The new N.W.A retrospective "The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge" raises an interesting question about when is the best time to measure an album's greatness. Is it the week the album is released or two decades later when you can see how well it holds up?
The remarkable thing about N.W.A, the Southern California quintet that largely defined gangsta rap with its "Straight Outta Compton" album in 1989, is that its music sounds arguably more impressive now than when it was first released.
That's because we can more easily look past the controversy over the collection to see the extraordinary craft involved in the group's best recordings.
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N.W.A
"The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge"
(Priority)
The back story: Make no mistake, "Straight Outta Compton" sounded awfully commanding in 1989, with its explosive social commentary and spectacularly catchy beats.
Thanks chiefly to the early, landmark work of such outfits as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Public Enemy and Run-DMC, rap gave pop music its biggest creative spark since the arrival of punk in the late '70s.
Yet nothing in rap quite matched the fury and provocation of N.W.A's team of Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella.
Much of the praise at the time for N.W.A's most influential work -- the "Straight Outta Compton" album -- concerned the group's boldness in describing inner-city tensions. The album, on Ruthless Records, featured sirens and gunshots as backdrops to the frequently brutal, X-rated tales of drug dealing, gangbanging and police confrontations.
Even though Ice Cube, who wrote the most compelling of the N.W.A raps, stressed that the extreme language was a reflection of the group's world, many saw the angry, violent themes simply as an attempt to shock -- which was fine by rock standards. After all, a big part of rock's early appeal was that it unnerved adults.
The N.W.A story also was dominated by free-speech issues after an FBI agent warned that the lyrics to the album's most celebrated song, "F--- tha Police," encouraged violence against law enforcement officers.
Now that nearly two decades have passed since "Compton," it's much easier to marvel at the solid craftsmanship involved in N.W.A's work, and this package is an ideal study guide. It includes 17 tracks, including six from "Compton," and a DVD with N.W.A videos and brief interviews with group members, especially Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.
