N.W.A. and the Posse

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox album Template:Music ratings N.W.A. and the Posse is a compilation album, re-releasing N.W.A and associated groups' underground rap songs from the Los Angeles area's rap scene on November 6, 1987.<ref>Robin D. G. Kelley, "Kickin' reality, kickin' ballistics: Gangsta rap and postindustrial Los Angeles", in William Eric Perkins, ed., Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), p 128.</ref><ref name=":10">Roni Sarig, Third Coast: Outkast, Timbaland, and How Hip-hop Became a Southern Thing (Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2007), indexing "Fila Fresh Crew".</ref> It is regarded as American rap group N.W.A's first but neglected album;<ref name=":02">Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "N.W.A: Biography" Template:Webarchive, AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited 26 Apr 2020.</ref><ref name=":12">Alex Henderson, "N.W.A: N.W.A and the Posse", AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited 26 Apr 2020.</ref><ref name=":2">Jerry Heller with Gil Reavill, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2007).</ref> N.W.A's authorized debut studio album, rather, is Straight Outta Compton, released in January 1989. Whereas the Straight album was certified platinum, one million copies sold that July, the Posse album was certified gold, half as many copies sold, in April 1994.<ref>Gold & Platinum search, "N.W.A. & the Posse" Template:Webarchive, Recording Industry Association of America website, visited 26 Apr 2020.</ref>

Backstory

Originally not N.W.A's intended album release, the Posse album was released by Macola Records—which was then the Los Angeles hip hop scene's main distributor—by collecting songs, mainly from N.W.A's EP titled N.W.A, that Macola had distributed for Ruthless Records, a record label set up by N.W.A's Eazy-E and the group's Jerry Heller.<ref name=":12"/><ref name=":3">David Diallo, "Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp 321 Template:Webarchive–322.</ref>

Six of the 11 tracks on the Posse album are from then-N.W.A members: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Arabian Prince. MC Ren and DJ Yella were not yet in N.W.A, however the former does appear on the cover photograph. One track is of Microphone Mike, later called Myka 9, along with Rappinstine, a traveling faction of the DJ crew World Class Wreckin' Cru, whose core had yielded N.W.A's Dr. Dre and DJ Yella.

Four of the Posse album's tracks are from the Fila Fresh Crew,<ref name=":10" /> a rap crew including Doc-T, who soon renamed himself The D.O.C.<ref name=":12"/> Dr. Dre discovered them in Texas, where a DJ friend of his, Dr. Rock, had invited him to perform at a nightclub, where the Fila Fresh Crew was performing.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":6" /> These four tracks had previously been distributed by Macola Records.

Macola omitted the N.W.A track "A Bitch iz a Bitch" (not included on the EP either) to favor party, electro sounds, like the "Panic Zone" track, that led the Los Angeles rap scene until N.W.A's Straight album hit.<ref name=":02"/><ref name=":12"/><ref name=":6">Gerrick D. Kennedy, Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap (New York: Atria Books, 2017), pp 85–86 Template:Webarchive.</ref> In November 1989, after the commercial success of Straight Outta Compton that same year, Ruthless' distributor Priority Records re-issued the Posse album with the "Bitch" track replacing "Scream".<ref name=":12"/>

Macola

The World Class Wreckin' Cru', including future N.W.A members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, led by Grandmaster Lonzo, along with C.I.A which included future member Ice Cube were signed to Lonzo's label Kru-Cut Records, a sublabel of Macola Records, the area's leading distributor of rap records.<ref name=":4">David Diallo, ch 10 "From electro-rap to G-funk: A social history of rap music in Los Angeles and Compton, California", in Mickey Hess, ed., Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010), p 233 on World Class Wreckin' Cru, pp 234–238 on N.W.A.</ref> The success of Eazy’s single "Boyz-n-the-Hood" prompted Eazy's call for an N.W.A EP, distributed by Macola.<ref name=":6" /> The EP's five songs included Eazy and Cube on "Dopeman", Eazy on "8 Ball", and Arabian's production "Panic Zone."<ref name=":6" />

After the release of the EP, N.W.A left Macola and signed to Priority. Macola wasn't too happy and wanted to cash in on the group so they took the songs from Eazy's "Boyz-n-the-Hood" single as well as the N.W.A EP and combined them with a bunch of random songs that Macola had in their library and this resulted in the N.W.A and the Posse album.

Cover photo

For the EP's cover photo which is the same cover used for the album, Eazy summoned N.W.A's members to pose for the camera in a Hollywood alleyway near Macola's office.<ref name=":5">Martin Cizmar, "Whatever happened to N.W.A's posse?" Template:Webarchive, LA Weekly, 6 May 2010.</ref><ref name=":6" /> Reportedly, some who were photographed wound up there by merely driving or accompanying another.<ref name=":5" /> Future N.W.A rapper MC Ren, living near Eazy, although photographed, was not yet in N.W.A.<ref name=":5" /> On the other hand, DJ Yella is absent<ref>In the photo, the five, eventual N.W.A members are side by side in the center: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Arabian Prince, and MC Ren. Otherwise, there are seven others. Two of them had already formed, with Ice Cube, the rap trio C.I.A.: Anthony "Sir Jinx" Wheaton and Darryll "Kid Disaster" or "K-Dee" Johnson. Another two were in another rap group, CPO: Clarence "DJ Train" Lars and Granville "MC Chip" Moton. Also, there are LaMont "DJ Scratch" or "King Scratch" Burnett, Candell "Candyman" Manson, and Damon "Krazy D" Trujillo. For backstory and developments on each, see Martin Cizmar, "N.W.A. and the Posse: Where are the 12 guys from N.W.A's first album cover now?", Phoenix New Times, 15 Mar 2010.</ref> due to being sick on the day the photo was taken (although he also was not active within the group yet, just a close friend of Dre).<ref name = "DJ Yella Interview">Template:Cite web</ref> Rapper Candyman is also in the photo, bottom right kneeling down.

Track list

All songs produced by either Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince or both. Template:Track listing