Straight Outta Compton chronicles the rise and fall of the rap group N.W.A., which included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E among its members.
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“We were there like every day, being extras”, Mitchell said. “Make it home no matter what”, said Ice Cube, whose son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., portrays him in the movie. “A huge part of my job was getting everybody to the studio”.
Explaining why they deployed “several officers” to the premiere, LAPD’s Central Bureau Officer Mike Lopez said: “We want everybody to enjoy the event”. It was very violent at the time. “Over time, things that were considered the domain of the outlaw became mainstream American culture”.
“If there was a group of us hanging out, more times than not we didn’t take it too lightly”. This our environment. This is insane.’ And I couldn’t believe the honesty.
Jackson was already a rapper: He started performing with his dad, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance, when he was 18.
It’s less research because I was there. In the process, he earned the respect of his director and co-stars. Wu-Tang had the foresight to engineer solo spinoffs for all of its members, from RZA to Ghostface Killah, but whenever it went on the road as a collective, traveling logistics became unwieldy.
Jackson: I’m working on my autobiography (laughs). There’s a lazy approach to that.
“Compton came out and supported us hard“. Whatever it is you’re doing.
With MC Ren – a skilled lyricist and former Crip affiliate of Eazy’s – joining the group in late ’87, the classic NWA lineup was complete. I talked to DJ Yella. I’m actually really close with him. And [I] really grilled this guy. I’m proud of the group. If you sanitize this movie, the fans would smell it coming.
But fully unpacking N.W.A and the era of hip hop the group kicked off remains a fool’s errand.
What did you fight over?
Ice Cube: I’m proud on a thousand different levels.
Thanks to the dominant sample of Charles Wright & the Watts 103 Street Rhythm Band’s titular 1971 single, “Express Yourself” is one of Straight Outta Compton ” s sunnier, more overtly poppy moments. My mom was with my father all throughout N.W.A and all that, so I pretty much know a lot. We just stayed creative and positive. I can’t make the choice.
“You never know which campaigns are going to be the ones that everybody is connecting with, ” Jones said. “They started [putting] people in collaboration records”, he says. Everything we put in the movie came from someone who was there…
Filmmakers always struggle with which story to tell, but this film missed a major opportunity to bring important stories to the screen.
“‘It was goosebumps – a little bit surreal”, he told Entertainment Tonight at Tuesday’s premiere. And how did they form? It’s like the brotherhood. Most radio stations refused to play it. It was the birth of gangsta rap, and it was considered unsafe.
Well, that’s what they called it originally.
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Gray shows audiences that the men behind the mic are amusing, sensitive, tough, abusive, naive, violent, obstinate, agreeable, conscious, lewd-complicated in the ways that many young people, who are finding their way in a world that is not welcoming to them, can be.
