Niggaz4Life

Biography

Niggaz4Life (also known as Efil4zaggin), was the second and final studio album by Gangsta rap group N.W.A, released in 1991. It was their final album, as the group disbanded later the same year after the departure of Dr. Dre and songwriter The D.O.C. for Death Row Records; the album features only four members of the original line-up, as Ice Cube had already left the group in 1989. Niggaz4Life debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, but in its second week reached number one. The only other artist to...

Niggaz4Life (also known as Efil4zaggin), was the second and final studio album by Gangsta rap group N.W.A, released in 1991. It was their final album, as the group disbanded later the same year after the departure of Dr. Dre and songwriter The D.O.C. for Death Row Records; the album features only four members of the original line-up, as Ice Cube had already left the group in 1989. Niggaz4Life debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, but in its second week reached number one. The only other artist to do this is Michael Jackson. In 1992, several months after the release of the album, N.W.A released a video entitled Niggaz4Life: The Only Home Video, which chronicled the making of the album and its three music videos, "Alwayz Into Somethin'", "Appetite for Destruction" and "Approach To Danger". In 2003, the CD was re-released in two formats. Both had the EP 100 Miles and Runnin' appended to the end of the original track-listing, but one was available with a DVD copy of Niggaz4Life: The Only Home Video. On the cover the title appears as a mirror-image of the text "NIGGAZ4LIFE". The name of the new album had been revealed in "Kamurshul" from N.W.A's previous release 100 Miles and Runnin', but only by playing a vinyl copy backwards could the otherwise unintelligible sound be deciphered as "niggaz for life". Since the album contained the word "Nigga" in it, on some publications it has to be edited out as Straight Outta Compton 2. While "Niggaz 4 Life" was the original title, it was likely changed on the cover to its reversed form due to political (and financial) considerations. The corruption of the word "nigga" as used in the album title was perhaps influenced by censorship measures in the US music industry introduced at the time. Controversy surrounding the content of heavy metal and hip hop music in general, in particular N.W.A, had been directed by Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center, which had resulted in the adoption of self-censorship measures in the US music industry, including the Parental Advisory sticker. Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A's previous full-length, which also contained the song "Parental Discretion Iz Advised", was one of the first to be branded. By obfuscating the offensive word, the group were able to lever a small measure of artistic freedom. At the time of release, the album was removed from music stores in the United Kingdom. It was the first album to top the Billboard charts with the word "nigga" in its title since Richard Pryor's Bicentennial Nigger in 1976. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.