What song did Ice Cube sample for you know how we do it?

Samples. The song samples ‘ The Show Is Over ‘ by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, ‘Summer Madness’ by Kool & the Gang, and ‘Billie Jean’ by Michael Jackson.

What song is Ice Cube known for?

1. “It Was A Good Day” – Assuredly, this is Ice Cube’s most famous song. The track tells the story of, well, a good day in the life of Ice Cube, from getting a “triple-double” on the playground basketball courts to eating a good breakfast. The track is featured on his 1992 album, The Predator,

What does Ice Cube stand for?

Early life – Ice Cube as a high school senior in 1987 Ice Cube was born O’Shea Jackson in Los Angeles on June 15, 1969, the son of hospital clerk and custodian Doris and machinist and UCLA groundskeeper Hosea Jackson. He has an older brother, and they had a half-sister who was murdered when Cube was 12.

  1. He is the cousin of fellow rappers Del tha Funky Homosapien and Kam,
  2. He grew up on Van Wick Street in the Westmont section of South Los Angeles,
  3. In ninth grade at George Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, Cube began writing raps after being challenged by his friend “Kiddo” in typewriting class.

Kiddo lost. He has said that his stage name came from his older brother, who “threatened to slam into a freezer and pull out when was an ice cube”. Cube also attended William Howard Taft High School in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles. He was bused 40 miles to the suburban school from his home in a high-crime neighborhood.

Why did Ice Cube stop rapping?

He used rap as a way to get his word out, and as a way to escape from his troubled life. However, he evolved, he uses a new medium now, and he’s less focused on the struggle nowadays, and more focused on being a good father. Some people only grow old. Ice Cube grew up.

Did N.W.A use samples?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Express Yourself”
Single by N.W.A
from the album Straight Outta Compton
Released March 27, 1989
Recorded 1988
Genre Hip-Hop
Length 4 : 26
Label
  • Ruthless
  • Priority
Songwriter(s) O’Shea Jackson
Producer(s)
  • DJ Yella
  • Dr. Dre
N.W.A singles chronology
” Gangsta Gangsta ” (1988) ” Express Yourself ” (1989) ” 100 Miles and Runnin’ ” (1990)

/td> Audio sample 0:28

  • file
  • help
Music video “Express Yourself” on YouTube

Express Yourself ” is a song recorded by American hip hop group N.W.A, performed solo by Dr. Dre, The song, off their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, samples Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band ‘s song of the same name, Unlike most songs on the album and by N.W.A, the song is devoid of profanity and violence.

What song is Eazy sampled from?

Eazy-E’s Daughter Co-Signs Kanye and The Game’s “Eazy” Sample Eazy-E’s daughter Ebie Wright recently stopped to talk to TMZ and share her thoughts about Kanye West and The Game’s new single ” where Ye samples her father’s classic 1988 track “Eazy-Duz-It.” “I think it’s a great song,” the 30-year-old daughter of Eazy-E told the outlet.

I’m a huge Kanye fan, I love Game. It’s an incredible record, and it was also produced by my buddy Hit-Boy so shout out to all my guys.” When asked about what she thought about the sample, Wright gave Ye and Game her seal of approval. She also co-signed Ye’s infamous Pete Davidson diss, saying, “it don’t get more gangster than that.” “My father literally represents revolutionizing everything, he also represents gangster rap,” she said.

“What Kanye did and what he said on it, I mean, it don’t get no more gangster than that.” “Oh, I absolutely think if my father was alive, he would have totally loved to be a part of this record,” Ebie concluded. “I mean, it’s incredible. You can’t pay no more homage than actually using a sample from one of his biggest songs.” Check out Ebie’s full comments below.

Why is he called Ice Cube?

Ice Cube Explains Origin of His Rap Name, Gives Stephen Colbert a Hip-Hop Handle: Watch Meet Pimp Daddy Colbert. Ever wonder how got his rap name? Ever wonder what Stephen Colbert’s hip-hop moniker might be? Those questions, plus many more were answered when the N.W.A.

  1. Legend swung by The Late Show on Tuesday night (June 20) to talk about the 25th anniversary reissue of his solo album, his 3-on-3 professional basketball league and the strange but true tale of how O’Shea Jackson got so ice cold.
  2. See latest videos, charts and news Re-telling the by-now-familiar-to-fans tale, Cube said he got the name when he was around 13 years-old from his older brother, Clyde.

“I used to try to talk to his girlfriends when they called and he got tired,” he said. Back in those days when you wanted to throw out an old refrigerator you’d dump it on the curb and someone would come pick it up, he explained. “Well, my brother was like, ‘yo, that refrigerator down the street? I’m gonna take you down there, I’m slammin’ you in the freezer and when they pull you out you’re gonna be an ice cube.'” And that’s how legends are born.

  • But because Cube is a believer in paying it forward, when Colbert asked if he could bestow a rap name on him, the legendary MC was more than happy to oblige.
  • You gotta lean into it, you can’t play with it,” Cube counseled.
  • Most guys, when they do a rap name, guys like yourself, they’ll say ‘my name is SC,’ or something real weak like that.

But I’mma call you Daddy Colbert. Daddy Colbert, that’s dope. And if you really wanna lean into it, you go to Pimp Daddy Colbert.” Watch the whole exchange below: Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox : Ice Cube Explains Origin of His Rap Name, Gives Stephen Colbert a Hip-Hop Handle: Watch

Who was Ice Cube inspired by?

I became a rap music fan in 1979 when the Sugarhill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight.” I was also a fan of groups like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force. Although those groups did great records, I could not relate to them as much as I could relate to three guys out of Queens, N.Y., who looked like the older homies from around my block—black hats, black leather jackets and that confident attitude. The first time I heard “It’s Like That” I almost had a seizure it was so good, and on the B-side it was “Sucker M.C.’s.” My homie Sammy Dennis wore out his speakers playing that song relentlessly on repeat. By 1983 Run-DMC released their second single, “Hard Times” and “Jam-Master Jay.” Then I knew there was a God and I had found my new favorite group. Run-DMC at Hammersmith Odeon, September 1986 | Photo by David Corio/Redferns Run was my favorite MC. I thought he had 1,000 percent more swagger than any rapper of today. Ronnie loved DMC’s voice. He said nobody could ever sound like the Devastating Mic Controller.

I remember the day that Dr. Dre played me the Raising Hell album. We knew we had to step our game up. Run-DMC took hip-hop to rock star status. They showed us how to do everything, especially how to perform with songs like “Here We Go.” They showed us if you had a dope DJ you “didn’t need no band,” and that rappers from the hood could be the Kings of Rock too.

I wouldn’t be a rapper today if Run-DMC didn’t show me how to do it with class. In 1985 I went around to every movie theater I could find looking for a movie called Krush Groove because Run-DMC were in it. In 1987 I saw them perform in Phoenix. After the show we went by their hotel and DMC needed a ride to the store. Run, Jay and D in Manhattan in 1986 A few years back I had a bucket list moment when BET asked me to do a cypher with my two sons and Run with his two sons. There’s nothing like sharing a rooftop in Brooklyn and a little alone time with one of my heroes.

I had a chance to thank him for inspiring me to be great and showing me that it’s cool to rap about the world around you. It’s been a blessing getting to know these guys over the years as one of their peers. I remember when someone said hip-hop was dead. I didn’t believe them until I heard that they killed Jam Master Jay.

Then I believed them. A part of hip-hop died that night, but the spirit lives on. I will always love and be totally indebted to and grateful to the phenomenal Kings from Queens, Run-DMC. Run-DMC, who received a 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy, was among the artists saluted at this year’s “GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends.” Ice Cube is a rapper, producer, actor, and filmmaker. He is an original member of 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees N.W.A, who were the subject of the 2015 biopic and box-office smash Straight Outta Compton, named after the group’s seminal debut album.

What style of rap is Ice Cube?

Ice Cube O’Shea Jackson (born June 15, 1969), better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. He began his career as a member of group and later joined the revolutionary group,

After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer, director, actor and producer in cinema. Ice Cube is noted as a proficient lyricist and storyteller and is regarded as a brutally honest rapper; his lyrics are often political as well as violent, and he is considered one of the founding artists in gangsta rap.

He has sold over 40 million records in the United States. He is widely considered to be,

Is Ice Cube a billionaire?

11. Ice Cube – Ice Cube’s Net Worth: $160 Million If you want to make it big in the rap world, diversification is key; O’Shea ‘Ice Cube’ Jackson knows all about that. Having made his first round of cash as a founding member of,, Cube avoided fading into the backdrop as the new millennium arrived – not by continuing to release music, but by planting some seeds that would grow tall in the years that followed.

Why did N.W.A break up?

N.W.A, in full Niggaz Wit Attitudes, American hip-hop group from Compton, California, whose popular, controversial music included explicit references to gang life, drugs, sex, and distaste for authority, especially the police, Its five core members were Eazy-E (byname of Eric Wright; b.

September 7, 1964, Compton, California, U.S.—d. March 26, 1995, Los Angeles), Dr. Dre (byname of Andre Young; b. February 18, 1965, Compton, California), Ice Cube (byname of O’Shea Jackson; b. June 15, 1969, Los Angeles, California), MC Ren (byname of Lorenzo Patterson; b. June 14, 1969, Compton, California), and DJ Yella (byname of Antoine Carraby; b.

December 11, 1961, Compton, California). Later members included Arabian Prince (byname of Kim Nazel; b. June 17, 1965, Inglewood, California) and The D.O.C. (byname of Tracy Curry; b. June 10, 1968, Dallas, Texas). The group is widely credited with popularizing the gangsta rap genre of hip-hop music and increasing the prominence of the West Coast hip-hop scene.N.W.A was formed in 1987 by Eazy-E, a high-school dropout and drug dealer living in Compton.

Using drug money, Eazy-E began a record label, Ruthless Records, alongside longtime industry man Jerry Heller. Eazy-E then recruited Dr. Dre—who was a member of the group World Class Wreckin’ Cru—and Ice Cube—a member of the rap group C.I.A. (Cru’ in Action!)—to write for the label. At Dr. Dre’s suggestion, Eazy-E agreed to sign the New York group H.B.O.

to Ruthless, but when the group turned down Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s song “The Boyz-n-the-Hood,” Eazy-E, with some coaching from his new partners, recorded the song himself. The result—Eazy-E’s first single—was a hit. Britannica Quiz 80s Music Quiz The group’s first single, “Panic Zone,” featuring the three founders of N.W.A and new member Arabian Prince, was released on August 13, 1987. It was also featured on the collaborative album N.W.A. and the Posse, released November 6, 1987.

  1. Eazy-E’s “Boyz-in-the-Hood” (restyled since its initial release) made the album as well, alongside “8 Ball” and “Dope Man,” which were both remixed later on Straight Outta Compton,
  2. After the release of N.W.A.
  3. 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 Eazy-E’s solo album, Eazy-Duz-It (Dr. Dre and DJ Yella did most of the producing, while MC Ren and Ice Cube wrote most of the lyrics), as well as their magnum opus, Straight Outta Compton, which included the group’s sixth and seventh members, Arabian Prince and The D.O.C.

  • Released under Priority Records and Ruthless Records on August 8, 1988, Straight Outta Compton details the lives of its creators via a blend of drum-heavy production, samples, turntable scratches, and aggressive, often profane lyrics.
  • This “reality rap,” as Ice Cube once called it, offers uncensored thoughts on women, drug dealing, gang activity, and police brutality —topics that had not yet been explored so candidly for such a wide audience in any genre of music.

Such candor had a price, however; songs like “Fuck tha Police” (originally titled “_ _ _ _ tha Police (Fill in the Blanks)”) and “Gangsta Gangsta” were criticized for depicting violence and other unlawful behavior, especially, in the former, toward police.

  • Gangsta Gangsta” also features homophobic slurs, and “I Ain’t Tha 1″—and, indeed, most N.W.A songs—pushes unsubtle sexist narratives.
  • The artists who formed the group, especially Ice Cube, Dr.
  • Dre, and Eazy-E, continued to make controversial music later in their solo careers.
  • However, nothing compared with the controversy that surrounded “Fuck tha Police.” The song parodies a criminal trial, wherein Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy-E testify against the police department to a judge (Dr.

Dre). The lyrics—and, indeed, the prosecutors —strongly criticize the police department for stereotyping, falsely arresting, and even brutalizing minorities. In their verses, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy-E also make threats toward police officers; these lyrics were the subject of the most controversy, though their alarming content was effective in creating conversation about racism and militarization in the police force. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Shortly after the album’s release, the FBI sent a warning letter to Priority Records and N.W.A regarding “Fuck tha Police,” which the bureau considered inflammatory.

  • Though few radio stations aired the song, it gained a good deal of attention; in fact, it is likely that the FBI letter boosted album sales, which hit 750,000 before the group went on tour in 1989.
  • The album, which also includes the hit “Express Yourself,” eventually reached triple platinum status and is widely considered one of the most influential hip-hop albums of all time.

In December 1989, just over a year after the release of Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube left the group over a royalty dispute. After writing many of the album’s lyrics and performing on several of its songs, Ice Cube felt that he was not paid appropriately for his contributions.

  1. His relationship with Heller, the group’s manager, quickly worsened over the dispute, and Ice Cube left to pursue a solo career, where he would, on several occasions, insult Heller and the remaining members of N.W.A in his lyrics.
  2. The dispute was settled out of court in 1990.N.W.A, now with five members (Eazy-E, Dr.

Dre, DJ Yella, MC Ren, and The D.O.C.), released their extended-play record (EP) 100 Miles and Runnin’ on August 14, 1990. The EP features a number of references to Ice Cube, including the tag ” Benedict Arnold ” on the song “Real Niggaz,” which occurs again on the group’s second and final studio album, Efil4zaggin (also known as Niggaz4Life ).

Released on May 28, 1991, under Ruthless Records and Priority Records, the album did not approach the success of Straight Outta Compton, It did, however, hit number one on the Billboard 200 chart in its second week, and its production, done mostly by Dr. Dre, is considered a watershed development in the history of the hip-hop sound.

It also furthered the rivalry between Ice Cube and the remaining members of N.W.A; months later, Ice Cube released his second solo album, Death Certificate, which included the memorable N.W.A diss track “No Vaseline.” Dr. Dre had become dissatisfied with his deal at Ruthless Records by the time of Efil4zaggin ‘s release.

  1. In early 1992, he and The D.O.C.
  2. Left N.W.A and Ruthless Records for Death Row Records, effectively ending N.W.A.
  3. The remaining members (Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella) pursued solo careers, sometimes rejoining to collaborate on new music.
  4. Assisted by DJ Yella, Eazy-E saw the greatest success of the three.) Meanwhile, Dr.

Dre and Ice Cube were having luck in their solo careers, and soon Dr. Dre and Eazy-E began their own rivalry that would continue until Eazy-E’s AIDS -related death on March 26, 1995. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube continued making music well into the 21st century, establishing their own legacies as seminal figures in hip-hop, but N.W.A retains a legacy as a vehicle for urban commentary and as a transfigurative force in hip-hop history.

What does N.W.A really stand for?

N.W.A. – TeachRock One of the most influential and controversial groups in the history of Hip Hop, N.W.A. were almost solely responsible for elevating Gangsta rap from a street phenomenon in South Central Los Angeles to national prominence, through their raw, provocative debut Straight Outta Compton, which sold 3 million copies in the year after its 1988 release.N.W.A.

Short for “Niggaz Wit Attitude”) began taking shape in early 1986, when Eric “Eazy-E” Wright sought out Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, who had performed together in an electro-rap band and produced beats and mixtapes for the KDAY radio station. The trio then recruited Ice Cube from the group C.I.A., along with MC Ren and Arabian Prince.

Eazy-E tapped into the small fortune he’d made as a drug dealer to fund the launch of Ruthless Records, which became the home for N.W.A. and other up-and-coming Hip Hop artists. The early single “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” written by Ice Cube and performed by Eazy, was an underground hit, and laid the groundwork for the menacing, nihilistic and often grimly humorous worldview that would fuel Straight Outta Compton,

Described as “disturbingly explosive” by the L.A. Times, the album was an instant classic, almost precisely because it offended so many critics and parents’ groups. Laced with profanity and over-the-top portrayals of gun violence, murder and misogyny, Straight Outta Compton offered chilling glimpses of a lawless urban nightmare.

Radio and MTV wouldn’t touch it, but Hip Hop fans were drawn to what they perceived as N.W.A.’s raw hedonism and stark authenticity. Several key elements drove the album’s sales. Between Eazy-E’s high-pitched rasp, Ice Cube’s smoldering anger and MC Ren’s rapid-fire delivery, N.W.A.

surged with a dynamism that rivaled Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The effect was boosted by the funky, bass-heavy production of Dr. Dre and DJ Yella’s samples and turntable scratches. But the biggest factor was the controversy around the song “Fuck Tha Police,” which generated massive publicity after the FBI sent a letter accusing N.W.A.’s distributor with promoting violence against police officers.

It became front-page news, and everyone – including many white teens not accustomed to buying Hip Hop records — wanted the album the FBI wanted banned. Straight Outta Compton quickly went platinum, but by the end of 1989, N.W.A. was nearly finished. First, Ice Cube departed; Dr.

  • Dre hung on for N.W.A.’s next album Niggaz4Life, which topped the Billboard 200 chart, but soon left to co-found Death Row Records.
  • Both Dre and Cube have built lucrative careers — Cube as a solo artist, screenwriter and actor and Dre as a producer.
  • Eazy-E, who released his solo debut Eazy-Duz-It, only a month after Straight Outta Compton and continued to record for Ruthless, died in 1995 from complications related to AIDS.

: N.W.A. – TeachRock

Is N.W.A still friends?

Surviving members of NWA revisit past in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ biopic LOS ANGELES (KABC) – In 1988, five young friends combined their talents and produced the groundbreaking album, “Straight Outta Compton.” Ice Cube, who was known as the poet of the group, says they just wanted their own realities of life in South Central Los Angeles to be heard.

  1. They had no idea just how big their album would be, but he remembers when he first realized they had made it.
  2. It was when their album received a parental discretion sticker.
  3. You know it was kind of like almost having a skull and crossbones,” Ice Cube said.
  4. When you start seeing things like that, you know we’re making history, because this is the first time it’s ever been done, and I think that was the first time I knew this is more than just a regular rap group.” Founding member Eric Wright, better known as Eazy-E, died of complications from AIDS in 1995.

The surviving members, DJ Yella, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and MC Ren, wanted to give their friend the credit he deserved for N.W.A’s success. “He had business sense, he knew the streets, he knew a lot of things ahead of itself,” DJ Yella said. “He knew what people wanted,” Ice Cube added.

  1. He was a marketing genius.
  2. Our whole flavor and style was honed in by Easy.” Over the years, the relationships among the members of N.W.A have been anything but easy.
  3. Unfortunately money, ego, some of that stuff broke us up, but we were always trying to find our way back together, and we are good friends now,” Ice Cube said.

Looking back on the past three decades, Ice Cube admits that the racial tensions he experienced and wrote about as a teenager haven’t necessarily gotten better. “That’s the real lesson for all of us to figure out why, why it hasn’t changed. Let’s do something about it,” he said.

Did Ice Cube have beef with Eazy-E?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eazy-E
Eazy-E in 1993
Born Eric Lynn Wright September 7, 1964 Compton, California, U.S.
Died March 26, 1995 (aged 30) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Burial place Rose Hills Memorial Park
Occupations
  • Rapper
  • record producer
  • entrepreneur
Spouse Tomica Woods ​ ( m.1995) ​
Children 11, including Lil Eazy-E
Musical career
Genres
  • Hip hop
  • gangsta rap
Years active 1987–1995
Labels
  • Ruthless
  • Priority
  • Relativity
  • Epic
Formerly of N.W.A

Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records, He is often referred to as the “Godfather of Gangsta Rap”.

Born and raised in Compton, California, Wright had several legal troubles before founding Ruthless in 1987. After a short solo career with frequent collaboration with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, they joined, forming N.W.A, later that year.N.W.A’s debut studio album, Straight Outta Compton, was released in 1988.

Controversial upon release, it is now ranked among the greatest and most influential albums ever. The group released its second and final studio album, Niggaz4Life, in 1991, and soon after disbanded. During N.W.A’s splintering, largely by disputes over money, Eazy-E became embroiled in bitter rivalries with Ice Cube and Dr.

Was N.W.A actually gangsters?

Back in September, on the set of the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, cameras rolled in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium as actors playing prudish protesters hoisted signs (“Crap Rap N.W.A”) and ran over a pile of the group’s records with a steamroller.

A little later, a group of young extras — many of whom weren’t yet born when Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E were challenging the status quo with N.W.A’s politically charged, invective-filled rhymes — formed a line outside the auditorium, preparing to shoot a concert scene. An old-school tour bus and retro TV news van helped establish the late-’80s ambiance, and the extras sported their favorite throwback haircuts and wore the thick, gold-plated “dookie rope” chains that were popular back in the day.

Dr. Dre was holed up in his plush trailer, and another producer, Tomica Woods-Wright (Eazy-E’s widow), was barely seen on set at all. But there were good celebrity-spotting opportunities nonetheless. Director F. Gary Gray walked by reading some notes — he’d collaborated with Cube on Friday — and then came Cube himself, a producer as well, ambling by in dark shades.

  1. Preparing for a scene nearby was Cube’s look-alike son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., who plays his dad in the movie.
  2. Junior was in good spirits but declined a reporter’s request to snap his photo “while I’m wearing the Jheri curl wig.”) See also: Our Straight Outta Compton film review Naturally, nepotism was alleged in this casting choice; Jimmy Kimmel sarcastically asked Cube if his son had to audition.

But Dre’s eldest son, Curtis, tried out and didn’t get the part, nor did Eazy-E’s eldest son, a rapper who goes by Lil Eazy-E. TMZ reported that Lil Eazy was upset about this, but he denied the claim, adding that he helped coach the actor who was chosen, Jason Mitchell.

  • Mitchell visited him at the Compton home where both Eazy-E and his son were raised, and Lil Eazy gave him notes.
  • Not everything behind the scenes was as cordial.
  • For vérité’s sake, the movie had to be filmed at least partly in Compton, and since gangs are still active there, they had to be negotiated with.

Unwittingly, the film reignited old vendettas, renewed simmering gangland tensions and even led to one man’s death. Observers couldn’t help but be reminded of the bad old days, when West Coast hip-hop was a brutal, contact sport. While striving for authenticity, Straight Outta Compton became a whole lot more real than anyone intended. Straight Outta Compton’s N.W.A, from left: MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins); Credit: Photo by Jaimie Trueblood In the popular consciousness, the film could well be the final word on N.W.A, its members and its offshoots.

  1. The stakes are high for the $29 million movie, which N.W.A member MC Ren, a fan of the film, calls “80 percent” accurate.
  2. But the first hurdle was simply getting it made.
  3. You have to look at this movie as a miracle,” says S.
  4. Leigh Savidge, who began writing the Straight Outta Compton script in 2002.
  5. Given the complexity of the relationships involved, it’s a miracle that it got done.” N.W.A were only together for a snap of the fingers.

About a year after the release of their debut album, 1988’s Straight Outta Compton, star lyricist Ice Cube bolted — and following 1991’s Efil4zaggin, the group was entirely kaput. When it was over, they pretty much hated one another. Cube had released rap’s ur diss song, “No Vaseline,” calling the other members Uncle Toms and trashing their manager, Jerry Heller.

  • Get rid of that devil real simple, put a bullet in his temple/’Cause you can’t be the Nigga 4 Life crew/With a white Jew telling you what to do.”) N.W.A’s leader, Eazy-E, and its star producer, Dr.
  • Dre, fought in court and on record, and representatives of their labels got into physical altercations.

When Eazy died of complications from AIDS in 1995, some of those hurt feelings were smoothed over, but his death ultimately set off a battle over the group’s legacy, which continues to this day. In the late ’90s, Savidge, a white filmmaker, wandered into the middle of all of this.

He began interviewing N.W.A affiliates for a documentary that would later inform the Straight Outta Compton screenplay. Released shortly after 9/11, the documentary, Welcome to Death Row, has shipped hundreds of thousands of copies and has been widely shown over the years on cable networks including Starz and Fuse.

Putting the documentary together was a harrowing ordeal from start to finish for Savidge and his Hawthorne-based company, Xenon Pictures. Attempting to tell all sides of the story, the crew unwittingly found itself in the middle of a long-brewing dispute between Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, who was trying to revive his label (Death Row had released Dre’s solo debut, The Chronic, in 1993), and Michael Harris, an incarcerated drug kingpin who claimed to have provided seed money for the imprint.

Savidge says he was threatened by people he believes were in cahoots with Knight, and that he moved the documentary’s editing facilities to a new, secret location. On the eve of the film’s release, a lawyer for Death Row Records sent letters to retailers including Walmart, claiming the documentary contained unauthorized elements.

“Suge mounted nothing short of a herculean effort to halt the making and release of it,” Savidge says of Welcome to Death Row, Savidge nonetheless wanted to write an N.W.A biopic, so he and his collaborator, Alan Wenkus, continued doing research. They were buoyed when N.W.A’s manager, Heller, agreed to talk to them, but even Heller grew wary of the pace of development; all told, the writers penned some 20 drafts of the script.

Said, ‘This is never going to get made, is it?'” Savidge recalls. Savidge wasn’t sure, but he knew one thing: The support of Eazy’s widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, was critical. Eazy and Tomica married just weeks before his death, and she was left in charge of his entire Ruthless Records empire, which had released platinum albums from artists including Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, The D.O.C.

and Eazy himself. Most critically, she inherited the rights to N.W.A’s music, which were needed in order to draw a major studio’s interest in the film. Through a connection, Savidge was able to get the script into Woods-Wright’s hands. He says that, amazingly, she was on board.

And he recalls that she told him: “You captured Eazy. For us to be in business, it must be God’s will.” It was also owing to some savvy screenwriting. Savidge and Wenkus knew their draft had to play up Eazy’s role to get his widow to green-light it. But after New Line snapped up the script, the studio insisted Dr.

Dre and Ice Cube become involved. Cube is a Hollywood mogul, while Dre remains a tremendously influential tastemaker. (Eventually, Universal took over the project.) Cube had long been game for an N.W.A movie. But he and Dre weren’t really speaking. There were a few reconciliations over the years: Cube popped up in Dre’s 1993 “Let Me Ride” video, they started on a never-released album called Heltah Skeltah, and a short-lived N.W.A reunion around 2000 resulted in two new songs.

  • But, as Cube put it on his 2013 track “The Big Show”: “Did I talk to Dr.
  • Dre? Have I seen MC Ren? Every now and then, please don’t ask me again.” Dre initially expressed his distaste for the film project.
  • I don’t want anything to pour water on my legacy, so I was against it at the beginning,” he said recently on his Beats 1 radio show.

“I read a few scripts that were just, like, kinda corny.” But eventually Cube talked him into it, and Dre was fully sold when F. Gary Gray signed on. “Now that Gary is on board as director and it’s at Universal, I think it’s going to be incredible,” Dre told this reporter two years ago. Ice Cube had long been game for an N.W.A movie.; Credit: Photo by Hiroko Tanaka/ZUMA Press/Newscom Heller believes this may be to the detriment of other principals — including him. Dre and Cube publicly accused him of skimming some of their earnings; he maintains he did no such thing, and is still at odds with them.

  1. As Eazy-E’s former right-hand man, he’s angry he wasn’t consulted on the project and fears that, as portrayed by Paul Giamatti, he will come off as a monster.
  2. I will be there in the front row with my lawyer and looking to make sure it is an accurate movie,” he told the Murder Master Music Show in March.

More recently, Heller told the Weekly that he “wasn’t invited to any previews. I’ll have to pay like everyone else. I’m sure that I’ll have plenty to say in a couple of weeks.” Following Eazy’s death, Heller and Woods-Wright fought in court for years, with Heller claiming unpaid management fees and Woods-Wright accusing him of fraud and misuse of Ruthless Records’ funds.

In the end they settled and signed mutual non-disparagement agreements. Throughout filming and postproduction, the public relations problems continued to mount. In August 2014, a casting call seeking actresses was widely denounced as racist. The memo requested “A Girls” (“hottest of the hottest”) who could be any race but must have “real hair — no extensions.” “B Girls,” meanwhile, “should be light-skinned,” while “D girls” were expected to be out of shape and “medium to dark skin tone.” The message seemed to be: the darker the skin, the uglier the actress.

Meanwhile, MC Ren was publicly unhappy with Straight Outta Compton ‘s marketing, which didn’t prominently feature him or DJ Yella. “Fuck these bitches at universal pictures leaving me out the movie trailers tryin to rewrite history,” he tweeted. He seemed to get the marketing department’s attention: Subsequent posters featured all five group members’ names and likenesses.

But even if the film makes money and helps rightfully cement N.W.A’s place in the music pantheon, it also has caused damage that goes well beyond bruised egos. Around the time of N.W.A’s birth in 1987, gangs were on the ascent. The rise of the Crips and the Bloods and the influx of crack cocaine made the streets of Los Angeles increasingly dangerous.N.W.A embodied this rough-and-tumble world, with Cube even calling them a “gang” on their single “Straight Outta Compton.” But he wasn’t in an actual gang, and neither was Dr.

Dre or DJ Yella. Eazy-E and MC Ren were Crips, but neither was particularly hard-core about it.N.W.A wanted their appeal to extend beyond particular gang boundaries, which is why they adopted L.A. Raiders colors — silver and black. Even if their colors were neutral, that didn’t mean they could always avoid trouble.

They faced minor gangland skirmishes over the years, and when Dr. Dre joined forces with the Piru Bloods–affiliated Suge Knight to form Death Row Records, there was serious conflict. Knight and his associates used force to get what they wanted, and Dre eventually tired of his collaborators being shaken down, intimidated or even beaten.

So in the mid-’90s he left the label and started his own imprint, Aftermath. This is when Dre seems to have ridden off into the sunset. He produced Eminem and 50 Cent — two of the best-selling rappers ever — and, with partner Jimmy Iovine, sold headphone company Beats to Apple for $3 billion in 2014.

Having long ago left Compton, Dre moved into Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen’s old house in Brentwood. Yes, it was a nuisance that Knight still felt entitled to a cut of Dre’s continuing success — one court document said Knight felt Dre owed him $300 million. But at least Dre was protected by his mansion’s gates, not to mention a restraining order.

Still, it’s hard to escape your past. Compton’s turf is divided with great precision. Dre, along with Eazy-E and MC Ren, came up in the southeastern part of Compton, Crips country. The group members would often practice in the garage behind Eazy’s mother’s house on South Muriel Avenue.

In fact, Eazy’s son Lil Eazy hoped the Straight Outta Compton filmmakers would shoot these scenes in the actual house, which is still owned by Eazy’s mother. But they declined and, in fact, mostly avoided locations on the east side of Compton. Gangland negotiations played into this decision; ultimately the filming was done in neighborhoods controlled by Bloods, largely on the west side of town.

“They didn’t have a pass to come in our ‘hood,” says Arnold White, a close friend of Eazy-E’s who grew up nearby. (It’s unclear what role, if any, such negotiations had in a drive-by shooting that occurred near a set in front of the Compton courthouse shortly after filming began in August 2014. Marion “Suge” Knight at his arraignment in Superior Court on murder charges stemming from a confrontation on the Straight Outta Compton set; Credit: Photo by Polaris/Newscom Dre did his best to endear himself to the community, donating headphones and football uniforms and, most recently, announcing that his royalties from his new album, Compton — a companion to the movie — will go toward funding a performing arts center in the city.

  1. But the filming itself required a fixer, so to help navigate the Compton terrain, the filmmakers hired a Bloods affiliate named Cle “Bone” Sloan.
  2. An actor from the movie Training Day, he was tasked with keeping the film authentic — and keeping local heads cool.
  3. According to a lawsuit, Bone’s specific duties included recruiting “known gang members to serve as cast members and extras for the filming, as well as to provide security for on-location shooting in gang-controlled neighborhoods.” Bone had a long-simmering beef with Knight, a “more than 10-year history of ill will and harsh feelings against each other,” according to the suit.

One of Bone’s specific tasks was keeping Knight away from the set. Hiring Bone, however, appears to have been a deadly decision. Following the January taping of a Straight Outta Compton promotional spot at Compton barbershop Holiday Styles, the crew broke for lunch and headed to their trailers on North Bullis Road, in a Piru-controlled area.

Knight showed up in his red Ford F-150 Raptor. His arrival panicked Dre’s handlers, Bone would later tell police. Knight spoke calmly to Ice Cube’s security staff leader, known as Kebo. “First thing he said was, ‘I come in peace. I didn’t come down here to start no problems, that’s why I came by myself,'” Kebo later told Esquire U.K.

“‘I want to request a meeting with Cube, and it don’t have to be today.’ He was not out of control, he was not irate, he was not hostile.” One insider who asked to remain anonymous says Kebo assured Knight that his check — compensation for his willingness to allow an actor to portray him — would be in the mail.

But before things could be resolved peacefully, Bone emerged and got in Knight’s face, according to court documents; the pair had an angry exchange before sheriffs intervened, and Knight left the scene. He was headed home when he received a call from Terry Carter, a local guy who had his hand in a lot of different businesses.

He worked on lowriders and had formed a record label called Heavyweight with Ice Cube. Carter offered to help resolve Knight’s issues with the filmmakers, according to the insider. The two met near Tam’s Burgers on West Rosecrans Avenue, speaking through their car windows. A portrait of Terry Carter was displayed at his funeral.; Credit: Photo by KAT / Splash News/Newscom Ultimately a jury will decide if Bone or Knight was the aggressor. Now locked up downtown on $10 million bail and a murder charge, Knight is trying to convince authorities that he was simply fleeing for his life — not attempting to run anyone over.

  • Straight Outta Compton ‘s filmmakers face a wrongful-death suit filed by Carter’s widow, Lillian Carter, seeking unspecified damages against Universal Studios, Dre, Cube, Tam’s Burgers and others.
  • The suit alleges that the defendants knew, or should have known, that Knight and Bone were likely to engage in “violent confrontation” if they encountered one another, and that their dispute could lead to collateral damage.

While Knight’s arrest dominated headlines about the film during its creation, other tragic events gave N.W.A’s messages a new urgency. Following the deaths of unarmed black men including Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of cops, the debate about how American law enforcement polices minority populations has been reignited.

The national mood recalls the one that followed the acquittal of LAPD officers involved in the 1991 Rodney King beating.N.W.A’s lyrics — as well as those on early Ice Cube albums — anticipated the outpouring of anger, and “Fuck tha Police” was blasted from cars during the L.A. riots. Similarly, the song became a rallying cry at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and Baltimore.

While N.W.A’s messages became more timely, they also complicated the movie’s marketing. Universal and its ambassadors insist that the film does not encourage strong civic action. “he movie is not a call to arms against the police or anything like that,” Universal Pictures chair Donna Langley, who green-lit the film, told The Hollywood Reporter,

  1. Our music was our only weapon.
  2. Nonviolent protest,” Ice Cube told Rolling Stone earlier this year.N.W.A in its heyday likely wouldn’t have put things in such delicate terms.
  3. Fuck tha Police” wasn’t about gathering peacefully or writing your congressperson a strongly worded letter.
  4. When I’m finished, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” Cube rapped.

Certainly no one begrudges him the right to mellow with age. After all, he himself has been affected by the fatal intersection of art and reality. At a 1991 opening-night showing of Boyz N the Hood, in which Cube starred, a Chicago man was murdered. Numerous theaters subsequently pulled the film.

  • The creators of Straight Outta Compton face a delicate balancing act: They aim to inspire their audience but not incite it.
  • Speak a little truth and people lose they mind,” Cube’s character says in ads for the film.
  • Speak too much of it, and your lessons could backfire.
  • The 20 Best Hip-Hop Songs in History Top 20 Golden Age Hip-Hop Albums Becoming Riff Raff: How a White Suburban Kid Morphed Into Today’s Most Enigmatic Rapper Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories.

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Did N.W.A get sued?

As the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton continues to rake in big bucks at the box office, accusations that the film sanitizes history persist. Yes, the Compton rappers produced truly groundbreaking music. They reigned for a while as the “world’s most dangerous group.” And they indeed delivered powerful, provocative messages against police brutality and racial profiling.

  • But the film has been criticized for all too conveniently glossing over less-than-flattering moments in the gangsta rap pioneers’ past, including Dr.
  • Dre’s savage, drunken physical assault on TV host Dee Barnes at a Hollywood party in 1991.
  • Dre, who executive produced the movie along with his former groupmate Ice Cube, should have owned up towhat he did to me,” Barnes wrote at Gawker shortly after Compton premiered.

“In his lyrics, Dre made hyperbolic claims about all these heinous things he did to women. But then he went out and actually violated women. Straight Outta Compton would have you believe that he didn’t really do that.” Barnes reminds readers of the “other women Dr.

Dre beat up,” beyond just herself, and references the long-controversial misogyny in N.W.A’s rhymes. “I wasn’t in the studio to hear them record their disgusting, misogynistic views on women in songs like ‘A Bitch Iz a Bitch,’ ‘Findum, Fuckum & Flee,’ ‘One Less Bitch,’ and perhaps most offensively, ‘She Swallowed It,'” she writes.

Regarding “She Swallowed It,” Barnes mentions that in the song, N.W.A member MC Ren “brags about violating 14-year-old girl: ‘Oh shit it’s the preacher’s daughter! / And she’s only 14 and a ho / But the bitch sucks dick like a specialized pro.'” The track also includes the line, “if you got a gang of niggaz, the bitch would let you rape her.” There is, however, another salient point that Barnes doesn’t address in her essay: MC Ren didn’t just rap about violating a teenage girl—he was once accused of it.

  • In 1993, former members of the rap group settled a lawsuit brought by a young black woman named Sheila Davis, who claimed that MC Ren had raped her aboard the group’s tour bus in Alabama in July 1989.
  • MC Ren, Eazy-E, DJ Yella, and Dr.
  • Dre were all named in the suit.) Davis, who was 16 years old at the time of the alleged assault, said that the incident resulted in a baby.

Her attorney, Gusty Yearout, told the Associated Press at the time that a paternity test showed a 99.8 percent probability that MC Ren was the biological father. MC Ren and former N.W.A manager Jerry Heller maintained that no proof of paternity was presented, and that the rapper had passed a polygraph test.

  1. It was an interesting and important case to me,” Yearout recently told The Daily Beast,
  2. Yearout remembers Davis as “attractive, intelligent, and articulate.” “I could see the significant effect the incident had on her,” he continued.
  3. She very easily could have had an abortion, and she didn’t.” During the course of the civil suit, Yearout says he flew to Los Angeles to take the depositions of the four recording artists.

“I was the white guy who didn’t understand anything about Compton,” he recalled. He describes all of them as calm and polite—with the notable exception of Eazy-E. “Eazy-E was kind of a smart-ass during the deposition,” he recalls. “He said things like.Ren would never rape anybody without wearing a prophylactic.” Soon after the depositions were taken, Yearout was paid a surprise visit at his office in Birmingham by yet another notorious figure in hip hop: Suge Knight, who co-founded Death Row Records with Dre in 1991.

  1. While discussing certain particulars of the case, their conversation slipped into what might as well have been ripped from a tabloid.
  2. Told me that N.W.A members had these bets with each other that when they went into towns on tour, that they could end up having sex with a girl who did not want to have sex,” he recounted.

“Some sporting thing—honor among thieves.” (Yearout clarified that he did not interpret this alleged custom as acts of rape.) The case was eventually settled out of court for $2 million, After all these decades, the lawsuit has been reduced to little more than a footnote in N.W.A’s history.

Who invented sampling in rap?

Sampling Ain’t Dead: Hip-Hop Producers Break Down The Formula – As an art form, sampling has been evolving for 35 years now. That’s about how long ago it’s been since the legendary producer Marley Marl revolutionized hip-hop production when, almost by accident, he figured out how to sample a drum beat from an existing record.

It makes this a perfect time to look at the legacy, but also the trajectory, of sampling through a handful of snapshots. The NPR Video team conceptualized this series, The Formula, that takes us into the home studios of several iconic producers, or producers of iconic songs, to talk about their approach to sampling and how they’ve evolved as producers.

From talking to Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, DJ Dahi, DJ Premier and Salaam Remi, what we ended up discovering is so much more — the stories behind the music, yes, but also how they’ve kept sampling authentic but also vital in a genre where styles and trends change and transform faster than any other.

    What rapper was sued for sampling?

    Kanye West settles copyright lawsuit over ‘Donda 2’ sample Rapper Kanye West smiles during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss criminal justice reform at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo May 4 (Reuters) – Kanye West has settled a lawsuit that accused the controversial rapper and entrepreneur of sampling a song by musician Marshall Jefferson without permission, according to a Wednesday filing in Manhattan federal court.U.S.

    • District Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the case and in an order that the lawsuit had been settled in principle.
    • Details of the settlement were unavailable.
    • Representatives for the plaintiffs and West, now legally known as Ye, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
    • Greenberg Traurig, the large law firm that originally represented West in the case, was one of several to with him after he made widely reported anti-Semitic remarks last year.

    West’s new attorney, Peter Hawkes of the Angeli Law Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jefferson is a pioneer of house music, a type of electronic dance music, from West’s hometown of Chicago. Ultra International Music Publishing LLC West last year.

    Ultra claimed that “Flowers” from West’s 2022 album “Donda 2” includes an unauthorized sample from Jefferson’s 1986 song “Move Your Body.” West admitted to sampling “Move Your Body” in a March court filing but denied infringing Ultra’s copyright. West released “Donda 2” through his Stem Player, a handheld device that allows users to isolate and recombine song parts.

    Kano Computing Ltd, the British company that developed the Stem Player with West, was also named in the lawsuit. Representatives for Kano also did not respond to requests for comment on the settlement. West has previously settled several other copyright disputes over his sampling.

    • He is still facing a from last year over an allegedly unauthorized sample in his 2021 song “Life of the Party.” Our Standards: Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal.
    • He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney.

    Contact: 12029385713 : Kanye West settles copyright lawsuit over ‘Donda 2’ sample