Public Enemy’s edgier, West Coat counterparts N.W.A. delivered a dirtier, more intimate snapshot of life on the streets of Los Angeles county’s City Of Compton. Depicting the day-to-day cycle of violence and persecution, they meet it not with self-pity or empty indignation, but a burning fire and the simmering threat to take an eye for an eye. Not just a call-to-arms for America’s oppressed, this was a reality check for sleepy suburbanites unaware of what was really happening on the wrong side of the tracks.