Same Shit Different Year

 

"Ain't nothing changed but the year it is,” - (USC) Law Professor Jody David Armour

A drug-dealing high school drop-out, a scholar-by-day and poet-by-night, and a struggling DJ walk into a nightclub…Little did anyone know that a few kids from a heavily gang-affiliated and impoverished town would later become known as the “Fathers of Gangsta Rap”. While growing up practically drowning in sights of death and AK-47’s, these men had nowhere to go but up, and so they did. Using their life experiences, memories, and fears of both the past and future, NWA forever changed the name of rap and exposed the injustices inbred in the justice system. Being considered the “world’s most dangerous group” only gave these men more ammunition to fight, and so they did. Using words as a weapon to fight their biggest enemies - the police and systemic racism -, “N****z Wit Attitude” (better known as NWA) started a movement and created art that was a “reflection of [their] realities”. Though controversy and crisis continued to follow these five (Dad note: above) men close by, staying strong and standing their ground was what they did best. NWA never hesitated to stand against police brutality and stand up for the silenced. Their mission was to give a voice to the voiceless, and so they did. Revealing to the world the true harshness of what it was, and is like, for a black man to live in America, their words were a weapon against the police as well as a blessing to the people. Connecting past events, like the 92 LA riots and the current shape of the United States, NWA has created a movement and a culture applicable to anybody, anytime, anywhere. 

Though the group's music is very politically controversial, the controversy of the music mainly stems from their star writer. Named after the star USC running back and 1968 Heisman Award winner, OJ Simpson, Doris and Hosea Jackson birthed O’Shea Jackson in June of 1969 in Los Angeles. O’Shea was like any other teen raised in a rough neighborhood. O’Shea was committed to keeping him and his family safe as he was quite the scholar and had a bright future ahead of him. He was more educated and scholarly than the kids in his neighborhood and an above-average student, who also had a unique way with words. At the Hawthorne Christian School, he was quite the athlete but was always drawn to a special kind of music. Though soul and funk seemed to dominate radio and media, nothing could stop his unhealthy obsession with the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”. Claiming that he “couldn’t stop rewinding it”, this unique new tune and a live Ice-T concert inspired 14-year old O’Shea Jackson to start to write his own music. Ultimately, O’Shea Jackson changed his name and became better known as the one, the only, Ice Cube. One of Cube’s best friends, also a producer and rapper, was a guy by the name of Anthony “Sir Jinx” Wheaton. Together, Cube and Jinx, along with a third member, Kid Disaster, formed a group called C.I.A. (Cru in Action). Along the way, Sir Jinx introduced Ice Cube to his cousin, Andre Young, better known today as Dr.Dre. 

Born in 1965 to a single mother in Compton, Andre Ramelle Young started deejaying at quite an early age. By the age of 16, Andre had changed his name to Dr. Dre in honor of his favorite basketball player, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and had a solid gig deejaying at an LA nightclub called Eve After Dark. In 1982, Dre and Antoine Carraby - AKA DJ Yella and the manager of Eve After Dark - formed a group entitled the World Class Wreckin’ Cru who created electronic pop music. Their first single, “Surgery” did very well selling around 50,000 copies. A year after their single dropped, Dre graduated from high school and turned down an offer to join the Northrop Aircraft Corporation so he could pursue a music career. Though Dre left the World Class Wreckin' Cru in 1984 due to his feelings of inferiority and lack of potential to become something big, his true career was just blossoming. Around the time he left the group, he helped Ruthless Records, a record label founded by eric wright, flourish in 1985 when he started to produce music for Wright and his clients. 

 Wright supplied the funding for Ruthless Records while Dre scouted and provided the production and talent. Eric Wright, known by the street name of Eazy-E, was also born in Compton in 1963 to a postal worker and an elementary school teacher. Growing up constantly struggling for money, to get food on the table and a roof over his head, Wright dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and started to sell drugs with his cousin. While dealing, he gained respect and power throughout the town but when his cousin got shot and killed in a drug deal gone wrong, dealing was no longer a viable option for him. Instead, E started to make music in the ’80s and then founded a record label, Ruthless Records, in 1987, using his drug money. While he owned the company he knew he couldn't do it alone so he recruited a “friend” of his, Jerry Heller, to help manage him. Up until then, Heller was better known for working with an impressive list of stars across many music genres and was perhaps best known for introducing Elton John and Pink Floyd into the United States for tours and to the world of music. Eazy then recruited Dre for production and Dre then introduced E to Ice Cube. Cube starting writing music and rap songs alongside Eazy and Dre under Ruthless while still in his group, C.I.A.

 At Ruthless, Dre convinced Eazy-E to sign a new New York-based group called HBO (Home Boys Only). Cube was tasked with writing a song for them, which the band later rejected. Despite the minor setback, E, Dre, and Cube didn't know at the time how beneficial this rejection would be.

 The song that Ice Cube wrote, and HBO rejected, was called “Boyz-n-the-Hood”. Knowing how powerful it was, Cube and Dre knew it had to be made but since Cube was still in C.I.A. and Dre wasn't a rapper, they quickly forced Eazy E to record it under his name. In 1987, Boyz-n-the-Hood became Eazy-E’s first solo hit and suddenly “Cruisin down the street in my 64” became a generational hallmark, a saying, a stamp of power and influence in Compton. This very song, and its success, was the jumpstart to the realization that their music was more than just some words scrambled together, but a message, and a powerful one at that. It was also the kick in the butt the group got to realize that they had to form something: something big, something new. Cube decided to leave C.I.A. and join the journey to create NWA. Though many thought that this meant “No Whites Allowed” it actually meant “N****z Wit Attitude”.

After the release of ”Boyz-In-The-Hood”, Cube took a year off to study at the Phoenix Institute of Technology but returned after a year in 1988 with two missions to complete.

First, with Dre and Yella on production, Cube and Ren on writing, and Eazy on the mic, these five men finished Eazy-E’s first solo album, Eazy-Duz-it.  Still, with another task at hand, one of the greatest albums of all time was created, Straight Outta Compton. With a few bumps along the path due to Dre’s prior traffic and abuse arrests and scandals, his fear to create music going against the very people that locked him up grew stronger. Cube was quick to remind him what NWA truly stood for, and that they were in this together. After this little hiccup, NWA, Joined by the DOC and the Arabian Prince, released a new album under Ruthless and Priority records. Though there were thirteen songs featured on the Straight Outta Compton, three mostly got the limelight. Along with the incredible story that lies behind them comes waves of violence, controversy, and threats.  

 The intro song on the album, “Straight Outta Compton”, is simply a depiction of NWA’s individual stories and lives. In an interview with Cube, he considered NWA’s music “Reality rap”, and referred to their lyrics as a “reflection of their realities”. With songs like “Gangsta Gangsta” and “Express Yourself” there was a new sound and a new generation of music being born. Preaching about what they knew best, a life surrounded by gangs, drugs, sex, and most importantly, police brutality, NWA gained a huge following. No artists had ever been this bold with their music before and all types of people, white or black, young or old, wealthy or dirt poor, became fans of NWA and soon became, not only just their advocates and fans, but their supporters as well. NWA’s music created protests and riots as well as complications with, not only the police department but also the federal government.  

 Just as every artist does when they drop a new hit album, NWA went on tour in 1989. Before touring, the group received a letter from the FBI restricting them from performing “Fuck Tha Police” on stage and also informing them that NWA wouldn’t have police protection while on tour. Their last stop was in Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena and, Of course, being “N*****z Wit Attitude”, they sang the song anyway, a scene depicted (with some creative and dramatic liberty) in the film “Straight Outta Compton”. Though the movie shows the truth of their stories, there were some dramatic altercations made for the sake of good cinema. In the concert scene in the movie, undercover cops storm the stage after gunshots are heard and the crowd gets chaotic. The concert ends abruptly and then NWA bolts off stage to be arrested in front of all their rioting fans. In reality, behind the camera, NWA was not arrested in front of everyone; instead, they managed to escape and go back to their hotel only to find that law enforcement was awaiting them in the lobby.  

According to an interview with Cube, the police were calm and explained that preaching “Fuck Tha Police” wasn’t allowed in Detroit. None of NWA’s members were charged by the police and, Kevin Grove, the man that helped book the Joe Louis Arena concert, claimed that the gunshots that were heard at the concert were actually firecrackers detonated by the Detroit police officers to diffuse the rowdy crowd. Confronting the issue of the black man vs the police, in an interview after the tour in 1989, Cube continued to say that “when I hear shots, I’m gone. Because you can’t miss a target with a spotlight.”. He then continued to say how this was an abuse of police power and they were simply exercising their first amendment, freedom of speech. There was no need for any type of violence, whether they throw firecrackers or gunshots, none of it was necessary.

  After this incident on tour and making it public that the FBI sent NWA a letter claiming that they condoned “violence against and disrespect for the law-enforcement officers,” America- whether white, black, rich or poor, was on the side of six young men from the streets.  

After their 1989 tour, NWA appeared at a gig in Phoenix, Arizona. Alongside their manager, Jerry Heller, the group finally had received their checks from their tour but were required to sign a contract to cash them in. Though Dre, E, DOC, the Arabian Prince, Yella, and Ren signed the contract without hesitation, Cube was enraged. Though the check was for $75,000, Cube knew that he deserved much more. Claiming that Eazy-E was “double-dippin’”, he realized this was all a scam. He claimed that everyone in the group NWA worked equally on Eazy-Duz-It (E’s Solo album) and “Straight Outta Compton” though E was getting all the royalties from his solo album plus his share of the group record. Cube felt this was unfair, so after a huge blow-up with Heller and E, he decided to leave NWA and pursue a solo career. Cube felt that E “forgot” where he came from and his loyalties to the streets had been lost and replaced by this new fame.

 NWA continued to make music without their star writer. In May of 1991, NWA issued a new album entitled “Efil4zaggin”, which is “N****z4life” backward. On this album, they wrote a few diss tracks about Cube, calling him “Benedict Arnold” on the track “Real N****z” and using real-life messages left by fans about Cube on “Message to B.A.”. “B.A” of course meaning Benedict Arnold, implying Cube was a trader. Of course, O’Shea wasn’t about to let this go unnoticed so on his second studio album, Death Certificate, produced by Jinx, he released a famous diss track entitled “No Vaseline”. This created a little ripple due to his antisemitic jokes about manager Heller claiming that a “Jew break up [his] crew” and creating beef with the boys calling the crew “phonies” and claiming they “Used to be hard now [theyre] just wet and soft.”. Though this drama was heated and never-ending, the country quickly turned to flames as what they preached about was storming LA. Police brutality and their lyrics were coming to life. 

Earlier in March of 1991, a black man was driving with two friends at midnight on the freeway bolting at a speed of 115 MPH. California highway patrol tried to pull them over, but resisting the urge, this man instead led them on a car chase. They stopped in a LA suburb called Lake View terrace where tragedy struck. The man was said to have gotten out of the car waving his arms and screaming being chased by the police. The police then continued to hit this man with a steel baton 56 times, kicked him repeatedly while he was already on the ground, and struck him with two 50,000 volt taser blasts. While the police claim that the man was intoxicated and thought to be on PCP, lab tests proved otherwise. In a video that a neighbor caught on camera, it is seen that while four cops are beating up this one man for 15 straight minutes, there were also 23 other officers surrounding and doing absolutely nothing. This man? His name is Rodney King, a name and a story that has and forever will mean more than just one mans life. King was never ticketed, his friends were never interviewed and the whole situation was kept quite hush hush.  

Days later, cops claimed that he had only suffered minor injuries but after a medical evaluation, that was proved to be completely false. Instead of getting away without any scratches and bruises, King ended up with an array of different sprains, cuts, and broken bones. He ultimately came out of the incident with a cracked eye socket, a fractured cheekbone, a broken right ankle, cuts all over his body, and suffered from four heart attacks days after the beating due to the trauma his body endured while being tased. 

 The four cops were later charged with a hate crime and assault with a deadly weapon. Somehow, it took a year for the trial officially begin. On April 2 of 1992, in a predominantly white city, Simi Valley, California, king and the cops stood in front of a jury that was primarily caucasian. To no one’s surprise, the four cops were all exonerated at 3 p.m. that day, and chaos was just rising. Less than four hours after the trial was over, tensions rose and mayhem ensued. Southcentral LA was the hotspot for these riots and an unsafe place to be. There were fires set to residential homes, stores, and looters scrambling all across town. Light-skinned people were pulled out of their cars, beaten and tortured. In addition to the anger that the Rodney King trial evoked, the same month King was beaten, a young girl was murdered.  

A Korean store owner in southern LA shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old African-American girl, Latasha Harlins, for supposedly stealing an orange juice. Turns out, she was clutching her money to pay for the beverage. Instead of jail time for taking an innocent little girl's life, the perpetrator received a $500 fine and probation. Justice was never, and has never, been served for 15-year-old Latasha Harlins. This only intensified the hate that African-Americans possessed for the justice system.  

 Though bloodshed and fires stormed the city, the LAPD was unresponsive and were ordered to retreat by their chief. About three hours after the riots had begun and gotten rowdy to the point of danger, Mayor Tom Bradley called for a state of emergency around 9 pm and governor, Pete Wilson, ordered 2000 national guard troops to survey the city. 

 Within hours of the riots, the unofficial motto and the words that were spray-painted on buildings, streets, plastered on posters, and spoken out of people's mouths were “Fuck Tha Police”. Cube was known to be the most political of the group, so when he left, the controversy surrounding the words of NWA had slightly vanished while his first solo album, Amerikkka's Most Wanted, was quite harsh. He had never been this bold with his words up until 1992. At the time of Rodney King, he released a song called “We Had to Tear This Mothaf***** up” about the riots and his further hate for the police. In this song, he directly references the cops that were responsible for King's injuries and also references the trial itself. He throws shots at Officer Powell, who along with Koon were the main two cops involved. “Born, wicked, Laurence, Powell, foul, Cut his fuckin throat and I smile”

Later in the song, he also claims that he will “catch Sergeant Koon” and “Shoot him in the face”. As well as referencing the officers directly, he also refers to where the court hearing was and the people of the jury.

“Go to Simi Valley and surely, somebody knows the address of the jury”. 

The other two officers involved were referenced as well when Cube claims that he “gotta mac-10 for Officer Wind” and then proceeds to murmur Briseños' name in the background of the track.

 In light of all the violence and media coverage, the riots repeated for many days, each one more threatening than the last. On the third day of protests, King spoke out. As he stood outside the Beverly Hills courthouse, he spoke his famous words, “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?" 

 A city-wide curfew was then put into place after the fifth day of riots and California stopped running. Mail delivery was halted and no one went to work or school. Stores and banks were closed until May 4th when the curfew was lifted. 

 A year after the riots had ended, the officers were re-tried on April 16th of 1993. Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell were found guilty of the violation of King's rights and were sentenced to 30 months in prison. The other two officers, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseño, alongside Koon and Powell, were fired from the police force and were banned from living in California. In addition to firing these officers, the chief of the LAPD was fired and replaced with a man of color.

  These issues didn't only happen on the west coast, but throughout the whole country and whether 1991 or 2020, it seems as though nothing has changed. In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot in Cleveland, Ohio after he was thought to have been holding a gun. Turns out, he wasn't holding a gun but carrying a nerf rifle and within seconds, Rice was shot dead on a playground. Officer Timothy Loehmann, the murderer, did not face any charges. Also in 2014, the famous case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri shook the nation. An 18-year-old boy, unarmed and innocent, was shot at least six times and twice to the head. Though his death prompted riots and chaos, Darren Wilson, the police that shot him, was exonerated. 

 Nearly a year after these cases, Ice Cube spoke out in an interview with Billboard about his views on everything going on. When asked about the significance that “Fuck Tha Police” holds today, he responded by saying that, “It shows the problem at hand. The problem is, first of all, the police are trained to win no matter what.” Cube then continues to say that the addition of racism to the mixture creates an “evil combination”. As a person that lived through the terrors of the ‘92 LA riots, he has every right to speak on this issue. He claimed that nothing has changed with police brutality and the abuse of police power between 1991 and now.

 More recently, and quite currently, we are enduring one of the biggest racial divides in our modern history. In March of 2020, a sleeping young lady by the name of Breonna Taylor was shot dead in her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Her dream to become an EMT was cut short when Louisville PD, on a drug raid, forced their way into her home with a battering ram. Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend, then got up and grabbed his gun, for which he had a license to use. He proceeded to fire a shot hitting and hurting no one but police responded by firing eight shots and killing Breonna Taylor. Justice was never served, though recently “Breonnas Law” was taken into place banning no-knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky.

 In May of 2020, the shocking but devastating death of Auhmaud Arbery started to stir up even more chaos in the country. On a daily jog in his neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, Arbery was suspected of “theft” and then pursued and chased by two armed white residents that proceeded to shoot him twice in the chest. No arrests were ever made and no justice was ever served.  

The last straw was pulled on May 25th of 2020 when the death of George Floyd shook the country and enraged the public. A 46-year-old man who was spoken so fondly of and who was known to be a great family man was tortured for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he couldn't suffer any longer. It all started when Floyd was out to get something from the local Deli. Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, the owner of said deli, called the cops in suspicion that Floyd had used a forged check to buy some cigarettes and was claimed to have been “awfully drunk”. After a struggle to get Floyd in the back of the police car, the four policemen then proceeded to pull him out of the vehicle and slam him to the ground. Two cops held Floyd and put him on the cement as Officer Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Though repeatedly telling the cops, “I can't breathe”, the torture continued. Ignoring what he said Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd and Floyd proceeded to lose consciousness. Though Floyd was already knocked out, Chauvin refused to get up until the paramedics showed up and forced him to. By this time, Floyd was pronounced dead, and chaos was just sizzling.

Sadly George Floyd wasn't the first African American to die from police brutality uttering his last words as “I can't breathe”. Eric Garner was one of the first police brutality cases to raise suspicion about how much power the police truly got from one badge. In 2014, Garner was arrested because he was selling cigarettes without a license. The NYPD cuffed him and put him in a chokehold, face down on the cement, and a few moments after he spoke his last words, “I can't breathe”, he was left unconscious. The police, when he was unconscious, then proceeded to turn him over and waited for an ambulance to show up. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later and the police were exonerated and not charged with anything. 

With angry protestors filling the streets of all 50 states, and countries around the world from France to Syria to Brazil and New Zealand, this will not stop until something changes. Right now, unfortunately, it is the police vs their people. It was in 1992 and it still is in 2020. Music and media have never been bigger and “Fuck Tha Police” has quadrupled its streams since these 2020 riots started. The resurgence of artists that have been through the wringer, through racism and police brutality, are coming back and affecting the people, the country, and the world.

From the streets to the Ritz; from scribbles on a notebook to #1 on Billboard charts; from having nothing to having everything, the crew members of NWA are to be looked at like, not only as legends but also as heroes. Though considered “gangsta rap” now, NWA branded their music “reality rap” as it was a tribute to their truths. Though no one had heard anything like it before, music has always been a way to communicate with the world. These boys from the street were preaching their own stories and it seemed as though the country wasn't ready to hear the harsh reality of where they came from. The people were scared to realize the truth of what it was like, and continues to be like for a black man to live in a “free” country. Though there are always those who refuse to believe the truth, when victims of police brutality were denied justice, the people demanded change. The 1992 LA Riots, following the beating of Rodney King, turned the country to shambles and though it seemed that change was a necessity and was in the midst of happening, the same thing still continues to happen 30 years later. Right now, in a country divided, struggling with the same issues of racism as America did, not only decades but centuries ago, the relevancy of groups like NWA with their power and stories has never lost touch. 

Why is ending racism such a big problem? Why is holding a toy gun a killable offense? Why is going on a jog a suspicious activity? Why is buying a carton of orange juice a crime? Why are innocent lives being taken, for no reason, with no repercussions? Why does a badge give someone the right to get away with murder? Why is being a black man a crime? If Tamir Rice were white; if George Floyd was white; if Rodney King was white, how would the world react? The number of people that have died at the hands of those that are supposed to “protect and serve” our people is utterly ridiculous and the number of those innocent lives taken that are people of color is undeniably unjust. It has always been the black man vs the police, for centuries, and sadly, it is still the black man vs. the police today.  

As Eazy-E once said “My identity by itself causes violence” and it seems as though this line holds nothing but the harsh, sad, and unfair truth of what it means to live as a black man in America.

Every day, children whether 12 or 4 years old, are scared to live their lives as they desire solely because of the color of their skin. Every day, black people are denied freedom and equality in the “Land of the Free”. Every day, black people are getting killed and tortured for simply going to the store to buy a bag of chips. So, the question comes up again, “Can we all get along? Can we get along?"