12. N.W.A.Straight Outta Compton

This is so powerful – the rapping and the sound. This just hooks into every sinew of my body and it has me writhing and pounding like a bewitched heathen. And there are not many things that can do that. It was something very new when I first heard it and it was initially difficult to get my head around it, but once I got my head around it I used it as a reference for writing and I still do now. If I’m going into the studio now then I’ll put it on the headphones because it gives me that vibe. They wanna go from A to B and they’re fucking gonna go from A to B. It’s just brilliant. It’s a rare thing to find a record that rips through you like that.

It’s stood the test of time and to me it sounds as fresh as it ever did. I know what Compton is and I knew what it was. Necessity is the mother of invention and my goodness, they invented something there; they change the world. I think it’s a really important record.