![]() According to the 2010 Census, it is now two-thirds Hispanic or Latino.Īs you'd expect, many from the city are uneasy with the depiction of Compton's rough past in Straight Outta Compton, the film. The homicide rate would peak in Los Angeles County in 1992, partly due to the Rodney King Riots, but since then crime has waned across the county-some think due to the end of the so-called crack epidemic along with more effective policing.Ĭompton also experienced a major demographic shift as a result of black flight in the Riots' wake. were the Black Fox News," succinctly explains The Vinyl District. "If Public Enemy were the Black CNN, then N.W.A. "Advocating violence and assault is wrong, and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action," wrote Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director in the Bureau.Īs much as street violence and police brutality were part of the reality of Compton, N.W.A., like other rappers across the history of the genre, were unabashed in their lyrical swagger to embellish and heighten their music's potency. The group would get an unintended boost in fame and notoriety when they received a letter from the FBI over the song " Fuck Tha Police," accusing the group of encouraging violence against law enforcement officers. However, white flight began to take place in the 1950s after a 1948 Supreme Court case struck down racist housing practices, and the Watts Rebellion in 1965, centered only a few miles away from Compton, cemented the region's demographics for years to come. In fact, white gangs terrorized blacks and Latinos throughout the county in the '40s and '50s, with The Spook Hunters the most famous of them. Legend has it that when the city was founded, Griffith Dickenson Compton stipulated that a portion of the city be zoned for agriculture-today that area remains known as Richland Farms and home to the Compton Cowboys.įor much of its early history, Compton was actually a quiet, mostly-white suburb that, briefly, was even home to the Bush family. Incorporated in 1888, Compton is one of the oldest cities in Los Angeles County. It's once again in the national spotlight with the release of a biopic about the rap group, sharing the same title as their landmark album. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella-and formerly Arabian Prince) put the city of Compton in the national consciousness with the release of Straight Outta Compton, a chronicle of violent life on the streets and fury aimed at the police. How did a city with a farming community in its core spawn one of the most angry and violent rap albums of all time?
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