N.W.A - Express Yourself

Well, before everyone gets too worried that I’m going to trot out another thirty tracks in the Elton John vein, I’ll slip in something completely different in a blatant attempt to prove that my musical tastes are varied and ecclectic.

I think I’m pretty safe, with the varied claim at least; I doubt that Ice Cube or Dr. Dre would list Mr. John in their musical influences. The levels of profanity in their songs are at opposite ends of the spectrum too - Express Yourself is probably the only track on N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton that isn’t laced with swearing, and the worst that The Very Best of Elton John can manage is The Bitch Is Back. Not that I’m impressed by cursing in songs, I’m long past the stage where I got a rebellious thrill from the number of times the F-word appears in Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction, and Express Yourself shows that N.W.A. can produce an excellent track without it.

This is a prime example of how I like my rap, early gangsta or old school. Ice Cube’s It Was A Good Day, almost anything from Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, back to such classics as Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang or I Know You Got Soul by Eric B. and Rakim. I guess it’s a sign that you’re getting older though when you notice that J.Lo’s Jenny From The Block has ripped a chunk of KRS-One’s South Bronx…