Songfacts®:

• "Express Yourself" is about individuality and authenticity in the music industry. The song criticizes artists who push fake messages in their music and praises those who are willing to stay true to themselves.
• "Express Yourself" stands apart from the rest of the Straight Outta Compton album in that it doesn't use profanity and speaks negatively about drugs (the other songs laud intoxicants).
  
  I still express, yo, I don't smoke weed or sess
  'Cause it's known to give a brother brain damage
  
  What's "sess"? That's sinsemilla, a strain of pot. You'll hear Rob Base reject it in another 1988 track, "It Takes Two":
  
  Don't smoke buddha, can't stand sess
• N.W.A included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, all godfathers of gangsta rap that made big impacts outside the group as well. Ice Cube wrote the song and Dr. Dre does the rapping.
• N.W.A's "Express Yourself" samples liberally from the 1970 song of the same name by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - so much so that it's often confused as an outright remake of the original, even though the lyrics are totally different.
  
  Wright didn't like N.W.A's take on the song, calling it "redundant."
• In May 1990, the Triple J radio station in Australia played "Express Yourself" 82 consecutive times. Nick Franklin, the station's news director, had been suspended for playing a snippet of N.W.A.'s "F--k tha Police," so in protest, the rest of the staff played "Express Yourself" nonstop until the suspension was lifted.
  
  In April 2014, Triple J referenced the event by playing the song on loop again, this time including notable remakes, to kick off their relaunch.
• "Express Yourself" samples from "Dope Man," a track from N.W.A.'s debut album, a compilation titled N.W.A. and the Posse.
• This is the final single (following "Straight Outta Compton" and "Gangsta Gangsta") released off the first studio album by N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton. It reached #2 on the US Hot Rap Songs Chart and #45 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart.
• The edit for the single, which is used in the music video, is slightly different from the album version. The single version uses brief verses from MC Ren and Ice Cube in addition to Dre's rapping, while the album features Dre alone.
• The "Express Yourself" single also includes the tracks "Bonus Beats," "Straight Outta Compton," and "A Bitch Iz A Bitch."
• On a 1998 N.W.A. tribute album titled Straight Outta Compton: N.W.A 10th Anniversary Tribute, Sikk the Shocker did a version of this song.
• Tim Armstrong of punk band Rancid recorded a version of "Express Yourself" in the late '90s. It was released in 2014 on Life Won't Wait Demo Sessions. The hardcore punk band Stretch Arm Strong covered it on their album Engage in 2003.
• "Express Yourself" has popped up in multiple video games. It's been in Skate (2007), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002).