An EP, 100 Miles and Runnin’, did well but not spectacularly last summer, leading many to believe that N.W.A.’s days as rap pacesetters were over. since the release of Compton. Late in 1989, N.W.A.’s label received a letter from the FBI, warning the group that the agency didn’t take kindly to a song on Compton titled “ Fuck tha Police.” In January 1990 chief lyricist Ice Cube left the group in a bitter financial dispute. So how did it get to the top? “We’re just thanking that new system got,” says Eazy. The new album was released without a single, a video or even a track suitable for radio play. They are the hardest of the hard core, the group that defined the brutal subgenre known as gangster rap with the double-platinum 1989 album Straight Outta Compton (which peaked on the album charts at Number Thirty-Seven). N.W.A., lest we forget, stands for Niggas With Attitude, and that’s about all they stand for. “How can some motherfuckers with a street record get Number One over motherfucking AC/DC, Paula Abdul, all that shit?” asks Eazy. “I thought it was gonna be a hundred and fifty, to tell you the truth,” counters M.C. “We thought it was gonna be like Number Fifty,” says N.W.A. The week before, the rappers’ album entered the Billboard album chart at Number Two, the highest debut since Michael Jackson’s Bad, in 1987. gather in the meticulous suburban office park outside Los Angeles that houses their Ruthless Records label, their album Efil4zaggin (try it backward) is the best-selling album in the country.
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