Results for “N.W.A”

Artists

N.W.A N.W.A was an American hip-hop group formed in Compton, California, in 1987. Among the…

Songs

The W.A.N.D.

The Flaming Lips

A funky, riff-driven anthem that dresses up a political fantasy of taking down authoritarian power in the language of magic…

power vs. greed collective resistance fantasy as political metaphor

I'd Rather F**k You

N.W.A

A blunt, explicit parody-love-song built around a single boast: the narrator prefers sex to romance or commitment. There's no…

sexual conquest misogyny anti-romance

I'm That Type of N***a

The Pharcyde

A posse-cut style boast track from The Pharcyde's early catalog, built around a call-and-response taunt asking who's in charge,…

braggadocio masculine posturing hip-hop lineage and skill claims

F.I.N.E.

Aerosmith

A high-octane, deliberately trashy rocker built from innuendo and bravado, F.I.N.E. is Aerosmith leaning fully into the…

sexual bravado self-justification hedonism

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

The Jesus and Mary Chain

A blunt, unadorned testimony from a band built on noise and feedback, stripping away the usual JAMC fatalism to state a plain…

redemption through music self-reliance anti-moralizing

Day 'n' Nite

Kid Cudi

A hypnotic, hook-driven track built around a single restless character—part self-portrait, part invented alter ego—who cycles…

loneliness insomnia escapism through drugs

Peaches N Cream

Snoop Dogg

A club-floor party track built almost entirely around a single visual: a woman dancing and the narrator's escalating attempt to…

nightlife and spectacle male desire and pursuit wealth and status display

T.N.T.

AC/DC

A cartoonish outlaw brags his way through a wall of guitar riffs, comparing himself to an explosive as a stand-in for raw sexual…

machismo and bravado self-mythologizing persona danger as performance

Rock 'N' Roll Children

Dio

A ballad about two young runaways whose doomed flight into the night becomes a parable for rock-and-roll outcasts generally. Dio…

youthful rebellion doomed love alienation

Day 'N' Nite (nightmare)

Kid Cudi

A moody, synth-laced character study in which Kid Cudi narrates the inner life of a third-person stand-in for himself — a…

loneliness self-medication dissociation from self

F.U.N.K.

Betty Davis

This is less a song than a spoken-and-sung roll call, a lineage claimed rather than argued for. Betty Davis treats funk as a…

musical lineage and inheritance Black artistic community funk as identity/blood

Draw(in)g to a (W)hole

The Clean

A short, hypnotic Clean track that circles a single pun—drawing toward 'a whole' that sounds like 'a hole'—to describe a…

communication breakdown circularity/stasis identity and completion vs. emptiness

N.Y. State of Mind

Nas

A dense, almost stream-of-consciousness portrait of Queensbridge street life, delivered with a density of imagery more…

urban survival mortality and insomnia criminal economy

W.O.L.D.

Harry Chapin

A washed-up radio DJ calls his ex-wife out of the blue, half-bragging and half-pleading, and slowly reveals a life of failed…

failed masculinity and fatherhood the gap between public persona and private failure itinerant, disposable labor

It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)

AC/DC

A touring rock band's complaint song disguised as a boast, cataloguing the grind of road life — theft, injury, bad hotels,…

the cost of ambition road life and touring hardship disillusionment with the music industry

Pacifics (From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “N.Y. Is Red Hot")

Digable Planets

Digable Planets turn a Sunday in New York into an extended meditation on rest, community, and creative replenishment, moving…

urban leisure and rest Black cultural inheritance (jazz, literature, hip-hop lineage) community and belonging

Mr. Brownstone

Guns N’ Roses

A first-person account of heroin addiction told through the mundane mechanics of a touring rock band's schedule, where the drug…

drug addiction self-destruction denial and rationalization

I Am The Body Beautiful

Salt‐N‐Pepa

A high-energy anthem built from ballroom-scene and drag-culture vocabulary, in which the narrator declares unshakable self-love…

self-affirmation body positivity ballroom/drag culture

Don't Cry

Guns N’ Roses

A power ballad of consolation addressed to a partner at the end of a relationship, where the narrator offers comfort and…

heartbreak and consolation emotional exhaustion the gap between comfort and resolution

Keep Their Heads Ringin'

Dr. Dre

A party-rap flex from the Friday soundtrack in which Dr. Dre spends three verses establishing his sonic and physical dominance…

braggadocio sonic dominance party/hangout culture

We Want the Airwaves

Ramones

A blunt manifesto-as-anthem in which the Ramones demand radio play for rock 'n' roll, framing corporate gatekeeping as an enemy…

media gatekeeping artistic frustration working-class impatience

Let's Impeach the President

Neil Young

A blunt protest song built as a literal list of impeachable offenses against George W. Bush, set to the plainest possible music…

political dissent war and deception government surveillance

Vision Thing

The Sisters of Mercy

This is Andrew Eldritch's venomous state-of-the-world address, built around George H.W. Bush's dismissive phrase about not…

political cynicism consumerist excess moral corruption

Yellow Dog Blues

Bessie Smith

This is Bessie Smith's rendition of W.C. Handy's classic, a comic-tragic tale of a woman named Susie Johnson pining after a…

romantic abandonment itinerant lovers and railroad culture communication and waiting