Westside Connection's First Hits Collection, The Best Of Westside Connection: The Gangsta, The Killa And The Dope Dealer, to be Released by Capitol/Priority

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 15  /PRNewswire/ -- The gangsta rap super group Westside Connection was formed in 1993 by West Coast rappers Ice Cube, WC and Mack 10. 18 of the platinum-selling group's best tracks have been collected for the first time for The Best Of Westside Connection: The Gangsta, The Killa And The Dope Dealer, to be released December 4 by Capitol/Priority.

Released in 1996, Westside Connection's first album, Bow Down, reached #2 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart, fueled by the massive, chart-crossing radio and club success of the album's title track and its second single, "Gangstas Make The World Go Round."

"Bow Down, the first one, was a record out of necessity," Ice Cube recalled in a 2003 biography. "The industry needed somebody to stick up for the West Coast because we were starting to get disrespected on every level. So, in '96 we started a movement that swept all across the world, really, with the 'W,' the Westside, people finally having something to identify with on the West Coast. Then, people all over the country started to respect the Westside. It's a beautiful thing. We have  got Westsiders in Japan, South Africa and they are  pumping it. It was a big deal."

Following a seven-year hiatus, 2003's gold-certified Terrorist Threats debuted at #16 as the week's highest new rap entry on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, and also hit #3 on the Rap/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

The album's lead single, "Gangsta Nation" (with Nate Dogg), made the Top 10 on both the Rap and Rhythmic Top 40 charts. "It's a salute to what I call the 'Gangsta Nation,' which is people who like it hard-core who do it in their own way," Ice Cube said of the track. "Everybody knows what gangsta represents out here. It ain't always a criminal thing. It's just somebody that won't conform, somebody that doesn't want to do it the way the plan is laid out. They want to do it their own way, so we are  saluting them."

The Best Of Westside Connection: The Gangsta, The Killa And The Dope Dealer 

  1.  Potential Victims
  2.  The Gangsta, The Killa And The Dope Dealer
  3.  Bow Down
  4.  Cheddar
  5.  Gangsta Nation (with Nate Dogg)
  6.  Lights Out
  7.  Connected For Life (with Butch Cassidy)
  8.  Gangstas Make the World Go Round
  9.  West Up!
  10. Let It Reign
  11. Hoo-Bangin' (WSCG style)
  12. Walk
  13. So Many Rappers in Love
  14. Bangin' (with Master P) [previously out-of-print track]
  15. Nobody (with Timbaland)
  16. All The Critics in NY
  17. Westside Slaughterhouse
  18. Terrorist Threats


Capitol/Priority