N.W.A.

: "Fuck Tha Police" Pre-Class Essay

N.W.A.'s "Fuck Tha Police" was one of their most influential,
inflammatory, and popular songs from its release in 1988 until today.
Rolling Stones ranked the song number 417 on their list of the 500
Greatest Songs of All Time, but "Fuck Tha Police" was heavily
censored and even banned on some radio stations in the late
1980s. Further, the song was so controversial that the FBI stepped
in and issued a warning to N.W.A.'s record label, Ruthless, about
the lyrics. The song has since been referenced worldwide in
protests and other rap music, including in the 1996 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia protests against election fraud. N.W.A. uses "Fuck Tha
Police" to boldly demonstrate their belief that the police are racist
and corrupt and that the American legal system is biased against
African Americans, especially young black men.
"Fuck Tha Police" is setup as a satire of the American legal
system, with Dr. Dre acting as the judge in a case that features IceCube, Eazy-E, and MC Ren testifying against the Los Angeles
Police Department. The song opens with the man who co-wrote
many of N.W.A.'s songs (including "Fuck Tha Police"), D.O.C.,
acting as the court officer and telling the listeners what they will
hear in the song. Dr. Dre then enters as the judge and asks IceCube to take the stand, ridiculing the formal lines that a bailiff would
read in court. Dre raps: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth so help your black ass?,"

emphasizing "black" to show what racist judges would think of a

young black man like Ice-Cube testifying in their courtrooms. IceCube then raps: "Fuck the police...police think / They have the
authority to kill a minority" showing both his hatred of "the police"
and their racism because they kill "minorit[ies]." He then goes on to
rap about how the police "think...every nigga is selling narcotics"
making clear the blatant racism that the police showed in thinking
that all black people, especially young black men must be "selling
narcotics." Interestingly, Ice-Cube then cites black cops as being
worse than white cops, as he raps: "But don't let it be a black and a
white [cop] / Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top / Black
police showing out for the white cop." Ice-Cube believes that black
cops are actually worse than white cops because they will still "slam
ya down to the street top," as they are trying to "show [off] for the
white cop," as that is the nature of their career. Ice-Cube sees black
cops as traitors to their race, selling themselves out to the racist
system, and he ends his verse with a threat, rapping: "...when I'm
finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath / Of cops, dying in L.A." The intro
to "Fuck Tha Police" and Ice-Cube's verse show the intense racism
that N.W.A. believed blacks faced from the police, and they also
demonstrate the reason why this song alarmed the FBI, as Ice
Cube very clearly calls for violent action against the police.
After Ice-Cube's verse, MC Ren testifies to Dr. Dre about the
violence he would like to commit against the police and the music
video shows a scene where MC Ren is pulled over simply because

he is black. In the scene, Ren asks: "...what the fuck you pullin me
over for?" and the police officer replies: "Cause I feel like it!" once
again showing the corruption of the police in Los Angeles. Ren then
goes on to explain that the police are "scared of a nigga" referring to
the fact that the police are scared of him because he is a young
black male. He raps: "I'mma kick your ass / But drop your gat, and
Ren's gonna blast" showing that he believes himself to be smarter
than the police as MC Ren believes he would be able to trick the
police officer into dropping his "gat" (gun) so that he can "blast"
(shoot) the officer. He then raps: "I'mma turn [the officer's gun]
around / Put it in my clip, yo, and this is the sound." After this line,
the listener hears two gunshots making the obvious implication that
MC Ren is threatening to shoot the police; he blatantly says that he
is "a sniper with a hell of a scope" who would "tak[e[ out a cop or
two." Lastly, MC Ren ends his verse by saying: "Taking out a police
would make my day" making the animosity between blacks and the
police in the Los Angeles area explicitly clear. Overall, MC Ren's
verse is used to demonstrate the anger that N.W.A. and blacks in
Los Angeles feel towards the corrupt and racist police, an anger so
strong that violence becomes acceptable.
Finally, "Fuck Tha Police" ends with Dr. Dre giving the verdict
of the trial. He raps: "The jury has found [the police] guilty of being a
redneck, white bread, chickenshit motherfucker" using multiple
racist slurs against the white police. The police officer then
repeatedly yells: "I want justice!" but is soon dragged out, leaving

the room while saying: "Fuck you, you black motherfuckers!"

Through this song, N.W.A. uses the courtroom because it is the one
place where police can be held accountable in America. They
reverse the common roles of prosecution, defendant, and judge,
making the judge black and racist toward whites, the prosecution
made up of young black men, and the defendant the police. N.W.A.
is egregiously racist and violent in "Fuck Tha Police" as the song is
a parody of the usual criminal court proceedings. N.W.A.'s racism is
simply a reflection of the racism that they face through their lives
from the police and the legal system, just bundled up into a single
five minute song. "Fuck Tha Police" is fueled by the fact that for all
of American history, there has been police forces with a white
majority in cities where, as Ice Cube raps, "the niggas on the street
is a majority." This combination often leads to racial conflict with
black people seeing white people as the corrupt, racist system, as it
is simply impossible for whites to have such absolute power over
blacks due to the lasting impressions of American slavery. "Fuck
Tha Police" is still an influential song today because many of the
same issues are prevalent with the deaths of Trayvon Martin,
Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, all of whom were young black
males killed by a predominantly white police force. N.W.A.'s music
was almost always based off of their experiences in Los Angeles,
and "Fuck Tha Police" is a stellar example of the group of young
African American men critiquing the racism of police--an injustice

that they saw in society then and that unfortunately is still present in
society today.