The groundbreaking Los Angeles rap act N.W.A. will join a quartet of 1970s-era FM radio rockers — Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple and Steve Miller — as 2016 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
N.W.A., led by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, was elected after three unsuccessful nominations in a year when a movie about the group’s career, “Straight Outta Compton,” was a box-office hit. Their hard-core tales of life on the street made them a provocative chart presence in the late 1980s.
Both Miller and Cheap Trick made it during their first year on the ballot.
Cheap Trick moved swiftly to capitalize on the honor, announcing Thursday they had signed a new deal with Taylor Swift’s label, Big Machine Records. The band will release its 17th studio album a week before its induction.
The induction ceremony for the Cleveland-based hall will be held April 8 in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. HBO will televise highlights later in the spring. More than 800 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation selected the inductees.
The influential disco-era band Chic is becoming the Susan Lucci of music, failing to win induction in its 10th year as a nominee. Janet Jackson, the Cars, Los Lobos and Yes were among the other nominees rejected.
