The Rise and Fall Of N.W.A.

yo I'm Easy E from the world's most dangerous rap group NWA and we'd like to thank everybody at the norm you know who's down and who's not [Music] McDonald's [Music] then you blow this [ __ ] out tomorrow no joke NWA is deemed the most dangerous group in hip-hop but very few people have seen how positive these guys really are hit him up in this video we will talk about the historic group that changed hip-hop and got rid of censorship in the music industry Easy E was a drug dealer in Compton but after his cousin

was murdered he understood that he needed to get off the streets and he set his sights on the music industry in turn Dr Dre was a local DJ and he even played at easy East parties after that his cassettes began to sell and he joined the world-class Wrecking Crew group in turn Ice Cube started rapping from his early years and he was a member of the CIA group the same time Dr Dre and Ice Cube were already working on some tracks together Serge Jinx is a producer that we grew up friends you know uh his

cousin was Dr Dre he heard me flow so Dre started taking me under his wing sometime later Dr Dre's group was going downhill and he made the decision to leave in the meantime Easy E started a label company with Jerry Heller called ruthless records using the money he got selling drugs everything changed once Ice Cube and Dr Dre started writing songs for the label Ice Cube wrote the track boys in the hood for the HBO Duo they refused and decided to start their own group which was called NWA the original lineup formed in early 1987

consisted of Arabian Prince Dr Dre Easy E and Ice Cube with DJ yella and MC Ren joining later that year the doc was an unofficial member of the group The Boys wanted to talk about what goes on in the hood about the poverty the daily criminal activities and so on crisis in the Gulf all as as poor to me it's politics you know ain't making money off all that you know they ain't fighting yet they sent a million people over there let's get back to boys in the hood Eazy-E never wanted to be a rapper

but Dr Dre persuaded him for two hours to record the song because the producer really liked his voice in Charisma Dr Dre went through every line with EZE and quite literally taught him how to rap Trey was like yo won't you do a cube and I was like I'm in a group already he looking easy like why don't you do it man you got a voice your voice is gonna sound good on the record and he was he was hell no man what nah man that ain't how you say that line say it like this

so we was going back and forth it took forever to get two or three lines out so Dre was like you know what everybody just leave everybody leave I'm work with this dude came back later on that night they hadn't even finished the first verse I was like damn I'm gone I left again came back the next day they was in the middle of the second verse came back the next night that same night they had finished the song and uh it was dope [Music] [ __ ] at the path throwing up gang sign guys

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a comprehensive online security experience stay safe everyone the group's first release was called NWA in the Posse and panic zone is the group's first song after the release of NWA and the Posse Ice Cube left the group for a year to study drafting at the Phoenix Institute of Technology when he returned in 1988 the group recorded and completed easy East solo album Easy Does It Dr Dre and DJ yella did most of the producing while M.C ran an ice cube wrote most of the lyrics [Music] again just can't be seen in six weeks the guys

finished working on the Epic album Straight Out of Compton Ice Cube wrote the song [ __ ] the Police and Dr Dre thought that it's too violent however after Easy E and Dr Dre got arrested for shooting paintballs of cars they included the song in the release [Music] as a result the FBI sent a warning letter to ruthless and his parent company priority suggesting that NWA should watch their step in addition to this song the government also had issues with the songs gangster Gangsta and I ain't the one [Music] it's a difference I figure [

__ ] is uh someone that does like scandalous things too due to the high pressure that the group was under their songs were not played on the radio or on MTV this is uh frankly offensive to me and uh I think to any parent that would hear and would know what these lyrics are all about they would find that it is nothing but filth yo what's up this is Dr Dre from the world's most dangerous group in wa and we send in the shout out to everybody at the norm convention we know you're the ones

in our Corner because [ __ ] radio [ __ ] MTV you're the ones that's making this happen for us but the attempts ultimately failed as music fans rebelled against what they saw as censorship don't feel that rap music or video should be censored at all however this wasn't much of an issue for them because their music sold very well so they didn't really care like you like yes over and then I'm through the rappers answered the questions concerning why their songs are so violent in my mind you got to Define negative you know if

I teach you something you don't know for me that's positive you know if you learn something from a good experience or a bad experience as positive so you know they can squash on that when you talk about what's really going on nobody went ahead you know they always want to bring up a problem or bring up the excuse that you're talking about violence but if you just think about it if you talk about what's going on and life is violence and whatever you talk about and what does that song mean basically tells the kids to

express themselves don't always do what people tell you to do all the time you know the year 1989 was a tragedy for the doc everything seemed like it was going well and he released the album no one can do it better [Music] and then not even six months after the album was released the rapper got into a car accident on a highway which nearly cost him his life and forever damage to vocal cords I had to send a divider and flew out of the back window of the car and ended up in a tree I

had read that that your teeth were actually in the tree in the tree they had to pull your teeth out of the actual tree I don't know if they pulled them out or not bro many hip-hop lovers think that the doc is one of the most experienced writers and lyricists which is why it is such a Pity that he was never able to achieve his full potential as a rapper however he like many others helped Easy E become the person that he was able to become my idea was to try to make easy as palatable

as cube was on any given track knowing that easy didn't have cubes power it was even him who wrote the lyrics for the song we want easy [Music] later on at one of their concerts in Detroit in 1989 the guys were told that it might be best for them not to perform the song about the police however the guys didn't care [ __ ] the police was played for only 30 seconds before shots were fired naturally the concert ended because of that this scene was depicted in the Straight Outta Compton movie actually the reality of

what happened was a bit different Jerry Heller agreed in pre-tour negotiations with Daryl Brooks the tour's promoter but the band would be fine 25 000 if it played the song so on August 6 1989 many of the 20 000 fans in Detroit started chanting [ __ ] the police though NWA called an audible and played It Anyway Brooks was working in an office somewhere in the arena when he heard the chant followed by DJ yella's familiar opening bead drop cops were everywhere Brooke says because it was a rap show put that in quotes So everybody

was looking for marijuana he ran towards the stage and soon every police officer in the building starts rushing the stage out of nowhere it looked like the Battle of the Bulge Eton Gregory who was the tour manager recounted how the members of NWA behaved once the shots were heard in Gregory's account NWA after running from the stage removed their hats and reversed their jackets to hide logos and be more Anonymous they boarded a limousine to the hotel a mile or two away and everybody else in the group's Entourage walked unassumingly passed the police on horseback

MC Ren's recollection is different me and Dre were together we ran backstage we ran out the door and once we looked out it was like all right and we turned around and went back in the building everybody was like back into the dressing room the police were in there trying to give citations some [ __ ] like that DJ yella wound up alone on the street we went all different ways I ran into the parking lot he says I walked back to the hotel DJ speed left with the late Eric Eazy-E right and easy security

guard big Ron afterward Gregory returned to the hotel he handed nwa's production manager a briefcase full of cash from the show as well as all the plane tickets back to LA he called the bus driver to check on the two cases full of guns the group had carried on the row they tried to drive the buses into Canada just in case something happened but police arrived shortly after that Gregory called a cab for the airport ending up at another hotel two blocks away he contacted Easy E via walkie-talkie who verified everything was okay police chatted

amiably with the band about the Detroit Pistons in sports Ice Cube once told an interviewer that they corralled us arrested us all and all they wanted was damn autographs for their daughters and sons after such great Fame Jerry Heller offered the guy's contracts and they all signed except for Ice Cube who understood that he wouldn't get as much money as he deserved we need all something you know so funny we never talked about it really no I mean we wasn't bad or you know it just happened you know just like okay you know he left

generally speaking Ice Cube left the group and released his own solo album America's Most Wanted which hit Top spots on the charts [Music] in turn NWA presented with two new releases first came the EP 100 miles and running and then the second album [Music] the production and sound got better but they definitely lacked Ice Cube this was directly addressed by DJ yella himself saying I do like the second album better than the first the first one had more hits but production wise I like this one better it would have been great if Ice Cube would

have got on that album but it sounds better we put more into it apparently this is what prompted the group to start picking at their former colleague calling him a traitor and whatnot [Music] for that reason Ice Cube released his epic diss track titled no Vaseline in which he talked about how NWA went from being a Tough Gang that tells off the police and Carries weapons around to a group of support actors stressed in silly outfits and music videos of R B singer Michelle a but of course the most powerful line on the track was

this [Music] we were separated was because I felt that the person that that I'm talking about on the record separated us oh it's my favorite song absolute favorite song I said you got us the one who got lucky was the doc were you glad that you were not no Vaseline oh yeah [Laughter] Ice Cube won this battle however the most painful blow for NWA came the moment when Dr Dre began thinking about leaving the group and as was the case with Ice Cube his small paycheck was the reason of this decision in a few conversations

between the doc and Dr Dre the question regarding how big their paychecks would be in the future arose the doc said listen Dre if you want to make records then I can help you start your own company you will not have to worry about paying for this everything will be under your control the doc knew should an offered to introduce him to Dre Suge Knight asked to see copies of Dre's contract from Jerry Heller so that he could take a look at the terms of the contract as it turned out he had the worst contract

imaginable according to Michelle A's words Suge Knight said that they were receiving nearly 2 percent from every record Dre was infuriated Norman winter former death row publicist recounted how Dre came into the ruthless Records Office with Suge Knight to say he was leaving to start his own record company Death Row Records but it was necessary to talk it over with Easy E the meeting between Easy E and Suge Knight was arranged by Dr Dre himself but he didn't show up to it himself Dre wasn't there oh Dre wasn't there at all Drake set it up

though did easy get beat up like the movie shot hell no no they didn't touch you Keith said that Eazy-E had all the common Crips behind him okay of course you're gonna sign these releasing Dre and doc from Ruthless and Eric was if you walk between my legs excuse my friends people probably think he was my penis according to court documents shug and his friends went to Eric and Heller to announce the Dre is leaving and that's all period Eric recounted that Suge Knight's people showed up with baseball bats and began threatened a huge guy

started threatening to murder Eazy-E's relatives and that was enough to convince the guys to sign the termination Dr Dre's contract Ray went his way and that was it was under contract oh I don't know about you know okay yeah yeah but but the group was over I got to kill this [ __ ] no you're not gonna do that generally speaking he attempted to talk him out of this notion Easy E sued them under the RICO Act this was the first time the RICO Act was used in the music industry she tried to destroy my

record company so right now we're getting everything back together and we finna come out you know fully loaded in easy ease statement there were mentions of money laundering blackmail and violent threats you know what when you say they don't respect your talent what exactly you know do you mean I mean I guess they took advantage of me not knowing the record business back in the day but you know I know what's up with those numbers now can't be quick and Dre released his debut album and the opening song of the album The Chronic Dre and

Snoop Dogg openly dissed Easy E [ __ ] Mr rorkin tattoo easy getting at him sideways this is I was young and I was I was with Dr Dre and I was a writer but I really really loved Easy-E his style his swag on top of that there were more disses against Eazy-E and other songs [Music] was going on right they said they looted this place that's how much you know he know about the streets really the conflict was not getting resolved Jimmy iovan from Interscope agreed with ruthless records that all the earning of Dre

from Death Row will be passed to ruthless [Applause] real as expected Eazy-E had to respond to all that and he did a few times [Music] but the most important diss track was the real [ __ ] G's this diss track became one of the most legendary in the history of hip-hop [Music] easy sort of feeling in the studio about about this whole situation it was never even a thought like we never even he didn't care about that man so you didn't know nothing about no Street doing Street Music until you hooked up with me anyway

we used to do all that techno stuff to fly in 1994 Easy E fired Heller because of Heller's embezzlement of millions of dollars was he still cool with Jerry hello he wasn't right because now they probably look back and we're like yo Cube news from early yeah I'm about creeping on the come up I Had Drake with me a little while ago is there any chance of an NWA reunion out now he said there was easy attempted to bring the group back together and he even met up with Ice Cube and just kind of was

talking about putting the group back together and and I was like well you got work to do with Dre you get that together and y'all call me and you know I'm down I'm down you know we decided to put those things behind us and get together and get back in the studio and and try to do it again but he was diagnosed with AIDS and had little time left to live maybe more soldiers him kind of crying crying so you know I mean it just it was no more words a couple days later they tell

me he died and this is what he told the public I'm in the biggest fight of my life and it ain't easy but I want to say much love to those who have been down with me especially my brothers from NWA and thank you all for your support on the 26th of March 1995 Easy E passed away this was a great tragedy for hip-hop undoubtedly NWA left a great legacy in hip-hop as a group that destroyed the standards of decency and taught many people how to express themselves and talk about topics that are considered Taboo

in society world's most dangerous group a group that made it all right for artists to be themselves totally yeah I just think I would like for us to leave a legacy of inspiration and I just want to tell [Applause] if you'd like to watching music Vibe I highly recommend the documentary about Migos thanks everybody for watching and see you soon