Straight Outta Compton

Produced for High Powered Productions.
Recorded & mixed at Audio Achievements, Torrance, CA.
Engineered by Donovan Sound (A.E.S., N.A.R.A.S.).
Mastered at Bernie Grundman.

CD Version released on February 6, 1989 by Ruthless Records:
1. Straight Outta Compton (4:19)
2. Fuck tha Police (5:47)
3. Gangsta Gangsta (5:37)
4. If It Ain’t Ruff (3:34)
5. Parental Discretion Iz Advised (5:16)
6. 8 Ball (remix) (4:53)
7. Something Like That (3:36)
8. Express Yourself (4:25)
9. Compton’s N the House (remix) (5:21)
10. I Ain’t tha 1 (4:55)
11. Dopeman (remix) (5:20)
12. Quiet on tha Set (4:00)
13. Something 2 Dance 2 (3:23)

The debut album by N.W.A. It initially sold poorly until early 1989, when MTV and radio began playing the hits "Straight Outta Compton", "Gangsta Gangsta" and "Express Yourself", which resulted in the album being sold in over three million copies. The album itself reached number 37 in the Billboard Top 200, while it reached number 9 on Billboard's Top Soul LPs.

"Straight Outta Compton" is best remembered as the pioneering record of gangsta rap; with its ever-present profanity and violent lyrics, it helped to give birth to this then-new sub-genre of hip hop. It has been considered groundbreaking by music writers and has had an enormous impact on the evolution of West Coast hip hop. "Straight Outta Compton" redefined the direction of hip hop, which resulted in lyricism concerning the gangsta lifestyle becoming the driving force in sales figures. It also helped to shift the power to the West Coast from the East Coast, which had enjoyed a period of prominence in hip hop for most of the 1980s.