NWA - Alwayz Into Somethin'

What this video is

Released May 28, 1991 as the lead single from N.W.A's second and final studio album Niggaz4Life (also known as Efil4zaggin), 'Alwayz Into Somethin'' arrived at a pivotal rupture point for the group — following Ice Cube's acrimonious 1989 departure over royalty disputes. The music video embeds the song's themes in a narrative of Compton street life, depicting shoplifting, car theft, gang violence, police…

Why it matters

This video stands as one of the earliest audiovisual documents of G-funk aesthetics in a music video format, bridging N.W.A's hardcore gangsta rap identity with the warmer, more melodic production style that would dominate West Coast hip-hop through the mid-1990s. As the lead single of N.W.A's…

The director

Mark Gerard is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker born in Santa Monica, California. He trained at Los Angeles City College's Advanced Cinema Program and is a graduate of the American Film Institute's Cinematography Fellow M.F.A. Certificate Program. He worked as…