Eazy-E funded the group, Dre and DJ Yella made the beats, IceCube and MC Ren wrote the lyrics.
They were the first group to ever go gold with no radio or tv play.
They basically brought Westcoast hiphop to the fore-front of rap for the first time.
Every rapper who ever claims to be a gansta, talk about 6-4's, hittin' switches, that whole West Coast style that all the WC rappers after NWA also lived? They got that from NWA. There were other Gangsta Rappers on the East Coast at the time, but they were just called Hard Core Rappers then. There were also other West Coast cats coming up at that time, like compton's Most Wanted, who EmCee Eiht was a part of.
It's just that NWA came out and the entire Hip-Hop world changed.
That NWA style is all throughout hip-hop now.
Chucks - Chuck Taylor Converses - come from the West Coast rappers making them popular, same with bandannas, saggin your jeans, tons of other influences that go throughout not only rap music, but the entire Hip Hop culture.