N.W.A. has received a lot of press as of late because of their highly-anticipated film, Straight Outta Compton. With the movie set to hit theaters on Friday, Aug. 14, a bevy of magazines have released their covers of the illustrious group this week, most notably Billboard. What separates Billboard from the Rolling Stone cover? Well, they tapped Kendrick Lamar to interview the quartet of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, and DJ Yella.
Here’s a snippet of their interview below. Per Billboard:
Back then, what was your relationship with A&R guys?
Ice Cube: We didn’t have no A&R guys.
MC Ren: It was like, “How many times can we say ‘n—a’?”
Dr. Dre: We’d say, “We need more ‘f—s’ on this record.”
Did you have any doubts that you would be accepted?
MC Ren: I don’t think we really cared.
Dr. Dre: We had no idea we’d blow up this major. You see, every time we went into the studio we were only trying to make tracks that would rock our neighborhood. Our goal was to be local stars.
Ice Cube: We didn’t think the world cared about gang-banging and dope-dealing in L.A., Compton, South Central, Long Beach and Watts. The hub of hip-hop was the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem. We were on the fringes. And that was OK with us.
Dr. Dre: Imagine this: We made Straight Outta Compton in six weeks, and that’s without working weekends. Twenty-five years later, and here’s a big-ass Hollywood movie carrying the same name. It’s unbelievable.
What was the hardest part when you were young and first coming to grips with the game?
DJ Yella: Publishing! We didn’t know anything about publishing. The first go-around we didn’t make a nickel.
Dr. Dre: We were just a bunch of creative guys who got together and did something amazing but were clueless about business.
Ice Cube: Business is the most f—ed-up part. It’s always awkward. It’s fun to make records, fun to be in the studio with your homies, fun to get up onstage. But the business part sucks. It’s always some shit you ready to get rid of so you can go back to being creative.
Dr. Dre: It’s all about getting back in that studio.
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Kendrick Lamar Interviews N.W.A. For Billboard Magazine was originally published on theurbandaily.com
