Rating of
4/4
True and honest to the core!
Terry - wrote on 09/25/16
A must see for any fan of N.W.A but, if Rap music was never your thing, you’ll still enjoy it as it’s more than just about a group of friends making a breakthrough in the music industry. It’s about overcoming hardships, freedom of speech and beating the odds.
This is the story of Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson, Andre "Dr. Dre" Young, Lorenzo "MC Ren" Patterson and Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby and the formation of N.W.A, their rise to fame and eventual split. This beauty of a film should be seen by any fan of N.W.A but, at the same time, if Rap music was never your thing, you’ll still enjoy it as it’s more than just about a group of friends making a breakthrough in the music industry. It’s about overcoming hardships, freedom of speech and beating the odds and these guys had hardships.
The opening scene sets the stage for where these guys came from. We see Eric arriving at a house and after arming himself with a pistol, enters the house of some dangerous drug dealing individuals who owe him money. Things get out of hand when words are thrown and next thing guns are out and tension starts. Just before any violence, which was most probably inevitable, police make a burst in the house, ramming through the front door and while the dealers try and hide the drugs and other evidence, Easy makes an escape through a window and makes a run far it jumping over rooftops. Cut to black and boom, the title appears on the screen “Straight Outta Compton”.
I loved this opening scene. This is real, this is their life and all of it is true. Gangs are on every corner and violence and drugs plague the streets. Apart from violence and drugs, police brutality and racism is a regular occurrence. Arrests and searches being conducted on residents for no reason. This is Compton in the 80’s and 90’s.
What makes N.W.A so special is not that they are one of the most successful Rap groups ever but the fact that they presented the truth about what everyday life is like for young African-American’s in Compton and in similar areas altogether. They gave a voice to a generation and exposed the tragedies which the rest of the country either knew nothing about or just didn’t care. So much so, that authorities started ridiculing and blaming the group for Enticing violence. But this was straight from the heart, their everyday hardships written down on paper and made into songs for the world to hear.
The acting is really good. Apart from Paul Giamatti, who plays the group’s manager Jerry Heller, the rest of the cast are relatively new actors and they really excelled in bringing the groups story to life. A nice bonus was seeing Ice Cube son, O’Shea Jackson Jr, playing his dad. They look so alike that it‘s as if we are watching a younger Ice-Cube back in the days of N.W.A.
The soundtrack? Well, it’s incredible. All the big NWA tracks, IceCube singles and much more make it a joy for fans of the group and the genre.
This is an epic true-life drama which deserves all the acclaim and praise it’s received up until now and more. And the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay says it all.
