Gangsta group gets recognition

Band gets proper tribute from top musicians

By Wes Woods, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, November 3, 1998

The "N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton 10th Anniversary Tribute" album is refreshingly unoriginal.

Obviously, every song on this album has already been outdone. No one will ever surpass N.W.A. Even if the year is 2998, N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" will be a hip-hop classic. However, it is nice to go down memory lane, even without Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella.

With minor changes in lyrics to fit the artist's style (and hometown, in the case of San Diego's Jayo Felony) the disc follows the same track-pattern as the orignal. The only missing song is "Something 2 Dance 2."

Ant Banks (of Too $hort fame) produces most of the beats. While mainly adding synthesizer touches and heavier bass to the orignal tracks, Banks completely redoes "Quiet On Tha Set." With Big Punisher, Fat Joe and Cuban Link on the vocals, Banks changes the beat to a catchy, rolling bassline with even catchier drums. It does have the same lyrics as the original though.

The two No-Limit remakes are impressive. Snoop Dogg and C-Murder's "Gangsta Gangsta" has a slow, Southernish bassline and snythesizer makeover to it while Silkk the Shocker's "Express Yourself" stays truer to Dre's original.

WC's retake of MC Ren's "If It Ain't Ruff" is astounding. He almost makes the song his own, using the same tone and studder-stepping style of the original. "F*** Tha Police" by Bone Thugs N Harmony is surprisingly impressive, as they slow their signature-speedy sound to a crawl and yell the lyrics like it was 1988.

The album's opener, "Straight Outta Compton" with King T, MC Eiht and Dre'sta is smooth as well.

There is also a live version of "Compton's N Tha House" with Dr. Dre and MC Ren, but it sadly gets cut off when Ren goes into "Ruthless Villian."

Weaker songs include the 90s-era, lightweight-beat of "8 Ball" which features Jayo Felony's poor vocal take on the classic.

"Parental Discretion Iz Advised" with The Comrads, AllfrumthaI and Boo Kapone, which is the equivalent of getting Larry the Meat Man and his friends to remake N.W.A- and Mack 10's version of "Dopeman," also fails.

Mack doesn't have the baritone of Cube and the beat's background of keyboards ruins the agressive feel of the original.

Despite these slip-ups, the album should make the self-described "world's most dangerous group" proud of its 10-year legacy.