Decked out in identical utility gear and sporting enough lyrical artillery to frighten all of middle America, N.W.A quickly upended hip-hop tradition with Straight Outta Compton. One of hip-hop's crucial albums, it was a bombastic, cacophonous car ride through Los Angeles' burnt-out and ignored hoods. Dr. Dre's busy funk production lent the proceedings a carefree, unhinged air, and the lyrics, mostly written by Ice Cube, were powerful audio verite, especially on songs such as "Fuck Tha Police," "Express Yourself" and "Dopeman." N.W.A's broad influence became apparent three years later, in 1991, when Billboard adopted SoundScan technology only to learn that the top slot on the pop album charts didn't belong to Paula Abdul but to these Compton, California, thug arrivistes (sans Ice Cube, who'd left the group due to financial differences). Niggaz4life wasn't quite the barnstormer its predecessor was — it was less textured both sonically and politically — but its success showed that the boyz in the hood weren't to be taken lightly ever again.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"