Coming full circle, the “Straight Outta Compton” narrative sacrifices their bodies on the altar of black masculine triumph and American dream-style redemption, signifying that the only occupying violence black America should really be concerned about is that perpetrated by the police. Eazy is the star of the movie and that’s just the way it is. In the album’s rat-a-tat opening lines, Ice Cube delivers a blistering salvo of pent-up frustration from the “gang called Niggaz With Attitude”.
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Written by Andrea Berloff and Jonathan Herman, Compton is the kind of movie that can sweep you up in its thrall one moment and then leave you scratching your head the next. It brings back memories of when I got roughed up by them.
The rise of N.W.A, and the life and times of its members, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella, is the basis of the biopic. Hawkins is not planning to launch his own musical career after playing one onscreen, but he’s glad he learned about that and so much more from the production. We never thought twice about it, but I hear it everywhere now. Said director Gray, “not only did I have these guys spend time getting to know each other and bonding, I also had them go into the studio and actually record the entire Straight Outta Compton album“. In a scene that manages to be one of the film’s most powerful and phoniest, the group is shown hanging out in front of the studio taking a break from recording their first album when a squad vehicle pulls up and proceeds to humiliate and harass them because they look like gangbangers.
The rapper – who in “F**k Tha Police” famously warned, “Ice Cube will swarm on any motherf****r in a blue uniform” – sees N.W.A.in the tradition of non-violent protest, using the power of language – however strident – rather than weapons. Compton is not just a culture that you experience everywhere else, so the first thing I had to do was step into that realm and then start with Eazy’s old interviews. To me, Friday seems like a necessity to watch and it’s good to see it’s still make revelations today. So to see him do this on the big screen, it was great. “Nobody knows his ins and outs like I do”, he said.
AP: Ice Cube, would you ever write an autobiography?
Ice Cube: We want that too. I think I have so much to do.
On Sunday, WAMG attended the press conference for STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, the new biopic from director F.
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O’Shea Jackson: I would say the easiest part for me is the fact that I live with my character, and I’ve been bred by my character, so I’ve been doing my research for 20 plus years on my character, but they put me through the ringer.
