Nwa Music Group

First Amendment activists and a member of Congress said this week that the FBI may have stepped out of line with a letter accusing a Compton rap group of encouraging "violence against and disrespect" for law enforcement officers. "The FBI should stay out of the business of censorship," said Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, when informed of an Aug.

I DIDN'T know what to make of N.W.A the first time I heard the revolutionary rap group on KDAY, the radio home of rap in L.A. in the late 1980s. The music was a sonic marvel and the lyrics were more visceral than anything I had come across in rap or just about anywhere else short of pulp fiction. N.W.A arrived at a time when rap was still very much on trial in Los Angeles -- just two years after 41 people were injured in a flare-up of gang violence at a Run-DMC concert at the Long Beach Arena.

THE JHERI CURL is long gone, and the scowl, well, Ice Cube still has that, but he uses it selectively now. It was 20 years ago this month that the group N.W.A -- with Cube as its most vital lyricist -- released the shocking "Straight Outta Compton." They called their music "reality rap," but everyone else just called it gangsta, and music history was made.

THE JHERI CURL is long gone, and the scowl, well, Ice Cube still has that, but he uses it selectively now. It was 20 years ago this month that the group N.W.A -- with Cube as its most vital lyricist -- released the shocking "Straight Outta Compton." They called their music "reality rap," but everyone else just called it gangsta, and music history was made.

Rap music is not polite. It's a noisy 'n' crude attack on mainstream sensibilities that has even liberal-minded adults who were raised on the rebellious, outlaw beat of Little Richard and the Rolling Stones asking themselves, "What happened to real music?"

The host of a weekly rap TV show filed a $22-million lawsuit Thursday against four members of the top-selling rap group "N.W.A," contending that one rapper severely beat her at a Hollywood nightclub in January and that the others libeled her. In the Los Angeles Superior Court suit, Denise (Dee) Barnes, who hosts Fox-TV's "Pump It Up," accused Andre Young, who is known in the group as Dr. Dre, of assault and battery and emotional distress. N.W.A members Eric Wright (Eazy-E), Lorenzo Patterson (M.

Eric Wright, the Los Angeles rapper who caused a stir this week by going to a Republican Party fund-raiser attended by President Bush in Washington, plans to invite Rodney G. King to participate in a new version of the rapper's most controversial song. Wright, who is the leader of the group N.W.A.

Guess who's scheduled to lunch with the President of the United States today? Compton's most notorious rap entrepreneur, Eric Wright--better known as Eazy-E, founder of the controversial rap group N.W.A. Wright, who also owns Hollywood-based Ruthless Records--has been invited by Republican Senate leader Bob Dole to attend an exclusive luncheon today in Washington where President Bush is scheduled to speak to the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle.

Eazy-E was rapping about reality the other day, extolling the virtues of telling it like it is. The young Compton rapper, who also runs the rap production company Ruthless Records, was lunching with his pal, writer/rapper M.C. Ren, at a Westside deli that's one of their favorite dining spots. "Why do you think the fans like us--why they prefer our street raps over all that phony stuff out there?" asked Eazy-E, who has a hit album, "Eazy Duz It." He's also a member of the group N.W.

YOU could say the often ugly, R-rated brand of hip-hop known as gangsta rap was jump-started by a prank. Dr. Dre, the brilliant record producer, and fellow N.W.A member Eazy-E were motoring through Torrance one afternoon in the late 1980s when Eazy started shooting people at bus stop benches with a paint gun. The rappers thought this was hilarious -- especially because the paint balls were red, which caused their victims to freak out.

YOU could say the often ugly, R-rated brand of hip-hop known as gangsta rap was jump-started by a prank. Dr. Dre, the brilliant record producer, and fellow N.W.A member Eazy-E were motoring through Torrance one afternoon in the late 1980s when Eazy started shooting people at bus stop benches with a paint gun. The rappers thought this was hilarious -- especially because the paint balls were red, which caused their victims to freak out.

It was N.W.A's incendiary words a decade ago that made the Southern California group the most controversial and influential ever in rap. They even drew the fire of an FBI official who said that some lyrics in N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton" album encouraged violence against law enforcement officers. The language in that album--which defined the entire gangsta rap movement in America--was startling. Though other artists had laid the foundation for N.W.

Rapper Dr. Dre of N.W.A., also known as Andre Young of Agoura, has surrendered to police and was booked on two counts of aggravated battery. Young was arrested May 22 in the lobby of the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street during a brawl that took as many as 80 police officers, some of them on horses, to break up.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a member of the rap group N.W.A. on assault charges stemming from a dispute with a record producer, police said. Andre Romell Young, known to his fans as Dr. Dre, allegedly assaulted Damon Thomas at a Woodland Hills apartment complex, police said. Thomas suffered a broken jaw in the May 5 incident, police said. Authorities said Young faces misdemeanor charges of intent to cause great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

A member of the rap group NWA was charged Thursday with assault in the beating of a Woodland Hills man. Andre Romell Young, 26, of Agoura Hills--whose stage name is Dr. Dre--and his attorney were arranging for the rapper to surrender to authorities, said Ted Goldstein, spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office. Young faces two misdemeanor charges in connection with the May 5 beating of Damon Thomas, 22, Goldstein said. The charges were filed Thursday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Ice Cube successfully moved from rap to the movies last year with his acclaimed role in "Boyz N the Hood." Now, his one-time mates and current rivals in N.W.A are trying to do him one better: N.W.A founder Eazy-E's new company, Broken Chair Flickz, is currently lining up financing for a film he co-wrote and plans to star in. Scripts for "Smilin' Facez"--a bloody revenge tale set in the streets of South-Central L.A.--are starting to make their way around Hollywood via agents at Triad and ICM.

Fat gold chains, expensive track suits and major-league egos--once the stereotypical trademarks of rap music--are rumbling in the face of a fresh ainflux of creative young rhymers whose styles are as varied as their birthplaces. They flaunt humor, intelligence and style without losing a step on the dance floor.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a member of the rap group N.W.A. on assault charges stemming from a dispute with a record producer, police said. Andre Romell Young, known to his fans as Dr. Dre, allegedly assaulted Damon Thomas at a Woodland Hills apartment complex, police said. Thomas suffered a broken jaw in the May 5 incident, police said. Authorities said Young faces misdemeanor charges of intent to cause great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

"Efil4zaggin," the second album by Los Angeles rap group N.W.A, has been declared not obscene by British magistrates, ending a case that marked the first time a record has been seized by police under Britain's Obscene Publications Act. Nearly 25,000 copies of the album were removed from the London depot of Polygram Record Operations, its distributor, by Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Squad on June 4.

A member of the rap group N.W.A pleaded no contest Tuesday to misdemeanor battery in connection with an assault on a Fox TV rap show host in a Hollywood nightclub. Andre Young Jr., 26, whose stage name is Dr. Dre, entered his plea before Los Angeles Municipal Judge Frederick Wapner, a city attorney's spokesman said. Wapner fined Young $2,513 and sentenced him to 240 hours of community service and 24 months probation.