N.W.A. Upbeat, Steve Miller Lashes out at Rock Hall of Fame

Gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. called their success a lesson for youth as they entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the institution came under blistering criticism from fellow honoree Steve Miller.

Hard rockers Deep Purple and Midwestern chart-toppers Chicago and Cheap Trick were also inducted in a Brooklyn gala after an annual vote by music industry insiders.

N.W.A., whose dark tales from the streets of Compton, California defined gangsta rap, shocked much of white America in 1988 with "Fuck Tha Police," a no-holds-barred indictment of officers' treatment of young African Americans.

The Hall of Fame turned into a rare N.W.A. reunion as original member Dr. Dre, who went on to become a multimillionaire executive at Apple, took the stage in a black suit and tie next to bandmate Ice Cube in his trademark thick shades and cap.

"Back then, there were a lot of people against us and had a problem with what we were saying," said Dr. Dre, noting that even the band's full name, Niggaz Wit Attitudes, caused controversy.

"But this is proof to all the kids out there growing up in places similar to Compton that anything is possible."

Ice Cube, who has gone on to a major career as a solo rapper and actor, dismissed criticism, most recently from Gene Simmons of Kiss, that hip-hop did not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Rock and roll is not an instrument, rock and roll is not even a style of music. Rock and roll is a spirit," Ice Cube said, adding that it encompassed genres from jazz to punk rock.

"Rock and roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life."

N.W.A., the first West Coast rappers in the Hall of Fame, had been nominated four times but won the nod shortly after a Hollywood biopic on the group, "Straight Outta Compton."

N.W.A. did not perform, citing logistical issues.

The Hall of Fame, which is based in Cleveland, held the induction at the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, with HBO set to broadcast the show on April 30.

While N.W.A. politely posed for pictures alongside young rap star Kendrick Lamar, who introduced them, fellow honoree Miller did not mince words.

Miller told reporters that the entire show nearly collapsed and accused the Hall of Fame of trying to "steal" the rights to use footage and of demanding that anyone with him besides his wife pay $10,000 for a ticket.

"The whole process needs to be changed from top to bottom," said Miller, who described the event as "so unpleasant."

"They need to get their legal work straight, they need to respect the artists they say they're honoring, which they don't," he told reporters backstage.

Miller was speaking after accepting the accolade and performing a medley of tracks, including his signature 1973 hit "The Joker."

Miller, born in Wisconsin where he learned guitar under the legendary Les Paul, emerged in the cultural mix of 1960s San Francisco as he blended jazz and blues with roots Americana.

He still plays regularly at age 72 and guides the musical instrument collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

With Deep Purple, all three bands considered the trinity of British hard rock in the 1970s are in the Hall of Fame after Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

The band's current lineup, led by Ian Gillan, played hits including "Highway Star," "Hush" and "Smoke on the Water," whose bluesy but heavy opening is among the most famous in rock.

The group was joined by the tearful widow of Jon Lord, its energetic keyboardist who died in 2012, but not guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who wrote the legendary "Smoke on the Water" riff and said the current band had made him unwelcome.

Drummer Ian Paice described Blackmore as a "singular animal," saying he might have turned up at the last minute.

David Coverdale, a former Deep Purple singer who went on to lead Whitesnake, said he had emailed Blackmore several days ago in a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to come.

After Lord's death, "we buried the hatchet of 30 years of inflammatory oratory, so it's a big disappointment to me he wasn't there today," Coverdale told reporters.

Deep Purple were introduced by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who said his life was transformed by seeing the hard rockers play his native Copenhagen when he was nine.

Donning a blazer in the color of the band's name, Ulrich said Deep Purple both played "with raw intensity" as if by themselves yet "at the same time projected a thousand-yard deep stare into the bowels of the arena."