Rappers had flirted with hardcore themes and street violence before — Schooly-D’s “PSK (What Does it Mean?),” “South Bronx” by Boogie Down Productions — but Straight Outta Compton was the hip-hop shot heard ’round the world. Almost twenty years later, virtually all gangsta rap remains a response to or an elaboration of this one album. N.W.A’s name — that’s short for “Niggaz with Attitude,” in case you forgot — was the first sign that this was no ordinary group. From “F— tha Police” (which earned them a warning letter from the FBI) to “Gangsta Gangsta” and “Dopeman,” Dr. Dre’s jittery, cinematic production was matched by Ice Cube’s unflinching ghetto reportage. Add in group founder Eazy-E’s oddly menacing high-pitched snarl, and support from MC Ren and DJ Yella and it made for a true gang-bangin’ all-star team. One of the most controversial albums ever released, and one of the most influential.
All-TIME 100 Albums
The album may be dead, but it's certainly not forgotten. TIME's critics have chosen the 100 greatest and most influential musical compilations since 1954.
Straight Outta Compton
Full List
1950s
1960s
- Abbey Road
- Bitches Brew
- Stand!
- Astral Weeks
- Rubber Soul
- The Beatles (“The White Album”)
- A Love Supreme
- Are You Experienced
- Live at the Apollo (1963)
- I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
- Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- King of the Delta Blues
- The Velvet Underground and Nico
- Blonde on Blonde
- Pet Sounds
- The Band
- Revolver
- Highway 61 Revisited
- At Folsom Prison
- Otis Blue
- Lady Soul
1970s
- London Calling
- One Nation Under a Groove
- Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
- Rumours
- Hotel California
- Talking Book
- After the Gold Rush
- The Harder They Come
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Ramones
- Blue
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
- Songs in the Key of Life
- Coat of Many Colors
- Moondance
- Born to Run
- Hunky Dory
- Horses
- Led Zeppelin IV (a.k.a. Zoso)
- Red Headed Stranger
- Paranoid
- Call Me
- Sticky Fingers
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Tapestry
- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
- What’s Going On
- Exile on Main Street
- Who’s Next
1980s
- Like a Prayer
- Paul’s Boutique
- The Stone Roses
- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
- Straight Outta Compton
- Straight Outta Compton
- Legend
- Stop Making Sense
- The Great Twenty-Eight
- Thriller
- Document
- Back in Black
- Paid in Full
- Purple Rain
- Sign O’ The Times
- The Joshua Tree
- Graceland
- Master of Puppets
- Raising Hell
1990s
2000s