But I am angry tho, so I've been listening to some proper gangstah shit ! And what's better than Eazy-E when it comes to thuggish lyricism ? Not many... Eazy motherphukin E, the Compton rapper, died 19 ago on the same day I was born, and released only classic material. And on the 13th of september 1998 he released « Eazy duz it ». This album is very important in rap history, not only because Eazy-E released a dope album, but also because you have to replace this album in the social context.
At the time, it's not many rappers sayin' they fuck the police, the security guards, and being as insolent as this teenager ! It was a proper shock for the upper-class. Eazy-E was loved in the hoods, hated in the pretty rich places, and that was a first for a rapper to make such impact. And guess what... Only 4 years later, the Los Angeles riots occured ! Nothing has been proved, but no doubt the gangstah rap had something to do with it. Gangstah rap has always been pointed as « dumb lyrics, superficial stuff ». It's true in a way, but so wrong if you look at the fact that thanks to the gangstah rap we can have a direct information from what's going on in the hoods regarding the whole mentality and how hard life can be in those places... From an involuntary way, we can say the gangstah rap is totally conscious rap, actually, we don't do better than that. It's not a rapper from the middle class who will be able to describe so well the worst states of the society... Much props to gangstah rap for that.
Second point why this album is so important : The form. Usually, west coast beats were kinda slow and chilled out. But not this one, you can cfeel what Dr Dre wanted to make you feel : the beats are full of energy, funky, and it fits totally with Eazy-E's flow, listening to it will not make you sleep, it might make you want to cruise down the streets tho...
So well, just combine the social context at the time with the lyricism proper gangstah and the « unheard before » beats by Dre... Straight classic ! And let's not forget, this album has its importance for the next episodes of the Death Row saga, the Dr Dre's albums, the N.W.A., Ice Cube... Eazy-E died from aids, he did have quite a lot of girls... he left them, but the Compton left us his whole catalogue too. History...
