Parental Discretion Is Advised
Page 27
DOPEMAN
“I’d probably be dead right along with him”: Eazy-E, Rap Pages.
“whatever the Beatles did was acceptable, especially for young people”: Al Arono-witz, Rock & Roll: Shakespeares in the Alley, WGBH Media Library & Archives.
“a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society”: Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (New York: Berkley, 2002).
“America’s public enemy number one . . . is drug abuse”: Richard Nixon, “Remarks about an Intensified Program for Drug Abuse Prevention and Control” (speech, White House, Washington, DC, June 17, 1971).
“a merciless destroyer”: Richard Nixon, “Message to the Congress Transmitting Reorganization Plan 2 of 1973 Establishing the Drug Enforcement Administration,” memo, March 28, 1973.
“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black”: John Ehrlichman, quoted in Dan Baum, “Legalize It All: How to Win the War on Drugs,” Harper’s Magazine, April 2016.
“taken out and shot”: Ronald J. Ostrow, “Casual Drug Users Should Be Shot, Gates Says,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1990.
“We’d take them to jail for anything and everything we can”: Anonymous LAPD officer, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“the rotten little cowards”: Daryl F. Gates, quoted in Paul Feldman, “War on ‘the Rotten Little Cowards’: Irate Gates Pledges 1,000 Officers for Gang Sweeps,” Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1988.
“It had such a psychological impact on all of us”: Ice Cube, interview by Ali.
“These people in here are beyond the point of teaching and rehabilitating”: Louis Sahagun and Carol McGraw, “Ex-First Lady Just Said Yes to Drug Raid: Nancy Reagan Regains Visibility as Crusader,” Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1989.
“He was family oriented, always been”: Erica Wright, author interview, September 26, 2016.
“I seen that it wasn’t really worth it”: Eazy-E, quoted in Davey D and Keith Moerer, “N.W.A—Art or Irresponsibility?” BAM Magazine, April 21, 1989.
SOMETHING 2 DANCE 2
“In South Central, all you had to do was open your window”: Mack interview.
Eve’s After Dark was the only teen club in the city: Alonzo “Lonzo” Williams, N.ot W.ithout A.lonzo (The Lonzo Infotainment Company, 2015).
“People came out in droves”: Ibid.
“there wasn’t no money in it”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Ronin Ro, “Moving Target,” The Source, November 1992.
“Andre was so excited when he unwrapped his mixer”: Verna Griffin, Long Road Outta Compton: Dr. Dre’s Mom on Family, Fame, and Terrible Tragedy (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008).
“That’s what your name should be”: DJ Yella, interview by Maximus Clean, PROP$ Magazine, May 1996.
As Brooklyn trio Whodini opened: Jess Cagle, “All Hell Breaks Loose at a Run-D.M.C. ‘Raising Hell’ Rap Concert in California,” People, September 1, 1986.
“it’s all right to beat people up”: Tipper Gore, quoted in Ed Kiersh, “Run-D.M.C. Is Beating the Rap,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 1986.
“This is it?”: DJ Yella, quoted in Terry McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002.
“I would have done this different”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Andre Torres, “The Architect,” Scratch Magazine, 2004.
It took them forty-five minutes: Williams, N.ot W.ithout A.lonzo.
“We sold five thousand of them”: Ibid.
“We wanted to put on a show”: Dr. Dre, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“We’d split up the money right there on the corner”: Jerry Heller, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Gallery Books, 2006).
“Larkin was like the black godfather of music”: Alonzo Williams, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“From that point on, we had nothing but dissension over money”: Ibid.
LA IS THE PLACE
“a self-made monster of the city streets”: Ice-T, “6 ’n the Mornin’,” Rhyme Pays, 1986.
“the consumer didn’t define him as rock”: Bob Pittman, quoted in R. Serge Denisoff, Inside MTV (New York: Routledge, 1988).
“You cannot be all things to all people”: Ibid.
“Rock and roll is not a guitar, it’s not long hair”: Ice Cube, author interview, April 6, 2016.
Yetnikoff threatened to go public: Walter Yetnikoff and David Ritz, Howling at the Moon: Confessions of a Music Mogul in an Age of Excess (London: Abacus, 2004).
“I had never heard the kind of music they were playing”: Mack interview.
“They weren’t normal mixes”: Ibid.
“Anytime somebody got smoked I usually got a phone call”: Ibid.
“It’s awful”: Bob Pool, “Station’s Neighbors Rap Its Wrap-Around Sound,” Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1989.
“Pretty soon Lonzo is coming to me”: Steve Yano, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“He’d tell Steve, ‘This one is gonna be a hit’ ”: Susan Yano, author interview, May 15, 2016.
“Next thing I know”: Steve Yano, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
I AIN’T THA 1
“I remember seeing Run-D.M.C. and Public Enemy”: Ice Cube interview.
“Yo, you ever write a rap before?”: Ice Cube, quoted in Stephen Galloway, “Ice Cube Says Hollywood Isn’t Cool Enough,” Hollywood Reporter, February 25, 2016.
“And then you had hip-hop, which was something new”: Ibid.
“a chance to see that the world was bigger than Compton”: Ice Cube, “Not My Job: Ice Cube Answers Three Questions about Very Bad Days,” NPR, January 9, 2016.
“I was mad at everything”: Ice Cube, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“That cadence, I was drawn to it”: Sir Jinx, author interview, November 17, 2016.
“We’d be in there smelling dog shit”: Ice Cube, interview, November 1993, http://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/lounge/5705/icecube.html.
“Next thing I know I’m ditching school to go hang out with Dre”: Ice Cube, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“The place was rowdy as a motherfucker”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Ronin Ro, Dr. Dre: The Biography (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007).
“We used to sneak and listen to that”: Sir Jinx interview.
“He robbed us”: Ibid.
“We didn’t like the label situation with the Stereo Crew”: Ice Cube, quoted in Brian Coleman, Check the Technique: Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (Berkeley, CA: Wax Facts Press, 2015).
“It is unlikely that any Negro-owned center of this kind”: “Dooto Music Center: A Community Asset,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 21, 1963.
“Majority of them said, ‘Fuck no’ ”: Craig Schweisinger, author interview, November 17, 2016.
“They said, ‘Look at all these fucking gangsters out here’ ”: Ibid.
“You know what? I’m gonna let your butt sit in jail for a while”: Alonzo Williams, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
But when Dre played the record: N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“I was like, damn”: Ibid.
“I wasn’t crazy about it, to be honest”: Mack interview.
“We were broke”: Arabian Prince, lecture, Red Bull Music Academy, 2005.
NIGGAZ . . . WITH ATTITUDE
“Using it instead of getting abused by it”: Ice Cube, Behind the Music: Ice Cube, VH1, June 20, 2011.
“I wanted to go all the way left”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Brian Cross, It’s Not About a Salary . . .: Rap, Race and Resistance in Los Angeles (New York: Verso Books, 1993).
“I used to make people buy records”: Eazy-E, Welcome to Death Row, directed by S. Leigh Savidge and Jeff Scheftel (2001).
“You want to play me something?”: Heller, Ruthless.
“My uncle told us, Jerry loved your dad”: Erica Wright interview.
“They had a grea
t dynamic”: Jernagin interview.
“People callin’ me, askin’ me”: Eazy-E, Rap Pages.
“Nigga, you the shit”: The D.O.C., ThaFormula.com.
“to get the fuck away”: The D.O.C. interview.
“They just didn’t want me in the group, I guess”: Ibid.
“I’ve always known how to talk to white people”: The D.O.C., quoted in Alex Pappademas, “The Man Behind Dre and N.W.A: Hip Hop’s Ghost (Writer) in the Machine,” Playboy, August 7, 2015.
“[Lonzo] called me back the next day”: Michel’le Toussaint, author interview, September 28, 2016.
“didn’t say anything other than hello”: Ibid.
“I wanted to get up outta that shit”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Ro, “Moving Target.”
“The cool thing about Eazy”: Gregory “Cold 187um” Hutchinson, author interview, November 4, 2016.
“If they don’t want us, we don’t want them”: Salt-N-Pepa, “Did Jay-Z Boycott the Grammys Again?” MTV News, February 14, 2011.
“What you heard is one take”: Mack interview.
“He sounded and looked like a little kid”: DJ Yella, interview by Clean.
“I’d get calls from them”: Ice Cube, quoted in Sean Daly, “The Warm and Fuzzy Side of Ice Cube,” Washington Post, January 19, 2005.
“That shit was like some wack shit”: MC Ren, ThaFormula.com, 2004.
GANGSTA GANGSTA
“Oh, fuck, here we go”: Heller, Ruthless.
“The world was changing”: The D.O.C., quoted in Pappademas, “The Man Behind Dre and N.W.A.”
“What makes you think anyone is going to buy this garbage?”: Heller, Ruthless.
“He’d tell you, ‘Try to make it like this’ ”: MC Ren, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“Everybody was trying to showcase their wares and do their best”: The D.O.C. interview.
“They were having a ball, being young dudes just having fun”: Edwards interview.
“Just as they were getting ready to go out”: Schweisinger interview.
“Eazy was a hard-core little Crip”: Ibid.
“We just knew the image—that pirate, the silver and black”: Ice Cube, Straight Outta L.A., directed by Ice Cube (2010).
“N.W.A in purple and gold?”: MC Ren, Straight Outta L.A.
“N.W.A made the Raiders more official to LA”: Chuck D, Straight Outta L.A.
“It went right to the point”: DJ Yella, DVD extras, Straight Outta Compton, directed by F. Gary Gray (2015).
“One day Ren said they’d finished the album”: Edwards interview.
“It was like . . . we wasn’t doing that type of shit”: MC Ren, quoted in Ro, Dr. Dre.
“I was a solo artist first”: Arabian Prince, quoted in Wendy Brandes, “Kept Outta ‘Compton’: N.W.A’s Arabian Prince Has No Regrets,” Huffington Post, September 8, 2015.
Eazy propped his Air Jordans up on a desk: Jonathan Gold, “N.W.A: A Hard Act to Follow,” LA Weekly, May 5, 1989.
PARENTAL DISCRETION IZ ADVISED
“If you rose to the bait, you were a racist”: Jonathan Gold, “Twenty-Seven Years Later, N.W.A Still Rubs a Raw Spot,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 2015.
“illicit, forbidden fruit”: McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“I realized this could actually cause a riot”: Rupert Wainwright, quoted in Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (New York: Dutton Books, 2011).
“On MTV they play heavy-metal music”: MC Ren, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“We’re not putting down women”: Eazy-E, quoted in Dennis Hunt, “The Rap Reality: Truth and Money: Compton’s N.W.A Catches Fire with Stark Portraits of Ghetto Life,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
“Words like bitch and nigger may be shocking”: Ice Cube, quoted in Robert Hilburn, “Rap: Striking Tales of Black Frustration and Pride Shake the Pop Mainstream,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
“Basically, I got arrested for humping a couch”: LL Cool J, Jimmy Kimmel Live, October 9, 2014.
Reverend Floyd E. Rose went public: Dave Marsh and Phyllis Pollack, “The FBI Hates This Band,” LA Weekly, October 10, 1989.
“We just showed your City Council”: Ice Cube, quoted in Marsh and Pollack, “The FBI Hates This Band.”
“These people aren’t doing anything but capitalizing off of death and violence”: Lieutenant Harry Taylor, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“We’re not talking about all police”: Ice Cube, interview by David Mills, 1989.
Late on the night of June 25, 1989: Griffin, Long Road Outta Compton.
“Neck got broke and all kind’a shit”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Ronin Ro, “Escape from Death Row,” Vibe, October 1996.
“So it kinda fucked with me”: Ibid.
The case originally went to trial: “Woman, Rappers Settle Rape Claim Suit,” Associated Press, December 16, 1993.
“Eazy-E was kind of a smart-ass during the deposition”: Gusty Yearout, quoted in Asawin Suebsaeng, “When N.W.A Was Sued for Rape,” Daily Beast, September 2, 2015.
“And dude was like, ‘Nah, this is Eazy-E money’ ”: Ice Cube, Beef, directed by Peter Spirer (2003).
“It’s either him or me”: John Mendelsohn, “Poison the Hood: Niggaz with Attitude,” unpublished, Playboy, 1991.
“Jerry Heller lives in a half-million-dollar house in Westlake”: Ice Cube, quoted in Frank Owen, “N.W.A: Hanging Tough,” Spin, April 1990.
“There was no money”: Sir Jinx interview.
“Jerry told me that lawyers were made to cause trouble”: Ice Cube, quoted in Owen, “N.W.A.”
“It was kinda like, why didn’t you sign the contract”: DJ Yella, N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
“I couldn’t really attach myself to the N.W.A thing”: The D.O.C., interview, VladTV, November 23, 2015.
“It was me and you bustin’ a song called ‘The Formula’ ”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Jake Brown, Dr. Dre in the Studio: From Compton, Death Row, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game & Mad Money: The Life, Times and Aftermath of the Notorious Record Producer . . . Dr. Dre (Phoenix: Amber Communications Group Inc., 2007).
“I was going from chick to chick’s house high on ecstasy and liquor”: The D.O.C. interview.
“It was never even possible for it to ever heal”: The D.O.C., interview, VladTV.
“That was my first piece of loot, and even that was a fuck job”: The D.O.C. interview.
“I didn’t know anything about the business”: Ibid.
“Laylaw got this pacifier and put it around my neck”: Toussaint interview.
“We can’t only have all this rap shit on Ruthless”: Heller, Ruthless.
“I knew nothing about hip-hop”: Toussaint interview.
“I do remember when he first hit me”: Michel’le Toussaint, interview, The Breakfast Club, 2015.
“It just never stopped”: Toussaint interview.
“At the time it felt like if he didn’t hit me . . . something was wrong”: Ibid.
“What are they gonna do?”: Eazy-E, quoted in Owen, “N.W.A.”
“You kidding? It was the FBI”: Bryan Turner, quoted in McDermott, “Parental Advisory.”
“Oh, I didn’t know they were buying our records, too”: Ice Cube, quoted in Marsh and Pollack, “The FBI Hates This Band.”
“That letter wasn’t for N.W.A”: The D.O.C. interview.
“There were close to two hundred of us”: Larry Courts, quoted in John Counts, “Retired Detroit Sergeant Recalls Telling N.W.A They Couldn’t Play ‘F*** tha Police’ at 1989 Concert,” MLive.com, August 27, 2015.
“Oh man, y’all shouldn’ta come if y’all wasn’t gonna do that”: Ice Cube, interview by Mills.
“The cops are charging us!”: Heller, Ruthless.
“It was a trip”: The D.O.C. interview.
AMERIKKKA’S MOST WANTED
“It wasn’t like Jerry was all the b
rains”: Jernagin interview.
“Man, I ain’t got no money”: MC Ren, quoted in Ro, Dr. Dre.
“[The] other guys’ positions as far as business was concerned?”: The D.O.C. interview.
“Nobody in N.W.A fucking coughed”: Rupert Wainwright, quoted in Marks and Tannenbaum, I Want My MTV.
“Stay with the group, man”: Chuck D, interview by Nick Huff Barili, 2014.
“Go out and be a flop like Arabian Prince”: Ice Cube, interview, Juan Epstein, 2012.
“I was like, ‘Aw, shit’ ”: Dr. Dre, quoted in Ro, “Moving Target.”
“Is your money right for sure?”: Ice Cube, quoted in Ro, Dr. Dre.
“From the inside looking out”: Hutchinson interview.
“He was with it”: Ice Cube, interview, Juan Epstein.
“You wanna jump on there”: Ibid.
“I don’t like to do pieces of records”: Hank Shocklee, quoted in Coleman, Check the Technique: Volume 2.
“I realized this could be a really good project”: Chuck D, quoted in Coleman, Check the Technique: Volume 2.
“When I went out there I had my ears closed”: Sir Jinx interview.
“Jinx was the gatekeeper”: Ice Cube interview.
“With Dre, it was like, ‘Here’s the sound’ ”: Ice Cube, quoted in Coleman, Check the Technique: Volume 2.
“that kinda represents the America we were dealing with”: Ice Cube, quoted in “The Making of Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” XXL, June 7, 2010.
“Eazy said he wanted to have two supergroups”: Hutchinson interview.
“We wanted Cube on it whether he was leaving or not”: Ibid.
“Ice Cube, how’s he going to write about something he’s never been through?”: Go Mack, quoted in Jonathan Gold, “Above the Law Is Happy to Take the Rap for ‘Murder,’ ” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1990.
“New jacks [poseurs] from Pomona should only talk about the 10 Freeway”: Ice Cube, quoted in Gold, “Above the Law Is Happy to Take the Rap for ‘Murder.’ ”
“For me and my crew, that was really messed up”: Hutchinson interview.
“I was like, ‘Yo, we can’t do business together’ ”: Ice Cube, quoted in Keith Murphy, “Eazy-E: The Ruthless Lie of an American Gangster,” Vibe, August 19, 2015.