DJ Yella Becomes First N.W.A. Member To Release An Autobiography

Antoine “DJ Yella” Carraby is telling his own historic personal narrative with Straight Outta Compton: My Untold Story. The book makes DJ Yella the first member of the legendary N.W.A. to publish an autobiography.

Named after N.W.A.’s classic 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, DJ Yella’s Straight Outta Compton: My Untold Story chronicles his time as part of N##### Wit Attitudes with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and the late Eazy-E. 

“I wrote this book to give God all his glory. He saved me when I was homeless, so I wanted to write this as a testimony,” states DJ Yella. “The fact that I remembered all this in the book, tells me there is definitely a God.”

N.W.A. also released Niggaz4Life in 1991 before the group broke up. The surviving members reunited for 2015’s F. Gary Gray-directed Straight Outta Compton biographical drama film and for the induction into the 2016 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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“So much changed in my life after I decided to take God seriously. Even the movie happened after I got saved. I learned to appreciate what I had. I believe that God gave me this testimony, so I could pass it around the globe,” adds DJ Yella.

In Straight Outta Compton: My Untold Story, DJ Yella recalls moments from his life such as getting an unexpected police escort with Ice Cube when they were on tour and his time living with Dr. Dre. The rapper/producer also recalls learning about Eazy-E being hospitalized and how he responded to Eazy’s death.

“My book has what I believe is the last known photo taken of Eazy. It was shot at my birthday party he threw for me. When looking at it, I noticed he was smaller, compared to the photo that was taken at my birthday party held exactly a year before. In this last photo, he looks like he weighs much less,” says DJ Yella. “When he died, I lost all interest in music.”

Last year, N.W.A’s 1988 record “F### Tha Police” saw a 302.7% growth in streams following the murder of George Floyd, the unarmed African-American man who was killed by convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations broke out around the world in response to Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

“When George Floyd was killed, people were in the streets, playing our song about the police. At the height of the protests, it was the number one downloaded song in the world. That is amazing, considering the fact we recorded it more than 30 years ago,” explains DJ Yella.

“It’s an endless, timeless song, because we are talking about something that had been happening long before us. We didn’t invent this issue, we didn’t create it. We just happened to expose it,” maintains DJ Yella. “Our group wasn’t political. We just talked about what was outside our front door.”

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