New school meets old. To commemorate the launch of 'Straight Outta Compton', Billboard rounded up the four living members of N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella for a for a sit down interview with fellow Compton native Kendrick Lamar.
Seen by many as the current king of West Coast rap, Lamar's music is heavily influenced by the sound and attitude pioneered by the group. In a separate article that ran in the August issue of billboard, he wrote:
I'd be lying if I said what I'm creating today is all me. It isn't. It's an act of God. I do believe that, for all its challenges, my upbringing in Compton was a sacred blessing. The streets we ran, the air we breathed -- everything about Compton had been creatively conditioned by N.W.A I got to absorb it all. Recently someone told me about the Italian Renaissance in Florence where young artists were lucky enough to work in the studios of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Well, Compton was my Florence. That's the kind of favor I had following in the shadow of creative giants like Dre, Cube, Ren and Yella.
The foursome discussed a variety of topics such as the difficulties of the hip-hop industry:
"For me personally, the hardest part was probably separating myself from the bullshit," Dr. Dre said. Ice Cube agreed: "It's fun to make records, it's fun to be in the studio with your homies, coming up with shit; it's fun to to get onstage. The business part sucks."
As well as N.W.A's effect on popular culture:
"We not only changed music, we changed pop culture all over the world. We did that by making it all right for artists to be themselves. You no longer had to be squeaky clean. We opened the floodgates for artists who wanted to work on this side, artists who wanted to be raw." Said Ice Cube.
The full interview is available on Billboard.
