Music Blogs

Regular readers know we've been vacationing in the 1980s the last few weeks, bringing you some of the quality videos they made back in those days. The decade's most important contribution to society, of course, was gangsta rap, and this week we're proud to welcome seminal gangstas N.W.A. to Framed.

N.W.A.--Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Easy-E and MC Ren--were known as "the world's most dangerous group" for their portrayal of the gangsta lifestyle and especially for their attitude toward the police. "I'm not the other color so police think they have the authority to kill a minority," rapped Ice Cube in "F*** Tha Police," a favorite of social conservatives to this day. 

Sadly, there is no video for that song, but we're bringing the next best thing with "Straight Outta Compton," the title track of the album that propelled N.W.A. into history in 1988. The video, shot in their hometown in Southern California, is pretty much a cops-vs.-N.W.A. event. As always, we invite your comments, and wonder how you, our valued readers, gauge the impact of gangsta rap.

We'll be back at our desk in the 21st century next week and look forward to returning to the vague, unthreatening fluff we've all come to love so well!  See you then!

1 -- "And remember, men. You don't plant potatoes until the soil is dry to touch."

2 -- "Jesus, human, freaking aim me already," scolded Gunno, The Sentient Weapon.

3 -- "I forgot. Did you want every donut they have or every donut there is?"

4 -- "All hail Megatron."

5 -- "Whoo hoo! The soil is dry to touch!!" 

6 -- "Hold on! I suspect we're trapped within a completely non sequitur installment of Framed that will defy analysis for centuries!" 

7 -- "Halt, or I'll fire my gun in some random direction!"

8 -- "Ironic? Jeez, officer, ironic was sorta the plan."

9 -- "'Scuse me, officer. You got a credible theory of dealing with minority communities I can borrow?" 

10 -- "I swear, I don't know who painted that crude map of Australia over there."

11 -- "None of the stones skip! Could water be the missing ingredient?!"

12 -- "Hello, readers. We'd like to step out of character to deliver an important message. Did you know that potatoes with the skin on are an excellent source of fiber?"