During the late 80's to early 90's I extensively documented the rise of the west coast hip hop scene. My loft/studio on Pico Blvd near Fairfax was next door to Crains Records, an indy shop that specialized in Soul, R&B and Hip Hop. All the artists came through Crains on their PR tours and I would often shoot portraits of them in my studio. I also produced a short run 'zine about the LA music scene called the LA Informer, and had the privilege of making exclusive photographs of NWA in the studio very early in their career while recording Straight Outta Compton. Tragically, my entire archive of photographs and negatives from this era was destroyed by USPS in a horrific accident in 2015 en route to NY. Only a few images that I had in my personal possession remain. These rare pieces of hip-hop history have never been published, exhibited or sold until now.

This image was shot in 1987 at Audio Achievements Studio, just outside Compton during the recording of Straight Outta Compton, the group's debut studio album, which went on to define West Coast Gangsta' Rap and sell over 1 million copies. They had just arrived from a gun shop with these firearms, unboxing them for the shot. Pictured L-R: Eazy-E, DOC, Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella.

NWA, Group Portrait, Frame #5A

From

NWA The Last Frames

Artist

Barry Sutton

Blockchain

Ethereum

Token standard

ERC-721

Contract address

0x47...e5a1

Token

Artist

Barry Sutton

All rights reserved by the artist. Owner of this NFT may display for personal or commercial use. No additional rights are granted. The owner of the NFT may not alter the image or token for the purposes of resale, including fractionalizing or changing it from its original ERC-721 format.

Edition

1/1

Title

NWA, Group Portrait, Frame #5A

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