STILL STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON:
NWA Told America 25 Years Ago What They Felt About Police Brutality and Today Their Lyrics Are Still Relevant
Let me start by stating that this article contains profane words quoted from one of the most revered, and hated, hip-hop songs of all time, “Fuck the Police.” All lyrics were found open source using the Google search engine and confirmed by my listening to the explicit version of the original song.
Three songs published from 1988 to 1991 helped change not only the landscape of popular music in America, they brought to light something people living in poor inner-city areas had long complained about. Police brutality. NWA led the charge with “Fuck tha Police”, and became counter culture icons because of it. 25 years later one member is a billionaire producer, one is a mainstream actor and writer, and one died from AIDS complications. All this change and one thing has stayed a constant: poor police/ community relations that are causing tensions across America.
#Ferguson, #BlackLivesMatter, #HandsUpDontShoot.
These are all today’s social cries pleading for society to address an issue that, after 24 years, is still as relevant as ever.
Ask any person who is 14 years or older right now, “What song do you think of when I say POLICE BRUTALITY?” and I would bet my Dre Beats headset to your $10 that the answer is “Fuck Tha Police” (or, FTP) by the “World’s Most Dangerous Group,” N.W.A.
Many will attribute FTP’s revival to the media-hype behind the release of the new NWA biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” which opens at movie theaters across America this weekend. Not since the 1988 release of the movie “Colors” has an urban movie been so anticipated, or raised so many eye brows as people ask themselves “Is this really happening in Los Angeles?” But to those who lived, and continue to live, with police misconduct, “Straight Outta Compton” doesn’t seem any more unusual than the “Colors,” or their own day-to-day lives.
To them, these films are documentaries. These films are a rallying cry.
This was not today’s hip-hop.
No, this was a mix of raw emotions and nerves spilled over slick lyrics and sick beats. This hip-hop was the community voice. It was a poetic art that explained daily life. And it was the beginning of a renaissance that morphed into “gangsta rap,” or others simply called it, “reality.” FTP’s message was strong, real enough to send five young men straight out of Compton and launch them onto Federal Bureau of Investigation’s radar. Ironically, only one of these young men, Eazy-E, even had a criminal record when the record was published. And, what many people don’t realize is that while N.W.A. was rallying against police brutality in Los Angeles, this same misconduct was transpiring in the hardest boroughs of New York. And hip-hop artists were there to document every moment.
In 1989, NYC-based Boogie Down Productions (B.D.P.) released their quintessential anti-police brutality song, “Who Protects Us from You?” Their lyrics were simple and powerful, with lines like “You were here to protect us, but who protects us from you?” and “Your authority’s never questioned, no one questions you. If I hit you I’ll be killed, but you hit me? I can sue.” which chronicle an incident where an individual finds themselves on the wrong end of a police use-of-force scenario.
Unfortunately, at that time and in those neighborhoods, this “street justice” reigned. It was a time when a corrupt officer was judge & jury, and suing for money was not a possibility.
There were people in America who either could not believe police would do this, or were under the impression that people at the end of an officer’s boot or baton deserved what they got. Even when they did acknowledge acts police brutality, they chalked it up to a handful of isolated incidents by a few bad officers.
The Rodney King incident changed all that. This incident, in which LAPD officers were filmed beating an unarmed man, served as visual evidence of what N.W.A., B.D.P., and minority communities had been complaining about well before the 1965 Watts Riots. And, these folks were tired of being unfairly treated and beaten by the police.
Public Enemy followed the Rodney King incident in it’s 1991 song “Can’t Truss It,” an anthem warning the hip-hop community not to trust the establishment. And while the song’s lyrics do not specifically speak to police misconduct, they speak volumes about the slavery of blacks in America and the inequities they faced.
In the 5 minute and 29 second music video, vivid scenes of slaves being brutalized by slave masters are prevalent, with the last 30 seconds incorporating a spliced scene of police officers kicking and beating a suspect that looks strikingly similar to the real Rodney King incident.
Nonetheless, N.W.A. still reigns supreme in their response to police brutality and misconduct. Bringing this writing full circle, there is no other song in 25 years arguably more relevant in regards to police misconduct and brutality that FTP. You can feel anger and spite in this piece of music. In the music video, undertones of police oversight and review are even provided with Dr. Dre presiding as a judge over a court while N.W.A. places “the police department” on trial for their actions.
In the opening lines, Ice Cube hits the ground running, “Fuck the police, coming straight from the underground.” In doing so, Ice Cube highlights his belief that he represents an underground society that has been largely ignored by the establishment. Cube keeps it coming, “Fuck that shit, ‘cause I ain’t tha one, for a punk muthafucka with a badge and a gun, to be beatin on, and thrown in jail, we could go toe to toe in the middle of a cell.” As an officer myself, I have spoken with fellow officers who were upset because Ice Cube was saying he wanted to fight a cop, and could not help but wonder if they missed the beginning of the line and the overall message of the song.
Cube was speaking for an entire community that was tired of being beaten and incarcerated on a whim by police officers who did not like them for whatever reason and without any respect for concepts like probable cause.
Ice Cube even addresses the mythical “thin blue line” within the police community adding, “And on the other hand without a gun they can’t get none, but don’t let it be a black and a white one. Cause they’ll slam ya’ down to the street top, black police showing out for the white cop.” This rhyme addresses the community’s perception that despite more ethnic diversity in the police department, whether an officer is black or white, they are all “blue” and the same behavior can be expected.
FTP is also laden with the group’s violent retribution-fueled desires and warnings to law enforcement. These desires and warnings are presented as both a response to the stimulus of police brutality and an attempt to gain credit with a coveted in-group — Compton; the troubled community they brought to the world’s forefront with pride.
Whether a direct honor challenge to the police and establishment, or a response to years of physical challenges (both real or perceived), FTP was not the song the media and FBI made it out to be. It was not a call to kill cops. It was a shout out to anyone who would hear them that they were tired of being treated unjustly. It was the group stating it was willing to protect themselves, pre-emptively if necessary.
And, here is the kicker.
Not once did they tell their fans in this song to kill a police officer. No, they plainly said what would happen if a specific group of people treated them wrong again.
N.W.A. changed how America looked at hip-hop, the police, and even the Los Angeles Raiders. In my early teens, this song specifically changed how I looked at the police. My uncle was in law enforcement and he hated the song with a passion.
He also hated how the LAPD, in his own words, “excessively beat Rodney King.” My uncle was my role model, and would later be my mentor in pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Now, you may ask why a young man who listened to and attended his first N.W.A. concert at 13 could grow up to be a police officer. The answer is easy, I wanted to be the same professional, honest, and integrity laden man that my uncle was.
I am here to make my community better, and there is no better place to do it than as a police officer. You have to be the change you want to see, and I did not want to see the brutality N.W.A. was talking about in the city I lived in.
This article is brought to you by a member of Homeland inSecurity who is an active law enforcement officer. His views are those of himself and not that of his group, profession, or employer. They come from a part of him that not few know of.
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