Gangsta Rap's Grim Legacy for Comptons Everywhere

A hit movie about the rap group N.W.A. is a reminder: Glorified thuggery poisoned poor black communities.

For two weeks the top box-office draw has been “Straight Outta Compton,” a meandering biopic about the rise and disintegration of the Los Angeles-area rap group N.W.A., or Niggaz With Attitude. N.W.A. helped popularize “gangsta rap” in the late 1980s, and even this hagiography can't hide the fact that its legacy has endured to the detriment of poor black communities....

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This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal