Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Eazier said than done


     I like to write about pop culture. I like to read pop culture. I like to live in pop culture. It’s fluff for which I can have a definitive opinion about without feeling defensive. Although it’s impossible not to step on toes, I feel most people aren’t petty enough to be offended by my opinions on fluff. Haters are always gonna hate haters. But I must insist most of my output isn’t based on hate, it’s cynicism which is only slightly less attractive.


    Examining pop culture allows me to stretch out writing muscles in the search for truth with low stakes. All I care about is truth. In all that I do. Which I consider a noble pursuit, however I’ve come to realize the truth sets no one free it mostly just pisses people off, which makes me think I’m doing something… I was going to say doing something right, but that’s not the right word. I’m doing something worthy of consideration. If for no other reason than giggles. However I realize most of my efforts in seeking truth through critiquing and examining pop culture are masturbatory. However there are worse things to be. Just look on social media.

Disclaimer: There is liberal use of the N word and B word in the following essay. As a white man I apologize in advance for using these derogatory epithets. I abhor these word but critique of the works examined below require me to include these word as any analysis of Ni**as With Attitudes (NWA) and Eazy E must reckon with questionable language front and center to their expression. Obviously. The least I can do is not spell them out.

I knew this n****r… back in uh, back since the n****r was little…


    NWA has a great deal of cultural gravitas on it’s shoulders which is well deserved, along with being comedy, and tragedy. It’s been said they may be the most “punk” of any group in hip hop history. That may be true.


     It’s hard to deny the explosive power of a song like Fuck the Police. A statement so iconic it’s basically textbook at this point. Even at it’s inception it was universal and fully formed, overwhelmingly confident in tone and unapologetic in nature. The song was impossible to ignore and yet it was so boldly profound it could be, and largely was, viewed comically from many audiences who couldn’t fathom the reality the song was trying to address.


    The brutal urgency of the message sent up flares. That’s all art can do. The situation didn’t change. I shouldn’t have to explain to you how it means the same thing today that it did 30 plus years ago. Sadly the song’s relevancy bears out not as a rebellion but as a shameful stain on America’s conscience. It was truth set to a beat. But in 2021 what is the legacy of the world’s most dangerous group?


    The consensus among historians and even the group itself, points to a combination of genius wordsmith (Ice Cube writes the rhymes that I say), genius musicianship (Dr. Dre…) and the injection of capital and nefarious show biz wrangling (Eazy E and that jewish guy) which sparked a wad of dynamite leading to a complete overhaul of hip hop as a genre and a cultural force for good and ill. (Bad meaning bad not bad meaning good)


    As much as NWA blew the doors off shit they certainly come across as amateurish in some ways that are hard to reckon with in hindsight and that’s part of why they eventually fell off.


    The movie Straight Out of Compton was a mildly entertaining way to spend an hour and a half but being a superfan I left the theatre feeling like I’d been cheated. It was well crafted, but I wanted to see something new, something I didn’t already know about NWA. As soon as I came into their orbit I was obsessive about these guys, pouring over every detail which was often hard to come by since they were still vaguely underground but rapidly coming to the surface. As a result the movie played out like my own memories. (Aside from MC Ren getting the shaft.) Not sure what I was expecting but I knew what was going to happen almost every minute throughout the film. I will say the film made me think about how it’s sort of embarrassing to admit they were favorites back in the day.

He once was a thug from around the way. Eazy, but you should- B*tch, Shut the fuck up. Get the fuck out of here.


    Being a lightning rod for controversy makes the groups legacy as hard to narrow down as their oftentimes questionable taste. When I look at their catalog now I gotta say most, if not all of their output is downright ignorant. I’m reminded of the fictional group the MauMaus in the amazing Spike Lee film “Bamboozled.” One character remarked how the MauMaus aren’t just ignorant they’re “ignant.” Would I go so far as to call NWA ignant? Uhhhhh. Yes and no.


    Their presence in hip hop and American pop culture is so towering it’s astonishing. But maybe that’s just my perspective. The conceit of hiphop is such that it’s ever evolving, or getting worse depending upon how you look at it. But I’d be surprised if anyone under 35 would even give a fuck about NWA.


    There were other artists mining the same territory of criminal bravado prior to NWA blasting off. But no one is as hyper linked to the creation of Gangsta Rap than NWA. Feature length films satirized them (CB4), the media portrayed them as demons selling terror, other artists aped their style. In a push to capitalize on their success, record companies altered the course of hip hop and made Gangsta leanings almost a prerequisite for major label release. I grew up loving hip hop but even my last nerve was worked around the mid 90’s when you couldn’t escape a gangsta groove in hip hop, no matter how you tried. Soon it was all “wanna be gangsta fascination” and it lost it’s reputation in the process. It lost my interest, momentarily anyway. In certain circles there’s talk of conspiracy about record companies reinforcing stereotypes and pushing negative bullshit to keep the black community down and record sales up. The glut of gangsta records ad infinitum during the mid 90’s does nothing to squash that theory.


    Was this NWA’s fault? Of course not. But that doesn’t absolve them of certain “crimes.”


    Even at the height of my obsession with these guys there were still some things about them which I found unsavory to say the least. Much off this disillusionment came with the release of their third and in many ways most anticipated album “Efilforzzaggin.” It’s also the biggest disappointment of their career.


    To this day I’m still convinced NWA only released one album which is a stone cold classic. When I say this I’m including the later solo stuff as well. Their sole entry into the world of flawless long players is the first album by Eazy E: Eazy Duz It.


    I think most heads might agree, but for people who only know NWA from the blinding sheen of Fuck the Police that statements is blasphemy.


    Considering the splash they made in hip hop history it’s surprising to remember that NWA and the Boyz didn’t put out a whole lot of music. Just three LP’s under the NWA moniker, stunning solo work by Cube (at least those first two albums) and Dre (you’ve heard of him right?) and Eazy’s solo work. MC Ren later put out a solo LP as well, it’s under appreciated. But Eazy Duz It trumps them all.


    Maybe I treasure Eazy’s first album because it was my first experience hearing anything by NWA? Make no mistake it was also my first experience hearing so many fucking curse words in music outside the punk scene. In fact, it far surpassed the amount of fuck words you would normally hear in a punk song by a huge margin, plus you could hear every FUCK, SHIT, BI*CH, etc. as it was enunciated clearly and enthusiastically. It was a symphony of profanity that elicited squeals of delight from dumb ass kids like me who didn’t know any better. Even now I’d imagine the profanity quotient is abnormally high for this album.


     It was a novel mix that struck gold with solid beats, disrespectful obnoxious gangster fantasies, and humor. It painted a hilarious picture of life as a gangsta in “da hood.” Which had the effect of glamorizing something better left in the gutter. Regardless the shit was entertaining. While Eazy was clearly the baddest motherfucker on the block (nay, planet) he was also down to earth and not above self deprecating cracks about his age and how fucking short he was, but make no mistake he would stomp your motherfucking ass. Or pay someone to do it.


     Songs played out on this album were unique and creative, more so than on subsequent releases. Some were full on narratives (Nobody Move), some were comical commentary on daily life as a criminal (No More Questions) , but most were tales of bravado pumped up to 11 taking hip hop to a place it hadn’t been yet (2 Hard Muthas). It was groundbreaking, but again we have to ask, was it a good thing?

Get used to the crew bi**h…


     Who the fuck were these mother fuckers? They were my new heroes. And therein lies the rub. As entertaining, and incendiary as these characters presented themselves, are these really the types of people we want to see as heroes? Eazy made it clear when he rapped “I’m not a role model or a Dr. Suess.” But without the context I can’t help but admit these scumbags became champions for me and I know I’m not the only one.


    Prior to “Efil4zaggin” the world chomping at the bit to hear something, anything from NWA. They were the pinnacle of underground and yet they were on a higher plane than almost any mainstream shit at the time. The anticipation was palpable. When the album finally dropped it was an atom bomb on first blush. Repeated listenings found many fans disappointed. I was anyway. It starts off strong, and the beats, as usual, were impeccable. But the words and concepts didn’t have the bite we came to expect from the villains.

Say goodbye to the bad guy.


    When you’re a teenager being bad is being alive. It’s really the only thing worth looking forward to. So it came as no surprise that NWA would blow up, and blow up fucking big.


    I lost my shit the first time I saw the video for Night of the Living Baseheads by Public Enemy which had happened a year and a half prior to discovering Eazy-E. Coming to love hip hop in the same way most others were discovering it, I knew it was only a matter of time before a hip hop group would eventually meld a punk sensibility to their aesthetic with politics as an inevitable centerpiece. Using a battering ram of beats to smash racism, implicate the wealthy in a class war, teach the bourgeoisie, and rock the boulevard. It finally happened. I specifically remember crying tears of joy that someone found that sweet spot which appeared to be out in the open. The music called for it. The message needed it’s muse. Someone connected the dots. It was powerful. Cathartic. It finally meant something.


    Hearing Eazy-E for the first time did not have that same feel. But the impact was no less engaging. While I could relate to the words and rage that Chuck D spit, the world that Eazy-E brought into the open was alien. It was funny and yet disorienting. I had zero point of reference for the gangster world, and while profanity was a sure bet to win over dumb ass adolescents, it also opened a gateway to misogynist expression that must have fucked up a whole generation of young men who already didn’t know dick about women. While it came across as clownish, the constant demeaning of women became normalized once you played the same tape over and over for months to years on end.


    History is a motherfucker. And that motherfucker has gone a long way to making NWA a strange and singular creation that is hard to reconcile with woke 2021 perceptions. That’s a good thing. No scratch that, it’s a great thing. Politics, while not front and center, were implicit in their exposing the dark underbelly of America’s dream, and that is commendable. And yet we have to reconcile the medium and the message. They glorified bullshit.


    The shock, joy, and power I feel listening to these songs all these years is still present. But there’s no denying the edge is blunted as any knife’s edge would be after years of stabbing motherfuckers. But it’s also an embarrassing demise similar to the shock and awful mediocrity that was the end result of the aesthetics of punk and hardcore. Something that continues to swallow itself in the world that is no longer blazing a trail but prodding well worn highways of rote memorization and fetishization of one note. There’s just no way to keep that intensity of constant shock still seem germane. Instead it becomes spectacle that encourages life to imitate art. Sure, there’s always going to be a new crew of 15 year old punk kids for whom shock is a thrill pill that fits tightly inside quivering rectums, but for the rest of us this shit sucks if it’s the only note you can hit.


    This is where history really screws NWA. But it’s also the logical conclusion to where they we're headed anyway. They were just fucking around and they knew it. But the proof is in the pudding.

They were smart ass kids initially, but as we all know once Ice Cube bailed they lost direction and largely became a satire of themselves. Any examination of their output shows them to be comedians first and social commentators somewhere further down the list. It’s clear they claimed to be spitting commentary on society mostly in order to get away with being assholes.


    So what is their legacy? It’s a mixed bag. Listening to them today I still hear what I heard all those years ago. A bunch of smart ass punks loudly telling the truth. It’s funny because it’s true. But it’s also depressing as fuck. The beats are there. The sentiment is there. And yet all that misogynist, homophobic bullshit only adds to an ignant heritage that begat an aftermath of stupidity and continues to spawn more idiocy. Just labeling it as entertainment belies just how incendiary it was and how much it changed the game forever.


    They were truth tellers holding up a mirror. Teachers explaining to us what not to do. They were fucking great. They were fucking terrible. Sometimes I hate their fucking guts. Sometimes this gets stuck in my head: People talk shit about cancel culture. Some shit needs to be canceled. Shit like racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Billionaires. Class War. Gangsters and the culture that celebrates these leaches. If you don't agree maybe you should be canceled?
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