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N.W.A

N.W.A and Dr Dres success. Andre Young aka Dr Dre grew up in Compton on the Westside, as a young boy he would MC at his mothers parties in his pyjamas. Before Dre blew up with N.W.A he was well known in Calafornia for his stint in the World Class Wreckin Kru, his mixes on KDAYs afternoon Traffic Jams radio show , and groundbreaking work as producer of N.W.A. He was described as a flamboyant man who stood 6ft one inches tall, weighed 230 pounds, kept his head clean shaven and wore earings in both ears along with the baggy cloths favoured by local gang members, baby faced Dre is most successful rap producer in the music industry. Every record he has put out sold millions of copies and earned him alot of money. While the other members of N.W.A ran with gangs in their childhood Dre resisited peer pressure and focused on music, he said 'if you dont earn money from it whats the point'.. As a youngster he was shuffled between relatives houses and sometimes was in Crip neighbourhoods and attended a Crip school he would have 2 wear blue, where is when he moved to a Blood neighbourhood when he went to school he would put away the blue clothing and wear a neutral colour like black. At age 16 Dres friend Alonzo Williams heard him preform and asked him to join the World Class wreckin Kru, he hated being there because of the groups style, but he remained the because of the pay ( he got paid 5000 dollars every preformance which was usually every tuesday). By Thurday however the money would usually be gone he'd spend it on clothes, partying, equipment and bills. Dre would often ask Lonzo ( the only member of the Kru which saved and invested) if he could lend him money, Dre already owed him 2 to 3 thousand dollars but lonzo agreed. After Alonzo bought a BMW Dre asked if he could buy his old RX7, Lonzo wasn't sure as he already had owed him alot of money but agreed as he needed him in the group, but soon he kept getting speeding tickets and eventually ended up being arrested, he called Alonzo but he refused to bail him out after Dre still owed money for the car. Dre placed a second call to Eric Wright, a well known compton drug dealer. A short brown skinned youth who wore baggy creased khakis and sunglasses. Eric ( also known as Easy E ) decided to put up the $900 on one condition. In return Dre would have to produce songs for his up and coming record label Ruthless Records that he planned to form. Dre agreed and went back to Alonzo in the recording studio and worked off all the money he had owed him, he then quit the wreckin kru and released he would have more control at Ruthless over his music than before. At Ruthless him and Easy and O'Shea ''Ice Cube'' Jackson started thinking bout forming a group, to shock the media and gain the support of local gang members they called themselves N.W.A (Niggaz With Attitude). A few months later Dre was at a concert of The DOC, backstage Dre went and said 'Man your sound is as tight as hell'. Soon N.W.As line up was ready, each would contribute in their own ways, DJ Yella (Antione Carraby) would produce drumbeats, Ice Cube would pen schoolly like lyrics, new member MC Ren (former Crip member Lorenzo Patterson) would preform cameos, the DOC would coach Easy how to recite lyrics on time, and Dre would sit behind the mixing board, engineering and creating the music and recording the songs.. Throughout 1988's Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A descibed Compton as the Vietnam of the 80's. The threaten to use an AK 47 on anyone who offended them, they also threated to shoot police and to batter women, and premoted smokin chronic and drinking. With anthems like 'Fuck tha Police' it wasn't long till local gangs The Crips and The Bloods hailed them as heroes, MTV now refused to air their videos. Stright Outta Compton sold over 500 000 copies within 6 weeks of its release, a cleaner version of Express Yourself was aired on MTV and finally got released as a single. They started touring and the FBI sent faxes to the police telling them when N.W.A were preforming.

As they were popular The DOC hired Suge Knight as a body guard, they went to clubs while The Doc had fun Suge saw this as business, his job was to keep The DOC safe and thats what he did. Soon Suge tried everything to turn The Doc and Dr Dre against Easy E and make them come to Funky Enough ( Suges new record company ) but it folded due to lack of funds. But Suge knew that there was alot of money to be made in gangster rap due to Easys Ruthless Records success. But then The DOC had a car accident and was so messed up that the only way they knew it was him was cause of the haircut, his self esteem was gone and so was his voice. So Suge said 'Well I m gonna start a new company u wanna sign' this time Suges offer sounded better cause since the accident Ruthless were like Fuck the DOC he cant make us any money anymore. N.W.A meanwhile racketed with tension. Ice Cube began to feel that Easy and Jerry Heller (Ruthlesses Business manager) were underpaying him. For work on 2 albums with sales of 3 million copies he claimed that Heller had pocketed 4 times as much as him. Cube said that he had only recieved ($32, 700). At the next recording session Dre could see that Cube was troubled, Cube then annouced 'Im quitting' he told them, Dre replied with 'You crazy dont do that'. The DOC told Dre about Suge examing all his contracts with Ruthless Dre said arrange a meeting for us to meet so he can look over my contracts fearing Dre was under paid as well. Dre then asked him to check over Michel'le an RnB singer who sang backing vocals on N.W.A songs and soon became Dres girlfriend.

Deniece Barnes ( Also known as sista D ) hostess of Pump it up a music video programme and an old friend of Dres she tried to get the group on in 1991, as the group usually turned down interviews as Dre knew her they agreed to be interveiwed. A week after they had taped the interview sista d was doind an interview on YOYO who Ice Cube was managing in the middle of the interview Cube appeared and insulted his former bandmates. Then the producer decided he was gonna add it onto the N.W.A show ignoring Ds plee, and he did, when it was aired Dre was furious as Dee had said it would end with a postive vibe on N.W.A.. When she encountered Easy at a nightclub a few weeks later and Easy said he was alittle upset and that was it, D thought it was all over. Then in December she attended a Def Jam party which Dre was attending. She was talkin to a producer when Dre pushed in between them and grabbed Dee, he started hitting her and he dragged her by her throat and pushed her down some stairs which led to the toilets, she was covered in blood and slumped on the floor when Dre dragged her into the toilets and told everyone to leave he then puched her kicked her and threatened her. No one at the party decided to help, until eventually someone went down there and dragged Dre off her and Dee ran. Dee then said she wanted to have songs produced for her by Dre ( she wanted to have a go at a rapping career ) otherwise she would press charges, Dre agreed but then she demanded one million dollars instead, but Dre refused and she took him to court for 20 million dollars, but it was soon settled out of court. Soon Dre left Ruthless and went to Marion ''SUGE'' Knights Deathrow Records founded by big time drug dealer Harry O.. Ruthless decided they could live without Dre and got DJ Quick to produce a few songs but still wanted some of the money for the songs Dre produced on Deathrow because he was still in contract with Ruthless.. Soon The DOC and Michel'le and Dre were on Deathrow Records but not offically. Dre invited Easy to a meeting with him and Suge to discuss the contract with Ruthless, as Easy E thought it was a friendly meeting and turned up with no body guards, Easy was shocked when he saw Dre wasn't there but Suge was armed with 2 local gang members. Suge explained that some artists wanted releasing from Ruthless, Easy said he would think about it and consult Jerry Heller but Suge said to Easy we got him hostage in a van, sign the contracts or else, but Easy refused and so Suge and his thugs beat him with baseball bats until he signed them. On Deathrow Dre then released Chronic which went multi platinuim with help from The Doc. Dre continued working and producing albums for all artists on Deathrow, soon Deathrow had made a name for themselves as the hottest Record comapany on the westcoast. But in 1996 Dre was unhappy with Tupac signing with the record company. Soon Suge and him became inseperable business alies and friends. Suge began using Dres songs on Tupacs album 'All Eyez on me' Dre was furious because he knew Calafornia Love would be a big hit and Tupac got most of the credit, Tupac aslo used Dres ' You cant see me' and changed the name to ' U Cant C Me'. The ''C'' in the title was a diss to the Southside Crips and Dre felt cheated. So after making the video for Calafronia Love he went to Interscop and told them he was leaving Deathrow and wanted help to built a new record company called Aftermath. They agreed to help and he soon made noise with BLACKstreet and other eastcoast RnB singers and rappers. But Suge wasn't takin it lightly and soon started the Dres Gay rumours, this didnt really seem to bother Dre. Some Deathrow released songs dissed Dre, but he still continued to form Aftermath Records. Dre kept a low profile until Eminem debuted 2 years ago with My Name Is, Dre had alot riding on this artist as if he flopped so would Dres cred. Chronic 2001 spent many weeks in the top 10... A fuckin wicked album!!!

Also some new news on N.W.A

Following Ice Cube's recent mutterings about an NWA reunion, Dr. Dre has added fuel to the fire by confirming that the pair are seriously discussing the possibility and even have an album title in mind.

"Me and Cube have been talking for the last two weeks about doing an NWA album and I'm really into it," Dre confessed to U.S. music channel MTV. "We talked to MC Ren, Snoop would be the fourth member of the group," he said, referring to the missing link to the original line-up, Easy-E, who died of AIDS in March 1995. "We're gonna call the album 'Not Those Niggaz Again'," he said.

The new line-up of Ren, Cube, Dre and Snoop has already recorded a track called 'Chin Check' for the forthcoming Ice Cube film Next Friday. NWA's original DJ, Yella was not involved in this recording and it is not yet known whether he will be brought in to work on the album.