take hold in the early '90s. people are moving away from the political rap, say, of public enemy of the '80s, and much more into reality rap and street rap. ♪ the police coming straight from the underground ♪ ♪ a young n- got it bad because i'm brown ♪ >> the group nwa is the harshest most in your face of the gangsta-style rappers. one song blasts the police in the most obscene terms. >> renn and ice cube, they write the rap, right? me and my boy yella get together and hook up a good beat we feel will go good with the rap and boom, there it is. platinum records. >> nwa at that point is the biggest hip-hop band there is. >> first time i heard nwa i was like, oh, that ice guy is all right, but the rest of this is garbage. that was pretty much the attitude initially of most people who were part of the new york hip-hop scene. ♪ nwa ain't sick to me ♪ ♪ dre ♪ ♪ step up to the door and get -- up ♪ >> the east coast kind of felt like, well, we invented hip-hop, you're not going to come in as the new kid and suddenly decide this is the thing. like the east coast is the home