NWA is wanted for a homicide, um, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

NWA is getting tons of praise and recognition and rightfully so.  They were certainly trailblazers and spoke for the black youths in Compton LA and elsewhere in the country.  They didn't hold their punches they used words and lyrics that were frowned upon by the white powers to be in the music industry.  I first become aware of them as a freshman at Franklin Pierce.  I become interested in them because they spoke about what they went through on a daily bases, getting stopped by cops on a daily basis.

I stared hear very negative comments about them in the media and I started asking why.  I recall white people in the 1960's saying "fuck the pigs" referring to the police in the 1960's.  Those people at the time were arrested and sent to jail or just beaten up.  I aquavit NWA the same way as I think of the people who said "fuck the pigs" in the 1960's they were using their language to get things done just like NWA did in the late 1980's.  I think the members of NWA including the late Easy E, Ice Cube, Dr Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince the same way I think of the civil right leaders who in the 1960's said "Fuck the pigs.”  Herald E Heller who managed NWA and helped them break into the white music industry. Well now NWA is wanted for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Well there's another rap band that came to prominence around that time too.   Tribe called Qwest spoke of injustices by the police during that time, but they achieved this without using inflammatory words.  They spoke of the same injustices and were known to do the impossible like Broadway Joe.  They were lyrical  poets writing about the issues in Brooklyn but didn't use inflammatory language to do so.  In the rap industry that's dominated by rappers who routinely talking about killing people demeaning women, they did this too but did so without the language.

Tribe Called Qwest disbanded in 1998 even though they were still pretty successful and well known, but they never sold out, the stayed to their roots. I recall them coming to Franklin Pierce in 1998 and talking with those from the school who grew up near then in Brooklyn.   Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi white, were never too big to be approached and talked to they were never too big to remember where they came from. 

I always wondered by they broke up in the 1998, I thought they had a great future, but I guess they wanted to remain true to themselves and not sell out to the music industry.  The 2011 documentary film entitled Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, directed by Michael Rapaport was about them.   Jimmy Fallon and “The Tonight Show”  hosted  to a very reunion show for A Tribe Called Quest.  The reissue of their debut album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

But I don’t want to “play them out like their name was sega” but I want to give them my respect.  Whenever I see John Starts at Knicks games I think of their song 8 million stories and to top it off Starks got ejected.  Well I’m out to Carvel to get a Milk shake, take care.