exploring the struggles they faced, the mistakes they made, the success they found, the discrimination, the infighting, the breakups, etc. Given the circumstances it was hard to expect an entirely unbiased look at the lives these guys led, growing up in Compton, Calif. advisors” and Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., actually stars as his father in the movie. One fear had to do with the fact Cube and Dre were producing the film while Eazy, the troubled group’s frontman, passed away in 1995. It is another of the film’s highlights.As a lifelong fan of N.W.A., I walked into Straight Outta Compton expecting something of a sanitized story of the gangsta rap group comprised of ’80s West Coast rap pioneers Ice Cube, Dr. Constitution and freedom of speech, tell them they are barred from performing a scathing rap titled “(expletive) the Police.” When they do anyway, they are all arrested, thrown into a van and taken to jail, where they are bailed out by their combative manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti in a white-haired wig). In Detroit, the police read the group the riot act and, in contempt of the U.S. Leigh Savidge (“The Legend of Dolemite”) and Alan Wenkus, makes a credible case for hip-hop, aka “reality rap,” as a form of nonviolent protest. The film, written by first-timer Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff (“World Trade Center”), S. Ironically, the group is signed by Bryan Turner (Tate Ellington), whose only other client is the California Raisins. Dre is the group’s genius producer, creating beats for the rappers to recite their often profane and violent street poetry. In one of the film’s best scenes, Ice Cube, the team’s lyricist, gazes dreamily at girls in a BMW convertible from his seat in a school bus just before a “Crenshaw mafia” member gets on board the bus and pulls a gun on a kid before delivering “a motivational speech.”ĭr. Their mantra is “stay outta trouble,” but at least one of them (Eazy) is a drug dealer. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Ice Cube (Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr., the spitting image of his father), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), DJ Yella (a very funny Neil Brown Jr.) and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) - assemble, all angry, fiercely talented young men repeatedly rousted and abused by an almost all-white L.A. If only the rest of the film’s 147 minutes were as great.įounding members - Dr.
#Coming straight outta compton crack#
in 1986, and over the sound of a chopper’s blades, we hear about “violent street gangs,” the scourge of crack cocaine and “the war on drugs.” Another voice tells of “the strength of street knowledge.” This pre-title sequence ends with a police raid on a Compton “dope house,” and it jump-starts the movie. its founding members, its art, its legacy - seems ripped from today’s headlines about clashes between the police and African-American neighborhoods.īut it begins in L.A. Gary Gray’s “Straight Outta Compton.” The film, a biopic of the landmark Los Angeles “gangsta rap” group N.W.A. You can’t get more current, or more electric, than F.
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