Best Lyric - NWA's 'Gangsta Gangsta'

"We want to fuck you Eazy!"
I want to fuck you too

^^^^

We didnt get no play, from the ladies - With six niggaz in a car - are you crazy?

Cause you see, I dont really take no shit, [so let me tell you motherfuckers who youre fuckin with]

In my fantasy all-white-boys NWA covers band "Nigels With Attitude", the posh one with the monocle would have said the line "My man Dre will fuck you up in a minute", while wearing a quilted smoking jacket and smoking a cigarette Noel Coward style in a cigarette holder.

http://www.vizartwork.co.uk/ekmps/shops/vizartwork/images/cimg0420.jpg

To the hood, and we was fi'n' to, find somethin else to get into

This is a gang, and I'm in it, Elephant man'll fuck you up in a minute

it's the "we didn't get no play" line, that's like Ice Cube at most most aggressively USC lit class

He attended the Phoenix Institute of Technology in the fall of 1987, and studied Architectural Drafting.[5]

I would like to vote for Eazy's whole verse please.

Dumb-ass hooker aint nuttin but a dyke, Suddenly I see, some niggaz that I dont like

I like how disjointed this is. He only stops insulting the dyke 'cause over there there are niggaz he don't like! Bonus points for the line about no play/too many people in the car.

He attended the Phoenix Institute of Technology in the fall of 1987, and studied Architectural Drafting.[5]

the word in L.A. at the time was that he'd done a semester at USC and then completed his drafting degree in Phoenix

Think I'm gonna go with the obvious: "We want to fuck you Eazy...". But this is all gold.

If I gotta go for just one, I'm gonna skip "We wanna fuck you Eazy" because its obvious greatness is acknowledged.

"Here's a li'l gangsta, short in size/A t-shirt and Levis is his only disguise" is a gem, the assonance and the way he delivers it are such a perfect introduction to E as a character: BAM here I am center-stage with the sly wit and the braggadocio all rolled up together. T-shirt and Levis: fuck you, I'm not going anywhere, I don't give a fuck. Hero.

well i'm the dopeman yeah boy wear corduroy

according to wikipedia:

'Straight Outta Compton' is based on Ice Cube's days as a minor league baseball player and he dreaded playing out there.

lollllll

"With a right left, right left you're toothless, And then you say goddamn they ruthless!"

toothless/ruthless: best rhyme ever

toofless/roofless

Dumb-ass hooker ain't nothin' but a dyke / Suddenly I see some niggaz that I don't like

Voted this - it's not disjointed, it's the key to the whole verse, acknowledging that all this (and by extension all?) young male bravado is performative. Having had his advances rejected, he defensively spits out two, in his context, contradictory epithets in order to shift the blame for his romantic failure away from his own approach. Aware of how flimsy this is, and seeking a distraction, he then essays the lamest, most see-through attempt to reestablish his macho credentials: he picks a fight for absolutely no reason, disrupting the entire party for the sake of his bruised ego.

(I may have Denny Vertigo-ed this elsewhere on ILM.)

This is a great, great song.

"With a right left, right left you're toothless, And then you say goddamn they ruthless!"

I would've voted for "This is a gang, and I'm in it." if the line stopped right there.

^^YES
Oh myyyyyyy daaaaaaaays, this fucking song right here!
Good looking out on the poll but you missed out:

*Police siren*
Oh shit!(Gimme my purse!)them black gangstas are at (gimme my purse!) it again
I wonder who they fucked up tonight?
-You motherfucker!' *gunshot* Got 'im
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
(incoherent)
-Yo Dre gimme a funky ass bass line"

I went for 'Its not about a salary..." but I LOVES the woman going 'you sophisticated motherfuckers', 'We're too busy saying YEAH" and the break down in Eazy's verse.
Tracer; WHERE did you get that cartoon from?
Also last request; someone needs to do a poll for Murder Was Tha Case yeah?

I had a bitter argument with a friend at the time who swore it was "it's not about AUTHORITY, it's all about reality." Too bad we were no longer close by the time Brian Cross' It's Not About A Salary... came out.

I voted for "Cause you see, I dont really take no shit" right after the girls tell E they want to fuck him.

"Toothless/Ruthless" - Excellent rhyme and a clever way to namedrop their own record label, well done! (I just wish that producers Dre and Yella had thought to pan Ice Cube's voice during the "right/left/right/left" bit - woulda been a nice little touch.

I haven't heard this song in years but it is badass. Almost voted for "Gangsta, gangsta! thats what theyre yellin, Its not about a salary, its all about reality (krs one)" because that is some profound shit but voted for "And all you bitches, you know Im talkin to you, "We want to fuck you Eazy!", I want to fuck you too" because it deserves to win in a landslide.

"Takin a life or two, Thats what the hell I do, you don't like how I'm livin? Well, fuck you!"

I want to fuck you, too.

went straight for "'We wanna fuck you, Eazy!' 'I wanna fuck you too!'"

Like her, but she keep cryin, "I got a boyfriend" bitch stop lyin

The first nigga that I saw, hit em in the jaw

for some reason that always amuses me. i guess it's just that the rhyme is so simple and brief compared to ice cube's usual stuff.

And then you realize we don't care, We dont just say no, we to busy sayin yeah!

^^^easily the winner.

this is a close 2nd though -
And all you bitches, you know Im talkin to you, "We want to fuck you Eazy!", I want to fuck you too

"To a kid looking up to me: Life ain't nothin' but bitches and money" deserves about a thousand votes too.

Sweatin all the bitches in the biker shorts

some of these lines dont look quite as momentous on paper but they just SOUND fucking awesome.
eg - I got a shotgun, and heres the plot, Takin niggaz out with a flurry of BUCKshots

You don't like how I'm living, well FUCK YOU!

I wanted to vote for "Clockin' much dollars on the first and fifteenth" but that's some other song.

every line on this song is fucking classic.

Verona -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles,_Gentleman_Thug

kinda corny but I always love "Wherever we go they say DAMN! N-double-yoooo-A's fuckin' up the program

And then you realize we don't care, We dont just say no, we to busy sayin yeah!

the expostulation by the newly toothless guy

The whole idea of mocking BDP simply by sampling him is pretty ingenious. Anyone else ever do this?

flipping it =/= mocking.

i think dre was a pretty big krs fan circa 87/88 judging by his roadium mixtapes.

also his shift in production techniques from mid-87 to early 88 seemed driven by the marl/bdp/pe competition of 87/88.

i think dre has been public with his shocklee praise at least.

The whole idea of mocking BDP simply by sampling him is pretty ingenious. Anyone else ever do this?

-- Eazy, Thursday, June 26, 2008 7:18 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah poppa on the money...why on earth would nwa be mocking krs?

titchy OTM. all the lyrics on this are Cube, aren't they?

Isn't Eazy's part written by DOC?

In interviews, DOC has said his job in the group was to make Eazy sound good, and he "took that shit serious".

DOC also said there was a bit of Lennon/McCartney style writing rivalry between he and Cube.

I always figured they were mocking him by having BDP, the teacher, saying "It's not about a salary/it's all about reality" and they're saying that the salary, making money, is reality.

Like some pussy, or in fact, A bum rush, but we call it rat pack

...and mocking the way that BDP is about teaching and values and a moral code, and these guys are creating that west coast style of money and thrills being the moral code. xpost

There's no credit for D.O.C. on this one - Ren and Eazy do have one, but I was guessing it was more half a line each than actually dropping in to append an entire coda to Cube's masterwork. It does have a different tone, but the transition is so great I've always thought of it as Cube happily giving him a token few lines.

some of these lines dont look quite as momentous on paper but they just SOUND fucking awesome.
eg - I got a shotgun, and heres the plot, Takin niggaz out with a flurry of BUCKshots

OTM - the timing on "I got a shotgun" is just spectacular

There's no credit for D.O.C. on this one - Ren and Eazy do have one, but I was guessing it was more half a line each than actually dropping in to append an entire coda to Cube's masterwork. It does have a different tone, but the transition is so great I've always thought of it as Cube happily giving him a token few lines.

-- energy flash gordon, Friday, June 27, 2008 2:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

I always took this as a sequel of sorts to Dopeman, but we know Cube wrote all of Dopeman (and, well, everything, practically, before he went to Phoenix and was replaced by DOC and Ren.

Cube just happened to come back to a successful situation (the Priority deal, Dre's "new sound") in time to work on this -- but it wasn't like DOC was suddenly out of a job.

Keep in mind Chuck Berry tunes give Alan Free writing credit. Industry standard...

sequel to dopeman strictly in terms of structure -- eazy's lead in that is.

"See I'm the dopeman, yeah boy, wear corduroy, money up to here but unemployed" is something you can totally imagine DOC writing though! I guess the casualness of the internal rhyme is very Cube.

Obv the writing credits on *all* NWA are pretty unreliable but given how rarely Eazy does get a credit at all, I tend to assume that if he's listed, he at least came up with a line or concept. ("How about we have a bunch of girls say they want to fuck me? Work on that, I've got a dice game to get to."

The "Be Thankful" line is getting underappreciated here. It's great cause it comes with the smooth sample, and instead of letting it complete itself, Eazy comes out of fuckin' nowhere "DIGGING THE SCENE WITH A GANGSTA LEAN!"

I want to see a photo of any member of NWA from that period wearing corduroy, if I'm to believe that bullshit.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

reverend otm.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

missed this one, woulda gone: "Well I'm Eazy E the one theyre talkin about, Nigga tried to roll the dice and just crapped out" b/c his voice is so 'whoa wtf'

50-odd votes, good turnout

Takin a life or two, Thats what the hell I do, you dont like how I'm livin Well fuck you!

do i look like a muthafuckin role model?

"Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out "

and you drink beer straight out of the eight bottle? you crazy young hep cat you! lol I can remember when I first bought this album and the playing first 3 tracks over and over and over again because they were such a rush!

yeah, it was one of my first ten "non-Hammer/Fresh Prince" rap albums. I was in love with Cube's lyrics fairly immediately.