Gangsta rap is free speech; decades after Straight Outta Compton, rappers are still fighting for free expression.

AuthorDetrick, Paul

THE BLOCKBUSTER summer movie Straight Outta Compton borrowed its name from a groundbreaking 1988 album from N.W.A.--the first gangsta rap record to go huge.

The original Straight Outta Compton featured graphic statements about life in South Central, Los Angeles. One song, "Puck Tha Police," included lyrics like "beat a police outta shape" and "takin' out a police would make my day." Critics worried that the violent lyrics would inspire real world aggression, but N.W.A. claimed it was the other way around. As one member--Ice Cube-puts it at a press conference in the film, "Our art is a reflection of our reality." The point was to highlight and criticize profiling and brutality in N.W.A.'s community: "They have the authority to kill a minority/Fuck that shit, cause I ain't the one/For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun/To be beating on, and thrown in jail. We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell."

The feds didn't see it that way. In 1989, the FBI sent a warning letter to the band's record label saying the lyrics to "Fuck Tha Police" encouraged "violence against and disrespect for the law enforcement officer." But the attempt to silence the rappers backfired. After the group went public with the letter, First Amendment activists leapt to their defense and N.W.A. became more popular than ever. Straight Outta Compton would eventually be selected as one of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," and two of the group's members, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, would go on to become superstars.

Despite N.W.A.'s success, law enforcement still has hip-hop in its crosshairs. The San Diego rapper Brandon Duncan--better known by his stage name, Tiny Doo--recently spent eight months in jail for conspiring to commit a series of gang-related shootings. He wasn't accused of pulling the trigger, or even...

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