The End Of An Era: Greatest Hits Packages from Hip-Hop Legends N.W.A. and Ice Cube

I’m not exactly sure how historians mark the end of an era, but as far as music goes nothing marks an era like the second (or third…or fourth) Greatest Hits package from an artist or artists who defined and introduced a radial style of music into mainstream culture. Ice Cube’s The Essentials will be released on September 16th; N.W.A.’s N.W.A And Their Family Tree will street on September 30th. Pour some of that 40 out.

From Capitol / Priority Records:

World-famous rap artist and film star Ice Cube has personally compiled and sequenced 18 of his top solo hits and standout tracks for a new Capitol/Priority collection titled Ice Cube: The Essentials.  Available September 16 on CD and digitally, Ice Cube: The Essentials offers, in one hard-hitting collection, the best recordings of Ice Cube’s 18-year solo music career, including a track from his new album, Raw Footage.

In the late 1980s, Ice Cube began his career as a member of Compton, California’s pioneering, critically acclaimed and notorious gangsta rap group, N.W.A. On his first solo album, 1990’s platinum-certified AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Ice Cube’s razor-sharp sociopolitical and cultural missives from the streets went beyond N.W.A’s gangbanging braggadocio, and he dismissed bicoastal rap rivalries to collaborate with New York’s hip-hop heavyweights Public Enemy. Rolling Stone awarded the album its highest 5-star rating, the album’s title track topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart, and the album peaked at #6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

Firmly established as a solo artist, Ice Cube became a musical and cultural lightning rod, his music attracting alternating praise and disdain from the media and moralists. Despite being singled out in an unprecedented public statement of condemnation from Billboard upon its release, Cube’s 1991 album, Death Certificate, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart and at #2 on the Billboard Top 200, and was soon certified platinum.

To commemorate the historic and ongoing musical and cultural influence of N.W.A, Capitol/Priority will release N.W.A And Their Family Tree on September 30.  The new CD and digital collection features a cross-section of 18 genre-defining tracks by the pioneering gangsta rap group and its founders, plus Mack 10, Westside Connection, Snoop Dogg, and other N.W.A-inspired artists.  On October 3 at 11pm ET/PT, VH1 will premiere a new 90-minute Rock Doc, “N.W.A: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.”

Two decades have passed since N.W.A rocketed Straight Outta Compton to multi-platinum success, worldwide acclaim and notoriety as rap music’s most powerful force, redefining forever the boundaries of popular music. In the course of little more than three years, N.W.A’s Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Yella reached unprecedented gangsta superstardom with their no-holds-barred missives from Los Angeles’ toughest streets.

N.W.A And Their Family Tree charts the group’s lineage through 18 key tracks, including what could be considered the House of N.W.A’s most valuable heirloom, the explosive title track from Straight Outta Compton, the group’s history-making, double platinum 1988 release. Also included are N.W.A’s “Fuck Tha Police,” “Dopeman,” “Express Yourself,” and “Boyz-N-The Hood” (N.W.A featuring Eazy-E), Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day,” “Eazy-E’s “We Want Eazy,” M.C. Ren’s “Final Frontier,” The D.O.C.’s “It’s Funky Enough,” Westside Connection’s “Bow Down” and “Gangstas Make The World Go ‘Round,” Mack 10’s “Foe Life,” Snoop Dogg featuring Xzibit’s “Bitch Please,” and other top tracks from the scions of N.W.A.

Related posts

• Slipknot Get Some New Masks (0)
• Senses Fail’s Life Is Not a Waiting Room Due Out October 7th (0)
• Ryan Adams Book Coming in 2009 (0)
• LL Cool J is Back with Exit 13 on August 26th, 2008 (0)
• Journey Lands #5 On Billboard Top 200 (0)
• Craig Owens from Chiodos Talks About Suicide Attempt (6)