45 Fun Facts About N.W.A

What does the abbreviation N.W.A stand for?

Niggaz Wit Attitudes. Radio would barely touch the Compton group, yet it is credited with turning gangsta rap into a national force and putting West Coast hip-hop on the map.

Which rapper did Dr. Dre sign to his Aftermath label in 1998, launching one of hip-hop's biggest careers?

Eminem. The partnership revived Dre's own standing as well: his work on The Marshall Mathers LP won him the Grammy for producer of the year.

Which N.W.A member wrote most of Eazy-E's solo debut, Eazy-Duz-It, alongside Ice Cube?

MC Ren. With Dr. Dre and DJ Yella building the beats and Ren and Ice Cube supplying the words, Eazy-E's 'solo' album was an N.W.A record in all but name.

Which 1987 compilation of early singles was N.W.A's first album?

N.W.A. and the Posse. It bundled the group's first singles with tracks by their friends, and two of its songs, '8 Ball' and 'Dope Man', were remade for Straight Outta Compton.

Roughly how much did it cost to record Straight Outta Compton at Audio Achievements in Torrance?

$12,000. Dr. Dre later said he threw the album together in six weeks so the group would have something to sell out of the trunk, and that he still couldn't stand it.

Ice Cube co-wrote the title track of Straight Outta Compton, but which part of the Los Angeles area was he from?

South Central. He chose to shout out his bandmates' home town instead, later saying it felt silly yelling 'South Central' when everyone else was yelling 'Compton'.

Which song prompted an FBI warning letter to N.W.A's label Priority Records in 1989?

Fuck tha Police. The letter backfired: the publicity is thought to have lifted the album's sales, while police forces across the country refused to work security on the group's tour.

In the mock courtroom that frames N.W.A's most notorious song, which role does Dr. Dre play?

The judge. 'Judge Dre' presides while his bandmates take the stand as witnesses, though in real life he had hesitated to record the song at all while serving weekends in jail for traffic offences.

Which early member, pictured on the cover of Straight Outta Compton, had quit N.W.A before the album came out?

Arabian Prince. He stands between Ice Cube and DJ Yella in the famous alley photograph, but by the time record buyers saw it he had walked out and gone back to making electro and pop.

Which hit by the Ruthless girl group J.J. Fad was nominated for the first rap Grammy in 1989?

Supersonic. The gold single put the fledgling label on the map before N.W.A had a hit of its own, and cashing its cheques is said to be why Eazy-E opened his first bank account.

Why did Ice Cube leave N.W.A in late 1989?

A dispute over royalties. Having written much of the group's breakthrough album, he felt cheated by manager Jerry Heller; the claim was settled out of court in 1990, by which time he was a solo star.

Which Eazy-E track, written by Ice Cube and produced by Dr. Dre, became the rapper's debut single?

Boyz-n-the-Hood. It was written for H.B.O., a New York group signed to the label, and only when they turned it down did Eazy-E, coached by his new partners, record it himself.

Ice Cube recorded his 1990 solo debut AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted in New York with which production team?

The Bomb Squad. Cube has said he wanted Dr. Dre for the job but N.W.A's manager vetoed it, so he flew east and hired a New York production team instead.

What was the title of Ice Cube's 1991 diss track answering N.W.A's insults?

No Vaseline. Cube was answering taunts on the group's last two records, and he spared nobody: the track goes after all four former bandmates and their manager, Jerry Heller.

On their 1990 EP 100 Miles and Runnin', N.W.A branded the departed Ice Cube with which historical figure's name?

Benedict Arnold. The turncoat's name was thrown at him again on the group's next album, and months later Cube answered both records with a furious track of his own.

What did N.W.A's album Niggaz4Life do in June 1991, in only its second week on sale?

Topped the Billboard 200. It had entered at number two the week before, and it proved to be the group's last album: within a year Dr. Dre had walked out and N.W.A was finished.

How is the title of Niggaz4Life printed on its cover?

Backwards, to be read in a mirror: the cover lettering reads 'Efil4zaggin', which is why the album is often listed under that reversed title.

Which basketball star's nickname inspired Dr. Dre's stage name?

Julius Erving. As a teenage club DJ he first billed himself as 'Dr. J', after his favourite player, then blended that nickname with his own first name, Andre.

Which label did Dr. Dre co-found in the early 1990s after leaving Ruthless Records?

Death Row Records. The slow, synth-heavy G-funk sound he popularised there came to dominate mainstream hip-hop, yet he walked away in 1996 to start again with Aftermath.

Which 1992 album, Dr. Dre's solo debut, mocked his former bandmate Eazy-E?

The Chronic. Its hit single 'Dre Day' and the video made for it ridiculed his old partner, and the two went on trading diss records in the years that followed.

Before N.W.A, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella were members of which electro group?

World Class Wreckin' Cru. It was a nightclub act, playing electro for dancers at parties across Los Angeles, a long way from the street reporting its two DJs would soon be known for.

Which company bought Dr. Dre's Beats headphone and streaming business for $3 billion in 2014?

Apple. It was the largest purchase the company had ever made, and the deal put Dre and his co-founder Jimmy Iovine on Apple's own payroll.

Eazy-E attended a March 1991 Republican fund-raising lunch in Washington addressed by which politician?

George H. W. Bush. The invitation came from Senator Bob Dole, and the rapper's spokesman said he loved the president and thought he had done a great job with the Gulf War.

Eazy-E died in March 1995, only weeks after being diagnosed with which illness?

AIDS. Admitted to hospital with a violent cough in late February, he made the diagnosis public in a statement to his fans on March 16 and died ten days later.

Who plays Eazy-E in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton?

Jason Mitchell. A newcomer when he was cast, he had the film's hardest job, taking Eazy-E from swaggering label boss to his final illness, and the part became his breakthrough.

Which Ruthless group, mentored by Eazy-E, dedicated the single 'Tha Crossroads' to his memory?

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. As unknowns they had bought one-way bus tickets from Cleveland to Los Angeles just to chase an audition with him; their tribute spent eight weeks at number one.

What was the title of MC Ren's 1992 EP, his first release outside N.W.A?

Kizz My Black Azz. It was made without Dr. Dre, and Entertainment Weekly's reviewer, who admired Ren's booming delivery, wrote that the plain backing tracks made him miss his old producer.

DJ Yella says he made more than 300 of what after leaving music in the 1990s?

Adult films. He walked away from music after the death of his friend Eazy-E and spent years as a director instead.

Which 1990 EP did Ice Cube release months after AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted?

Kill at Will. Beside the playful 'Jackin' for Beats', built from other rappers' hits, it carried 'Dead Homiez', a mournful song about a murdered friend that showed a side of him N.W.A never had.

Which rapper inducted N.W.A into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016?

Kendrick Lamar. He told the hall how the group had shown a generation of kids what they could become; the honour came only after three earlier nominations had failed.

At which festival did N.W.A's surviving members reunite on stage in April 2016?

Coachella. The reunion happened in the middle of Ice Cube's own set: on the festival's second weekend Dr. Dre walked on to join him, two weeks after the group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Which honour did N.W.A receive in 2024?

The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Accepting it, Ice Cube said they had always known a Grammy was 'not in the cards' for music like theirs, and had never even expected to be played on the radio.

In 2017 Straight Outta Compton was selected for preservation in what?

The National Recording Registry. The Library of Congress chose it in the same batch as Judy Garland's 'Over the Rainbow', a federal honour for an album that once drew a warning letter from the FBI.

Who directed the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton?

F. Gary Gray. He had known his subjects for two decades: before his first feature, the Ice Cube comedy Friday, he had directed the rapper's 'It Was a Good Day' video.

Who plays Ice Cube in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton?

O'Shea Jackson Jr. He had never acted in a feature film before he stepped in front of the camera to play his own father, in a story his father was helping to produce.

Which actor plays N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton?

Paul Giamatti. It was his second music biopic in a row as the minder who doesn't have his client's interests at heart: in Love & Mercy he played Brian Wilson's manipulative psychologist.

Which long-promised Dr. Dre album was finally scrapped in 2015, when he released Compton instead?

Detox. Fans had waited for it since the early 2000s, but working on the N.W.A biopic moved him to make a different record, and the old one was shelved for good.

Which biopic did Straight Outta Compton overtake in 2015 as the top-grossing US musical biopic?

Walk the Line. The Johnny Cash film's $119.5 million was overtaken inside two weeks, and the N.W.A story then held the record itself until Bohemian Rhapsody passed it in 2018.

Before journalists coined 'gangsta rap', what did the members call their own music, per Ice Cube?

Reality rap. Cube has said the style was born on mixtapes they knew radio would never play, which left them free to describe their own neighbourhood exactly as they saw it.

Which Dallas-born rapper co-wrote Straight Outta Compton's title track and many of Dr. Dre's later verses?

The D.O.C. An outsider from Texas and, by his own account, an introvert and a nerd, he wrote the group's street tales from imagination and from the stories his bandmates told him.

Police stormed the stage at N.W.A's 1989 concert in which city when they played a banned song?

Detroit. The tour contract had barred the song, and when the group launched into it anyway plainclothes officers rushed the stage; nobody had a warrant outstanding, so the members were let go.

In 1987 Ice Cube left the newly formed N.W.A for a year to study what at a Phoenix trade school?

Architectural drafting. He doubted that rap would ever pay, so he went for the diploma, but he kept writing lyrics while he was away and was back in time to make Straight Outta Compton.

Which TV channel refused to show N.W.A's 'Straight Outta Compton' video in 1989?

MTV. The ban fed the group's outlaw legend, but the members took it as a real setback: they had hoped the clip, which showed police gang sweeps, would do for them what the channel had done for Tone-Loc.

At the height of their notoriety, N.W.A were billed as the world's most what?

Dangerous group. The outrage worked in their favour: the FBI wrote to their label to complain, and the publicity is thought to have sold them even more records.

Which Australian radio station's protesting staff played one N.W.A song 82 times in a row in 1990?

Triple J. Management had banned the group's most notorious track after the station had been playing it for months, so the presenters put its one swear-free single on repeat for a whole working day.