1.
N.W.A
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N. W. A was an American hip hop group from Compton, California. The group was banned from many mainstream American radio stations. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone, the group was also known for their deep hatred of the police system, which sparked much controversy over the years. The original lineup formed in 1986 consisted of Arabian Prince, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Dr. Dre would later become platinum-selling solo artists in the 1990s. Rolling Stone ranked N. W. A number 83 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, in 2016, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following three previous nominations. The group was assembled by Compton-based Eazy-E, who co-founded Ruthless Records with Jerry Heller, Eazy-E sought an introduction to Steve Yano. Although initially rebuffed, Yano was impressed by Eazy-Es persistence and arranged a meeting with Dr. Dre, initially, N. W. A consisted of Eazy-E and Dr. Dre. Together with fellow producer Arabian Prince, Ice Cube was added to the roster after he had started out as a rapper for the group C. I. A, Dre would later bring DJ Yella on board as well. Dre and Yella were both members of the World Class Wreckin Cru as DJs and producers. Ruthless released the single Panic Zone in 1987 with Macola Records, which was included on the compilation album N. W. A. Mexican rapper Krazy-Dee co-wrote Panic Zone, which was originally called Hispanic Zone, also included was Eazy-Es solo track Boyz-n-the-Hood. N. W. A released their studio album, Straight Outta Compton. With its famous opening salvo of three tracks, the reflected the rising anger of the urban youth. The opening song Straight Outta Compton introduced the group, Fuck tha Police protested police brutality and racial profiling, while the group was later credited with pioneering the burgeoning subgenre of gangsta rap, N. W. A referred to their music as reality rap. Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, as HighPowered Productions, composed the beats for each song, with Dre making occasional rapping appearances. Ice Cube, and MC Ren wrote most of the lyrics, including Fuck tha Police, perhaps the groups most notorious song. This letter can still be seen at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, policemen refused to provide security for the groups concerts, hurting their plans to tour. Nonetheless, the FBIs letter only served to more publicity to the group
2.
Torrance, California
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Torrance is a city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has 1.5 miles of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, Torrance has a moderate year-round climate with warm temperatures, sea breezes, low humidity and an average rainfall of 12.55 inches per year. Since its incorporation in 1921, Torrance has grown rapidly and its estimated 2013 population was 147,478. This residential and light high-tech industries city has 90,000 street trees and 30 city parks, known for its low crime rates, the city consistently ranks among the safest cities in Los Angeles County. Torrance is the birthplace of the American Youth Soccer Organization, in addition, the city of Torrance has the second-highest percentage of Japanese demographic in California. Torrance was originally part of the Tongva Native American homeland for thousands of years and it was later divided in 1846 with Governor Pío Pico granting Rancho de los Palos Verdes to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda, in the Alta California territory of independent Mexico. In the early 1900s, real estate developer Jared Sidney Torrance and they purchased part of an old Spanish land grant and hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to design a new planned community. The resulting town was founded in October 1912 and named after Mr. Torrance, the first residential avenue created in Torrance was Gramercy and the second avenue was Andreo. Many of the houses on these avenues turned 100 years of age in 2012, both avenues are located in the area referred to as Old Town Torrance. This section of Torrance is under review to be classified as a historical district, historically the El Nido neighborhood was home to many European immigrants, such as originally Dutch, German, Greek, Italian and Portuguese people. Rapid new growth in Torrance began after World War II as wartime industries transformed into Post-war Aerospace manufacturers, large housing developments were built in the 1950s and 1960s to accommodate the new population. Torrance moved on after the closure of some development and oil refinery plants in the 1990s statewide recession. Torrance survived the deindustrialization, regional economic slowdowns and national recessions in the 1970s to 2000s, large-scale Asian immigration in the past couple of decades has transformed Torrance into a diverse and multicultural city. Torrance is a community in southwestern Los Angeles County sharing the climate. It is about 20 miles southwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Torrance Beach lies between Redondo Beach and Malaga Cove on Santa Monica Bay. The southernmost stretch of Torrance Beach, on a cove at the end of the Palos Verdes peninsula, is known to locals as Rat Beach. A Nature center provides activities, information, and classes for school children, Torrance has a Mediterranean climate or Dry-Summer Subtropical. The rainy season is November through March, as shown in the adjacent table, the Los Angeles area is also subject to the phenomenon typical of a microclimate
3.
West Coast hip hop
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West Coast hip hop is a hip hop music subgenre that encompasses any artists or music that originates in the West Coast region of the United States. The culture is believed to have been a mutual creation which evolved from interaction between people who identified with elements from their respective coasts. A number of laid the foundations for West Coast hip hop, long before the emergence of West Coast rappers such as DJ Flash & The Rappers Rapp Group, Eazy-E, Ice T. According to geniusrap. com, a cataclysmic event helped give rise to it out West, in 1967, Bud Schulberg founded a creative space entitled Watts Writers Workshop, intended to help the people of the Watts neighborhood and provide a place for them to express themselves freely. Out of this background the Watts Prophets formed, its members having moved to the West Coast from southern states such as Texas and Louisiana. The West Coast hip-hop scene started in earnest in 1978 with the founding of Unique Entertainment, a group influenced by Prince, East Coast hip hop, Kraftwerk, Parliament-Funkadelic and others. In 1984, Uncle Jamms Army released their first single, Dial-a-Freak, and in the same year Egyptian Lover released his On the Nile album, which includes the popular 12 single Egypt Egypt. Another early landmark occurred in 1981, when Duffy Hooks launched the first West Coast rap label, Rappers Rapp Records and its first act was the duo of Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp, whose debut single was Gigolo Rapp or Gigolo Groove. Later, in 1983, Captain Rapp would create the classic West Coast song Bad Times, in the mid-1980s, Mixmaster Spade defined an early form of gangsta rap with his Compton Posse. From this group, Spade mentored future rap stars of the West Coast, including Toddy Tee, in the same period, the Compton-based former locking dancer Alonzo Williams formed World Class Wreckin Cru, which included future N. W. A members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Williams also founded Kru-Cut Records and established a studio in the back of his nightclub Eves After Dark. During this period, one of the greatest factors in the spread of West Coast hip-hop was the radio station 1580 KDAY, in 1988, N. W. As landmark album Straight Outta Compton was released. As well as establishing a basis for the popularity of gangsta rap, in particular, the controversial Fuck tha Police and the ensuing censorship attracted substantial media coverage and public attention. Following the dissolution of N. W. A. due to in-fighting, the early 1990s was a period in which hip hop went from strength to strength. Tupac Shakurs debut album 2Pacalypse Now was released in 1991, demonstrating an awareness, with attacks on social injustice, poverty. Shakurs music and philosophy was rooted in various philosophies and approaches, including the Black Panther Party, Black nationalism, egalitarianism, and liberty. Also in 1991, Suge Knight founded Death Row Records using money he had extorted from the pop-rapper Vanilla Ice - the West Coast saw the debut of arguably its most influential and popular rapper. Other Death Row releases such as Snoop Doggy Doggs Doggystyle and 2Pacs All Eyez on Me became huge sellers and were critically acclaimed
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Synthesizer
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A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments. One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, however, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers
6.
Benedict Arnold
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Benedict Arnold was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York overlooking the cliffs at the Hudson River, the plan was exposed in September 1780, and he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general. Arnold was born in Connecticut and was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775 and he joined the growing army outside Boston and distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. Despite Arnolds successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress, adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and found that he was indebted to Congress after having spent much of his own money on the war effort. Arnold was frustrated and bitter at this, as well as with the alliance with France and he decided to change sides and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was awarded command of West Point and his scheme was to surrender the fort to the British, but it was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers which revealed the plot. Upon learning of Andrés capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot. Arnold received a commission as a general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360. He led British forces on raids in Virginia and against New London and Groton, in the winter of 1782, he moved to London with his second wife Margaret Peggy Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, in 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later and his earlier legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor. Benedict Arnold was born the second of six children to Benedict Arnold and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut Colony on January 14,1741. He was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island—as were his father and grandfather. Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood, his other siblings succumbed to yellow fever in childhood and his siblings were, in order of birth, Benedict, Hannah, Mary, Absolom, and Elizabeth. Arnold was a descendant of John Lothropp through his maternal grandmother, Benedict Arnolds father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a school in nearby Canterbury. However, the deaths of his siblings two years later may have contributed to a decline in the fortunes, since his father took up drinking
7.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
8.
Ice Cube
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OShea Jackson Sr. known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor and filmmaker. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C. I. A. after leaving N. W. A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music and films such as a role in drama Boyz n the Hood. Additionally, he has served as one of the producers of the Showtime television series Barbershop, both of which are based upon films in which he portrayed the main character. Ice Cube is considered one of the artists in gangsta rap. He was ranked number 8 on MTVs list of the 10 Greatest MCs of All Time, allMusic has called him one of hip-hops best and most controversial artists, as well as one of raps greatest storytellers. In 2012, The Source ranked him number 14 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, in 2014, About. com ranked him number 11 on their list of the 50 Greatest MCs of All Time. OShea Jackson was born on June 15,1969, in South Central Los Angeles, the son of Doris, a clerk and custodian, and Hosea Jackson, who worked as a groundskeeper at UCLA. He has a brother as well as a half-sister who was killed when Ice Cube was 12. In his early teens, Ice Cube developed an interest in hip hop music, Jackson penned his first rap song in the ninth grade after a friend, whom Jackson names Kiddo, challenged him to write a song during a typewriting class. He claims Kiddo lost the challenge, at the age of 16, Jackson sold his first song to future N. W. A. member Eazy-E. Jackson also attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills and he enrolled at the Phoenix Institute of Technology in the fall of 1987 in Arizona. Being passionate about architecture, he studied architectural drafting and he completed his diploma within one year and returned to Los Angeles to pursue a rap career. Not sure of whether his rap career would work out, he would turn to become a draftsman as a career backup. With friend Sir Jinx, Ice Cube formed the C. I. A. Dre soon entered the recording industry as a member of the World Class Wreckin Cru. Dre saw Cubes potential as a writer and had him assist with writing Wreckin Crus big L. A. hit track, Stereo Crew produced a twelve-inch record, Shes a Skag released on Epic Records in 1986. While Dr. Dre was DJing at L. A. dance club Eve After Dark, Ice Cube would rap over his music, one such example of this was the song My Penis, a parody of Run-DMCs My Adidas. In a 2015 interview, club-owner Alonzo Williams said that he felt that this damaged his reputation. In 1987, Ice Cube released the Dr. Dre produced single My Posse under with his group C. I. A, after the collaboration, Ice Cube showed Eazy-E the lyrics to Boyz-n-the-Hood
9.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
10.
Eazy-E
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Eric Lynn Wright, better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper who performed solo and in the hip hop group N. W. A. Wright is affectionately called The Godfather of Gangsta Rap and he was born to Richard and Kathie Wright in Compton, California. After dropping out of school in the tenth grade, he supported himself primarily by selling drugs before founding Ruthless Records. Arabian Prince, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube formed N. W. A, after DJ Yella and MC Ren joined the group, N. W. A released their debut single Panic Zone. In 1988, they released their most controversial album, Straight Outta Compton, the group released two more albums and then disbanded after Eazy released Dr. Dre from his contract. Eazys main influences included 1970s funk groups, contemporary rappers, over-the-top lyrics, and undeniable charisma made him a star. Eric Wright was born to Richard and Kathie Wright on September 7,1964, in Compton, California and his father was a postal worker and his mother was a grade school administrator. Wright dropped out of school in the tenth grade. Wright supported himself primarily by selling drugs, introduced to the occupation by his cousin, Wrights friend Jerry Heller admits that he witnessed Wright selling marijuana, but says that he never saw him sell cocaine. As Heller noted in his book Ruthless, A Memoir, Wrights dope dealer label was part of his self-forged armor, Wright was also labeled as a thug. Heller explains, The hood where he grew up was a dangerous place, thug was a role that was widely understood on the street, it gave you a certain level of protection in the sense that people hesitated to fuck with you. Likewise, dope dealer was a role that accorded you certain privileges, in 1986, at the age of 22, Wright had allegedly earned as much as US$250,000 from dealing drugs. However, after his cousin was shot and killed, he decided that he could make a living in the Los Angeles hip hop scene. He started recording songs during the mid-1980s in his parents garage, the original idea for Ruthless Records came when Wright asked Heller to go into business with him. Wright suggested a company, but it was later decided that Wright would get eighty percent of the companys income. According to Heller, he told Wright, Every dollar comes into Ruthless, thats industry standard for a manager of my caliber. I take twenty, you take eighty percent, I am responsible for my expenses, and youre responsible for yours. Along with Heller, Wright invested much of his money into Ruthless Records, Heller claims that he invested the first $250,000, and would eventually put up to $1,000,000 into the company
