:47.929 wine. It shouldn't have worked, but it was perfect. 00:13:48.129 --> 00:13:50.490 It cut through the heavy bass like a knife. He 00:13:50.490 --> 00:13:52.590 had a charisma that you just can't teach. So 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:54.669 even if he didn't write the words, he owned them. 00:13:54.809 --> 00:13:57.309 Now, you would think that a group rapping about 00:13:57.309 --> 00:13:59.730 killing police and selling drugs would be completely 00:13:59.730 --> 00:14:03.870 blacklisted by the industry. And well, they were 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:06.629 banned from almost every single mainstream radio 00:14:06.629 --> 00:14:09.950 station. MTV refused to play the video for Straight 00:14:09.950 --> 00:14:12.049 Outta Compton. And yet the album went double 00:14:12.049 --> 00:14:14.830 platinum. Which is millions and millions of copies. 00:14:15.169 --> 00:14:18.710 How? I mean, how do you sell millions of records 00:14:18.710 --> 00:14:21.610 with absolutely zero airplay? You leverage the 00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:24.309 controversy. This album was one of the first 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:26.850 big adopters of the parental advisory label. 00:14:27.029 --> 00:14:29.470 That black and white sticker. Parental advisory. 00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:33.850 Explicit lyrics. The RIAA had introduced that 00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:37.750 standard stickering around 1985, but NWA wore 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:40.049 it like a badge of honor. But wait, usually a 00:14:40.049 --> 00:14:42.659 warning label is the kiss of death. I mean, it 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:44.700 means Walmart won't stock you. It means parents 00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:46.799 won't buy it for their kids. For a pop artist, 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.059 yes. For a rebellious rap group. It was the greatest 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:52.860 marketing tool ever invented. It was a giant 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:55.539 sign that told every teenager in America, this 00:14:55.539 --> 00:14:58.019 is the forbidden fruit. This is the stuff your 00:14:58.019 --> 00:15:01.039 mom absolutely hates. Exactly. Nothing makes 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:03.120 a suburban kid want to buy a tape more than knowing 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.559 his parents and the FBI hate it. The ban created 00:15:05.559 --> 00:15:07.460 this mystique. You had to seek it out. It became 00:15:07.460 --> 00:15:09.679 a word of mouth phenomenon. And speaking of the 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.000 FBI. We have to talk about the letter because 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.960 this feels like a plot point from a movie that 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.500 is just too ridiculous to be true. But it is 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:21.039 100 % documented fact. So who started this? Where 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:22.879 did the pressure come from? It began with an 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.840 organization called Focus on the Family, a conservative 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.409 Christian group. They caught wind of the lyrics 00:15:28.409 --> 00:15:32.129 to Fuck That Police and were predictably horrified. 00:15:32.389 --> 00:15:34.450 So they lobbied Washington. They applied pressure. 00:15:34.629 --> 00:15:38.009 And somehow this pressure reached the desk of 00:15:38.009 --> 00:15:41.629 a man named Milt Alaric. And who was Milt Alaric? 00:15:41.690 --> 00:15:44.009 He wasn't just some low -level clerk. He was 00:15:44.009 --> 00:15:46.470 an assistant director of the FBI. He was based 00:15:46.470 --> 00:15:49.009 in Washington, D .C., dealing with major federal 00:15:49.009 --> 00:15:52.049 crimes. And this guy takes time out of his day 00:15:52.049 --> 00:15:55.169 to write a letter to a small record label in 00:15:55.169 --> 00:15:58.220 a strip mall in California. It is absurd. He 00:15:58.220 --> 00:16:00.279 wrote a letter to Ruthless Records and their 00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:02.639 distributor Priority Records. What did it say? 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:05.379 It was on official FBI letterhead, and it said 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:08.159 essentially that advocating violence and assault 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:10.580 is wrong and that the law enforcement community 00:16:10.580 --> 00:16:13.539 took exception to their music. That sounds like 00:16:13.539 --> 00:16:16.019 a veiled threat. Nice little record label you 00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:17.600 have there. Shame if something were to happen 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:19.980 to it. It was an intimidation tactic. The goal 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:21.960 was to scare them. You know, maybe get the label 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:24.100 to drop them, get the distributor to back out. 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.440 But it backfired spectacularly. Completely. I 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.519 mean, imagine you're Eazy -E. You are selling 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:31.480 an image of being the world's most dangerous 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:34.870 group. And then the Federal Bureau of Investigation 00:16:34.870 --> 00:16:38.049 sends you a letter confirming that you are, in 00:16:38.049 --> 00:16:41.210 fact, dangerous. You frame that letter. You frame 00:16:41.210 --> 00:16:44.149 it and you send a press release to every newspaper 00:16:44.149 --> 00:16:47.990 in the country. Look, the FBI is scared of us. 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:51.070 It legitimized them. It proved to the fans that 00:16:51.070 --> 00:16:54.269 NWA wasn't just playing pretend. They were actually 00:16:54.269 --> 00:16:56.250 upsetting the government. The letter is actually 00:16:56.250 --> 00:16:57.870 in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now, which 00:16:57.870 --> 00:17:00.610 is just... The ultimate irony. But it wasn't 00:17:00.610 --> 00:17:02.850 all just free publicity. There were real world 00:17:02.850 --> 00:17:05.069 consequences from this. Well, yeah. The blue 00:17:05.069 --> 00:17:07.710 wall of silence went up. Police departments all 00:17:07.710 --> 00:17:09.569 across the country started communicating with 00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:11.750 each other. They flat out refused to provide 00:17:11.750 --> 00:17:14.369 security for NWA concerts. And you can't get 00:17:14.369 --> 00:17:17.049 insurance for a stadium show without police security. 00:17:17.410 --> 00:17:20.589 Exactly. So they effectively couldn't tour. They 00:17:20.589 --> 00:17:22.589 were selling millions and millions of albums, 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:24.589 but they couldn't play the arenas that wanted 00:17:24.589 --> 00:17:26.630 to book them. It hit them right in the pocketbook. 00:17:27.099 --> 00:17:28.500 I want to zoom out for a second and look at the 00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:30.539 politics of this. We mentioned the war on crime 00:17:30.539 --> 00:17:33.500 earlier. Yeah. The late 80s was a very specific 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:35.740 political climate. You had the Reagan administration 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:38.660 followed by Bush. The whole rhetoric was tough 00:17:38.660 --> 00:17:41.619 on crime. We saw the militarization of police 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:44.079 forces, the introduction of mandatory minimum 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:47.039 sentences and these huge crackdowns on inner 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.339 city neighborhoods. So when N .W .A. comes out 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:51.160 with this album, they aren't just entertainment. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.740 No. There's a researcher, Brian J. McCann, who 00:17:55.740 --> 00:17:58.339 has studied this extensively, and he argues that 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:01.380 the political elite viewed gangster rap as an 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:04.180 existential threat. An existential threat. That 00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:06.960 is a heavy term. It means a threat to your very 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.640 existence or the existence of your system. They 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:12.599 truly feared that this music was going to radicalize 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:14.559 the youth. And it wasn't just black youth they 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.200 were worried about, was it? That was the real 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:18.680 fear. They were terrified that white suburban 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.400 kids were listening to Fuck the Police and starting 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.589 to question authority. NWA was effectively exporting 00:18:24.589 --> 00:18:26.789 the get it perspective directly into the living 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:29.250 rooms of middle America. So fuck that police 00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:33.049 became this symbol of resistance against the 00:18:33.049 --> 00:18:36.049 system. Neoliberalism. Neoliberalism in this 00:18:36.049 --> 00:18:38.650 context really means the dismantling of social 00:18:38.650 --> 00:18:41.150 safety nets while at the same time increasing 00:18:41.150 --> 00:18:44.529 the power of the police state. NWA was pointing 00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:46.930 a finger and saying the system isn't broken. 00:18:47.069 --> 00:18:49.950 It's designed to crush us. And that message resonated 00:18:49.950 --> 00:18:52.529 not just in Compton but globally. So they're 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:54.410 on top of the world. They're political icons. 00:18:54.650 --> 00:18:57.789 They're rich. Yeah. But money. Money changes 00:18:57.789 --> 00:19:00.130 everything. And that brings us to the first fracture. 00:19:00.289 --> 00:19:04.410 Late 1989, early 1990. Ice cube, please. the 00:19:04.410 --> 00:19:06.549 primary writer, the voice of the group's constants. 00:19:06.829 --> 00:19:09.069 He just walks away. Why? I mean, what was the 00:19:09.069 --> 00:19:11.009 specific issue? It all comes down to the contract, 00:19:11.210 --> 00:19:12.849 and we need to get a little technical here to 00:19:12.849 --> 00:19:15.329 understand why Cube was so angry. Please, break 00:19:15.329 --> 00:19:17.390 it down for us. Okay, so in the music industry, 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:20.569 you have points or royalties on an album. Eazy 00:19:20.569 --> 00:19:23.509 -E owned the label, Ruthless Records. Jerry Heller 00:19:23.509 --> 00:19:25.289 was the manager. See, Heller manages the group, 00:19:25.309 --> 00:19:28.069 and Eazy -E owns the recordings. Correct, but 00:19:28.069 --> 00:19:30.789 here's the problem. Jerry Heller was taking a 00:19:30.789 --> 00:19:33.450 percentage as the manager, but because he was 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:35.910 also Eazy's business partner in the label, there 00:19:35.910 --> 00:19:38.250 were accusations of double dipping. Where did 00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:40.690 that leave the rest of the guys? With the scraps. 00:19:41.150 --> 00:19:43.589 Ice Cube got a lawyer and looked at the books. 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:46.529 He realized that he had written roughly half 00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:49.920 of the lyrics on a double platinum album. Straight 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:52.619 out of Compton had generated millions and millions 00:19:52.619 --> 00:19:55.180 in revenue. And how much was Cube taking home 00:19:55.180 --> 00:19:57.660 from that? Reports vary, but Cube claimed he 00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:00.859 had only been paid about $32 ,000. $32 ,000? 00:20:01.059 --> 00:20:03.519 For writing half of one of the biggest, most 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:05.680 important albums of the decade? The math just 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:08.259 didn't add up. Cube felt he was being completely 00:20:08.259 --> 00:20:10.859 exploited. He felt Eazy and Jerry were getting 00:20:10.859 --> 00:20:13.339 rich off his labor. So he refused to sign the 00:20:13.339 --> 00:20:15.119 long -term contract they offered him. He bet 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:16.900 on himself. He left the biggest group in the 00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:19.599 world to go solo. It was a massive, massive risk. 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:22.119 And this kicked off the diss wars. Because in 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.200 hip -hop, you don't just send a cease and desist 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:28.180 letter. You send a beat. Round one. N .W .A. 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.460 strikes first. They release the EP 100 Miles 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:34.289 and Run In in 1990. and they attacked him pretty 00:20:34.289 --> 00:20:37.029 directly on that oh yeah on the title track dre 00:20:37.029 --> 00:20:40.289 raps we started with five but yo one couldn't 00:20:40.289 --> 00:20:42.630 take it so now it's four because the fifth couldn't 00:20:42.630 --> 00:20:45.769 make it calling him a quitter soft and the music 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:48.670 video was even more explicit it showed the four 00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:51.529 remaining members standing together united while 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:54.150 an ice cube look -alike is being released from 00:20:54.150 --> 00:20:57.079 a jail cell the implication being We're the real 00:20:57.079 --> 00:20:59.599 street guys doing time and you're the sellout 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:01.500 who couldn't handle it. They escalated it even 00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:04.240 further on their next album, Evil Forzaggin, 00:21:04.299 --> 00:21:07.680 which is niggas for life spelled backwards. On 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:10.519 the track, Real Niggas, they call him a Benedict 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:13.799 Arnold. That is a very specific historical reference 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:16.660 for a rap song. It implies treason. To them, 00:21:16.700 --> 00:21:18.880 Cube wasn't just a guy who quit a job. He was 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.039 a traitor to the family. So Cube is getting hammered 00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:24.509 from all sides. How does he respond? Well, at 00:21:24.509 --> 00:21:26.369 first he kept it pretty cool, little jabs here 00:21:26.369 --> 00:21:28.490 and there on his own records. But then on his 00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:31.109 album Death Certificate, he decided it was time 00:21:31.109 --> 00:21:34.529 to drop the nuclear bomb. No Vaseline. This track, 00:21:34.609 --> 00:21:38.029 it is widely considered one of the most brutal, 00:21:38.150 --> 00:21:40.710 most effective diss tracks in the history of 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:43.490 the genre. Why? What makes it so effective, so 00:21:43.490 --> 00:21:46.150 devastating? It's the specificity. He doesn't 00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:48.950 just call them names. He surgically dismantles 00:21:48.950 --> 00:21:51.690 their business arrangement. He raps, you got 00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:54.690 jealous and I got my own company. but I'm a man 00:21:54.690 --> 00:21:57.789 and ain't nobody humping me. Implying that the 00:21:57.789 --> 00:22:00.670 rest of the group were being, let's say, compromised 00:22:00.670 --> 00:22:03.069 by their business relationship with Jerry Heller. 00:22:03.190 --> 00:22:06.569 He painted Eazy -E not as a boss, but as a puppet. 00:22:06.970 --> 00:22:09.609 He called the rest of the group bozos and carpent 00:22:09.609 --> 00:22:12.450 copies. He effectively told the entire world, 00:22:12.490 --> 00:22:14.349 these guys are getting ripped off and they are 00:22:14.349 --> 00:22:16.670 too stupid to even realize it. But we have to 00:22:16.670 --> 00:22:18.470 address the controversy here. There were lines 00:22:18.470 --> 00:22:20.230 in that song that crossed the line for a lot 00:22:20.230 --> 00:22:23.619 of people. Yes, absolutely. Cube directed significant 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:26.079 vitriol at Jerry Heller, and he specifically 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:29.140 targeted his Jewish heritage. He refers to Heller 00:22:29.140 --> 00:22:31.460 as a white Jew telling you what to do. And that 00:22:31.460 --> 00:22:34.299 sparked accusations of anti -Semitism. Rightfully 00:22:34.299 --> 00:22:38.160 so. It was ugly. It caused a firestorm of condemnation 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:40.720 from civil rights groups like the Simon Wiesenthal 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.079 Center. But if you look at it strictly from the 00:22:43.079 --> 00:22:46.680 perspective of a battle rap. It worked. It completely 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:50.099 neutralized them. It made NWA look weak. It made 00:22:50.099 --> 00:22:51.859 them look like they were being controlled. And 00:22:51.859 --> 00:22:54.180 while all this infighting is happening, the sound 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.119 is changing. We're moving into the early 90s. 00:22:56.140 --> 00:22:59.579 Dr. Dre is evolving. That frantic, noisy, sample 00:22:59.579 --> 00:23:01.480 -heavy sound of Straight Outta Compton is being 00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:05.299 replaced. IG funk. E -funk. Gangsta funk. Dre 00:23:05.299 --> 00:23:07.539 started slowing things down, sampling Parliament 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:10.460 Funkadelic, George Clinton. It's got that slower 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:13.460 tempo, that high -pitched. whining synthesizer 00:23:13.460 --> 00:23:15.779 line that just became iconic. It's smoother. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:18.380 It's music for driving a lowrider on a Sunday 00:23:18.380 --> 00:23:20.460 afternoon, not for running from the cops. You 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:22.519 can hear the prototype of that sound on the NWA 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:25.140 track, Always Into Something. And despite Cube 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.900 leaving, their second full -length album, Niggas 00:23:27.900 --> 00:23:30.740 For Life, hit number one on the Billboard 200. 00:23:31.079 --> 00:23:34.059 Which is a huge milestone. It was the first hardcore 00:23:34.059 --> 00:23:36.920 rap album to top the pop charts. It proved they 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.039 didn't need radio. They were the mainstream now. 00:23:39.259 --> 00:23:42.890 But... With that mainstream success came a much 00:23:42.890 --> 00:23:46.750 darker, much more intense spotlight. And we have 00:23:46.750 --> 00:23:49.049 to talk about the Dee Barnes incident. This is 00:23:49.049 --> 00:23:51.009 a very dark chapter, and it's important that 00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:53.670 we are very clear about the facts. In January 00:23:53.670 --> 00:23:57.910 of 1991, Dr. Dre assaulted a TV host named Dee 00:23:57.910 --> 00:24:00.930 Barnes. She hosted Pump It Up, which was a popular 00:24:00.930 --> 00:24:03.230 hip hop show at the time. It was. And the show 00:24:03.230 --> 00:24:05.410 had aired a segment about the feud between N 00:24:05.410 --> 00:24:08.710 .W .A. and Ice Cube. NWA felt the coverage was 00:24:08.710 --> 00:24:11.329 biased towards Cube. They felt it made them look 00:24:11.329 --> 00:24:13.750 bad. So they saw her at a party. At an album 00:24:13.750 --> 00:24:16.750 release party in Hollywood, Dre approached her. 00:24:16.869 --> 00:24:19.130 And according to the reports and Barnes' own 00:24:19.130 --> 00:24:22.230 account, he assaulted her brutally. He slammed 00:24:22.230 --> 00:24:24.869 her face and her body against a brick wall. He 00:24:24.869 --> 00:24:27.190 tried to throw her down a flight of stairs. He 00:24:27.190 --> 00:24:29.150 followed her into the women's restroom and grabbed 00:24:29.150 --> 00:24:30.789 her by the hair. It sounds like a terrifying 00:24:30.789 --> 00:24:33.569 ordeal. It was. And what makes it even worse, 00:24:33.589 --> 00:24:35.890 in retrospect, was the group's reaction at the 00:24:35.890 --> 00:24:38.509 time. They didn't apologize. They showed no remorse. 00:24:38.630 --> 00:24:40.730 I remember reading a quote from Dre. He told 00:24:40.730 --> 00:24:42.970 Rolling Stone magazine, quote, It ain't no big 00:24:42.970 --> 00:24:45.150 thing. I just threw her through a door. It ain't 00:24:45.150 --> 00:24:48.710 no big thing. MC Ren said she deserved it. Easy 00:24:48.710 --> 00:24:51.490 E joked about it. It showed a level of misogyny 00:24:51.490 --> 00:24:53.970 that went way beyond just lyrics on a record. 00:24:54.390 --> 00:24:56.910 This was real -world violence against a woman 00:24:56.910 --> 00:24:58.809 in the industry. It's a permanent stain on the 00:24:58.809 --> 00:25:01.849 legacy. It is. Dre has since apologized multiple 00:25:01.849 --> 00:25:04.009 times over the years. He stated he was young, 00:25:04.130 --> 00:25:06.450 he was drinking, he was out of his mind, and 00:25:06.450 --> 00:25:09.230 that he has worked to be a better man. But we 00:25:09.230 --> 00:25:11.490 can't erase that history. It's part of the story. 00:25:11.769 --> 00:25:15.380 So 1991. They are number one on the charts. They 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:17.740 are more controversial than ever. Yeah. And then 00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:21.019 the second fracture. Dr. Dre leaves. The architect 00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:22.839 of the sound walked away. Is it the same story 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:24.960 as Ice Cube? It's the same story. It was about 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:27.940 money. It was about contracts. Dre, with help 00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:30.619 from his bodyguard, Suge Knight, realized that 00:25:30.619 --> 00:25:32.720 Jerry Heller and Easy were taking the lion's 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:35.859 share of the profits. But this time... Dre didn't 00:25:35.859 --> 00:25:38.440 just leave alone. He had a new partner. Suge 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:40.559 Knight. Maybe the most intimidating figure in 00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:42.960 music history. A former football player. Just 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:45.440 a massive guy. With a reputation for violence 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.359 and intimidation. Dre and Suge formed Death Row 00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:51.039 Records. But Dre was still under contract to 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:53.700 Ruthless. And this is where the lore gets really 00:25:53.700 --> 00:25:56.740 crazy. Suge Knight went to meet with Eazy -E 00:25:56.740 --> 00:25:59.279 to negotiate Dre's release from his contract. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.579 Negotiate. The story goes that Sue just showed 00:26:02.579 --> 00:26:05.019 up with guys holding baseball bats and lead pipes. 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:07.880 He allegedly told Easy that he knew where his 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.339 mother lived. He coerced him. He threatened him 00:26:10.339 --> 00:26:13.079 into signing. That is the allegation. And Easy 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:16.839 signed the release. But, and this is where Easy's 00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:18.579 business genius comes back in one more time, 00:26:18.740 --> 00:26:21.740 he didn't sign away everything. What did he keep? 00:26:21.819 --> 00:26:24.380 He kept a percentage of Dr. Dre's future publishing. 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:27.000 Wait. So that means... It means that when Dr. 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:29.440 Dre went on to release The Chronic, one of the 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:31.660 biggest and most influential albums of all -time 00:26:31.660 --> 00:26:34.839 Ruthless records was getting paid. Every single 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:37.319 time, nothing but a G -thang played on the radio. 00:26:37.579 --> 00:26:39.539 Easy, you gotta check. That's the ultimate last 00:26:39.539 --> 00:26:42.599 laugh. It infuriated Dre, and it sparked diss 00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:46.039 wars. Round two. This time, it was Ruthless versus 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:48.599 Death Row. And Dre fired the first shot. with 00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:51.380 Fuck With Dre Day. And the video. Oh, the video. 00:26:51.619 --> 00:26:54.480 They had a character called Sleazy E, a tiny 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:57.380 guy with a jury curl running around looking desperate 00:26:57.380 --> 00:27:00.500 for money. It was designed to be as humiliating 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:02.619 as possible. People thought Easy was finished. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.440 They thought, without Dre's beats, Easy is nothing. 00:27:05.660 --> 00:27:08.940 But Easy proved them all wrong. He released an 00:27:08.940 --> 00:27:14.480 EP called It's On, Dr. Dre, 187 Killa. And 187 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:17.019 is the police code for murder. He was going for 00:27:17.019 --> 00:27:20.079 the kill. The main track, Real Mythy Fuckin' 00:27:20.079 --> 00:27:22.579 G's, is just a brilliant piece of battle rap. 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:25.400 How did he attack Dre? What was his angle? He 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:27.440 went right after his authenticity. He called 00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:30.079 him a studio gangster. He said Dre wasn't really 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:31.759 from the streets. He was just an actor playing 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:35.259 a part. And unlike NWA's attacks on Cube, Eazy 00:27:35.259 --> 00:27:38.119 had visual evidence. The photos. Eazy dug up 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:40.660 those old promo photos of the world -class Wrecking 00:27:40.660 --> 00:27:43.410 Crew. The sequence. The lipstick, the makeup, 00:27:43.529 --> 00:27:45.829 the lace gloves. And he put them in the music 00:27:45.829 --> 00:27:48.230 video and on the album's insert. I mean, imagine 00:27:48.230 --> 00:27:51.289 being a fan in 1993. You think Dr. Dre is the 00:27:51.289 --> 00:27:53.089 hardest guy on the planet. And then Eazy shows 00:27:53.089 --> 00:27:54.789 you a picture of him looking like a member of 00:27:54.789 --> 00:27:58.109 a disco group. It was devastating. Eazy rapped, 00:27:58.109 --> 00:28:00.430 damn, it's a trip. How a nigga could switch so 00:28:00.430 --> 00:28:02.910 quick from wearing lipstick to smoking on chronic 00:28:02.910 --> 00:28:06.960 at picnics. That line. It just destroyed Drez 00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:09.319 Street cred for a minute there. It completely 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:11.740 leveled the playing field. It showed that Easy 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:15.640 could survive and thrive on his own. Where is 00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:18.180 MC Ren in all of this? Ren was kind of stuck 00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:20.339 in the middle. He stayed with Roofless Records. 00:28:20.539 --> 00:28:23.220 He was critical of Eazy in interviews. He called 00:28:23.220 --> 00:28:25.880 him a big head and a wannabe megastar, but he 00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:28.180 didn't leave. He was just trying to build his 00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:30.799 solo career while his two best friends were tearing 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:32.839 each other apart in public. It felt like this 00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:35.180 feud would just last forever. It was so personal, 00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:38.420 so bitter. Life has a way of intervening. March 00:28:38.420 --> 00:28:42.049 of 1995. EZ goes to the hospital. He thinks he 00:28:42.049 --> 00:28:44.529 has asthma or maybe bronchitis. He's been having 00:28:44.529 --> 00:28:46.630 trouble breathing for a while. And the diagnosis 00:28:46.630 --> 00:28:49.329 shocks the entire world. It wasn't asthma. It 00:28:49.329 --> 00:28:51.930 was AIDS. And it was very advanced. It happened 00:28:51.930 --> 00:28:55.650 so unbelievably fast. Incredibly fast. From the 00:28:55.650 --> 00:28:57.829 time of his diagnosis to his death was only a 00:28:57.829 --> 00:29:01.390 matter of weeks. He died on March 26, 1995. He 00:29:01.390 --> 00:29:04.730 was only 31 years old. Just a baby, really. Was 00:29:04.730 --> 00:29:06.630 there any reconciliation before he passed away? 00:29:06.789 --> 00:29:09.960 There was. Eazy and MC Ren patched things up. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.799 They even recorded a duet called Tha Muthafuckin' 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:15.799 Real. And importantly, Dre visited him in the 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:18.380 hospital. He did. He did. By that point, Eazy 00:29:18.380 --> 00:29:21.559 was unconscious. But Dre went to his bedside. 00:29:21.859 --> 00:29:24.220 It was a moment of silence between former brothers. 00:29:24.579 --> 00:29:27.339 And what about DJ Yella? Yella was the loyal 00:29:27.339 --> 00:29:29.940 soldier to the very end. He was the only member 00:29:29.940 --> 00:29:32.480 who never beefed with Eazy. He stayed by his 00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:35.339 side. He produced Yeezy's final album. He was 00:29:35.339 --> 00:29:37.720 a pallbearer at the funeral. Yeezy's death seemed 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:40.059 to just snap everyone out of the hate. It forced 00:29:40.059 --> 00:29:43.119 a total reevaluation. The anger just evaporated. 00:29:43.259 --> 00:29:45.339 In later songs like What's the Difference, Dre 00:29:45.339 --> 00:29:47.839 raps about Yeezy with pure love. He says, I'm 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:50.500 still with you. The tragedy cemented the bond 00:29:50.500 --> 00:29:52.599 that the business had broken. Let's fast forward 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.859 a bit into the late 90s, early 2000s. The legacy 00:29:55.859 --> 00:29:59.180 continued to grow. And in 2000, we had the Up 00:29:59.180 --> 00:30:01.609 in Smoke tour. This was like the Avengers assembling 00:30:01.609 --> 00:30:05.009 for hip -hop. You had Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, 00:30:05.210 --> 00:30:07.089 Snoop Dogg, Eminem. It was the biggest hip -hop 00:30:07.089 --> 00:30:09.269 tour of all time. And they did a semi -reunion 00:30:09.269 --> 00:30:12.309 on that tour. They did. For the NWA portion of 00:30:12.309 --> 00:30:14.769 the show, Snoop Dogg would come out and rap Yeezy's 00:30:14.769 --> 00:30:17.710 verses. It was a tribute. So why didn't they 00:30:17.710 --> 00:30:19.910 ever release a full reunion album? I know they 00:30:19.910 --> 00:30:23.109 tried to. Not these niggas again. That was the 00:30:23.109 --> 00:30:25.549 working title for it. It's a great title. It 00:30:25.549 --> 00:30:28.289 is. It failed because of corporate red tape. 00:30:28.349 --> 00:30:30.730 It was a business nightmare. You had Dre on Aftermath 00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:33.750 Interscope. Cube was on priority. Other rights 00:30:33.750 --> 00:30:36.210 were held by No Limit Records. The lawyers just 00:30:36.210 --> 00:30:37.890 couldn't figure out how to make the deal work 00:30:37.890 --> 00:30:40.289 between three competing major labels. It's so 00:30:40.289 --> 00:30:42.839 ironic. The business is what started the group 00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:45.079 and the business is what prevented the reunion. 00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:48.460 Exactly. But the story got a massive second wind 00:30:48.460 --> 00:30:51.359 in 2015 with the movie Straight Outta Compton. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:53.720 This film was in what they called development 00:30:53.720 --> 00:30:56.220 hell for a decade. Nobody thought they could 00:30:56.220 --> 00:30:59.079 pull it off. But it was a monster hit. Over $200 00:30:59.079 --> 00:31:01.980 million at the box office. And the casting. I 00:31:01.980 --> 00:31:04.910 mean... O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his own father, 00:31:05.089 --> 00:31:07.329 Ice Cube. That could have been a total disaster. 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:09.630 Yeah. It could have been nepotism gone wrong. 00:31:09.789 --> 00:31:12.930 But he nailed it. He had the scowl. He had the 00:31:12.930 --> 00:31:15.549 cadence. He studied for years to get it right. 00:31:15.690 --> 00:31:18.410 And having Dre and Cube as producers meant the 00:31:18.410 --> 00:31:21.490 music was perfect. And Easy's widow, Tamika Woodswright, 00:31:21.650 --> 00:31:25.309 was involved to protect Easy's legacy. Now, it 00:31:25.309 --> 00:31:28.089 sanitized some things. It famously glossed over 00:31:28.089 --> 00:31:30.289 the Dee Barnes incident, for example. But it 00:31:30.289 --> 00:31:32.369 captured the energy and the spirit of that era 00:31:32.369 --> 00:31:34.930 perfectly. Let's talk about the musical legacy 00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:37.009 as we start to wrap this up. Yeah. We mentioned 00:31:37.009 --> 00:31:39.750 nu metal earlier. Connect those dots for me. 00:31:39.809 --> 00:31:43.230 How do you get from N .W .A. to a band like Slipknot? 00:31:43.369 --> 00:31:45.190 It's all about the aggression and the rhythm. 00:31:45.690 --> 00:31:48.269 N .W .A. introduced a style of rapping that was 00:31:48.269 --> 00:31:51.430 really percussive, shouting on the beat. If you 00:31:51.430 --> 00:31:53.750 listen to the vocal delivery of bands like Korn 00:31:53.750 --> 00:31:56.650 or System of a Down, that staccato, rhythmic 00:31:56.650 --> 00:31:58.970 yelling is directly descended from the hostility 00:31:58.970 --> 00:32:01.029 of Straight Outta Compton. It's the sound of 00:32:01.029 --> 00:32:03.410 alienated male rage. And, of course, Eminem. 00:32:03.470 --> 00:32:05.990 Eminem is the direct spiritual successor. Dr. 00:32:06.029 --> 00:32:08.390 Dre discovered him, mentored him, and on Forgot 00:32:08.390 --> 00:32:10.990 About Dre, Eminem literally raps the instruction. 00:32:11.349 --> 00:32:14.109 Just study a tape of N .W .A. He's openly acknowledging 00:32:14.109 --> 00:32:16.660 the blueprint. And finally, the institutions. 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:22.019 The FBI hated them. But now. The Library of Congress 00:32:22.019 --> 00:32:24.799 preserved the album straight out of Compton in 00:32:24.799 --> 00:32:26.900 the National Recording Registry. So the government 00:32:26.900 --> 00:32:29.539 is now preserving the Sonic Molotov cocktail. 00:32:29.859 --> 00:32:32.240 They have a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:34.319 They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.460 of Fame in 2016. It's the quintessential American 00:32:37.460 --> 00:32:39.970 story, isn't it? You start as the villain and 00:32:39.970 --> 00:32:42.309 if you survive long enough and make enough money, 00:32:42.430 --> 00:32:44.869 you become the hero. You become the establishment 00:32:44.869 --> 00:32:47.289 you fought against. So what does this all mean? 00:32:47.450 --> 00:32:50.029 Why are we still talking about this group almost 00:32:50.029 --> 00:32:53.029 40 years later? I think it matters because five 00:32:53.029 --> 00:32:55.029 guys from a neighborhood that America wanted 00:32:55.029 --> 00:32:58.109 to forget decided that their story, the story 00:32:58.109 --> 00:33:00.390 of Compton, was worth telling. They didn't ask 00:33:00.390 --> 00:33:02.410 for permission. They didn't try to make it palatable. 00:33:02.490 --> 00:33:05.250 They just said, this is our reality. And by doing 00:33:05.250 --> 00:33:07.630 that, they forced the entire world to look at 00:33:07.630 --> 00:33:09.809 something it really wanted to ignore. They turned 00:33:09.809 --> 00:33:12.529 local news into global history. So here's a final 00:33:12.529 --> 00:33:14.509 thought for you to take away. We talked about 00:33:14.509 --> 00:33:16.609 how the critics at the time dismissed their lyrics 00:33:16.609 --> 00:33:20.369 as just violent, misogynistic noise. But the 00:33:20.369 --> 00:33:23.549 FBI took it seriously. The United States government 00:33:23.549 --> 00:33:26.829 treated a rap song like a weapon. That is the 00:33:26.829 --> 00:33:29.019 tell. That's the part that matters. What does 00:33:29.019 --> 00:33:32.059 it say about the true power of music when a track 00:33:32.059 --> 00:33:34.519 called Panic Zone, a song that was literally 00:33:34.519 --> 00:33:37.019 titled as a business decision to avoid the word 00:33:37.019 --> 00:33:39.900 Hispanic, eventually evolves into a movement 00:33:39.900 --> 00:33:43.259 that the powers that be consider an existential 00:33:43.259 --> 00:33:46.339 threat to the entire social order? It says that 00:33:46.339 --> 00:33:48.700 art is never just art. If you tell the truth 00:33:48.700 --> 00:33:51.299 loudly enough for long enough, it becomes a weapon. 00:33:51.460 --> 00:33:52.880 I encourage you to go back and listen to those 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.240 albums. Don't just hear the beat. Hear the history. 00:33:55.690 --> 00:33:58.150 Hear the protest and hear the warning. It's all 00:33:58.150 --> 00:34:00.470 there in the grooves. Thanks for diving deep 00:34:00.470 --> 00:34:02.150 with us. We will catch you on the next one.