‘Straight Outta Compton’: The NWA story

“Straight Outta Compton” starts in the mid-1980s, long before band member Dr. Dre had become a music industry mogul and Ice Cube had started making movies. This is a full-fledged, big-budget looking homage to the L.A. rap scene that smartly, emotionally and historically capsulizes the life and times of Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and everyone around them who caused the big bang that popularized West Coast rap music.

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. We savvy viewers can roll all our eyes when one clearly doomed character makes a promise to another, or the camera dollies up and focuses on a face as it utters historic words, but these tricks of storytelling have built modern cinema, and there’s not always a good reason to throw them away. “Straight Outta Compton“, besides, is built on the abiding fierceness of the music, the unlikeliness of their hood-to-Hollywood journey and a talented young cast that handles the heavy weight of playing icons with unusual skill.

“Straight Outta Compton” begins, for better and worse, to lose its traditional biopic shape. “You know, there’s a lot of entertainment that we’ve gotten off the N.W.A. family tree and not known, and here’s a way to show people where it all comes from”.

“The reason why the performances are outstanding is because they tapped into what’s real”, Gray said, “and we created something that was very real for them to access when they performed”. Says Mitchell: “Dr. Dre was literally jumping out of his seat”. Gray said he was aware of the incident and the publicity it generated, but “this movie is about N.W.A“. “All I had to do was write my part and I was done”. “So I just think we opened up the door for artists to be on any side of the fence they want to be on”. The group’s primary writer, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr., who looks and sounds uncannily like his father), fancies himself “a journalist” by reporting on the poverty, violence, and constant menace of police harassment that is the grim reality of his adolescence. Ironically, it’s left to Eazy-E, the deceased member who can’t sue, to give their story life. Now we have even more cameras – yet the victims so often are dead.

The studio, owned by Comcast Corp., said it’s generated worldwide ticket revenue of $5.53 billion through August. 5, more than the previous full-year total for any of its competitors and enough to ensure it leads the box office for the first time since at least 1998. No pun intended: “Ice Cube’s the coolest dad”.

Dre, still among the world’s most influential musicians, released a surprise album last week, his first in 16 years. “Straight Outta Compton” never forgets where its stars came from, and neither should we. “That’s the feeling I got watching him work, knowing that he was in great hands”. It’s no secret that the rapper was highly influenced by the gangsta rap group as well, where the group’s logo can be seen tattooed on The Game’s chest.

But the movies – particularly the studio-made, summer variety – are seldom what you would call “hard“.

Ice Cube: I’m proud on a thousand different levels.