countered this argument and stated they were simply conveying real life experiences in Compton and South Central Los Angeles. While some opponents felt these profane, vulgar and shocking lyrics just perpetuated black-on-black crime and glamorized the gangsta lifestyle, members of N.W.A. The residents of cities like Compton and South Central Los Angeles were left to feel like the government didn’t about them and “Straight Outta Compton” acted as a creative outlet to express these frustrations. Additionally, there were multiple cuts in social programs for disadvantaged inner-city communities. Ronald Reagan’s “War On Drugs” resulted in the overcrowding of prisons with predominately black inmates. African Americans were getting incarcerated at alarming rates and Reagan-era policies cut benefits to those living in poverty.
In the 1980s, many residents of “the hood” were feeling as if they were abandoned and/or taken advantage of government. Many of the issues NWA had were a direct result of political happenings at the time. As Ogbar points outs, black communities were facing “rising unemployment, declining social programs, institutionalized racism, crime and a burgeoning drug trade fermented alarm among young African Americans” (Ogbar 109). offered an important social commentary of life on the mean streets of Compton and delivers a valuable political commentary from a vantage point foreign to a majority of Americans. presented in “Straight Outta Compton.” N.W.A. While hip hop artists had given commentary on the social ills of society in the past, none were as “in your face” and bombastic as N.W.A. While the foundations of hip hop were laid in 1970s and early 80s, N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” is largely viewed as the birth of gangsta rap.