Follows the lives of two friends, Rooster and Clive-nem, as they try to cope with drugs, gangs, and women, while growing up in an L.A. ghetto.

You're now about to witness the story of a little boy who was born and raised in Compton, California. His journey began as a young man who grew up poor but would eventually evolve to become part of the "World's Most Dangerous Group." They would be known as one of the most influential groups in the history of hip-hop music. What's their name? N.W.A. His life would take him to the highest of heights in music to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His story will take you on a rollercoaster ride, starting from the beginning of his music career to the rise and breakup of the group. He will also share some of his private moments in the final years of the life of his friend, Eazy-E. This is the untold story of Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby, who's coming...Straight Outta Compton.

It is almost impossible to listen to a current hip-hop song that does not bear Dr. Dre's influence. With innovations in style that started with the hip-hop group N.W.A., and, later, as a solo rapper and producer, Dre's influence and lasting impact on hip-hop music and culture is undeniable. He pioneered a new style of music that in the early 1990s would come to be known as gangsta rap, and his proteges - Snoop and Eminem - are both considered some of the top rappers to emerge since rap was born on the streets of New York three decades ago. This biography traces Dre's rise to fame, a story that parallels the rise of hip-hop as one of the most dominant cultural forces in America. Dre came of age at the time when hip-hop culture (rapping, breakdancing, Deejaying, and Graffiti art) began an underground trend in urban America. Chapters take the reader from Dre's childhood in Los Angeles through his friendships, early influences, and the birth of his music career. Also discussed is the tragic tale of Death Row Records, which culminates in the high-profile murders of rap artists Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. and serves as a lesson on what can go wrong when people in the rap business believe their own gangsta hype. Dre's ability to survive in the rough-and-tumble rap industry is a testament to the power of artistic vision and the payoff of sheer persistence.

As one of the most influential and popular genres of the last three decades, rap has cultivated a mainstream audience and become a multimillion-dollar industry by promoting highly visible and often controversial representations of blackness. Sounding Race in Rap Songs argues that rap music allows us not only to see but also to hear how mass-mediated culture engenders new understandings of race. The book traces the changing sounds of race across some of the best-known rap songs of the past thirty-five years, combining song-level analysis with historical contextualization to show how these representations of identity depend on specific artistic decisions, such as those related to how producers make beats. Each chapter explores the process behind the production of hit songs by musicians including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Sugarhill Gang, Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, N.W.A., Dr. Dre, and Eminem. This series of case studies highlights stylistic differences in sound, lyrics, and imagery, with musical examples and illustrations that help answer the core question: can we hear race in rap songs? Integrating theory from interdisciplinary areas, this book will resonate with students and scholars of popular music, race relations, urban culture, ethnomusicology, sound studies, and beyond.

The maverick music mogul who put rap on the map recounts his riveting career comprising delirious highs and shocking lows, cocaine-fueled mega-deals, brutal wranglings, and the uncanny insight that made a middle-aged, Jewish white guy the most successful record company executive of the rap era.

Experience the stunning rise, fall, and legacy of N.W.A. and how they put their stamp on pop culture, black culture, and hip-hop music forever in this “incredibly vivid look at one of music’s most iconic groups” (Associated Press). In 1986, a group was formed that would establish the foundation of gangsta rap and push the genre forward, electrifying fans with their visceral and profane lyrics that glorified the dark ways of street life and brazenly challenged the police system. Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella caused a seismic shift in hip-hop when they decided to form N.W.A in 1986. With their hard-core image, bombastic sound, and lyrics that were equal parts poetic, lascivious, conscious, and downright in-your-face, N.W.A spoke the truth about life on the streets of Compton, California—then a hotbed of poverty, drugs, gangs, and unemployment. Going beyond the story portrayed in the 2015 blockbuster movie Straight Outta Compton, through firsthand interviews, extensive research, and top-notch storytelling, Los Angeles Times music reporter Gerrick Kennedy transports you back in time and offers a front-row seat to N.W.A’s early days and the drama and controversy that followed the incendiary group as they rose to become multiplatinum artists. Kennedy leaves nothing off the table in his pursuit of the full story behind the group’s most pivotal moments, such as Ice Cube’s decision to go solo after their debut studio album became a smash hit; their battle with the FBI over inflammatory lyrics; incidents of physical assault; Dr. Dre’s departure from the group to form Death Row Records with Suge Knight; their impact on the 1992 L.A. riots; Eazy-E’s battle with AIDS; and much more. A bold, riveting, “non-stop, can’t-put-it-down ride” (Library Journal), Parental Discretion Is Advised unveils the true and astonishing history of one of the most transcendent and controversial musical groups of the 1980s and 1990s.

Illustrates the ways that the “war on crime” became conjoined—aesthetically, politically, and rhetorically—with the emergence of gangsta rap as a lucrative and deeply controversial subgenre of hip-hop In The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era, Bryan J. McCann argues that gangsta rap should be viewed as more than a damaging reinforcement of an era’s worst racial stereotypes. Rather, he positions the works of key gangsta rap artists, as well as the controversies their work produced, squarely within the law-and-order politics and popular culture of the 1980s and 1990s to reveal a profoundly complex period in American history when the meanings of crime and criminality were incredibly unstable. At the center of this era—when politicians sought to prove their “tough-on-crime” credentials—was the mark of criminality, a set of discourses that labeled members of predominantly poor, urban, and minority communities as threats to the social order. Through their use of the mark of criminality, public figures implemented extremely harsh penal polices that have helped make the United States the world’s leading jailer of its adult population. At the same time when politicians like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton and television shows such as COPS and America’s Most Wanted perpetuated images of gang and drug-filled ghettos, gangsta rap burst out of the hip-hop nation, emanating mainly from the predominantly black neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles. Groups like NWA and solo artists (including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur) became millionaires by marketing the very discourses political and cultural leaders used to justify their war on crime. For these artists, the mark of criminality was a source of power, credibility, and revenue. By understanding gangsta rap as a potent, if deeply imperfect, enactment of the mark of criminality, we can better understand how crime is always a site of struggle over meaning. Furthermore, by underscoring the nimble rhetorical character of criminality, we can learn lessons that may inform efforts to challenge our nation’s failed policies of mass incarceration.

This is the story of Verna Griffin. A woman who gave birth to five children, losing two in infancy and one to gangland violence. Her surviving son is one of the most famous men in the world, and her daughter is a homemaker with children of her own. From Verna's turbulent childhood to her failed marriages and the problems that came along with Dre's fame, she has grown a thick skin and learned to overcome life's obstacles. As Verna struggled to give her children a safe and happy home amid the gangs and violence that made up South Central Los Angeles, she also searched for a good man to love her. She hit brick walls several times while trying to reach these goals. During Verna's personal struggles she felt lost and desperately fought to find her purpose in the world. With the invaluable support from her tight-knit family and the gradual recognition of her great self-worth, Verna has persevered. This is a tale of a woman who faced constant battles head-on, who learned to transform failure into triumph, and whose inspirational story is one for us all.

“There has never been a better book about hip-hop…a record-biz portrait that jumps off the page.”—A.V. Club The perfect read for music lovers and business aficionados alike, The Big Payback reveals the secret histories of the early long-shot successes of Sugar Hill Records and Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC’s crossover breakthrough on MTV, the marketing of gangsta rap, and the rise of artist/entrepreneurs like Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE VH1 SERIES THE BREAKS The Big Payback takes readers from the first $15 made by a “rapping DJ” in 1970s New York to the multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were made to the boardrooms where the big deals were inked, The Big Payback tallies the list of who lost and who won. 300 industry giants like Def Jam founders Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons gave their stories to renowned hip-hop journalist Dan Charnas, who provides a compelling, never-before-seen, myth-debunking view into the victories, defeats, corporate clashes, and street battles along the 40-year road to hip-hop’s dominance. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS