N.W.A - Efil4zaggin

N.W.A's second and final album hit in 1991 with all the subtlety of a battering ram, and Efil4zaggin remains one of the most confrontational records gangsta rap ever produced.

Ice Cube had walked out in a bitter royalty dispute, leaving Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella to prove they could carry on without him. Dre and Yella handled production, and the beats are a leap forward from Straight Outta Compton: denser, funkier and built on rubbery bass, layered samples and booming drums that hint at the sound Dre would perfect on The Chronic.

The opening stretch fires back at critics and at Ice Cube himself. Appetite for Destruction struts on a heavy, menacing groove, Alwayz Into Somethin' unspools over a woozy synth line that became one of Dre's signature touches, and The Dayz of Wayback closes the record with Dre and Ren swapping nostalgic old-school verses.

The second half is notoriously explicit, and the album drew fierce condemnation, police seizures in the UK and an obscenity case that ended with the group cleared.

Love it or argue with it, this is a crucial, uncompromising snapshot of a group on the verge of breaking apart, and the sound of West Coast rap about to change for good.