N.W.A. and the Posse

Originally not N.W.A.'s intended album release, the Posse album was released by Macola Records—which was then the Los Angeles hip-hop scene's main distributor—by collecting songs, mainly from N.W.A.'s EP titled N.W.A., that Macola had distributed for Ruthless Records, a record label set up by N.W.A.'s Eazy-E.^[1][9]

Six of the 11 tracks on the Posse album are from then-N.W.A. members: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Arabian Prince. MC Ren and DJ Yella were not yet in N.W.A, however the former does appear on the cover photograph. 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 from the Fila Fresh Crew,^[5] a rap crew including Doc-T, who soon renamed himself The D.O.C.^[1] Dr. Dre discovered them in Texas, where a DJ friend of his, Dr. Rock, had invited him to perform at a nightclub, where the Fila Fresh Crew was performing.^[5][10] These four tracks had previously been distributed by Macola Records.

Macola omitted the N.W.A. track "A Bitch iz a Bitch" (not included on the EP either) 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.^[6][1][10] In November 1989, after the commercial success of Straight Outta Compton that same year, Ruthless' distributor Priority Records re-issued the Posse album with the "Bitch" track replacing "Scream".^[1]

The World Class Wreckin' Cru', including future N.W.A members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, led by Grandmaster Lonzo, along with C.I.A which included future member Ice Cube were signed to Lonzo's label Kru-Cut Records, a sublabel of Macola Records, the area's leading independent distributor of rap records.^[11] The success of Eazy’s single "Boyz-n-the-Hood" prompted Eazy's call for an N.W.A EP, distributed by Macola.^[10] The EP's five songs included Eazy and Cube on "Dopeman", Eazy on "8 Ball", and Arabian's production "Panic Zone."^[10]

After the release of the EP, N.W.A left Macola and signed to Priority. Macola wasn't too happy and wanted to cash in on the group so they took the songs from Eazy's "Boyz-n-the-Hood" single as well as the N.W.A EP and combined them with a bunch of random songs that Macola had in their library and this resulted in the N.W.A and the Posse album.

For the EP's cover photo which is the same cover used for the album, Eazy summoned N.W.A's members to pose for the camera in a Hollywood alleyway near Macola's office.^[12][10] Reportedly, some who were photographed wound up there by merely driving or accompanying another.^[12] Future N.W.A rapper MC Ren, living near Eazy, although photographed, was not yet in N.W.A.^[12] On the other hand, DJ Yella is absent^[13] due to being sick on the day the photo was taken (although he also was not active within the group yet, just a close friend of Dre).^[14] Rapper Candyman is also in the photo, bottom right kneeling down.

All songs produced by Dr. Dre and Arabian Prince.

Notes

• Panic Zone and Dope Man contains uncredited vocals from Krazy Dee