''Straight Checkn 'Em'' is the second studio album by American gangsta rap group

Compton's Most Wanted Compton's Most Wanted (C.M.W.) is an American gangsta rap group and part of the early West Coast hip-hop scene. The leaders of the group are MC Eiht and Tha Chill. History Formation and early years C.M.W. included rappers MC Eiht, Tha Chill, ...

. It was released on July 16, 1991 through

Orpheus Records Orpheus Music is an independent record label that is part of Hush Management and is dedicated to R&B and jazz music, and home of recording artist Freddie Jackson. For years, it was distributed by EMI. Roster *Eric Gable *Freddie Jackson *Meli's ...

and

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

. Recording sessions took place at Big Beat Soundlabs in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

from April 2 to April 19, 1991, except for the song "Growin' Up in the Hood" recorded and mixed at Trax Recording Studio in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

on March 31, 1991.

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was handled entirely by

DJ Slip Terry K. Allen, (born April 19, 1964) professionally known as DJ Slip or Don Bolo is an American record producer from Inglewood, California. He is a founding member of gangsta rap groups Compton's Most Wanted, X-Factor, and N.O.T.R. making him o ...

and

the Unknown DJ Andre Manuel, a disc jockey and record producer called The Unknown DJ or DJ Unknown, was a pioneer in the Los Angeles area's 1980s music scene, moving from electro funk and electro rap to gangsta rap. Now a legend of West Coast rap, he worked wit ...

. The album spawned three

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s: "Growin' Up in the Hood", "Straight Checkn 'Em" and "Compton's Lynchin'"/"They Still Gafflin'". Its

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

, "Growin' Up in the Hood", made it to #1 on the

Hot Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

chart and was featured in 1991 film ''

Boyz n the Hood ''Boyz n the Hood'' is a 1991 American coming-of-age hood crime drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube (in his film debut), Morris Chestnut, and Laurence Fis ...

'' and the film's

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

. The second single, a title track "Straight Checkn 'Em", peaked at #16 on the same ''Billboard'' chart. Along with the singles,

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s were directed for the songs "Growin' Up in the Hood" and "Straight Checkn 'Em". The album peaked at number 92 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and at number 23 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart in the United States.

Track listing

Personnel

* Aaron Tyler –

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Terry Keith Allen – drum programming, scratches, producer, arranger * Michael Bryant – scratches * Andre Manuel – drum programming, producer, arranger,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

, mixing,

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

*William Fredric Zimmerman –

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(track 8) *Mike "Webeboomindashit" Edwards – recording, mixing *

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance-p ...

– mastering *David Provost – photography

Charts

References

External links

* 1991 albums Compton's Most Wanted albums Epic Records albums {{1990s-hiphop-album-stub