Seminal NWA due for rerelease

Two seminal NWA albums, 1988's ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and 1991's ‘Niggaz4life’, will both get rereleases in the US this Autumn. Also scheduled is ‘The N.W.A Legacy 2’, a 19-song collection that includes the final two NWA tracks ‘Chin Check’ from 1999's ‘Next Friday’ soundtrack, and ‘Hello’ from Ice Cube's 2000 release ‘War and Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)’. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ was one of the most influential rap albums ever, of course, many seeing it as the album that steered MCs away from smooth rhythms and boastful rhymes and into the aggressive zone of drive-bys, drug deals and crooked cops that dominated the scene for much of the nineties. It featured the innovative production of a young Dr Dre and wordplay from Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson), Eazy-E (Eric Wright), MC Ren (Lorenzo Patterson) and DJ Yella (Antoine Carraby). The album's centerpiece, ‘Fuck Tha Police’ invoked huge national uproar at the time. ‘Niggaz4life’ was NWA's third and final record, and was created following three years of intense controversy and internal tension. Some critics said its violent and misogynist lyrics overshadowed Dre's creative, inspiring beats.