N.W.A, F**k tha Police | Controversial Tunes 😈🎶

On the 34^th edition of Controversial Tunes, we explore the controversy behind the song, “F**k tha Police” by N.W.A. 

B

ring on the controversy, won’t you? Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows and totally stirred the pot.  The records that grace Controversial Tunes are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  On the 34^th edition of Controversial Tunes, we explore the controversy behind the song, 🎵 “Fuck tha Police” by 🎙 N.W.A.

---

Theme & Lyrics ✍

“Fuck the police comin’ straight from the underground / A young nigga got it bad ‘cause I’m brown.” Woo! 🎵 “Fuck tha Police” by 🎙 N.W.A. ranks among the most controversial songs of all time.  The first two lines by 🎙 Ice Cube set the tone – the complicated history of police and black relations where far too often blacks are made to suffer and don’t get a fair shake. “Fuck tha Police” was released in 1988 appearing on the group’s landmark LP, 💿 Straight Outta Compton.  Even so, the issues and points the rap collective mentions on the album are still relevant today as policing is under a microscope (for good reason) and racism is still flourishing, unfortunately.  Even prior to Cube’s electrifying verse, the intro sets up the controversial tour de force:

“Ice Cube, take the motherfucking stand
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth
And nothing but the truth so help your black ass?
You goddamn right.”

Beyond the two excerpted lines, Ice Cube goes TF in, tearing the po-po to shreds and, also, throwing in some bothersome homophobic slurs (“I don’t know if they fags or what / Search a nigga down and grabbing his nuts”).   Of course, the chorus features the infamous phrase, which caused a stir, expectedly.  🎙 MC Ren ‘gives his testimony’ including threatening to turn the tables on an unsuspecting cop (“But drop your gat, and Ren’s gonna blast / I’m sneaky as fuck when it comes to crime”).  🎙 Eazy-E gets into the controversy too, threatening, “And if I’m rolliin’ off the eight, he’ll be the one / That I take out, and then get away.” Finally, the judge of the track, producer 🎙 Dr. Dre convicts the policemen, asserting “The jury has found you guilty of being a redneck, white bread, chicken-shit motherfucker.” What more can you say but, day-um?  Need I explain while the song that Rolling Stone deems the perfect protest song is controversial?

---

Final Thoughts 💭

“Fuck tha Police” is unapologetic, yet, it still holds up today as a scathing take on policing.  Understandably, the ‘Blues Lives Matter’ crowd and those who have chosen policing as their profession can’t be happy about the content of this song.  That said, rather than protest this honest record itself, perhaps those policing should take to heart the relevant issues raised by N.W.A.  “Fuck tha Police” is harsh, but that’s exactly how this legendary rap group planned it.  There’s no denying they got their message across loud and clear.  The message transcends the LAPD, whom the West Coast group targeted.

---

🎙 N.W.A • 💿 Straight Outta Compton • 🏷 Priority • 🗓 2015
N.W.A, “F**k tha Police”: Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 No. 34 [📷: Aidan Feddersen on Unsplash, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype, Priority]

---