Taking us back to where it all began, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON tells the true story of how these cultural rebels-armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent-stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most unsafe group, N.W.A. “This is what we’re going to do”.
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“They were the first people to really dig in there in a different way and say things that people weren’t trying to hear”, said 26-year-old actor Corey Hawkins, who plays Dre.
Missing from the reunion was rapper Eazy-E, who died from complications from Aids in 1995.
As Eazy-E, newcomer Jason Mitchell is introduced with the moon backlighting his jheri curl before he sprints away from the cops. He swaggers and threatens, cowers and makes destructive choices, imbuing the film with his deluded, squeaky-voiced soul.
Dr. Dre, of course, one of the founding members of N.W.A. And we definitely don’t see Dre serving any of his 1995 jail sentence – an odd omission in a docudrama that’s often about street cred.
There was additionally a robust social media push on Fb, the place customers might take their photographs and replicate the notorious emblem from “Straight Outta Compton” however might exchange Compton with the situation they’re from. It’s a misstep because in any other moment in the movie, he’d be right.
Having grown up in South Central LA, director F. Gary Gray (Friday, The Italian Job, The Negotiator) nails the whole look of the film perfectly.
By about 15 years ago, the backup “crew” model had replaced more democratic, N.W.A.-style groups, for the most part, from 50 Cent’s G-Unit to Nelly’s St. Lunatics. Produced by former N.W.A. members Ice Cube and Dr. If anything, it’s gotten louder.
He was 18 when the LAPD was caught on video beating Rodney King. Eazy is outraged by the footage. “So I just think we opened up the door for artists to be on any side of the fence they want to be on”.
N.W.A. has gone from outlaws to icons.
“If there was a group of us hanging out, more times than not we didn’t take it too lightly”.
Ice Cube might now be a huge movie star and rap veteran, but he still shares the same worries for his children as any minority parent has expressed.
Near the end of the discussion, Gray told Lyte what he wanted people to get from watching Straight Outta Compton. Check out the film detailing the notorious rap group on August. 14. Story is secondary, especially when the facts are embarrassing. Since his Straight Outta Compton days, Cube released five platinum (or better) and two gold albums, seemigly proving his point.
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Knight’s slow emergence as a power-hungry player is great. This was the first NWA-related regional hit, and delivered by a guy who had hardly rapped before. It wasn’t until 1989, when Ice Cube quit for a solo career, that he fully understood the significance of the collective mentality.
