Straight Outta Here? Legal war erupts in N.W.A.
RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 8 February 1990
IT'S LIKE the Sex Pistols all over again. NWA, rappers from Compton, generate a huge word-of-mouth reputation, they put out a careening album quickly banned from radio and MTV, they stir up more controversy by launching an improvised tour that the cops swarm down every few dates. And then, they fall apart. "They'll be bigger and better than ever in 1990," NWA's manager Jerry Heller laughs. But it's hard to see how, now that their crucial writer and only slightly less crucial rapper, Ice Cube, has split. Without its principal writer, NWA limp on.
Total word count of piece: 1663
