Friday, September 2, 2016

"Fuck Tha Police" by N.W.A.



Who/What:  N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudez) is a rap/hip-hop group established in Compton, California. The group consists of five individual artists. O'Shea Jackson (Ice Cube), Lorenzo Patterson (MC Ren), Andre Young (Dr. Dre), Eric Wright (Eazy-E), & Antoine Carraby (DJ Yella). They were active as a group from 1986 to 1991, then later split to pursue their own careers due to problems within the record labels/group itself. They have a huge influence on not only the rap game, but also the African American community in general. They were looked down upon because many people thought of their lyrics as very explicit, disrespectful to women, and very disrespectful to the police law enforcement. I believe their overall goals & intentions were good, they just went about it in a different way. They grew to be very famous and were a well known rap group, so they used that to be the "voice" for others who couldn't stand up and say anything for themselves. N.W.A.'s platform was large and I respect that they used it to convey their overall message to the world. They aimed to show racism is still at large against Blacks all around the world, not just in LA. It is crazy because this was about 30-40 years ago but RACISM is still going on TODAY in 2016.

When: The song was recorded in 1988 and later on released publicly on August 9th, 1988. So late 80's early 90's technically.

Where: Compton, California. Despite the origins being from Los Angeles, the overall message is world wide. Priority/Ruthless Records.

Why: The song is very straight forward and is pretty self explanatory. Racism early on back then was still huge, it is even still huge today but that is a whole different story. The song is about protesting police brutality and racial profiling. Back then and still even today in the present, police were extremely racist, especially towards African Americans. The song and term "fuck the police" transcended into so much more than just a song. It is now a slogan and a form of protest against the law. It aims to show how unfairly treated African Americans are when it comes to the law enforcement simply because of the color of their skin. NWA served as a "voice" for not only just Compton, but for African Americans all over the world.

Identity: This song gives an identity to not just African Americans, but to everyone who has ever or is currently facing any type of discrimination because of the color of their skin. The group wrote this song to bring awareness to the world and people can identify to it because they can relate to it so well. It also open up Caucasian peoples' eyes as well because not every white person is racist but now they are more aware than ever. 

Works Cited: N.W.A. "N.W.A. "Fuck Tha Police" Music Video."Online Videoclip clip.YouTube.YouTube.April 19, 2012.Web. 2 Sept 2016.

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