The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2016 inductees today (December 17) and N.W.A is one of five acts in the class. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella are scheduled to be formally inducted in a ceremony April 8 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“Unexpected. Shocking. Flawed. Revolutionary. Worthy,” the Hall of Fame’s press release says of the group. “N.W.A’s improbable rise from marginalized outsiders to the most controversial and complicated voices of their generation remains one of rock’s most explosive, relevant and challenging tales.”
Ice Cube took to Twitter to respond to the news of the honor. Part of the process to determine the inductees was a vote open to the public.
“I wanna thank everybody that voted for N.W.A to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he says. “I think I speak for Dre, Ren, Yella, Eazy, rest in peace. We’re extremely excited and happy for that. Thank you.”
He also spoke with Rolling Stone about what this accomplishment means to N.W.A’s career.
“It’s hard to sum up exactly what it means,” Ice Cube says. “It means a lot of things. It means that the group’s mark is kind of solidified. It’s all legitimized in a way because the whole music industry has to honor the group in a way.”
Ice Cube also shares what he believes Eazy-E would think of the honor.
“He’d be real excited because he was always fighting for legitimacy, whether it was trying to get out of the dope gang and become a legitimate, productive person in society,” he says. “Also, the industry talked a lot of shit. This would please him I think because the music that we did is a force to be reckoned with. We got some of the most creative, talented people in N.W.A that’s ever been compiled in one group. It’s just exciting that the group as a whole gets recognized by the whole industry as Hall of Fame worthy.”
The group joins Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple and Steve Miller to form the Class of 2016.
N.W.A was nominated for the Hall of Fame last year and in 2012. The group joins Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five as the Rap groups honored by the Hall.
N.W.A’s rise to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s was portrayed in the film Straight Outta Compton this summer, which is the highest-grossing music biopic ever. The group’s debut album of the same name was certified triple platinum last month.