Week 70 - Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A

Guest listener - Tim Farron





Who’s Tim Farron when he’s at home?

Tim Farron is Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale in the Lake District. He was born in Lancaster and before entering politics he worked at Lancaster University.

In his spare time Tim enjoys walking in the countryside with his wife Rosie and their four children, and watching his beloved Blackburn Rovers’ attempts to return to the Premier League.

Tim’s Top 3 albums ever?

Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout

The Clash’s first album (but the US version because it’s got white man in Hammersmith Palais and Complete Control on it)

Since I left you - The Avalanches

What great album has he never heard before?

Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A

Released in 1988

Before we get to Tim, here’s what Martin of Ruth and Martin’s Album Club thinks of Straight Outta Compton

All right, everyone.

Here’s the story of N.W.A - told over 4 meetings.

1) Prologue - 1985

Consider the following -

Los Angeles is spread over 465 square miles and has 8400 police officers.

New York is spread over 321 square miles and has 39,110 police officers.

If you boil that down, it means that Los Angeles has to maintain law and order with 103 fewer police officers per square mile.

The odds don’t seem right do they? How can such a small police force effectively cover such a large area?

The answer was simple - they were brutal, they intimidated the streets. They would say, generously, they were preventing crimes before they happened, laying down the law whether it was broken or not. Yet the truth was less about police work, or justice. They were sending a message.

Indeed their own Police Chief, Daryl Gates, once said the following -

“Casual drug users should be taken out and shot.”

That’s not an overheard remark, or a slip of the tongue, that was a comment made before the US Senate. The Los Angeles Chief of Police, in front of the country’s elected representatives, actually said that casual drug users should be taken out and shot.

And no one did anything.

If there was one particular district in L.A. that was singled out for special treatment from the LAPD it was Compton. Unemployment and poverty were widespread, and the largely African American population were in the grip of a crack cocaine epidemic that was destroying nearly everything in sight.

The police decided to resort to extreme measures to solve the problem - they acquired a tank and flattened properties in a notional search for drugs and criminality. On one occasion Nancy Reagan, cheerfully sat in on one of the raids.

She ate a fruit salad as the tank knocked down the walls of someone’s home.

After finding just one gram of crack, she was quoted as saying -

“I saw people on the floor, rooms that were unfurnished… all very depressing. These people in here are beyond the point of teaching and rehabilitating. There’s no life, and that’s very discouraging.”

And no one did anything.





2) The First Meeting

Jerry Heller had brought Elton John and Pink Floyd to America. He’d represented Van Morrison, ELO, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Journey, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Four Tops, and Black Sabbath. Yet, in the mid ‘80s, he’d run out of talent and found himself loitering around L.A. trying to catch a break.

His friend Lonzo approaches him in 1987 -

"Hey, Jerry. I got this Compton guy keeps saying he wants to meet you.”

“Yeah? A rapper?” Jerry asks.

“Nah. He’s like a street guy, got a lot of big ideas. He says he wants to start a record store or something.”

Jerry’s heard it all before. 47 and world weary, he tells his friend to spare him the story and move along.

But he doesn’t. Over the next weeks and months, Lonzo keeps chasing Jerry about the kid from Compton -

“Hey, man. You got to see this Compton guy. He’s on at me all the time about it."

Heller became simultaneously exasperated and intrigued. On the one hand, he berated his friend whilst, on the other, he knew that playing hard to get was a deliberate move and only the most determined would get through his defences. The kid from Compton, whoever he was, was playing his part to perfection.

Finally, Lonzo approaches Heller again -

"Listen, Jerry. The guy says he’ll pay me for an introduction to you.”

Heller’s ears pricked up.

“How much?”

“Seven hundred and fifty.” Lonzo replied “And to be honest I could use the money.”

It wasn’t the money that swayed Heller, or a sense of duty to his friend. He just appreciated the initiative, the fact that some kid he didn’t even know was prepared to offer $750 just to meet him.

Heller gave in.

On Tuesday 3rd of March, 1987, a car pulls up outside Heller’s business premises and out steps a short kid wearing wraparound sunglasses and a Raiders cap.

Lonzo introduced them, “Jerry, this is Eric Wright aka Easy E.”

Easy said nothing and just pulled out a roll of notes from his sock and paid Lonzo his finder’s fee on the spot. Heller watches on, charmed by the fact that the kid didn’t once move his lips whilst he was counting the money.

Heller asks, “You want to play me something?”

Easy speaks for the first time.

“Sure.”

He played him Boyz n the Hood, 8 Ball and Dopeman and Heller thought it was the best thing he’d heard in years.

Easy then began to talk -

“I want to start my own label. A place where an artist could work without anyone looking over his shoulder, telling him what he could and could not do - a free environment, no rules, no catering to any taste other than the artist’s own.”

Heller asked him if the label had a name.

“Ruthless Records”, Easy said

Heller asked him if his group had a name.

“N.W.A.” Easy said

“What’s that mean, No Whites Allowed?” asked Heller.

Easy laughed for the first time during the meeting.

“Sort of”, he said.





3) The Second Meeting

Heller spins through his Rolodex, his life’s work rolling before him. He needs a friend, someone to help him distribute. He finally arrives at Joe Smith, chairman of Capitol Records - nicknamed The Gentleman.

Heller visits The Capitol Building, optimistically designed to look like a stack of hit singles, and excitedly enters Smith’s office.

He played him Boyz n the Hood.

Smith was horrified.

Heller then flipped it over and played Dopeman.

Smith was still horrified.

“Stop, stop!”

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two men. And then Smith gave his verdict -

“Jerry, what makes you think anyone is going to buy this garbage? Who’s going to listen? Tell me, who’s going to play this? No radio station in the world.”

Heller tried his best to convince Smith. He reminded him of The Stones, The Sex Pistols and a whole host of other bands that seemed “too much” to one generation but never enough for another.”

Smith held his ground.

“This crap is never going to make it.”

He then offered Heller a million dollars, just for the rights to the name Ruthless Records.

“It’s a great name. Really, I’ll have my girl bring in the chequebook.”

“I don’t want to sell the name. I want to sell the music.” insisted Heller.

“Never. It’ll never sell.”

Heller left the office dejected, the vibration of another door slammed behind him. He gave Easy E the bad news.

“The Gentleman at Capitol said no.”

Easy absorbed the information, without a hint of reaction.

“That’s cool”, he said. “Fuck 'em”

4) The Third Meeting

Heller was desperate, everyone had turned their back on him and he was running out of options. In a move befitting the situation, he set up a meeting with Priority Records.

Who was the biggest act on Priority at the time?

A bunch of animated raisins called The California Raisins. They mostly sang Motown covers.





Heller walked into their offices, this time accompanied by Easy E, and played Straight Outta Compton.

“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.”

The room was silent.

“Straight outta Compton

Crazy motherfucker called Ice Cube

From the gang called Niggas with Attitude.”

It was a shock to the system for a label used to dealing with dried fruit.

Heller then played Fuck tha Police -

“Fuck tha police coming straight from the underground

A young nigga got it bad cos I’m brown"

The room was still silent.

Then Heller went in, business to business. He used all his old tricks, about why these were the perfect label and how Priority was the best "fit” for N.W.A. All the while he’s trying to read their body language because, still, they haven’t spoken since they heard Straight Outta Compton.

Finally, Easy interjected. He’d watched the whole performance from the corner and felt it was time to say something -

“Why don’t you at least come down and hear the band play?” he asked

“Ok”, they replied

Easy E knew he had them.

5) The Final Meeting

It could never last. The tension, and the attention, brought on by success started to tear it down.

Ice Cube, the band’s lyricist, had left amidst accusations of being ripped off.

Dr Dre, the producer, was being courted by record labels that, all of a sudden, were ready to listen.

“We got to work this shit out”, Dre says as he picks up the phone to Easy.

Easy doesn’t say anything

“This is important.” Dre pleads. “You want to get with me up here?”

They arrange to meet at the studio, two old friends from Compton trying to work out how they can keep this thing together. When Easy arrives though, Dre isn’t there. Instead, Suge Knight walks in, flanked by bodyguards holding baseball bats.

Easy knows he’s been set up.

“You got to sign this.” Knight says, holding up a contract that releases Dre from his commitment to Ruthless Records.

Easy doesn’t move.

“You see that white van parked down there on the street?” Knight continues. “We got Jerry Heller tied up in the back of that van, gun to his head, blow his goddam fucking brains out.”

Easy doesn’t move.

“We can get your moms too. You want us to?”

Easy signs.

It was the end of N.W.A. They’d sent a message of their own but now it was time for the start of something else.





6) Epilogue

On March 3rd 1991, three African American men were driving along the freeway in The San Fernando Valley. A police car noticed the driver was speeding and started to pursue him.

The driver started to panic.

He was on parole for a previous robbery conviction and was concerned that this could be seen as a violation. He’d also drank some alcohol during the evening and wasn’t sure whether he was over the limit or not.

Rather than taking any chances, he decided to put his foot down and outrun the police. The pursuit raced through residential suburbs, with multiple police cars joining the hunt, and a helicopter calmly watching overhead.

Eventually, they cornered the car and ordered the passengers out of the vehicle.

The first to emerge, Bryant Allen, was kicked, taunted, and threatened.

The second to emerge, Freddie Helms, was hit on the head while lying on the ground.

Finally, the driver emerged - Rodney King.

He laughed, he smiled, he waved to the helicopter overhead.

The police officers forced him to the ground, kicked him 6 times and struck him 33 times with their batons whilst, unbeknown to them, the entire incident was being filmed from across the street. King was eventually arrested and taken to hospital where he was treated for a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and an assortment of bruises and lacerations.

During his treatment, a nurse watched as the police officers that brought him in were laughing and bragging about how many times they’d hit him.

But then the film of the incident went public.

America saw how the LAPD policed its streets and was rightly horrified. There were calls for both justice and calm. The Police had to be arrested, the men who were so guilty, who were seen to be so guilty, had to be punished and brought before the law that they themselves had bent out of shape.

On April 22nd, 1992, a jury of 10 whites, 1 Latino, and 1 Asian acquitted the police officers and they were free to go.

And this time, the people did do something.

Martin Fitzgerald (@RamAlbumClub)









The Critics on Straight Outta Compton

In a retrospective review, Pitchfork gave it 9.7 out of 10

Rolling Stone ranked it the 144th greatest album of all time.

Chris Rock ranked it the best Hip Hop album of all time.

So, over to you Tim. Why haven’t you listened to it? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?????

NWA's Straight Outta Compton is a classic album, one those albums you must listen to before you die.

So, question number one is: given that I am a self-proclaimed music nerd, why did I never buy this record and why have I never knowingly listened to it all the way through before?

Well, I’m not completely sure. Maybe there’s only so many hours in the day and you can’t listen to everything? Maybe rap is not my thing? But then again I bought, love and still listen to De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising… but De La Soul are safe and cuddly, so maybeStraight Outta Compton is too edgy, sweary, violent and misogynistic for a tame chap like me? Actually, that might well be it… but perhaps the main reason is that I felt it wasn’t for me.

Forgive me, but I’ve always had a problem with David Cameron saying that he likes the Smiths, in particular that he likes The Queen is Dead. There’s a line in Panic that goes ’…the music he constantly plays, it says nothing to me about my life…’ I don’t want to be an inverse snob, but The Smiths do not sing to David Cameron about anything in his life at all. What Morrissey sings cannot possibly resonate with him. I’m a Northern working class bloke, an angsty 1980s teenager, The Smiths say plenty to me about my life.

Now, for some music that doesn’t matter. Even fairly avante garde or ground breaking stuff like the White Stripes, Cocteau Twins, Blur aren’t setting out a manifesto or representing anyone or anything. There isn’t an ideology simmering away there, they aren’t speaking of their particular life experiences, offering a personal sense of belonging to those who share that identity and that’s absolutely fine - and I love all three of those bands by the way and, for what it’s worth, I would have no complaints if the PM liked any of them - indeed he has my blessing!

But NWA have a simmering ideology, a boiling one even. They speak about their lives, they share their identity. There is fury in this album which is as authentic and sincere as it is foul-mouthed and misogynistic. But I’m not straight outta Compton, I’m straight out o’ Preston and what I knew about NWA is that they said little to me about my life… Which is absolutely ok, but I simply - in my over earnest way - felt that I would be insincere, inauthentic, a wannabe, a fake if I got into NWA. So I listened to all the Madchester stuff instead.

So, excuses over…



Over the years I’ve come to accept that music is music and that I should stop being so up myself and just listen to stuff!!





You’ve now listened to it, at least 3 times, what do you think?

It’s a good piece of work. To misquote Public Enemy, you can believe the hype. This is an important and influential album but it is also a great musical accomplishment. It’s full of energy, sincerity and lyrical intelligence. It’s also pretty funky, decent tunes. The last track Something 2 Dance 2 is preceded by several other tracks that you can most certainly dance to. In fact listening to the album I have flash backs of being at university in Newcastle dancing to a few of these - in particular track 4 If It Ain’t Ruff which has a knowingly jazzy feel to it.



Much of the rap that I’d listened to in the 80s was about the samples that underpinned the rap as much as the words themselves. This album is well produced, it’s full of good tunes, clever mixes but the words are King. All music is derivative, there’s nothing new under the sun, but my first impression is that the lyrical focus of this album owes more to Gil Scot Heron than to earlier rap artists. Only Gil Scot Heron didn’t swear so often, he appeared to respect women and he had a few solutions to the problems he identified. And I now sound like my dad…

So let’s get my criticisms out of the way. The swearing is ridiculous - it sounds like a pastiche of itself, I couldn’t help laughing at it, thinking to myself of Chris Morris’s 'Uzi lover’ from Brass Eye or even the appallingly toilet-mouthed Rude Kid from the pages of Viz.

Worst of all is the way in which women are spoken of. The language is more than misogynistic- it is a blanket treatment of women as sex objects and nothing more. Some will say that we have to accept this as social realism and all that - and again I don’t doubt their sincerity - but to be angry against society and authority, or to celebrate hedonism, does not need to bring with it such a loveless, graceless and damaging assault on womankind.

Oh, and I should point out that much as I admire Eazy E, Dr Dre and Ice Cube, the Liberal Democrats take a rather different position to them on law and order…



That may all sound pretty damning, but on balance I have to say I liked the record.





The opening burst of the title track, F*** Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta leave you very clear over what these guys are about! Self- referential, dramatic backdrops, fresh, brave, resonant of early punk, hedonism with a bit of nihilism…and no Chic bass lines.

Having established themselves, NWA then seem to feel free to let the tunes elbow their way in. If It Ain’t Ruff, Parental Discretion, Something Like That and Express Yourself, contain laid back grooves, the occasional recognisable sample, and an odd piano loop.

The rest of the album focusses again heavily on the rhymes and the lyrical content. Ice Cube’s rant against women in I Ain’t Tha 1 contains the delightful line addressed to his female companion 'I got what I want, now beat it’ which I suppose makes this track the closest thing NWA get to tender love song…

Compton’s N The House sounds clichéd but only because I’ve heard so many copying this kind of impressively egotistical attack on wannabes, copycats and also-rans over the last 20 years. It’s easy to forget that this isn’t a cliché, we are listening to the originals. We finish with Something 2 dance 2. Great track, and incredibly well produced… Indeed the album is a great piece of production as well as a great musical work.



Music is all about connections and 'what does this remind me of?’ The album it reminded me of the most is The Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks. They share the same air of desperation, of churning out a shocking but brilliant piece of work almost as if they had no choice to do anything else. And both albums were influential beyond compare. Both albums made music accessible - and the making of music affordable and comprehensible. To me, almost everything worthwhile in music in the last 40 years owes something to the Pistols. Straight Outta Compton is certainly worthwhile, and it owes plenty to Johnny Rotten and co.

Would you listen to it again?

I would listen to it again, but not with the kids around….

​​A mark out of 10?

I’d give it 8 out of 10 artistically, but for my personal enjoyment of it more like 6 out of 10

RAM Rating – 9.5

Guest Rating – I’ve done some maths and decided that’s a 7

Overall – 8.25

So that was Week 70 and that was Tim Farron. Turns out he’d never listened to Straight Outta Compton before because he wasn’t sure if the music that NWA played said anything about his life. So we made him listen to it and he rather enjoyed it, apart from the sexism and the lack of songs about proportional representation (old Lib Dem joke there everyone).

Next week, Anita Rani listens to something from 2000 for the first time.

Until then, here’s Fuck Tha Police by NWA.

Have a great week.

Ruth and Martin

xx