Ice Cube had been promising an N.W.A. reunion, but the original members of the legendary hip-hop group, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella, didn’t actually get it together onstage until weekend 2 of Coachella 2016. The group made a major comeback in 2016 with the smash hit biopic, Straight Outta Compton, which was the top movie seller over the summer.
Their set began with the classics, “Straight Outta Compton” and “F*ck the Police,” which were played with Ren and Yella. There was also a segment of “Boyz in the Hood” played, which featured rhymes from Young E, the late rapper Eazy-E’s son. Cube even had Dr. Dre come out, and while he only served as the producer on N.W.A’s output, he was certainly paid homage to in the performance with song “Still D.R.E.” as well as with “California Love.”
Cube made sure to add some newer talent to the line-up, bringing out The Game early on and then Kendrick Lamar. At first, Lamar could only be seen on the big screens, but then appeared onstage to rap the hit, “Alright,” following a performance with SZA earlier that day.
It is fitting that Cube chose Lamar to perform with the hip-hop collective onstage at Coachella as he was the one who inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place on April 8 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York. Lamar has never made it a secret how much he admires the pioneer group, who brought the concept of gangsta rap music to the forefront.
Lamar had previously said to Paper Magazine in their “Nostalgia” issue this past October, “People were scared to talk about these kinds of tough situations, but because [Eazy] and the group took it upon themselves to talk about [these things], every artist is able to and they owe it to him.”
