Surviving members of NWA revisit past in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ biopic

When N.W.A.’s first single hits big, Eazy is wooed by manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), who, for reasons that are never made clear, only signs a contract with Eazy, leaving the other members of the group in indefinite limbo, even as they grow into a national phenomenon, selling out arenas and making inroads with white audiences.

O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays his father, Ice Cube in the highly anticipated film, Straight Outta Compton.

“It’s just a power trip”, Ice Cube said. But Gray told The Frame’s John Horn that he was drawn to the story for personal reasons… “Better safe than sorry”, said LAPD’s Central Bureau Officer Mike Lopez. It was very violent at the time. “Over time, things that were considered the domain of the outlaw became mainstream American culture”.

Dr. Dre celebrated his new album “Compton“ the only way a near-billionaire from Compton should – by chillin’ on his balcony…in Malibu. I am going to give you the solution.

N.W.A. has gone from outlaws to icons. “But when somebody of that calibre tells you, that you’re the man for the job, you have to believe them!”

That was so many years ago that I’m not even sure who Juan got her tape from or how. “It’s much more creative and interesting when there’s a group, because there’s characters and people and inflections…There’s definitely something missing in our industry by not having more groups”, Mr. Cohen says. “You have that responsibility just as a human”. Dre’s voice muscles its way into the midst of “All in a Day’s Work”, but overall there are many more layers of R&B vocals on the album than you would have found on The Chronic.

Whatever his movie does or doesn’t to the debate about police brutality in America today, director Gray has hope for the real world.

It’s less research because I was there.

Joining them in the venture were two young emcees from the block: MC Ren and Ice Cube, a talented 16- year-old whose explosive rhymes caught Dr. Dre’s attention. 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. Eazy’s death scene in the movie was an emotional one. “Shout out to my nigga Yella/Damn I miss that”. There’s a lazy approach to that. In the mid-80s, “The Doctor” spent a couple of years DJing in a hip-hop-friendly L.A. club, eventually demoing tracks with aspiring rapper and future NWAer Yella. “Unfortunately money, ego, some of that stuff broke us up, but we were always trying to find our way back together, and we are good friends now”, Ice Cube said.

Did you enjoy doing a cameo in the film, or was it hard directing yourself?

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.

Aided by King Mez and Justus, “Talk About It” is laced in the same octane-filled vigor of a contemporary club smash while simultaneously paying tribute to Dre’s past and present accomplishments.