Here's the basics: "Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by F. Gary Gray about the rise and fall of the Compton, California hip hop group N.W.A. The film borrows its title from the name of their 1988 debut studio album. Straight Outta Compton stars O'Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, and Paul Giamatti as N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller. Among the film's producers are Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E 's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright. The film was released on August 14, 2015, received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed over $140 million. An album inspired by the film, Compton, was released by Dr. Dre on August 7, 2015, and debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 charts." (Wiki)
The story in the movie is supposedly the story of the how NWA came together, their rise and fall, how they break up and form solo projects, and how they come back together in the end to reform right around the time that Eazy dies from aids. It doesn't sound very exciting but the movie just keeps you in a state of wanting to know whats going to happen next. At first they are just regular black guys (albeit poor thugish black guys) living in Compton California. Eazy was a real thug gang banger drug dealer type of guy, Ice Cube is a high school student that writes great lines, and Dr. Dre is a guy who loves music that got kicked out of his moms house for not finding a job. The only guy who was portrayed as even slightly a thug was Eazy E, although there were moments where they all stood up to racist pigs (cops), and even one incident where Dre gets sent to prison just for standing up to a white cop. The way the LAPD was portrayed in this film was very realistic. I've been treated the same way even in Wisconsin, I think they're even worse out here in LA, especially back then in the late 80's. There was a fucked up part of the movie where a black cop and his white partner roll up to the group outside of the place they were recording. The black cops says,"You niggas belong somewhere?". Then, when the manager is getting the group back inside the black cop says,"That's right, go back to your master", which was all kinds of fucked up. It just goes to show you that even black cops can be pigs too. Let me remark upon some of my favorite moments of the movie, there were a couple great ones.
My favorite part of the movie was when they were recording their very first song. They had some group of guys from New York come in to do the song. It had dope lyrics but they sent these guys in as the talent because this was before they had tried rapping for themselves. Eventually the New York guys read the lyrics and they're all like,"This shit is wack, what's a 6 4?", and then they start dissing our guys from Compton, calling them jerry-curl ass niggas. Eventually they figure they're money is wasted unless they find someone to do the song. Dre suggests that Eazy does the song because the song was about him. Eazy is reluctant at first but decides to give it a shot. Let me just say that he sounded so cringe worthy on those very first attempts at rapping. He was so offbeat and he sounded weak. Dre and the guys laughed at him, it was pretty funny. But eventually Eazy tells the other guys to get out of the other room and he gets on beat, and sings the first line with bravado. Dre responds with "great, now we only have 59 more lines to go", which makes me believe that Eazy E did all his raps one line at a time in the studio, which is very funny!
Some of my other favorite moments where just some random scenes where they were in the studio and Dre was playing a keyboard on the track, and it sounded hella dope. It was cool that he's the only real musical one in the group. There was a scene in the beginning of the movie where we see Dre doing sick turn table scratching inside of a friends house. Also, we see him working as a DJ at a club, but the club owner kept telling him that he didn't want him to put on any of that rap shit. And that he preferred those slower songs, like dance music like rnb and soul stuff. Not only was Dre more musical in the studio than the other guys but he also rapped too. I liked him the best although Ice Cube wrote most of NWA's shit, and the other guys just performed the songs onstage.
One last funny moment that was interesting was when this one guy knocks on the hotel room door of NWA while they're having this wild crazy party where people are having sex and stuff like that. He comes to the door, Ice Cube answers, the guy says,"I heard my girl Felicia is in one of these rooms, do you know where she is?". Ice Cube yells at him no and slams the door hard as fuck on him, but the guy holds the door open and shows him a gun. So Ice Cube runs back inside, looks for Felicia, and she's inside the bathroom sucking off Eazy! Eazy hears the news about the guy, grabs a shotty, and the group all grabs their own guns as well, and they head into the hallway walking towards the guy with all their guns to the ready. The guy just runs away scared. They all laugh and head back inside. Ice Cube slams the door on Felicia, sayinig "Bye Felicia, leaving her in the hallway wearing only a bikini. Pretty hilarious. I've heard some song about a Felicia and I guess this is the girl that inspired the song.
Now, was this movie entirely realistic? No, I do believe that they took some liberties with the characters, and sanitized them in some ways. I believe they were all a bit worse people than they appeared to be in the film. A friend told me that Dre used to beat up women. And my dad told me that Ice Cube was much more the criminal than the regular high school kid who wrote rap lines. And also Shug Knight was also a ruthless motherfucker. I think in real life he might have even been charged for murder or attempted murder, not sure about that one but my brother told me something like that. So yeah these guys ain't saints. They were real mother fuckin' og's son! Haha, but seriously in the movie they appeared to be a lot better people than they actually were.
Also, I feel like this movie has been accepted by the masses because rap has become accepted by the masses. By the masses I'm mainly referring to white people, because they control Top 40 Radio, Pop Music, and what's left of the music industry regarding record sales and stuff like that. In some ways Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop have all sold out. They made it and that's it, they've become the establishment. They ain't real mother fuckin' og's anymore. To me they're kind of a bunch of sell outs, but that doesn't mean that they aren't brilliant masterminds, great businessmen, and good rappers. I mean Dre has some headphones that sell for $300, ain't that a bunch of bullshit? But for me they aren't what real rap represents anymore. Now rap represents corporatism, fast cars, money, bitches, smoking weed, having life made, etc. Back then when rap was real they were actually talking about what was happening in the ghetto, people getting shot, and what it was like being an actual gangsta. This is the main reason why I'm not a rap guy. In some ways I'm against rap because most rappers represent something that they're not. This is just my opinion. I choose instead to listen to Jazz because its not a part of all the corporate bullshit, record companies, and now streaming services companies. To me Dre, Snoop, and Ice Cube have become like white people-successful, rich, and living in houses as far away from black people as possible. Just a thought.
With all that being said, I really enjoyed the movie. Its definitely one of the best music movies I've ever seen and I'm not even really a rap fan. However, I did know about NWA and Eazy E especially before I saw this. I knew a lot of the songs too. It was awesome hearing the songs on the big screen at a movie theater with all the people around me. I think that was the best part of the movie really. Just the music in general. If I had to give this movie a rating I would give it a 9 out of 10, fucking amazing! It gets the Bad Ass Stamp of Approval.
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