GARYTALK.COM (12/19/2015) – Some rock and roll purists may take offense that a raw, wild, controversial, highly influential group from the Rap Genre has made its way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. NWA (N.W.A.) was, surprisingly, among the nominees eligible for voting this year. Their supporters apparently came from outside the fan voting ranks, because online voting finals showed NWA in 12th place, but, RockHall.com included NWA in the top 5 final inductees named just a few days ago. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, announced that Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Chicago, Steve Miller, and NWA, will be inducted into the RockHall at the New York ceremony in April, 2016.
The five winners in the final tabulation beat out other nominees, Yes, The Cars, Janet Jackson, Chaka Khan, The Spinners, Nine Inch Nails, The Smiths, Chic, Los Lobos, and The J.B.s (James Brown’s band), to gain the right to be inducted at the New York ceremony in the Spring of 2016. The early leaders in fan tabulations showed that Chicago, Yes, The Cars, Deep Purple, and Steve Miller were big favorites and might be in the Top 5 when the dust settled. However, when all was said and done, it was Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Chicago, Steve Miller, and N.W.A, who got the nod from a combination of fans, music industry leaders and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum voting members.
The final five was a surprise to many, as can be attested to by the final fan votes: 1. Chicago 23.41% (37666987 votes), 2. Yes 16.20% (26062494 votes), 3. The Cars 16.14% (25973035 votes), 4. Deep Purple 15.87% (25540432 votes), 5. Steve Miller 15.85% (25507102 votes), 6. Janet Jackson 5.88% (9461890 votes), 7. Cheap Trick 1.45% (2336606 votes), 8. The Spinners 1.28% (2066745 votes), 9. Chaka Khan 1.16% (1858917 votes), 10. Chic 0.84% (1348330 votes), 11. The J.B.’s 0.59% (949883 votes), 12. N.W.A 0.42% (673866 votes), 13. Nine Inch Nails 0.35% (564009 votes), 14. The Smiths 0.30% (490088 votes), and, 15. Los Lobos 0.25% (404768 votes). The way the voting process is set up by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum officials, the fan votes hold a relatively tiny place in the final balloting.
The band of gifted wordsmiths that found their way into the top five nominated inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year is a controversial choice in more ways than one. The group known as NWA, first of all, chose to refer to themselves as Niggerz With Attitude, which has been shortened to just N.W.A., sometimes referred to as NWA, because the original full name includes a variation of the “N Word”, which is highly charged, due to it being a reference to a word that became politically incorrect. The “N” word, to many, carries with it, a negativity about the Black Experience, History and Culture, reflecting outdated bigotry and prejudice .
NWA members, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella, presented controversial and complicated voices of their generation. They were explosive, relevant and challenging, forcefully telling tales of street life, which sometimes did so with a figurative middle finger to the establishment. There were often signs of disrespect in their spoken word raps and in their actions on stage. Their language and demeanor often bordered on generational, sexual and cultural bias, often tinged with hate, resentment, intimidation and violent ideas. Whatever it was, it sold tens of millions of recordings and influenced generations of wannabe artists around the world.
Some true Rock Fans have difficulty accepting NWA as a group deserving of being in the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”, because a large percentage of their tunes are not traditional Rock, nor, even true R&B, which many rock songs are based upon, nor melodic in nature, but, instead, are spoken word poems set to a strong, steady beat. It’s even hard to call their work Pop Rock, even though their spoken word recordings sometimes incorporated portions of other performers popular works (samples) as part of their own, new work. Though NWA was highly influential in creating a huge number of similar acts that followed them, what NWA built was a career based on rough, graphic language with gratuitous swear words and references to sexual slang and situations involving violence, anger, drugs, crime and perceived anti-police sentiments.
Many “Rock” enthusiasts believe NWA’s contribution to the “music world” was unique, but perhaps should not have even been included in the list of Rock and Roll nominees, which allowed people to vote for them. Rock purists think it was a stretch to include, for a third time, what is essentially an outstanding Rap and Hip Hop leader, as a candidate for the “Rock and Roll” Hall of Fame. However, NWA attained enough support from somewhere this time around to make it into the Top 5 from the field of 15 nominees this year. As a result, NWA now will go down in history, in what is another controversial part of their careers, when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in April, 2016, taking their place among true Rock and Roll superstars, Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple, and Steve Miller.
MUCH OF THIS original article by Gary W. Morgan was incorporated in Rap Group NWA To Take Its Place Among Rock Superstars , published online at McStreamy.com, December 17, 2015. – GARYTALK.COM
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