In August 1988, N.W.A. released their debut album, Straight Outta Compton, less than a year removed from dropping their compilation/mixtape N.W.A. and the Posse. Straight Outta Compton, featuring smash hits like “Express Yourself” and “Straight Outta Compton,” would go on to debut at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and now sits at certified platinum by RIAA.
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The album and the group’s impact would go on to stand the test of time, earning N.W.A. a blockbuster biopic in 2015 named after their first album. Along with this acclaim, another magnetic portion of this LP is its fascinating album cover, which depicts Eazy E prepping to shoot somebody on the ground while his fellow group members stand with him.
Ahead of the release of the Straight Outta Compton film eight years ago, the photographer of the album’s cover, Eric Poppleton, sat down for two separate interviews with CNN and NME to discuss how the picture came to be. First, Poppleton described his life before meeting N.W.A. and how the opportunity came to be.
“I had just graduated from the California Institute of the Arts and a friend of mine, Kevin Hosmann, was an art director,” he told NME. “At the time he was at Capitol Records but was doing some freelance work on the side and got the opportunity to work with NWA. We were all basically at the same level—just starting out. We were just creating on the fly, not knowing where it was going to go.”
Before linking up with N.W.A. for the Straight Outta Compton shoot, though, Poppleton first worked on the cover art for Eazy-E’s debut solo album, Eazy-Duz-It, which ended up dropping two months after N.W.A.’s debut.
“Prior to Straight Outta Compton, I shot the cover to Eazy-E’s (Eazy-Duz-It), but I didn’t know much about rap and this is the only music photography that I’ve done in my entire career,” he said. “I was totally unaware of who NWA were, but they were nice guys. To me, they weren’t like their music in person at all. They had their friends there and some of the setups, they were quite involved, but I didn’t get too close to them. We had a very professional relationship and it wasn’t until years later that I found out the impact of the album cover.”
When it was time to get to work on finding an adequate backdrop for Straight Outta Compton, Poppleton explained that they needed to get creative to make up for a lack of resources.
“We were in downtown Los Angeles, we didn’t have money for locations and most of our shots were just really simple setups,” he said. “There was no artificial lighting or anything, I just lay on the ground and they pointed what hopefully was an unloaded gun down at the camera. I couldn’t say for sure whether it was ready to fire, but it was definitely a real gun. There wasn’t anything fake back then.”
Fast-forward 35 years later, Poppleton’s photo would be regarded as one of the most iconic images in the history of hip-hop. When looking back on its impact, he felt that the cover was so meaningful because it embodied the aggressive, cutthroat, street essence of N.W.A. that their lyrics also conveyed.
“In hindsight, it was just so provocative,” he told CNN. “You’re taking the perspective of someone who is about to be killed essentially. Not that they were going to do that to me… (It) inspired a generation of listeners to a new level… The Straight Outta Compton album cover art summed up the album’s lyrics at the time.”
Additionally, Poppleton felt like this particular style of cover could only be executed during N.W.A.’s era, considering how unapologetically harsh it is. “I’m not sure this type of imagery would be so widely accepted or presented in today’s commercial marketplace,” he said. “Back then, it was more free rein.”
Photo By Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
