RJ Mosqueda
Professor Brown
English 306
29 September 2016
“Fuck Tha Police” - N.W.A.
In the year of 1988, a song called “Fuck Tha Police” was published and publicly released to the world by the famous rap group N.W.A. on August 9th. The song is an ultimate form of protest. Not only did it reveal racism and police brutality towards African Americans, but it was a real eye opener for the whole world to see how people of color were treated back then. The song transcended into a slogan and is now a movement in pop culture all over the world today, you see it on posters, billboards, and even t-shirts. N.W.A.’s overall goal with making this song was to show the world that police brutality and racism is going on and that people of color are being mistreated unfairly, which is why they were protesting so hard and explicitly. When you are constantly being treated unfairly as an individual, simply because of your skin color, you are going to do everything in your power to end it, which is what N.W.A. was trying to accomplish by publishing this song. Spread awareness and end all the racism. The song hits all three categories of ethos, logos, and pathos. It demonstrates credibility/trust, logic/reason/proof, and emotions/values.
The song proves the rhetoric form of ethos through protest because of the credibility and trust that N.W.A. had gained all throughout Los Angeles, California. During the 70’s-90’s, racism was still at huge. Only certain people knew what was going on behind closed doors because we did not have such advance social media technology back then. Certainly the media wasn’t covering police brutality with any real enthusiasm. Ethos is demonstrated by N.W.A. by their status. By status I mean that N.W.A. was a famous and well known rap group which featured only African Americans (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, DJ Yella). The five were originally big known rappers/producers prior to them coming together to form the group. So people already knew about them from a musical/hip-hop perspective and throughout the Los Angeles community, which is where they all resided from. N.W.A. had already gained that trust/credibility (ethos) from the community because of how high their status was at the time (famous rappers/musicians). The “fans” were their credibility so people trusted them. They demonstrated this by the amount of album copies sold and by the rankings of their songs, “Their debut album Straight Outta Compton marked the beginning of the new gangsta rap era as the production and social commentary in their lyrics were revolutionary within the genre, while their second album Niggaz4Life would be the first hardcore rap album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 sales charts. Rolling Stone ranked N.W.A number 83 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In 2016, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following three nominations.” (Rolling Stone), (Billboard).
Logos (logic/reason/proof) is blatantly obvious and we can still see it today how police brutality and racism is still at large. In the music video of “Fuck Tha Police” which was created back in the 80’s and even in the “Straight Outta Compton” theatre video that came out in 2015, you can flat out see police brutality towards African Americans, especially in LA. The proof is us being able to actually see it live or see it from a video online of what is actually happening. The raw footage of the ‘Rodney King Riots’ provides us with a visual representation of police brutality and racism in full form. “On This Day: Rodney King Beaten by LAPD. On March 3, 1991, a group of white Los Angeles police officers were videotaped severely beating black suspect Rodney King. The officers were later acquitted of excessive force, sparking riots in the city.” (Findingdulcinea). The proof is in the pudding, you see footage of it back then in their music videos, in the streets of LA, and even in the news. African Americans would not lash out for no reason, they are obviously being mistreated which is what inspired N.W.A. to write the song. “Cube’s reality involved being harassed by cops in Torrance, California, in the late ’80s while N.W.A recorded their major label debut, Straight Outta Compton. The rappers were profiled as gangbangers and forced to lie on the sidewalk, their food slapped out of their hands.
It was a common occurrence, and one that inspired Cube and N.W.A. to write the song “Fuck tha Police.” (BuzzFeed). They were tired of it, they had had enough of everything that was going on with them so they spoke up by publishing this song to show how badly they were being treated by police just because they were of color which is indeed racism.
Pathos (emotions/values) are also displayed within the song of protest though the raw lyrics within the song itself. You do not have to read inbetween the lines of the lyrics to know what the song is about or to know what the group is talking/rapping about. The title is straightforward so you can grasp what the song is going to be about.
A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority.” -Ice Cube (Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A.).
The vivid language and stories tell it all of what is going on in the lyrics themselves. That is why they rap about what they rap about. It is not made up stuff, it is what is actually going on in real life. The lyrics provide people with a sense of inspiration when it comes to “Fuck Tha Police” because people should have a right to be angry and stand up for and express themselves, especially when getting mistreated and killed because of the color of their skin. N.W.A. serves as the “voice” for the people who are not famous or well know like them. N.W.A. started a revolution and they even serve as “the original voice” of the whole “#BlackLivesMatter” which is a form of protest today because of racism involving police brutality. (QuietonthesetMagazine). The group was revolutionary with their means of protest all for one simple reason, and that was just to be treated equally.
The song and even the group themselves serve as an identity to everybody from the past, the present, and even the future who is dealing with racism. Even caucasian people can identify because not all white people are racist and even certain white people themselves go through some type of racism throughout their lives. The group wrote this song not only to bring awareness to the world of what is really going on with police but to ultimately end the racism, which is why people can relate and identify to it. When people get tired of being harassed or getting mistreated, they do something about it, which is exactly what N.W.A. did. People who relate to it so heavily are people who themselves have either witnessed it or gone through it. All in all, racism unfortunately is still at large today. It is sad to see how live it is in today’s society especially since we’ve come so far as people in this world. It does not matter what color skin you are, we are all human beings.
Works Cited
Carter, Kelley L. "How “Fuck Tha Police” Started A Revolution." How “Fuck Tha Police” Started A Revolution. Buzzfeed, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
FindingDulcinea Staff. "On This Day: Rodney King Beaten by LAPD." On This Day: Rodney King Beaten by LAPD. FindingDulcinea, 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
Kreps, Daniel. "Charts: 'Straight Outta Compton' Sends N.W.A Back to Top Five." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
QOSTM. "“N.W.A: The First Voice of The #BlackLivesMatter Movement”."“N.W.A: The First Voice of The #BlackLivesMatter Movement”. Quiet on the Set Magazine, 11 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
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