Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless rapper The D.O.C. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. It’s something realer, and better.Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. He’s still full of contradictions - on “Animals,” he calls himself a “product of the system, raised on government aid,” but on “Darkside/Gone,” he raps, with palpable disgust, that “anybody complaining about their circumstances lost me, homey.” It adds up to an album by turns confounding and enthralling. The latter in other ways, perhaps: This is Dre’s most explicitly political album, featuring lines from him and guests that evoke police violence, particularly the killings of Michael Brown (“Blood on the cement, black folks grieving”) and Eric Garner (“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe”). He trades his familiar stentorian boom for double-time syncopations, hoarse snarls and even bursts of song - Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, both of whom cameo, clearly rubbed off on him. Throughout, Dre’s rhyming (aided as always by co-writers) is impressive. On “Issues,” co-starring Ice Cube, Dre declares, “Fuck money, that shit could never change me.” The line seems at once boastful and true, for better and worse: The track ends with a jarring fantasy about a woman’s violent murder. Lyrically, Compton is not only vibrant but full of an indignation that suggests world-beating success has done little to lessen the vitriol that fueled Dre back in N.W.A. On standouts like “Talk About It” and “Genocide,” Dre and his co-producers manage insane juggling acts between throbbing funk bass, jazz trumpet, extended high-hat solos, acoustic guitars and irresistibly pounding drums. Compton contains some of his most ambitious, idea-stuffed production ever, combining the layered bombast and narcotic ooze of his catalog’s peaks with a bunch of bold new tricks. Compton is a companion piece to the new N.W.A biopic, and the album’s backward gaze is evident from the intro, where narration from an old TV documentary describes how Dre’s California hometown went from black-middle-class idyll to a crime-ravaged “extension of the inner city.” Dre reminisces over past indignities (“Face down on the pavement with the billy clubs . . .”) and glories (“. . . Now it’s ‘Fuck Tha Police’ all up in the club”) - but this is no dusty museum tour.

Dr dre album cover compton