N.w.a › Similar Artists

Eazy-E - 100% match to N.w.a

Eric Wright, 7 September 1963 (1964 is also cited), Compton, California, USA, d. 26 March 1995, Los Angeles, California, USA. There are those critics who did not take well to Eazy-E’s ‘whine’, but his debut kept up N.W.A.’s momentum by managing to offend just about every imaginable faction, right and left. Attending a fund-raising dinner for the Republica Read more

Ice Cube - 62% match to N.w.a

Dr. Dre - 43% match to N.w.a

2Pac - 32% match to N.w.a

Parish Lesane Crooks, 16 June 1971, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 13 September 1996, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The controversy-laced gangsta rapper 2Pac was the son of two Black Panther members, and his mother Alice Faye Williams was actually pregnant with her son while being held in a New York prison. After his mother married Mutulu Shakur, who became the baby
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Compton's Most Wanted - 32% match to N.w.a

Gangsta rap traditionalists in the style of N.W.A. whose naked aggression was tempered by deft production, Compton’s Most Wanted originally comprised Unknown DJ, DJ Mike T, DJ Slip, the Chill MC and MC Eiht (allegedly a pseudonym for ‘Experienced In Hardcore Thumpin’’). The 1989 singles ‘Rhymes Too Funky’ and ‘This Is Compton’ were follow Read more

Eric B. & Rakim - 29% match to N.w.a

This Queens, New York, USA-based rap duo comprised Eric Barrier (Elmhurst, New York, USA) and William ‘Rakim’ Griffin (b. William Griffin Jnr., Long Island, New York, USA), using additional musicians such as Sefton the Terminator and Chad Jackson as required. Rakim was the lyricist, Eric B the DJ, or, as Rakim himself put it in ‘I Ain’t No Joke’:
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Public Enemy - 29% match to N.w.a

Hugely influential and controversial New York, USA-based rap act, frequently referred to as ‘The Black Sex Pistols’, Public Enemy’s legacy extends beyond rap, and attained a massive cultural significance within black communities. The effect on the consciousness (and consciences) of white people during the act’s heyday (the late 80s and early 90s) is almost a Read more

Ice-T - 27% match to N.w.a

Tracy Marrow, 16 February 1958, Newark, New Jersey, USA. One of the most outspoken rappers to emerge from the 80s west coast hip-hop scene, and one of the founding fathers of gangsta rap, Ice-T boasts (sometimes literally) a violent past in which he was shot twice - once while involved in an armed robbery. His name, fittingly, is taken from black exploitation author Iceberg Read more

Snoop Dogg - 26% match to N.w.a

The Notorious B.I.G. - 26% match to N.w.a

Christopher Wallace, 21 May 1972, New York, USA, d. 9 March 1997, Los Angeles, California, USA. A large, imposing figure in contemporary rap before his murder in 1997, Wallace grew up in the tough district of Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, New York. He soon graduated to a life modelled on the activities of those around him, selling drugs and acting as a teenage lookout. He Read more

Above The Law - 24% match to N.w.a

Gangsta rappers from Pomona, California, USA, whose ultra-violent lyrics betray a keen nose for breezy rhythm tracks, largely sampled from 70s soul. They also utilizelive keyboards, bass and guitar to back the rhymes of the self-styled ‘hustlers’, Cold 187um (Gregory Hutchinson), KM.G. The Illustrator (b. Kevin Gulley), Total K-oss (b. Anthony Stewart) and original Read more

Wu-Tang Clan - 21% match to N.w.a

This hip-hop crew, whose ranks originally comprised the Genius aka GZA (Gary Grice, 22 August 1966, Staten Island, New York, USA), RZA aka Prince Rakeem (b. Robert Diggs, 5 July 1969, Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA), Ol’ Dirty Bastard (b. Russell Tyrone Jones, 15 November 1968, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 13 November 2004, Manhattan, Read more

Big Daddy Kane - 19% match to N.w.a

Antonio M. Hardy, 10 September 1968, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Self-styled ‘black gentleman vampire’, whose KANE moniker is an acronym for King Asiatic Nobody’s Equal. Kane followed his cousin into hip-hop by rapping in front of a beatbox for his first shows on Long Island, New York. Aided by his DJ Mr Cee, he has released several albums of laconic, fully reali Read more

LL Cool J - 19% match to N.w.a

Nas - 19% match to N.w.a

Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, 14 September 1973, Long Island, New York, USA. From the tough Queensbridge housing projects which brought the world Marley Marl, MC Shan and Intelligent Hoodlum, Nas made his name as a highly skilled rapper with the double whammy of 1994’s Illmatic and 1996’s It Was Written, albums whose music was crafted with a degree of subtlety and fore Read more