N.W.A REunion Album Under Way - 07/12/00

The long awaited N.W.A. reunion album is finally in its creative stages. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Snoop Dogg (in for the late Eazy E) will be working on the project in a mobile recording studio while they’re on the road with the Up In Smoke Tour. DJ Yella will also contribute to the album once the tour is finished. The working title for the album will be, Not These N*ggas Again, and plans are to have it released in the fall 2001.

You can currently hear the year 2000 chemistry of N.W.A. on the Next Friday Soundtrack’s "Chin Check" and the Ice Cube single, "Hello".

MC Ren Disses Dynamite Hack - @ 05/31/00

Austin rock band Dynamite Hack may have a novelty hit on their hands with "Boyz-N-Tha-Hood" -- where they somewhat cheekily put the thug lyrics of N.W.A.'s 1986 classic to folk rock instrumentation and breathy, sensitive vocals -- but they're not winning over MC Ren.

Though the band approached both Eazy-E's estate and Dr. Dre about using the song, they haven't gotten any substantive feedback from the N.W.A. camp other than the usage of the "n word" in the song's lyrics.

"We hear stories all the time," said Dynamite Hack bassist/singer Chad Robinson. "Like we heard [Farmclub.com label co-head] Jimmy Iovine played the song for Dr. Dre. We heard that Dr. Dre said, 'Turn this thing off,' and we got scared. But he was actually concerned that if we didn't take out where they say 'nigger' [especially in the lyric "Young niggaz at the pad throwin' up gang signs"] we would be shot."

But it's not just Dr. Dre who wants the song turned off. When RollingStone.com played the remake for MC Ren -- who, despite Dynamite Hack's radio presence in Southern California, was hearing it for the first time -- he couldn't wait for the song to end.

"I'm happy that shit's over," Ren said. "That was killing me, man. I felt like I was in The Twilight Zone, in some fucked up town somewhere. I can't take it. My wife told me about it the other day. She said, 'Man, that was whack, some country-shit.' They should be embarrassed."

Dynamite Hack had actually hoped to play the N.W.A. reunion on Farmclub last March, but after hearing their cover, Ren might veto any further connection to the band. "I ain't got nothing to do with that shit," he said. "There ain't nothing I can do about it. If they have success with it, that's cool. I can still respect them for trying. But I can't take no song like that. [The original] is like a jet plane, and this is like a little prop plane, know what I mean? You can't take a big, fat car and slow it down."

Up In Smoke Tour Talks - @ 05/08/00 After releasing 25 dates last week, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, and Eminem started to talk to the media to get the word out on the Up In Smoke Tour.

The tour marks Dre's first-ever national tour as a solo artist, but with N.W.A. member MC Ren joining his old school friends Dre and Cube, and Snoop ready to fill in for the late Eazy-E, the tour is starting to shape up into a N.W.A reunion concert.

"It's all done in the spirit of N.W.A.," Cube told MTV News' Kurt Loder over the weekend. "Everybody's going to do an individual set, of course, but at the end we're all going to come out together as N.W.A. and drop a bomb."

"It's a dream come true," Snoop said of his slot in the Y2K take on N.W.A. "Every rapper's dream is to be on stage with superstars like Cube, Dre, Eminem, and the whole crew, so I'm just gonna go up there, do my part, and support the movement and just make positive and peaceful so we can do this again."

Not surprisingly, Dre is stoked about the notion of bringing N.W.A. back around again and bringing more fans as well. "It's gonna be off the hook, man," Dre told MTV News. "It's gonna be incredible. We're gonna give everybody that's been buying our records a real show, something they've never seen before."

Part of that little something extra is Eminem, who will find himself trying to hold his own among his fellow hip-hop heavyweights. "I don't try to compete, man," Em said. "I just do what I do. I go out and [do] whatever it is I been doin'... I don't remember the last show to the next."

Up In Smoke Tour - 05/04/00 After months of speculation and hype, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Eminem, and Warren G have finally confirmed plans and released an itinerary of cities, dates, and venues for their joint "Up In Smoke" tour, slated to start on June 15 in San Diego. The outing will mark Dre's first-ever national tour as a solo artist, and although not mentioned in today's official announcement, Dr. Dre said that he plans to bring MC Ren out on the road to perform a few songs with Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg as part of a reunited N.W.A.

Aside from MC Ren, additional "surprise" guests will make appearances at various stops on the "Up In Smoke" tour, which is currently scheduled to play 25 cities during a seven-week run. (see tour dates)

Dre On The NWA Reunion - @ 05/02/00 The NWA reunion, we just started plannin' that. Me, Snoop, Cube and Ren. We actually got together and started talking about some of the things we were going to address with this record. We're definitely gonna do it and hopefully it'll get a release by the end of next year. We're gonna call the album Not These Niggaz Again. First of all we have to find out who owns the name NWA and then we have to make sure there's not a lot of people dipping their hands in the pie. I think we're gonna do a couple of songs live. We won't be starting on the record until the tour is over and we are plannin' on a NWA tour.