While Ice Cube and Dre may never live down wearing skinny jeans before baggy and sagging jeans came into vogue, they are easily forgiven for doing something in the studios that changed the course of rap music — and consequently pop music — forever. In 1987, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre released the single “My Posse,” under the alias CIA. After the collaboration, Ice Cube showed Eazy-E the lyrics to, “Boyz N the Hood.” Eazy-E, although initially rejecting the lyrics, eventually recorded the song for N.W.A and the Posse, the debut album for the group N.W.A. that included Cube, Dre, and other rappers, MC Ren and DJ Yella.
By this point Ice Cube was a full-time member of N.W.A. Ice Cube wrote Dr. Dre and Eazy-E’s rhymes for the group’s sonic buster, Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988. However, as 1990 approached, Ice Cube found himself at odds with the group’s manager, Jerry Heller, after rejected Heller’s proposed contract terms. The group’s single “F— Tha Police” was a nuclear bomb that detonated on America, enraged suburban parents and aroused the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the FBI mailed a letter condemning the lyric, the group’s popularity exploded and they became the darlings of young rebellious white teens and tweens.
