N.W.A. and the Posse, commonly held as N.W.A's first or debut but neglected or forgotten album—with Straight Outta Compton, released the next year, then being called N.W.A's first album—is a compilation album released on November 6, 1987, by Macola Records, the early distributor for N.W.A's label, Ruthless Records. In April 1994, or roughly five years after the Straight album's August 1988 release and July 1989platinum certification of 1 million copies sold, the Posse album was certified gold, half as many. But originally not N.W.A's intended album release, it collects early Ruthless releases that Macola—at that time, the Los Angeles rap scene's main record distributor—had recently distributed for Ruthless, mainly N.W.A's EP titled N.W.A. Macola omitted "A Bitch Iz a Bitch" to favor party, electro sounds, like the "Panic Zone" track, that led the Los Angeles rap scene until N.W.A's Straight album hit. Months after that national, rap landmark's arrival, its own distributor, the new Ruthless distributor, Priority Records, reissued Posse with the "Bitch" track. =Backstory= Six of the 11 tracks on the Posse album are of N.W.A's membership as it soon crystallized publicly: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Arabian Prince, and DJ Yella. One track is of Microphone Mike, later called Myka 9, along with Rappinstine, a traveling faction of the DJ crew World Class Wreckin' Cru, whose core had yielded N.W.A's Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Four of the Posse album's tracks are of the Fila Fresh Crew, a rap crew including Doc-T, soon renamed The D.O.C., discovered by one of Dr. Dre's DJ friends visiting Texas. By 1988 a ghostwriter for N.W.A, and by 1989 a solo rapper on its Ruthless Records label, The D.O.C. had reportedly been an N.W.A member.
N.W.A. & EP
The World Class Wreckin' Cru's home base was the Eve After Dark nightclub, just outside of Compton in Los Angeles county. Also performing electro rap, the Wreckin' Cru's core, including Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, led by Grandmaster Lonzo, made the Los Angeles rap scene's first album released under a major record label, by Epic Records under CBS. Otherwise, the Wreckin' Cru was on Lonzo's label Kru-Cut Records, a sublabel of Macola Records, the area's leading distributor of rap records. Meanwhile, Eric Wright formed, in Compton, a new label, Ruthless Records. Wright recruited Dr. Dre, already connected to Macola and Audio Achievements recording studio, to produce records, and they recruited Ice Cube, in a local group called C.I.A., to write lyrics. Once the rap group H.B.O., or Home Boys Only, signed by Ruthless from New York City, rejected his Ruthless songcrafting team's song "Boyz-n-the-Hood," Wright, persuaded by Dre and Yella, rapped it himself, dubbed Eazy-E. At the single's success, 200,000 copies sold, Eazy formed N.W.A, initially a nebulous group of musical associates. At N.W.A's core, there were three—in his own words, Eazy the "conceptualizer," Cube the "lyricizer," and Dre the "musicalizer"—supported by producers Yella and Arabian Prince. The success of N.W.A's first three releases—"Boyz-n-the-Hood," "Dope Man," and "8 Ball"—prompted Eazy's call for an EP, distributed by Macola. The EP's five songs included Dre and Cube on "A Bitch Iz a Bitch," Eazy on "Fat Girl," and Arabian's production "Panic Zone."
Photo & ''Posse''
For the EP's cover photo, Eazy summoned N.W.A's members, and maybe some of its circle, to pose for the camera in a Hollywood alleyway near Macola's office. Reportedly, some who were photographed wound up there by merely driving or accompanying another. And future N.W.A rapper MC Ren, living near Eazy, although photographed, was not yet in N.W.A. On the other hand, DJ Yella, although already active within N.W.A, is absent. In any case, soon after the EP, titled N.W.A.—having the third period, which Ruthless would later drop—Ruthless switched distribution to the indie giant Priority Records, based in New York City. Exploiting the moment, Don MacMillan of Macola, reusing the photo, and adding more Ruthless songs, created a compilation album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Still, some photographed are not on the LP's songs, whereas those in the added songs are not photographed. In August 1988, N.W.A's new distributor, Priority, released Straight Outta Compton—N.W.A's first intended album release, first authorized debut album—with two tracks remixing ones on Posse, "8 Ball" and "Dopeman." And in 1989, Priority reissued Posse, if replacing the Microphone Mike & Rappinstine track "Scream" in favor, after all, of N.W.A's track "A Bitch Iz a Bitch," featuring Rappinstine. =Track list=
