KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions poses with a 'Stop the Violence' t-shirt in the U.K. 'Teach the student what needs to be taught/ 'Cause Black and white kids both take shorts/ When one doesn't know about the other ones' culture/ Ignorance swoops down like a vulture.' In 2017, NWA's 'Straight Outta Compton' was archived by the Library of Congress. It was like, almost liberating - liberating in a way to a young kid who isn't used to really having a voice or being heard or people or feeling like anything about him matters.' 'I didn't know you can get on a song and say that, you know, right. They curse better than my dad, they say 'F- the police,' that's crazy,'' he added. 'To me like, as a young kid, I was just like, 'Wow, they curse really good. Dre and MC Ren.īut for Black Americans who experienced the disenfranchisement and brutalization of their communities, songs like 'F- the Police' were 'liberating,' Royce da 5'9'' said. The Parents Music Resource Center launched a public campaign against the group and its use of profanity, while the FBI targeted and investigated its members - Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, Dr. When NWA released its debut album, 'Straight Outta Compton,' in 1988, featuring songs like 'Gangsta Gangsta,' 'Straight Outta Compton' and 'F- the Police' - a bombastic anthem against police brutality - white America was outraged. perform during the Straight Outta Compton tour at the Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Ind., July 1989.

Dre, MC Ren, Eazy-E and Ice Cube from N.W.A. 'F- the police comin' straight from the underground/ A young n- got it bad 'cause I'm brown/ And not the other color so police think/ They have the authority to kill a minority.'ĭr. The song was named in 2017 by Rolling Stone as the best hip-hop record of all time and has been archived by the Library of Congress. In the last verse, Melle tells a gut-wrenching story about a young man who drops out of school, ends up in jail and dies by suicide after getting repeatedly raped behind bars. 'The Message,' which features only Duke Bootee and Melle Mel from the group, was the most prominent hip-hop song at the time to feature social commentary. That's the thing that blew a lot of people away was like, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five made some very danceable hip-hop music, but when that record came out, it totally changed everything.'Īsked what the title of the song meant to him, Chuck D said, 'It means pay attention to the words of hip-hop instead of just the beat.' So the change, it came overnight,' Chuck D said. 'When 'The Message' came out, there was nothing like it. But the future Public Enemy emcee told ABC News that he was 'stunned by it.' When 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was released in 1982, Chuck D, who would become a hip-hop icon himself, was only a teenager. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five pose for a portrait in New York, December 1980.

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